Thursday, October 26, 2006

Pulau Tioman (Tioman Island)

Monday, Oct. 16, 2006

I went scuba diving, and saw my first turtle! Superfun! For the second dive of the day, I got to set off alone with Marc (he's a dive instructor himself), which was fun. We swam over, around, and under some rocks and coral, which boosted my confidence and made me feel like I don't completely suck at control underwater. We saw yet more stingrays, moray eels, and so so many fish. The other divers on our boat were predominantly Germans, with a few Swedes mixed in. Everyone had crazy looking bug bites.

On the boat ride back we saw a dead turtle, bobbing along in the water. Sad. He probably got hit by a boat or caught in a fishing net.

Sunday, Oct. 15, 2006

A walk to Tekek, the main town on the island, was only notable for the red bean and coconut popsicle I had, which was frickin' delicious.

We set off on a hike across the middle of the island (which totally looks like a hand making a thumbs up to me) in search of an alleged waterfall. We never did find it, but the hike was still beautiful and worthwhile. Tioman is bisected down the middle by a mountain range covered in lush rainforest, with a huge variety of trees, the biggest palm fronds I've seen in my life, and the sounds of birds and monkeys trilling above in the trees. Huge vines, dense greenery, and pockets of open space in the canopy, through which you can look up, up, up, at the trees above.

Saturday, Oct. 14, 2006

We took a bus to Mersing, Malaysia, port city to Pulau Tioman, apparently once ranked by Time magazine as one of the world's top 10 islands. This claim seems to have been used until it's worn out, and then gotten somewhat convoluted, as signs now read "Tioman Island - 10 Top Islands in the World!" We arrived on the island after a 2+ hour ferry ride under the cover of night. At the suggestion of a pair of Polish brothers we met, we decided to stay at a stilted wooden chalet perched on the side of a hill, embedded in the lush island greenery, overlooking the water and beach below, with the perpentual sounds of the waves rushing softly in.

I'd like to see a movie...

Friday, Oct. 13, 2006 - Singapore

Despite the rain, Marc and I wandered around Singapore, walking from Orchard Street down to the waterfront area, and then over to Chinatown, where we felt like watching a movie. Not sure how to find the closest theater, we decided to ask a station agent in the metro passenger assistance booth. He pointed us towards a theater in a mall a few blocks away, which we found easily. However, once we got there, we found a billboard advertising such films as "Killing in the Nude" and "The Innocent," along with pictures of slightly fuzzy, coy looking asian females. I'm not quite sure what the station agent thought of me when I asked where a theater was, but I think that normally it goes without saying that I'm not into movies with porno/snuff-film sounding titles. He looked like a family man too.

Travel Buddy

Thursday, Oct. 12 - Singapore

After a few weeks on my own, I flew to Singapore to meet up with Marc, with whom I'll be travelling for a while. We went back to Little India, for some tasty murtabak from the food stalls there. The holiday of Deepavali is coming up soon, so the main road through the neighborhood is decorated with elaborate, colorful lights and peacock figurines. Sidestreets have been transformed into bustling street markets, which press in on all of your senses with thumping music, the smells of spices and sweets, and colorful handicrafts.

I have no idea what Deepavali is all about, if anyone cares to inform me, please do.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Pa-LA-wan, not Pa-la-WAN

Oct. 10, 2006 - Palawan (Philippines)

More scuba diving!

Ok, this happened too long ago for me to remember all of the details. My divemaster was named Omar though, and we saw king mackerel, a big cuttlefish, and more stingrays. And I ate a sandwich in which one of the filler items was ... a piece of white bread.

Oct. 9, 2006 - Puerto Princesa, Palawan (Philippines)

A bizarro tour of a bizarro town!

The bumpy drive to the Underground River officially cancelled my plans to take a bus up to El Nido for a day (would have involved 12 hours roundtrip of aforementioned bumpiness), so I signed up for a tour of Puerto Princessa instead. We drove up and down the main road in town, and pulled up in front of the Palawan Museum. While Palawan does have archaelogical significance, all of the items of interest have been carted off to the national museum in Manila; what's left is some broken pieces of pottery and china, and some photos that look like they were printed off my home printer, and an extensive, but insignificant shell collection. Bizarro.

Next stop was the "Crocodile Farm," officially, the Palawan Wildlife Conservation Center. The tour of the center starts off at a display case, which houses a huge crocodile skeleton. Pinned on the wall behind the display was a huge crocodile skin, allegedly coming from the same animal. Rather than listen to our guide, who gave an overview of the work of the center, people chose to touch the skin and talk about handbags and shoes instead. Oy.

Then we walked through a large greenhouse-like structure, which housed rows of deep plastic bins, each with a dozen or so baby crocodiles paddling around inside. After they grow to a certain size, they graduate to the outdoor complex - two concrete pits, each with a shallow pool of murky water, and crocodiles piled on top of each other inside.

What happens to the crocodiles after this? I have no idea, because for the next part of the tour, you can pay 5 pisos and have your photo taken with a baby crocodile. And then it's over! Bizarro.

We stopped at a few more places on the city tour - a butterfly garden (basically someone's backyard), a senator's ranch house (yes, someone's private property, bizarro!) - and then finished up at Baker's Hill. It's a bakery/residence/park put together by a family from Manila with a string of successful bakeries, but the park itself is a strange mix of a bakery, concession stands, a booth selling cactii and houseplants, lapdogs in cages, and strangest of all, molded acrylic life-sized figures of knock offs of licensed characters (Bugs Bunny, a 50's style pinup type lady). There was a pirate figure as well, with hat, flowy blouse, stripes, and eyepatch. Another tour group pulled up, and as the people emerged from their bus, I noticed one girl wearing a red and white striped shirt with an asymmetrical hemline that ended in a sash, tied at the waist, big dangly earrings, and black tights. I bit my tongue and quietly watched as she and her friends circled around the park, taking pictures with all of the figures. No one else seemed to notice that she was dressed like a pirate, and apparently, she didn't either. She didn't stop for a photo with the pirate figure. Arr! And bizarro.

Oct. 8, 2006 - Underground River, Palawan (Philippines)

Palawan is also the home of the longest underground river in the world, so I signed up for yet another tour (it worked out cheaper than cobbling together all of the transportation on your own). Getting to the park involves one hour on a paved road, two hours on a primitive dirt road, and then twenty minutes on a banca, which swings you around from one beach to the next, where the boats depart for the caves.

Oh. Mans. The road was so bumpy. I thought that I'd been on bumpy roads before in China, where one hand is firmly pressed into the ceiling to keep you from bouncing up into it, and the other is clenched around your seat, to hold yourself in it. This road, dirt with rocks jutting up and holes everywhere, shook us violently for two hours. The boy sitting behind me actually began to cry, because the road was so bumpy that he physically couldn't play his Gameboy anymore. It's interesting to note that, perhaps due to the time of year, most of the travellers in this area are Philipino themselves. My tour today (and the tour I'd take tomorrow) were comprised entirely of Philipino families.

The river itself was somewhat anticlimatic, though interesting nonetheless. While it runs for 8km, you can only tour about 1.5km of it, so it makes for a quick 45 minutes in-and-out boat ride. The guides seem to be trained in the Disneyland Jungle Cruise school of guides, each posessing a well-oiled set of cheesy and cheeky jokes and one-liners, which really isn't too much of a bad thing. ("Is this everyone's first time to the Underground River? Great. Me too.") Inside the caves, the river runs leisurely through interesting limestone formations, casually dubbed with names like "Holy Family Formation," "Jellyfish Formation," "Eggplant Formation," and "Bacon Formation," which actually do look quite a lot like their monikers. The caves also house a number of bats, which were faintly visible up in the high corners of the caves.

Oct. 7, 2006 - Honda Bay, Palawan (Philippines)

Yesterday I signed up for an "island hopping" tour of Honda Bay, a quiet, relaxed bay of seven islands north of Puerto Princesa. Although I would have enjoyed simply laying in bed and not hearing Evanescence, I was up and out of the hotel by 7:30AM.

We visited three islands, and there was swimming, snorkeling, and general beachcombing at each. I hopped from island to island and ... slept on each one. I wasn't unconcscious all day, I did manage to learn that "Palawan" is pronounced with the emphasis on the middle syllable, Pa-LA-wan, instead of Pa-la-WAN. Apparently, Pa-la-WAN is the name of an indigenous tribe from the island, wheras Pa-LA-wan is the name of the island and provice. Now you know!

I switched hotels as well, the the cheaper and much cuter Casa Linda Inn. Once I got back around 4PM, I showered and flopped into bed. I didn't wake up until 3AM. At which point I looked around and flopped over again. This day could be summarized in one word: tired.

Oct. 6, 2006 - Puerto Princesa, Palawan (Philippines)

I flew to Puerto Princesa, Palawan, in the morning. Rain rain rain. Puerto Princessa claims to be the greenest city in the Philippines, and while it may be true, there's still a good deal of pollution from the tricycles that tear up and down the street. However, there is a lot of signage around the city about conserving awter, reducing pollution, and keeping the city and province "green." Right outside my hotel, there's even a banner hanging up about a marine mammal and turtle rescue training workshop taking place soon.

Speaking of banners, the mayor of Puerto Princesa's name seems to be up on banners all over town. I don't think he put them all up there, but it reminds me of Chicago, how their mayor has his name up on Every. Thing. In. That. Town.

After wandering around town, I returned to my hotel to sleep, only to find that the "empty lot" next to us had been transformed into the "Annual San Miguel Oktoberfest Beer Drinking Context." Filipinos love live music, which is great, but "live music" seems to generally consist of cover bands playing American pop songs from five years ago. To compound things, my stomach became extremely unhappy with my dinner, and I spent the middle of the night getting my money's worth out of my bathroom, as an extremely overwrought cover of Evanescence's "My Immortal" rang out around me. (Then again, isn't all Evanescence, cover or original, a little overwrought?) It's truly amazing, once your stomach decides that it's just not going to try digesting anymore, how quickly, and with what concentrated force, it can get the offending food out of your body.

Fyi, if you want to be careful, don't eat at the second Vietnamese place on the right, north on Rizal Ave. from Badjao Inn.

Oct. 5, 2006 - Manila, Philippines

Turns out Jonas and I had parallel flights back to Manila from Boracay, so we shared a tricycle to the airport and met up with each other in Manila. We walked along Manila Bay (by this time, power was restored and the strip was fully lit), but neither the dinner options nor the omnipresent, pulsing music appealed to Jonas so we turned towards Malate (the neighborhood I was staying in) and had dinner at a Cuban restaurant called Cafe Havana. The food was good, conversation flowed easily, and the dessert menu featured such naming gems as "American Decadence" (the description read "During their time in Cuba, the Americans fattened themselves up on rich chocolate cake like this") and "Banana Republic Crumble" (a flaky pastry with bananas and whipped cream).

Oct. 4, 2006 - Boracay, Philippines


I finished my Open Water Diver certificiation! I celebrated by...spazzing out by myself on the beach, since I didn't have anyone that I could immediately contact.

Later in the evening, I wandered back by my dive shop, Dive Gurus, to take a picture with my instructor Joon Eun. She was about to have dinner, and one of the shop staff was mixing her a rum and pineapple juice. Apparently rum is cheaper than Coke in Boracay, and rum and pineapple is the common drink. Joon Eun asked if I wanted one, to which I replied "oh, no thanks, that's alright," but which she must have heard as "yes, definitely, right away," because she called out "please make one more!" We chatted over rum and pineapple for the next hour.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Borocay and IKEA

Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006

I'm all done with my bookwork and tests; all I have left is two confined water dives (skill testing), and then more open water diving (the fun part)! Eee! I decided to use my lunch break to go get photos, which apparently are needed for my certification. I wasn't thinking, and having just climbed out of my gear from my morning dive, I look quite scrubby in my pictures. My instructor said I look 15. Oof. It's kind of true though; I've had basically the same face since I was five. It doesn't change, I just get taller.

I went on a 50 minute dive today, and saw a huge lobster, a sea snake, and so so so many fish. I...don't know very many kinds of fish. And I have a huge craving to watch Finding Nemo right now.

Monday, Oct. 2, 2006

I went scuba diving! It's pretty amazing to learn how in Boracay, I felt like I was swimming around inside Finding Nemo or something. I started the day by swapping my French book for an English one and watching a video, corresponding to the first of five section of instruction in the book. According to the video, scuba divers "are happy all the time" and "have more fun than most people." Quite ambitious statements. I feel like I'm pretty happy most of the time anyway.

The weather has gotten a little rougher (windy with choppy water and intervals of rain) on this side of the island, so we took a tricycle over to the other side, hopped into a banca and, ar ar I'm so punny, dove right in. Actually not really, first we practiced some skills in shallow water (oh mans I'm so afraid I'm going to smash everything in my path). Then we went out a bit further, and dove amongst the coral and fishies for about 45 minutes.

I remember as a kid, watching my PBS marine bio documentaries, seeing divers sitting casually on the edge of their boat, then easily leaning backwards and falling on in. That looks so easy, but I didn't think I'd be able to just fall out, like, oh, I'm happily riding my boat, why don't I just fall out backwards where I can't see? Apparently I can. Yay me! The hardest part of scuba diving so far has been pulling on the damn wetsuit. Everything else is not so bad.

Apparently I chose correctly when I signed up my three full days in Boracay to be under the water, diving. It's grayer and stormier still, and the beach is all but abandoned. Also, I can't get mosquito bites if I'm under water.

Sunday, Oct. 1, 2006 - 6:00PM - Borocay Island, the Philippines

Everything about this day makes me want to go "eeeeeee!" Waking up at 5AM to catch my 7AM flight to Borocay wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. The ticket was $62, roundtrip, which is cheaper than I thought it could be. The flight only sat about two dozen people, and lasted 35 minutes, faster than I thought it would be. After a bumpy landing amid rain and palm trees, I touched down in Caticlan. From there, I could see across the water to the island of Borocay.

While figuring out how to actually get to the island, I randomly met a guy named Jonas, a Swedish expat living and working in Shanghai, running the Chinese branch of some company that supplies some part of the infrastructure to cellular networks in China. (Clearly I remember all these details.) Sharing a tricycle (a cab with a small bench seat hooked up to a motorbike, it's amazing to me that these things make it up the hills that they do) to the dock, a bench on the banca (long boat with a pair of bamboo outriggers) to the island, and a walk to White Beach (impossibly pretty beach, also the main strip on the island with accomodation), we talked about US environmental policy, the role of government versus private business in driving environmental reform, Walmart, travels, things to do in Boracay, and of course, IKEA. Go go Billy Bookcase! I thought that all of the furnishings were named after their designers; it turns out that some are, but the couches, for example, are all named after cities in Sweden.

I found a place to stay for 300 pisos/night (about $6) which is more than I wanted to pay, but instead of a dorm bed, I get my own little bamboo and pandan hut, complete with a porch and hammock.

After lunch with Jonas, we headed out for a sail on a rented banca. Sunny, clear skies, clean, aqua blue water, and gusty winds combined for an exhilarating ride. We sat on a mesh platform, extending out to the outrigger on one side of the boat, and strong waves kept jumping up and catching Jonas in the face. When it was time to turn around and switch sides, I thought it would be my turn to eat ocean, yet somehow the waves still found Jonas. As we turned around for a final time, I laughed and joked that this was my last chance to get a wave to the face. Jonas asked "would it be mean for me say that I hope for it?" "No," I replied, "it would be honest. And fair." A minute later, Jones was struck by the most powerful wave of the whole sail, completely drenching him. I sat, dry and feeling quite tickled, until the waves gently carried us back to shore.

The sail left me in a cheerful mood, so I signed up for a scuba diving Open Water Diver Certification course. The dive shop didn't have a book in English in the store so I took the French one instead, and retired to my hammock to read.