Subic Bay - but in small notes please

Subic Bay

In early December, we were in Subic Bay for 2 nights. Here is the link to the photo album:

https://picasaweb.google.com/104727839447798652971/SubicBayDec2012

We stayed at the Whiterock Beach Hotel which is also a waterpark.

I made 2 wreck dives. Check out their profiles:
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move9036000

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move9036004

The first one had very poor visibility due to the tide which made the current flowing out of the bay, stirring up all the dust in the water.

Cash - but in small notes please

Especially the notes on the left (!) side seem to have a very high value, so that nobody wants to give them out...

It was striking to realize a very similar phenomenon as I had observed in Egypt already. However in Egypt it was annoyingly bad, whereas in the Philippines it is just a hassle:
Many shops, restaurants, bars, taxi drivers seem to be unable (or unwilling) to render change to larger bills.  When we tried to pay our bill in a bar (1014 pesos) and payed with 2 thousand notes, they came back twice to ask for smaller notes. Finally they ended up in reducing our bill to 1000 pesos only instead of giving us the change of 986 pesos. And it could not be that they simply did NOT HAVE that much money in their cash register. The bar was full of guests and it was late already. They must have had a full cash register.
Does the Philippine National Bank print to little of the small notes...?!

Dive video from Bohol

Finally, I have edited the footage of my holidays on Bohol. They include underwater shots from Panglao (our beach) and from Balicasag Island (30 min boat ride from Panglao).
Hint: If your internet connection allows it, watch it in 1080p high resolution.

Dive video from Puerto Galera

Dive video of my week-end in Puerto Galera, when I did the PADI Enriched Air Diver course.
This is at the same time my very first underwater video, testing my new underwater camera case.

Unfortunately, the visibility was quite poor due to the Typhoon that had passed by a couple of days before.
My dive buddy: Alain

More non-work experience

I have named this Blog originally "Manila working experience". But let's be honest: You don't want to hear about my work. You want to hear about the Philippines and about the experiences I make during my stay here. Here we go. :-)

Condo

Recently the noise in my condo got quite bad due to the construction site next to our building. I am checking out if I can move to a different unit on the back-side of the building.
However the facility management was so kind to listen to my wishes and now they have bought a brand new gym device (even the better one than I suggested to them):

Cool, isn't it?! I have now started to go to our gym BEFORE going to the office. I hope this will contribute a bit to prevent gaining more body-weight.

Puerto Galera

One week ago, Alain, Roland and me went to Puerto Galera (Sabang) again. This time to a bit a cheaper Resort which is a typical dive resort: La Laguna Beach Club. Alain and me completed our Nitrox diving course there. Now we can stay underwater so long, that we only need to come to the surface to eat and drink. :-)

Bohol

This week-end was a long week-end because Thursday and Friday were public holiday here in the Philippines. Roland, Alain and family and me, we have used this opportunity to travel to Bohol where no one of us has ever been before. We stayed at the Amorita Beach Resort on Panglao. I loved that Resort and I can imagine to go back there one day. However, it was expensive and the cost-value ratio was probably not one of the best. But the food was excellent and the staff amazing. And the pool that overlooks the whole beach was breathtaking.

 

I made 1 dive at the beach right in front of the resort, and 2 dives at the small island of Balicasag which is 30 minutes by boat from Panglao. I am planning to post a video about those dives here soon. Unfortunately Adobe is currently struggling with their online shop and with their download site so I can't edit that footage yet (I need to download their software first). But here are a few pictures to start with.

Of course we also made the countryside tour and saw the Tarsiers, the Chocolate Hills and the Loboc River.

In the two pictures above, you can see the chocolate hills.

More diving, Singapore, and a visit from Hong Kong

Scuba diving in Anilao, Batangas

One week ago, I could spend a very nice week-end in Anilao with some friends. We went for 4 dives.

By the way: My dive computer automatically uploads the dive profiles to MoveScout. Check them out:
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move7440616

Thanks to Sherry Ann, who was taking those pictures of me. Finally I have some pictures showing me. Usually I am the one taking the pictures myself.

[picture removed :-)]

Thanks also to the team of the Anilao Beach Club. They have a superb scuba base. Only one hint for them: Label your air refreshener as such. Each westerner will mistake it as a hand soap and will use it to clean his hands. :-)

Avaloq After Work Party in Singapore

For the Avaloq After Work Party, I was given the chance to fly over from Manila and stay for 2 nights. It was nice to meet the staff of the Singapore office for once. And the city looks nice and certainly offers a lot of convenience and nice food options.
This was the view from the terrace of the Esplanade, where the party took place:

Visit of Sumi

Last week-end Sumi paid me a visit from Hong Kong respectively from England. We had not met for a long time, and it was nice to freshen up that friendship again and showing her around in Manila.
On this picture we are on a food tasting event called "Hungry Games" with Christian.

Funny things

In the Philippines, pay-day is twice a month. Usually 14th or 15th of every month, and 30th. This is how ATMs look on such pay-days:

What I don't understand is: It seems to be hip to show a German car registration plate underneath the Filipino registration plate. I have no idea where that comes from, or what the motivation behind is. This is how it looks:

Fitness First (or rather "worst")

If you see the Fitness First logo on a gym, better keep distance. This place is really something to get annoyed. I made the experience myself at the Fitness First Platin at the RCBC Plaza in Manila (Makati City):

• Their personal trainers seem to be working on their own bill. That means they are very agressive in offering their services. And if you indicate to one of them that you are not interested, the next one will still give it a try as well and bother you. They even call you up on your private mobile phone if they feel like it.
• If you just want to know the price a membership costs, you need to register first (including your phone number, which is definitely a dangerous thing over here, if you don't want to get spammed with advertisement by text message). Without it, they wouldn't tell you any price. Not even on their web-site. They really seem to fear price transparency. And that can only mean something bad. Yesterday we tried to find out the membership price for a friend of mine, but they preferred to let us leave again without telling us the price, than to let us know without registering first.

This blog I found seems to confirm my bad impression (that guy even worked there himself):
http://www.brunosfitness.com/the-truth-about-fitness-first-and-there-personal-trainers/

This week-end I am planning to go scuba diving in Anilao (Batangas) again. I am already excited about it.

Puerto Galera and Cebu

Puerto Galera

With Alain and his wife Janine (plus their kids Aline and Felix) I spent a nice week-end in Puerto Galera, which is the northern tip of the island Mindoro. The resort (http://www.cocobeach.com/) offers very simple accomodations (like bungalows) but at a very fair price, and the nice things are:

• There is no access road to the hotel. It can only be reached by boat or by foot. It is totally quiet at night. Only the waves can be heard. And of course the rain.
• The resort is directly at the beach.
• The resort is operated in a sustainable way by having so called "host families" who are local families living inside the resort area. In your bungalow you have a wire (see picture below) which you can pull to signal a need to your host family. They will promptly show up and assist you for any need.

Here is Puerto Galera:

And here is the resort (the mark shows my bungalow):

Alain and I did two nice dives. We could even spot a sea turtle. But I found out that my analog depth gauge which I bought as a back-up to my dive computer does not function correctly. I will have to visit the dive shop once again.
The trip back to Manila took a full day as there was rough weather and the regular small ferry boats could not operate anymore. We had to drive far to grab a larger ferry and ride all the way back again on the ferry.

Cebu

With Chary, a friend, I spent two nice and sunny days in Mactan, Cebu. We stayed at in a resort which has its own waterpark. The waterpark was not too large, but it was fun. The room we had was very big and brand new. Very nice design.
I was surprised that the taxi ride to Cebu City takes nearly 45min. It looks so close on the map.

About honesty

Most Filipinos are truly honest from the depth of their heart. Funny things that happened to me recently:

• When asking a shop assistant in a take-away shop if their Pizzas would be tasty, the shop assistant answered "No, sir". I'd better have a sandwich instead.
• At a stall in a food-court, I asked what the difference between the combo meal and the single platter would be. They answered "The price, sir".   :-)   I always knew it....!

Rain season

August is definitely rain season here. I have to acknowledge that. One of my condo walls is leaking some water. The technicians are looking at it right now. But there seem to be leaks in many places of the building. And not only my building. Even in shopping malls and any building you go, you will see buckets on the floor with all kind of funny constructions to collect the dripping water.
My housekeeping helper even said that in her 2-storey house, the ground level has water up to the waist. So I better stop complaining about my little leak....
I hope the dengue mosquitos are not going to breed too much around in Manila.

Swizerland holidays

Between August 11 and August 17 I will visit Switzerland for a vacation. I will be available on my "old" Swiss mobile phone number.

Visa

Finally I have got the 9G visa and the ACR (alien certificate registration) which allows me to stay in the Philippines for two years. That was a complicated thing to acquire. And expensive, too. I think it must have been somewhere around 2 thousand USD including the fees for the travel agency which was coordinating the efforts.

First scuba dives in the Philippines

Yesterday Alain and I made our first 3 scuba dives in the Philippines. It was a fantastic day we spent on the peninsula Mabini, in Batangas (see satellite pictures), about 2.5 h by car south of Manila.

The 'x' mark the spots where we plunged in. The arrow marks the dive base: Crystal Blue Resort, which I can recommend as starting point for dives. They offer good service and have good staff who know about diving. And our lunch there was very tasty.

Brian, our dive instructor, and his dive master did a good job. We have learnt a lot, seen many things under water and had plenty of fun!
However, we both catched a heavy sun burn as the diving boat was small and offered little shadow only, and we didn't bring our sun cream.
The dives went fine. I was breaking in my totally new scuba equipment and I was curious how it would perform under water. Except of the Suunto dive computer (Suunto Vyper Air), everything worked fine. The dive computer however stopped displaying the depth reading and displayed a dept of 0.0m all the time. I had to rely on my two buddies' depth reading.

On Friday night we had a after work beer at the Central Pub, near Washington, Makati. On the way there, Arvin showed me how to use the Jeepneys and I made my first Jeepney ride.

The pub was so cool that so many office mates have joined, and we had a fun night and a lot of drinks and snacks. The music (chill out, dance, electro) was the best I heard since long time. As I had plenty of drinks, I over-slept next morning which happened to be the day we went on the dives (see above). Luckily I had packed the day before, so I just jumped from my bed into Alain's rental car, forgetting my sun cream and bathing shorts.

This was the Starbucks coffee I recently got. They seem to have misunderstood my name. May be I should stop wearing those uni-sex T-shirts....  ;-)

Upon the advice of my mother, I have bought a pair of anti-fatigue glasses and had adapted them to my eye vision correction. They do a great deal and relief some stress from my eyes. I am wearing them very often, sometimes even aside of work. I can really recommend those for all my working collegues, even for those with flawless eye vision.

This picture I took in the Salcedo park, 100m from my condo. Every Saturday there is the Salcedo market and last time they performed a dancing show with traditional clothes.

Meet Hugo, a lizard who has been housing in my kitchen already before I moved in, in February. Every now and then he comes out of his hiding place and likes to get a sip of water from the sink. I've made a deal with him: He will stay away from my food and keep my condo clear of mosquitos, and I let him use my facilities like the sink and his hiding place.