Dive-Monster Rhoody

Mikes Beach Resort in Dumaguete or better in Dauin is soon to open its gates. The Beach and Dive Resort had a tough head to head fight with Robinsons Dumaguete but finally made it and opens earlier.

Everybody who knows Mike from the Adventure Dive Shop in Dumaguete knows that his Beach and Dive Resort in Dauin was a big dream which finally comes true. As I am working as a freelancing dive instructor for the Adventure Dive Shop, I saw the growth and progress of the Dive Resort construction site in Dauin and know some of the troubles Mike went through.

Sometimes I still wonder how he can keep his great attitude with all that crap. Well I guess seeing the dream grow helps a lot.

Mikes Dauin Beach Resort will be a great place for guys who want to relax and having a great  time in a family atmosphere. With only 8 rooms and the huge pool it is designed very spacious and won’t get crowded.

The rooms of Mikes Beach and Dive Resort in Dauin have 2 categories and are priced with 2000 and 2500 peso. With that prices he will cover a market for guests and travelers which don’t or can’t stay in other Beach and Dive resorts in Dauin which charge over 100$ and more than 100 peso for a local beer.

But relaxing and Diving is not all Mike offers in his new Beach Resort 15 kilometer south of Dumaguete. He will tailor you a customized program for your non diving days whether you want some adventures or just a city trip to buy some souvenirs.

The kitchen of Mikes Beach Resort will have extended menu of his Waterfront Café in Dumaguete which is well known for its Mexican delights and burger. Well my favorite is still the breakfast until closing time.

So from my side all the best to Mike, Joan and his team of the Dumaguete Beach Resort in Dauin.

Cheers

Rhoody

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After 2 days of eating and drinking it was time to get also wet from the Outside. Tom was not in the water since a year and Mike did not see that much during his Open Water Course dives due to 1 meter visibility. We decided to meet at 1:00 pm at Mikes diveshop and drive to Dauin for a “refresher”. It was also a great opportunity to conduct a Discover SCUBA program for BigC and Lyka who never tried that before. No need to say that Mike took care of they Boys while I had the hard job to explain the girls why a wet-suit is really not needed and they will look great just in a two-piece.

All my professional arguments did not convince them and after some general talk about what will happen we entered the water. I was surprised how easy it went and after 5 minutes with some easy skills we were diving into the Dauin Sanctuary and were looking for Nemos. After the dive we all decided to go together to Apo Island the next day and take it easy this evening.

Easier said than done… after a nice dinner (again at Casablanca) Kim and Tom went back to the Hotel and I decided to have a quick look at Coyotes Bar where my favourite local band “Ground Zero” had a gig. I should have known in advanced that the “take it easy” plan would never work out. As soon as I paid my bill around 10:30pm “bearfoot-John” came in and we needed to discuss some “important” things, like beer-temperature, shoe-policy in why not and crappy Pizza at Mama Marias. I refused looking at my watch again, knowing anyway that it’s too late when finally heading back home.

My alarm woke me up a few hours later on Sunday morning at 6:00 and I got ready to pack all our dive-gear. The water was a bit rough when we reached Mikes property in Dauin and the two girls decided to stay at home and go shopping. Our company was completed by Will and Maureen, Kevin a Korean DM-candidate, a japanese guy and July a girl from the US.

Apo Island was like always a great day-trip with clear water great corals and some turtles and sea-snakes. We split into 2 groups and did 2 wonderful dives at Chapel Point and Katipanan. Inbetween we headded to the Island and had a bite to eat on the boat. All in all a great day. The ride back was a bit rough and I think it’s ok if they guys log the ride as another dive…

Sunday evening was the last dinner before the boys fly home to AC and guess where… correct at the “Fat Austrian“ . The food there is just delicious, nevertheless I will not understand why Kuya Kim managed to have 4 times Cordon Bleu in 4 days and never tried anything else…

Mike and Joan joined us for dinner while the other Mike (my Typhoon diver) went with the girls to Hayahay as they couldn’t find anything tasty on the Casablanca menu.

I was pretty much worn out and definitely needed some sleep. Kim adviced me that the first 17 beers might be a bit hard to go down but the next 10 will do it easy…  No not that night !!! I went home around 10:00 pm and was sleeping deep around 10:01 dreaming of turtles, snakes,SMB and mermaids.

Thanks guys for coming down to Dumaguete, I really appreciate the time and don’t cry a tear about the lost braincells during our nights out.

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My alarm rang at 5:30 in the morning to run through my daily online-routine for being ready to bring Mike into the “Big Pool”. I picked him up at Coco Grande and we drove out to Dauin. The water was calm and clear, even the Medias told that Typhoon “Frank” is rolling in. We prepared our Equipment and I gave the briefing what we gonna do in the water. Open Water dive one is a great dive for the diver as the OW-student don’t have to  do anything but breathing and watching the fish.

We entered the water and submerged to 2 meters. Mike took a few deep breaths and I could hear how nervous he was. I was close to him and together we swam out at the sandy bottom just next to the colorful reef of the marine sanctuary of Dauin North. In 5 meters depth we just kneeled down and watched the marine life. He relaxed big time and when he reached 100 bars I decided it is time to go back. I made a small tour on top of the sand and he took care of his buoyancy and tried to control all by him self. Sure, there were a few up’s and down but all in all a great job for the first dive.

After an hour surface interval we changed the tanks and went back for dive 2 of the PADI open Water course. The second dive has a lot of skills and I always try to have most of the flexible skills (which have to be done some when during the course done at that open water dive 2.  All skills went fine and even the mask – clearing was not a big problem. So we exit the water, disassembled and rinsed our gear before heading back to Dumaguete City before 1 pm. Not that I am pushing things, but knowing the small amount of time we have I let him do the quizzes and exams before we had a beer and went home tired to have a good sleep before the final dive next day.

chees

Rhoody

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I just had this news on my screen and I think I need to share it…

this is the original source: ABS-CBN

At least 13 villages in Bacong and Dauin towns in Negros Oriental have been waterless for the past couple of weeks after landslides destroyed their water system.

Local officials said landslides due to continuous rain destroyed 14 water pipes in the town of Dauin while five others were damaged in Bacong.

They said thousands of residents have been having difficulties in their water supply since the landslides occurred.

Residents said they had to go to the dam, located at the foot of Mount Talinis, to fetch water.

Officials admitted the local government does not have enough funds to finance the repair of the pipes.

“A day after the landslide we immediately went to the landslide area and made repairs on some of the damaged pipes,” Vicente Elcoriza, Bacong municipal planning and development engineer, said.

Elcoriza urged government officials to help their municipality in restoring the water system.

Elcoriza said the waterless villages in Bacong are Timbaga, Bontod, Dul-dol, Buntis, Kalamgay, Lutaw and Cumbado.

Six villages in Dauin town are also affected by the damaged pipes. These are Tugawe, Magsaysay, Lipayo, Bulak, Mag-aso and Libho.

Some of the residents have to buy water for P10-P15 per five-gallon container.

“Before, our water is free, but now we need to buy water for P15.00,” a local told ABS-CBN.

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The waters around Dumaguete are famous for their marine life. Apo Island is mentioned as one of the world’s top-divesites, not only in South East Asia. The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago (a leader in the zoo and aquarium profession for more than three-quarters of a century) used the reefs of Apo Island as a model and rebuild some parts of it for their own “Clownfish-City” in Illinois. Professional Underwater Photographers coming to Dumaguete to take their shots of the famous Mandarin fishes and all the other Critters in the Bohol Sea (the official Name of the ocean here in the Central Visayas).

Especially in the area around the municipality of Dauin (15 km south of Dumaguete) are many well known beach and diving resorts who are hosting international guests from all over the world to show them the best Scuba-diving around Negros Oriental. Dauin has 8 marine sanctuaries and is also the departure point for dive-trips to the surrounding islands like Apo, Sumilon, Siquijor or Balicasag Island.

Most of the Instructors and Dive-Master in this region are Dumaguetenios with some thousand dives under the belt who know the reefs here like their own pocket. They are one of the main-reasons why most of the guests leave Dumaguete with the promise to return.

On March 27, 2008 many of them met at the Waterfront Café at the Boulevard in Dumaguete to found a new Association: The NEGROS DIVE PROFESSIONALS (NDP). The NPD members are all diving and tourism related and work in different resorts and positions. Diveshop owners, Tour-Operators, freelancing Dive-Masters and Instructors as well as employees of dive resorts founded this association to work together for the benefit of the local diving-tourism.

The goal of the NDP is to work hand in hand with the officials of the region to secure the success of “Diving in Negros”. The first public appearance of the NDP will be at a regional meeting in Dauin where their goal is to provide a better solution and give suggestions for a better system regarding all different, sometimes unpredictable fees and regulations for diving around Dumaguete.

Future goals include conservation projects in a joint venture with different Marine Biologists and Universities as well as the operation of a Recompression Chamber in Negros Oriental.

Diving in Dumaguete and Negros Oriental is one of the best of its kind in the Philippines and South East Asia. The NDP want to ensure that it will stay like that and even improve its status worldwide.

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Back from Angeles City into real life I received a txt from a friend who stays here for a couple of month to write his first novel. He was a student of mine back at Asia Divers in Puerto Galera and I met him on www.Dumagueteinfo.com accidently. He asked me to meet for a “coming-home” drink at Hayahay. Hey, no problem, quick shower, on the bike and off Rhoody goes. At Hayahay we met Mike Feeney who has a small Diveshop at the Boulevard. He told me that he may have an Apo Island Trip coming friday and we decided to join.

We met at 8:00 at Mikes Adventure-Diveshop to sign in the paperwork. and jumped into Mikes Easy-ride with 3 girls who wanna go to Apo for snorkling. Mike asked me If I have a problem to take 2 more divers as they called him with short notice. He ensured me that they are all good so no problem with me. We met in Dauin where his boat is. After the tanks and the were on the boat we started our 40 minute boatridt to Apo. We had a nice mixed group, a swedish, french, philippino, british, german mix ensured thatthere was a lot to talk about.

The first divesite was Chapel-Point, a shallow corall plateau goes into a wall on 8 meters and drops down to 40+ meters. The wall is coverd with softcorals and sponges. Along the wall are some small caves and overhangs. In one of those we found a blue ribbon eel, 2 clown frogfish and some good-sized scorpionfish. When the wall ends it is time to multilevel up to reach the area of Katipanan where you see beautifull softcoral gardens as far the visibility allows. The snorklers were already on the boat, so we left the water after 58 minutes.

We spend our surface interval on the Island, where 20 “lovely” T-shirt ladies welcomed us to show us their souvenirs. There is a lovely little resort on the Island where we went for lunch. As Apo Island is very small and the main-income of the people there is fishing it was a bit sureprising that the resort was out of stock for all fish-dishes on the menu…  

While we divers wanted to go for the second dive the snorklers enjoied to hang around and moved very slowly. The swedish guys started already with SanMiguel Light, so we had to force them a bit to go back to the banka.

The second dive started at Rock Point east. The stunning corals at the entry area  are only at a depth of 3 meters and goes over into a steep slope to the right. After 10 minutes into the dive a gentle current picks up to bring you around the corner to Rock Piont west. While drifting along the slope you feel like in a aquarium. Millions of colorful reef-fish just surrounding you with their nose in the current.  After passing the corner the current stops and you finally make your safety stop in the soft-coral gardens around the mooring bouje of Rock-Point west. After 65 minutes we were back on the boat. A bit cold as we had no sun.

The trip back was a bit rough and nothing and nobody stood dry on the boat. Back at Dauin into the easy-ride and 25 minutes to the dive-shop where we finally got some food and cold drinks. Diving with the smaller dive-shops here is different as you will miss some convinience of the big resorts but it also has more charme. I can highly recommend Mikes Adventure-diveshop for this unforgetable trip.

cheers

Rhoody

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