Dive-Monster Rhoody

I wanted to write a longer report about Linaw Beach Resort, but have a look at the video I found on youtube, I am sure you will enjoy if you decide to book there.

the roomrates are around 4000 Peso, I know it is not cheap, but Linaw has only 6 rooms and you have 100% privacy.

cheers

Rhoody

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I just came back from a three day/night trip from Panglao-Bohol. I went there to meet my friend Kim Beermonster the BIG boy of www.Dumagueteinfo.com.   

He is on a working-vacation there to kick-start his new project www.boholboard.com .

I planned to stay there for one, maximum 2 nights Man, it’s been a while since we met and my plan was to go there just over night as I am covered with work here in Dumaguete.

I took the OceanJet from Dumaguete to Tagbilaran for 520 PHP at 7 am in the morning. I would never take a ferry at that time on a Sunday morning suffering from a bad hangover due to the grand opening of Dumaguete Springs the evening before, but I had the choice between OceanJet and WEESAM Express 10 Minutes !!!! later.

Who in the wide wide world of sports makes a schedule like that.

The Ferry was nearly empty (no wonder at that time) and of course delayed. I arrived in Tagbilaran on Bohol at around 10 am where a driver was already waiting for me. It is only a 30 minute ride from the Pier to Linaw Beach Resort.
The resort is new and under Belgium ownership. The rooms are spacious and the staff very friendly. The only real complaints I had was the beer-temperature. It was way too warm…

The staff tried hard during my whole stay to get that sorted but somwhow it never worked really out.

The Dane booked me in a place called Linaw Beach Resort which is a nice quiet Resort on Panglao of away from the crowded Alona Beach, but still only a 5-10 minute ride to the Restaurants there at Alona.  I guess I am not that kind of a stabled person as right after the “Hello” I changed my mind and decided to stay 3 nights instead of one or two.

My room and the view from it was outstanding and there was no doubt that this gonna be 3 awesome days. Like I promised my friend I also brought the sun from Dumaguete and after checking in we went on a daytrip to Virgin-Island. But this is the next part of the report, what should not be missed…

Cheers

Rhoody

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While doing some research for my diving-page Philippinen-tauchen.com  I came across a nice article about Verde Island on CDNN and I thought I should share it with you. Here is a part of it…

PUERTO GALERA, Philippines – Verde Island Passage south of Manila has been described as the “centre of the centre” of the world’s marine biodiversity in a joint study by America’s Smithsonian Institute.

Beneath the turquoise waves that funnel nutrients from the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea are spectacular reef formations of more than 300 species of coral and underwater rock canyons that host nearly 60 percent of the world’s known shorefish species.

“This area can be considered the marine counterpart to the Amazon River basin,” said Kent Carpenter of the World Conservation Union, co-author of the study which put the passage at the peak of the “Coral Triangle” that spans the Sulawesi and the Sulu Seas in the southern Philippines and nearby Indonesia….

see the full story here

The only thing I don’t like is the last part as it is just promotion for a dive-shop, but the rest is a interesting read.

cheers

Rhoody

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I am usually not going to bed that early, so it was not really a surprise to wake up with the sun around 5:00 pm. In Dumaguete I would boil water for my coffee and start the computer to go through my daily routine. Here in Siquijor I went for a walk and enjoyed the fresh breeze from the sea. I heard birds singing I have never heard before and I spend an hour or so just sucking in the energy of the young day…

At 7:00am Kiwi Dive Resort slowly woke up, and I ordered my first cup of coffee and a ham cheese onion omelet. I started the computer and prepared for Jean, my French Rescue-Diver-Student. The knowledge reviews were done fast. That guy did not only copy the book, he brought in other ideas from his experience Tracking through Nepal and other remote places of the world. At 10:00 am we finished the first three chapters and were ready to set up our gear for the first confined water sessions.

The first exercises are a review of skills each diver should have anyway, including cramp removal, alternate air-source use and tired diver tow. I had Dive-Master-Candidates who were worse. The next skills are about assessment, evaluating the situation and approaching diver on the surface. The Victim could be tired or even panicking. Being the panic diver is one of my favorite role in a rescue course. I love the face –expression of my students when 100 KG plus Equipment grasping them holding them and climbing on top of them. Followed by some underwater practice we had enough time to practice already how to surface an unresponsive diver from the bottom and had a small excursion before we returned to the resort for a lunch.

After lunch the sky became cloudy and the waves higher, so we spend the afternoon in the open air classroom and finished all Knowledge Reviews. Jean decided to go through his Final exam, and he passed it with flying colors. He was actually my first Rescue student who had 100% in the final exam. By 5:00 pm we finished the working part of the day and Jean went for another 15 km run. I was lazy like always and checked my mails ordered my dinner and went for a shower.

When I came back from the room to the restaurant I have been told that there is a strike going on at the Dumaguete Pier and many tourists are stucked on Siquijor. I did not really mind and my Chicken Curry was yummy. Two SMB and back to my room. I forgot to mention that my room is on the top and you need to climb up 56 “steps of  death” … No wonder that there is not so much drinking going on at KIWI dive resort. These steps are sober a nightmare… (to be continued)

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Siquijor is known as the Island of “Witches”. The Island lays in the Bohol Sea in the Central Visayas. Siquijor can be reached either from Dumaguete (Negros Oriental) or Bohol (Tagbilaran) via Ferry. If you want to visit Siquijor from Cebu City, you can take a Ferry to Tagbilaran on Bohol and from there either to Larena or Siquijor proper. 

It is a very laid back Island and everything slows down a bit. The population of Siquijor is outstanding friendly. A walk at the beach even at night time is very safe.

The reason why I went to Siquijor was simply a call from Bruce, the Owner of Kiwi Dive Resort north of Larena. He had a guest who was interested in doing the PADI Rescue diver course. After agreeing to the conditions I packed my dive-gear, bought a ferry-ticket with Weesam Express (180 Peso) to Siquijor and left Dumaguete at 11:15 for a 45 minute trip to my destination. The water was flat like a mirror, so we arrived at the Pier in Larena in time at 12:00. It is my second stay at this resort, but the first time I work for Bruce.

A driver from Kiwi Dive Resort was already waiting for me. One the way to the resort we stopped for some shopping in Larena and what can I say, it was HOT. Have a look at the picture and the shadow of the umbrella… I am sure you could boil an egg on the street. I was scared that my slippers are melting away and I will burn my over-sensitive sole of my feet.
Looking up the street I recognized a crowd of at least 40 people in front of a shop. Being here long enough, I know there can’t be many reasons. There might have been somebody collapsed in the shop and everybody needs to see if the person will survive or the shop has a TV. In that case it was “only” a TV. The screen was smaller than the 17 inch monitor of my notebook and the first viewer on the street was in a distance of minimum 6 meters. The volume was off and the picture was black/white and blur. I guess they all standing there just to figure out why the TV is switched on at all???

Another 10 minute drive and we reached the Kiwi-Dive Resort. Raul showed me my small cottage on the top of the cliff. I had a look at it and found everything I need. Two beds, two towels, an electric fan, a toilet and a shower. Time to refresh and meet the staff.

Eden manages the resort in a professional friendly way. Raul and Eden are the only staff left I remember from my visit last year. This time Bruce the owner was there also and we introduced our self. A few minutes later he introduced me to Jean, the rescue student. A 52 year old Frenchman who looks like 40 runs 15 km every other day and works as a diplomat in Bangladesh. His English is perfect and I definitely never met a French guy that world-open and friendly. To be quite honest, I also tried to avoid them in my life before. He read already the whole rescue-manual and filled in the three out of five knowledge reviews. So all looks really cool for an easy course.

We spend the afternoon watching the PADI Rescue-Diver-Video and to know each other better. After Sunset it was time to order lunch. As mentioned before everything is slow in Siquijor. The staff of Kiwi asked me to order way ahead of time (minimum 1 hour) and tell them what time I wanna eat. So I ordered a Pumpkin Soup and Fish ‘n chips. The meals on the menu are simple but very good. There are always pepper salt and chili-powder on the table to spice the things up a little bit.

Two SMB later we all went to bed around 9:00 pm. There is not much more to do. Time to sleep after another quick refreshing shower even the “Sexy Shower-Helper” I was asking for was not there… When I lay on my bed I found out that I basically sleep on the plywood. The 5 cm foam just gave up under my weight… But I was tired and it definitely was time to sleep. So no problem… (to be continued)

You find also more about Siquijor Island on my other Diving Page about the Philippines

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Finally I made it back home to Dumaguete. The last days in Angeles City were full of work with The Dane creating a 2008 concept for our partnership with www.DumagueteInfo.com and work on this and some other pages. We could not finish all work in time that I have to reschedule my flight back home to Dumaguete a couple of days. The episode and expierience with the Cebu Pacific call-center and customer-service is a story for itself and I will write another story about that amzing expierience.

Tom and me are known that we love good food and Kim is a fantastic cook with the size of his portions it would be no problem to feed half Dumaguete with the leftovers of one cooking session. After our dinner we hung around lazy on the sofa to watch some episodes of “Hells Kitchen”.

On my last night in Angeles City we decided at 11 pm to go out for a “good bye” drink…. I can tell you not the wisest decision of my life. We met some friends and the guy decided to do their very best to make me missing my pick up at 9 am next morning. At 8 am I finally run out of a pub to jump in a trike heading home to Kims house and threw all my stuff into my suitcase. The driver was already waiting to bring me to the domestic Airport in Manila. His only comment after a brief good morning was : Are you sure they will allow you on board of the aircraft?

And yes they did !!!  

After 34 hours without sleep, a couple of beer and 2 packs of cigarettes my feet touched Negros ground around 3:30 pm in the afternoon. After all it was a fantastic pleasure and business trip but I am happy to survive it and being back in Dumaguete for some diving.

cheers

Rhoody

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… from a long night out we all needed a recovery day and a late breakfast. The day was almost over when Kim and me started to work a bit on the computer. This blog is one of the results by the way. As it took quite some time to upload everything and try yo get the right settings done I ended up deadly tired falling asleep at 4 in the morning in front of the notebook.

Our dinner  next evening was at C’ Italian  Restaurant. IMHO the absolute best Restaurant in the Philippines. Chef Chris is an absolute magician. As we were invited we followed the host and had a great fondue. I personally am not the biggest fondue fan but at the end it was again a great meal. It was a kind of business dinner, but with in very relaxed atmosphere. Leaving C’ Italian we decided to have some beer in town but this night I went home a little bit earlier.

New Years eve had arrived and the whole crowd got out for dinner to Swiss Chalet. A nice place with “Meat”-food, good sized delicious portions. I personally like the Salami-Cheese appetizer platter very much, but I guess one of the reasons is that I am from Dumaguete where you just don’t have this kind of cheese and Salami available. My Cordon Bleu with Swiss Cheese with very good and after paying we went down to 2 different Clubs before hitting Roadhouse at 11:pm.

New Years Eve in Angeles (and I guess in most City’s of the Philippines) means lasing people throwing firecrackers after you, so we were in the Club until 4 in the morning. Being known as one of the best Bars in Angeles City it the time was flying and the party a blast. You can’t compare the nightlife of Dumaguete or other Cities with Angeles. It is not only the GoGo scene, AC is sizzling when the night comes until the sun rises. Talking about sunrise… my memories were a bit foggy at that time so we went back home and had a long sleep to wake up just in time for a shower and New Years dinner at Fortune, a Chinese Restaurant. It was a great dinner again, the only disturbing thing was our neighbor table with 10 or so shouting Koreans. A kind of disgusting, why does nobody throw Fire-crackers after them…

Cheers for now

Rhoody

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