mwcowan

[mwcowan]

Returned, Far, Far from Normal

Chapter 6 – The Tao Expedition

Tao (Ta-Oh) means human, or people, in Tagalog. Tao Philippines is a company based in Palawan that offers unique expeditions sailing among and living on some of the many islands that dot the area. From their website:

“Since 2007, we have been exploring the remote islands between El Nido and Coron in Northern Palawan. 17 years later we offer an experience of raw nature and honest hospitality far off the beaten track.

“We know that the best journeys run deep and reconnect us with what it means to be human. Our mission is to reinvigorate the mind, body, and soul through adventure. We aim to offer a new perspective for travelers by connecting them intimately with our local culture and the beauty of our natural environment.

“This experience is not for everyone.”

Georgia first discovered Tao about 10 years ago, watching a YouTube video someone had posted. She called me in, we watched it together, and said right then “this is something we should do”. Well, 10 years later, for one reason or another, we were still saying that it's "something we should do". Finally, with Georgia’s birthday coming up I asked if she’d like to do Tao as her present… she said yes, I booked it (a 5-day, 4-night journey, sailing from El Nido to Coron), and the rest is (now) history!

The 23 adventurers (from 9 countries, ages from early 20’s to well, me…) introduced ourselves to each other after the safety briefing on our boat, where we were also introduced to our expedition leader Vince, guide Wasoy, chef Weddy, and six additional crew members, who in the Tao organization are all referred to as “The Lost Boys”.

Our boat is a traditional Filipino bangka design, however quite large and satisfyingly sturdy. Plenty of room for the group to spread out to relax, catch some sun, take a nap, and other such important boat things.

Every expedition has a “sea dog”; ours was Sky. Wasoy is Sky’s human, who takes care of her makeup every morning.

On sailing days (4 of the 5 days) the routine was to sail from island to island, making 2-3 stops to swim or snorkel, before finally reaching our overnight destination. Palawan boasts some of the clearest waters anywhere, and the area is rightly recognized as one of the best diving/snorkeling locations in the world. We enjoyed the undersea sights at every stop.

Tao has roughly a dozen camps spread among the islands. Some islands are deserted except for Tao, some camps share the island with local fishing villages. The itinerary varies, depending on factors such as camp availability (Tao runs a number of trips simultaneously, so most camps are occupied each night) and of course, weather. We stayed one night each on the first two islands, Gintu, and Culion, then two nights on Ngey Ngey island, which was the most developed camp. Developed? Well, that’s just a state of mind. Our lodgings were bamboo platforms with thatched roofs, flow-through ventilation, and mosquito nets. Mattresses and sheets were provided. Fresh water, private showers, and electricity are highly overrated.

The sunrise from the bedroom was outstanding!

Natural beauty was abundant on our idyllic island homes…

Every day was capped off with a sunset party, where the “Jungle Juice” (rum and pineapple juice) flowed to shouts of “Tagay!” (“Cheers”)

On our first night, at Gintu island, leader Vince decided that he wanted to do something he’d never tried before. The boat set anchor about 200 yards offshore, on the opposite side of the island from the camp. Into the water, swim ashore, hike around the beach to camp. I think Vince wanted to make sure everyone was going to sleep well that night! He did offer that anyone could stay onboard and go around the island with the boat, but no one took him up on it. Seeing camp was a welcome sight! We were relieved to see the next morning that we only had a short swim to the boat. It was an effective wake-up!

Ngey Ngey did have the luxury of a pier, and its own island dog, Bastian.

One thing that Tao adventures are highly praised for is the food. Our chef, Weddy, and his assistants, prepared the finest fresh Filipino cuisine I’ve ever had. Almost every meal featured fresh seafood, logical since we were sailing among islands with many fishing villages. Often when we stopped to snorkel the local fishermen would paddle out to our boat, selling us their catch. Vince even caught a tuna, fishing from our boat while we were underway. The local villages also provided most of the fresh vegetables. Breads were homemade. Every meal was great! Just a few highlights…

Sashimi appetizer from Vince’s tuna

Fresh fish for lunch prepped on board…

…becomes delicious steamed with onions, garlic, and peppers

A local octopus fisherman sells us his catch

Breakfast sliders – fried egg with banana blossom “burgers”

The last day’s lunch spread – a boodle fight!*

*"Boodle fight" is a local style of dining, the term originating in the Filipino Army. In the field, soldiers didn’t carry plates or utensils, so would eat food from banana leaves, using their hands. Today it’s typically seen in ceremonial occasions or celebrations. No fighting, but still no utensils!

Entertainment was mostly the old-fashioned kind. Board games, Jenga, good conversation, and of course more Jungle Juice. Or just hold the pineapple and go for the rum. On the second night a generator provided electricity for karaoke, which was highlighted by Wasoy’s version of the Filipino classic “Otso-Otso” performed with an energetic and suggestive dance. So suggestive that Sky started energetically and suggestively humping Wasoy’s leg!

The multi-talented Wasoy also performed a Filipino fire dance the last night – pretty impressive. Vince tried it too but demonstrated that it really was dangerous by burning his arm.

A memorable, once-in-a-lifetime adventure! Although… I’d do it again just for the food!

If you’d like to see more pictures of our Tao Expedition, both above and below the water, I’ve posted some in a Google Photos album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/5CfvP6XyUj1TCF2g7

To learn more about Tao Expeditions: www.taophilippines.com

Take care everyone! Tagay!

[mwcowan]

Returned, Enjoying Life

Chapter 5 – Diving in Mabini

We just got back from a 5-day vacation to Mabini, Batangas, to get away, do a little diving, relax. Now before you get on my case about “getting away” when we’re already in paradise, there are some things that don’t change, regardless of where home is. Mundane things like paying bills, running errands, cleanup and repair around the house, etc., take up much of our time. No, we’re not shoveling snow like everyone in California, but we’re not sitting by the pool sipping Pina Coladas all the time, either.

Anyway, before I get to Mabini, a couple random topics.

(Sorta) Strange Fruit of the Day

It’s been a while since I’ve had a new fruit to write about! Georgia had heard about these but never tasted them – it’s a variety of coconut called the “Macapuno”. It’s smaller than a regular coconut, and considered special because it’s mostly filled with soft meat and very little liquid. In Viet Nam these cost up to 10x the price of a regular coconut. She found one in Mahogany Market (a super-sized farmer’s market in Tagaytay) and we hacked it open to give it a try.

Good? Well, meh, actually. As you can see it did have an abundance of soft coconut meat, and instead of water it had coconut Jello. But not a lot of flavor to me, very little coconut taste and not very sweet. We’ve got a lot of the meat, so maybe it’ll be better if mixed with some sugar or put to some other baking use.

Halo Halo

Halo Halo (Tagalog meaning “mix-mix” in English) is the ubiquitous Filipino dessert. Every first-time visitor to the Philippines is required by law to try it. I’ve done my duty and to me it’s OK but nothing I’d go too far to seek out. Others, Filipinos and foreigners alike, love it. It’s made with shave ice, sugar (or other) syrup, evaporated milk, chunks of candied fruits and coconut (nata de coconut), all layered in a tall glass, and usually topped with a scoop of purple ube (taro) ice cream. You’re supposed to mix it all up before you start eating (thus the mix-mix). Ube, BTW, is the ubiquitous ingredient in Filipino desserts. Pies, cakes, ice cream, you name it, you see that bright purple color. Getting back to the Halo Halo, it’s pretty sweet, colorful, lots of different textures.

And according to Georgia it’s a perfect breakfast food…

Mabini

Sorry to leave you waiting. Last week we drove to the Mabini peninsula, about 2-hours south of home. The area is also commonly known as Anilao (the name of the town at the top of the peninsula) and is recognized as one of the prime diving destinations in the Philippines. Although it has beautiful coral reefs and a few wrecks, it’s most famous for “muck” diving, which isn't really "mucky" but involves searching for and photographing little critters like nudibranchs or “nudies”.

We checked in for a 5-night stay at a dive resort, that per TripAdvisor was the #1 overall hotel and dive resort in Mabini. I’ve found that I can usually trust TripAdvisor ratings. Usually. This was the exception. The term “Resort” should have been left out the description, while “Dive” was competely appropriate. We’re not hard-core divers so we were looking to do a couple dives, explore the area, and spend plenty of time relaxing around the resort. We expected a nice resort, nice pool and grounds, excellent service. Not even close. After the second night we checked out and went looking at other resorts (there are 80+ on the peninsula), and found one just down the road that fit the bill nicely, an excellent French-owned resort named La Chevrerie, and for those who speak French, yes they do have pet goats.

Lovely pool and grounds, right on the ocean

Enjoying the view from our breakfast table

Not bad at all, just what we were looking for We made a couple dives as we’d planned, ate a lot, got massages, ate more, relaxed by the pool, and of course, ate again.

The first area we dove was one of the most beautiful I’ve ever experienced, a reef with hard corals, colorful crinoids, lots of soft corals, and plentiful fish. Here are a few shots from the dive.

Gotta have a clown fish or two!

Colorful crinoids, hard and soft corals

Georgia having a closer look

Up next was “muck” diving. Georgia had experienced an equipment malfunction on the first dive, nothing really serious - a buoyancy compensator with a leaky inlet valve. The BC slowly but constantly inflated, making it impossible for her to control her buoyancy. With no spare on the boat and being tired from fighting the BC, she opted out of the muck dive.

The divemaster knew there would be a small current so he planned a “drift dive”, where you just let the current push you along as you look at things, and hope that the boat follows you. This plan started out well, but soon we found ourselves on an express train, a very strong current pushing us out to sea and into deeper water. The divemaster signaled that we should turn and get out of there. I swam as hard as I could for a while, but soon tired and found that I was starting to move backwards again. I just grabbed a rock and hung on, catching my breath, hoping that the DM had a plan to get us out of there. He apparently knew that if we climbed the ridge we were holding onto and got out of the channel we’d be OK. So, after a few minutes resting I pulled myself up, rock to rock to rock. Luckily he was right, and soon we were in pretty calm water and continued a nice dive. Many “nudies”! Divers love them because they stay still while you take pictures! BTW, for this trip I’d upgraded my equipment with the addition of a good dive light on a frame that also holds my camera. Amazing what a good light does for the colors!

A sampling of "nudies" for you

Things That Will Kill You, Underwater Edition

Don’t step on this guy!

Until next time, take care!

[mwcowan]

Returned, Life as Usual

Chapter 4 – Life on the Beach

Since our return from Bangkok a few weeks ago, we’ve sort of settled down into a normal routine. We try to take a walk every morning, usually about an hour and 2+ miles. With Kawayan Cove mainly situated on a ridge overlooking the beach below, there is little level land. Every walk, in any direction, involves some steep hills that turn our walks into even better exercise. The photo below, taken from the road in front of our house, might give you an idea of the hills we walk every day.

The shot above also reveals a couple other things, one being the weather. It’s been absolutely perfect the last few weeks: sunny, highs in the upper 80’s, overnight lows in the mid 70’s, and for now, fairly low humidity and gentle breezes. Very tolerable, we haven’t even turned on our A/C’s since we’ve been here and we sleep with open windows at night. That’ll change as we head into summer, but we’re enjoying it for now!

The other thing in the photo explains why get up pretty early, at least compared to our California habits. You can see an intersection and a skid mark. The road going to the left leads to the service entrance, where all commercial vehicles enter the village. There are currently 20+ homes being built in the village and that means a lot of heavy trucks. Most of them turn right from the service road and pass in front of our house. The majority of them are heavily loaded and can barely make it up the hill after the turn. So, about 7am every morning except Sunday, we're awakened by straining engines and grinding gears. No sleeping late here!

Puppies!

Max has new Philippine cousins! After coming back from Bangkok we stayed a few days in Manila. Georgia’s mom’s caretaker has 4 dogs… one of them had given birth to 4 puppies at the first of December. Unfortunately, the caretaker doesn’t have the means to take care of them, and even worse, the pup’s mom, a first-timer, didn’t have much interest in them. Another dog, also pregnant, was doing the nursing job. Although it might have been a bit early (at 7 weeks) to take them away from their littermates and mom, they were undernourished, full of fleas, worms, and other parasites, causing them to be pretty lethargic and lose most of their hair. We worried they might not make it much longer, and didn’t have the heart to leave them all so we picked out a little boy and girl to take with us. Since the dad dog (we’re pretty sure of this although he claims no responsibility…) is known to us as Philbert, we named the boy Philo and the girl Philly. They were a sad sight at first. If you looked up “mangy mutt” in the dictionary you’d see their pictures. A few trips to the vet so far for de-worming, flea and parasite care, plus nourishing food and a dose of love has them back to being normal puppies, and their hair is coming back. Philo is pretty smart, full of energy and mischief. Philly is a sweet one that likes to cuddle.

Philo...

...and Philly

They are known as “Askal” over here, which is short for Asong Kalye, meaning “Street Dog” in Tagalog. So far they’re proving that a dog is a dog; if you love them and care for them, they’ll give much more back to you.

More Things that Will Eat You

I was sitting outside with one of our guests the other evening, when this thing buzzed his head and landed on the steps behind him. I’m not sure what prompted me to grab it, but it hissed ferociously and snapped its jaws. Not a happy creature. It looks like a demon with those long antennae and black eyes!

After some research we found that it’s called a Longhorn Beetle. Not dangerous to humans but it’s damaging to trees and timber operations as its larvae tunnel through trees. Various species of this insect are native to North America, so don’t get too comfortable over there!

Kawayan Life

Last time here, our neighbors Graham and Lori organized a pot luck dinner with a number of fellow denizens of Kawayan Cove, and we loosely formed an organization we call “Kawayan Life” and started a Viber chat where we can all keep in touch. Before we left in July we hosted a similar party at our house. Since then the group’s continued to be active and has grown to around 25 couples. Last night Graham and Lori hosted another party to kick off 2023. By my unofficial count we had 40 in attendance, a fun and diverse group representing places around the world, including a few other Californians.

Today we had a post-party party with a few of them, hanging out all day at the beach.

Cute Clownfish of the Week

A few days ago I was snorkeling in the cove, and spotted a striking orange anemone, with a resident clownfish family. When we went back to the beach today I took my camera, and managed to get a few decent shots, although the fish, except for the biggest one, were pretty shy.

Sunset of the Week

This was a hard pick. The beautiful weather we’ve been having has produced just the right amount of clouds to make gorgeous sunsets. It’s hard to believe you can look at the exact same view every evening and see something completely different and unique, and I never tire of it. Here’s this weeks’ winner, I hope you enjoy it.

Take care everyone!

[mwcowan]

Returned, A Good Normal

Chapter 3: Bangkok, Baby!

I got that backwards, it should be Baby, Bangkok! Though far away from the Philippines, the biggest event of this trip, and of many trips, happened last week – with the birth of Lachlan Rex Cowan-Harris. Georgia and I are finally grandparents! A bouncing boy at 9 lbs. 11 oz., Lachlan is the son of my son Danny and his partner Ben, with no small amount of help from surrogate mom Kaila. Here are the boys enjoying a sunny day at Crissy Field.

Although Danny and Ben live in Sydney, Australia, they wanted Lachlan to be born in the U.S. and were luckily able to connect with Kaila in Sacramento, where Lachlan was born. We’d expected Lachlan on the 17th as Kaila was scheduled to be induced that day, but a baby boom in the maternity ward caused a one-day delay. Throughout the day we were keeping up with progress though a WhatsApp group that Danny and Ben set up. As the big event was getting close we happened to be visiting the most sacred Buddhist temple in Thailand, Wat Phra Si Rattana Satsadaram (Temple of the Emerald Buddha), which is part of Phra Borom Maha Ratcha Wang (the Grand Palace) in Bangkok. We thought it would be appropriate to ask Buddha to help Lachlan enter this world in health and peace, and right when we got out of the temple we got the good news! Maybe that simple prayer had something to do with it. You never know, but it can’t hurt.

So why were we sitting in a temple in Bangok, or even in Thailand, in the first place? Side-stepping Philippine immigration laws. Normally when we travel to the Philippines, Georgia and I come together, and I receive a one-year spousal visa. This time, if you remember, Georgia came over right after Thanksgiving but I didn’t come until just before Christmas. Entering on my own I can only get a 30-day tourist visa. It’s easy enough to have that extended by going to the immigration department in Manila and filling out the necessary paperwork. Or, we could just leave the country and come back. Which one sounds like more fun? Since Bangkok was already on our to-do list, and airfares were cheap, off we went.

Totally unplanned though, was that our friends Noel and Michelle had set up a vacation in Bangkok, starting earlier but extending through the dates we'd be there, to celebrate Noel’s daughter’s 30th birthday. Though we had different plans for our visits, we decided we'd hook up at least one evening for dinner and drinks. Well, we did hook up, but not as we’d expected. The day before we left, Georgia got a call from Michelle, telling us that Noel was in the ICU there. Noel has a chronic medical condition that unfortunately flared up badly and put him in the hospital. We arrived in Bangkok the next evening, checked into our hotel, and immediately got into a taxi for the hospital. Thankfully Noel was much better, out of the ICU and into a regular room. But since we’d planned to have dinner and drinks, Michelle still took us out. To a 7-11 for beers and snacks, but it counts!

With Noel doing better, Georgia and I stuck with our plans for the next day, hiring a guide and driver to show us the best of Bangkok in one day. We started by touring the Grand Palace, a 60-acre compound which has been the home of Thailand’s King since Rama I in the late 1700’s. Every King since then (the current King is Rama X) has made his mark on the beautiful temples, shrines, residences, and grounds. It really defies description, to me every bit as overwhelming as I felt touring Angkor Wat a few years ago. Nearly every inch of every structure and statue is decorated with a mosaic of semi-precious stones, or inlaid mother-of-pearl, or covered in gold leaf. Disney’s most creative minds couldn’t come up with this.

The King's actual Palace. Nice digs!

Finishing up with the Palace in the early afternoon we were famished. Our guide was pleased when we let her know we preferred street food over restaurants. Bangkok, all of Thailand's cities actually, is famous for inexpensive and delicious street food. She led us to an area not too far from the Palace where we browsed many choices – we lunched on Pad Thai and a few more great dishes whose names I can’t remember.

After lunch we drove to Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram Rajwaramahawihan (luckily for tourists they shorten the name to Wat Pho), or the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This is the third-largest reclining Buddha in the world, at 46 meters (151') long. Yes, it’s fully covered with gold leaf, except for the bottoms of it’s feet which are inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

The bottom of the Buddha's feet. Yes, it's sideways because he's laying on his side.

Since it was the day before the Chinese New Year weekend, we had to go to Chinatown! This was pretty crazy as you’d expect, with everyone and every store and stall getting ready for the weekend.

The food market was enormous, with endless varieties of both ingredients and prepared dishes. Not much that I could recognize though.

After Chinatown our guide was nice enough to drive us by the hospital so we could check on Noel; happily he was in the process of being released. No partying for him though, so we went back on tour. By now, it was getting towards dinnertime, so we went to Talat Phlu a night market with literally hundreds of food vendors.

We wandered around, sampled a few things. The fried dumplings below, with a soft rice flour center and crunchy garlic and chive crust were delicious! Georgia wants to learn how to make these. I hope she succeeds!

Dinner was from another vendor, with tables nearby where we could sit. Delicious again, although I don’t remember any of the Thai names for the dishes. My favorite was a spicy dish of sauteed morning glory (which I'm familiar with as kangkong in the Philippines) which grows on the river’s edge. Here we are with our guide Moo, and our driver Egg. Just like in the Philippines, everyone here goes by a nickname, which in Thailand is good since we’d never be able to pronounce their real names.

[A note about the dress - it was a hot & humid day, even though mid-winter. However, the temples, shrines, etc. we visited require respectful dress to enter, meaning no shorts, bare shoulders, etc. Our clothing felt completely stuck to us by the end of the day!]

The next day we were on our own, and engaged in the second most popular activity in Bangkok, shopping! At least Georgia did, and I tagged along. Georgia wanted to go to an area where they specialize in local woodcraft as décor, utensils, furniture, etc. We took a free water taxi from our hotel (located right beside the Chao Phraya River which winds through Bangkok) to a Bangkok SkyTrain station, and took the train. Inexpensive and easily manageable.

We found our way to the indoor/outdoor mall, which indeed had the items we were looking for, and a whole lot more! We’ve been looking for accent chairs for our living room and found some we really liked. Unfortunately they were already fairly expensive, and then we looked into having them shipped from Thailand to the Philippines… let’s just say this is currently on hold until we can resolve the shipping issue.

We finally made our way back to the hotel, and enjoyed a nice riverside dinner. After breakfast the next morning, it was off to the airport and back to Manila, where I got my 1-year visa. Mission accomplished!

[mwcowan]

Returned, Sorta Feels Normal

Chapter 2 – Christmas and New Year’s

I survived all the celebrations, and as it turns out, that’s no small feat!

Christmas was pretty familiar, both in comparison to US traditions, and due to the fact that I’ve had a number of Christmas celebrations with Georgia’s family. Around Manila, in the stores, hotels, parks, everywhere, there are decorations, and at night, everything is brilliantly lit. Probably the most visible difference from a city in the US is the prevalence of religious displays – manger scenes, images of Christ, etc. are integrated into almost every display. Not surprising in this overwhelmingly Catholic country. I do get a kick out of displays showing snowy winter scenes, as I’m sure very few Filipinos have ever seen snow!

For our actual Christmas celebration we visited our friends Michelle and Noel, who live in Muntinlupa, about a 30 minute drive from Dolly’s house. This is where things get a little different from the traditions I grew up with. The Filipino Christmas celebration starts on Christmas eve, then everyone waits (parties, actually) until midnight to greet the birthday of Christ, and exchange gifts. The celebration involves lots of eating (Of course! This is the Philippines!) with a lavish feast starting early in the evening, and then a second feast is laid out after midnight! There’s plenty to drink, too, and this goes on for a long time, until 5am Christmas morning in our case. Jeez, I haven’t done that since college days! One tradition that’s common between the US and Philippines is relatives napping on the sofa! Another nice tradition is that people, mostly younger folks/couples, who might have two sets of parents and grandparents, will visit all the family parties. In our case, the last visitors arrived after 2am and were still going strong when we went to bed!

On Christmas day, all the celebration is past and everyone tries to catch up on sleep! We were up fairly early, and drove back to Manila. No traffic! So, we decided to pack up and drive to our house. Unfortunately we found where all the traffic was, and our usual 2 ½ hour drive turned into nearly 5. But it was still good to get back home, and like Georgia had reported, the house and gardens were in very nice shape indeed!

We stayed in Kawayan Cove until Friday the 30th, when we drove back to Manila for New Years. Once again we stayed with Michelle and Noel and enjoyed the festivities with them. Lots of similarities to the Christmas celebration…

Feasting (here's the guest of honor)

Drinking

And all through the evening, peaking at midnight, are the fireworks. And not the safe and sane displays put on by cities, hotels, etc. in the US, here every Filipino who has done too much of the above also has fireworks. The fun kind that fly high and go boom! This is the view from Michelle and Noel’s house, a few minutes after midnight. Crazy!

And we had a quite a few fun fireworks of our own, all things you'd get arrested for in California! A big bottle rocket streaking skyward!

Then, the bamboo cannon.

Back in my college days we used to make gasoline-powered cannons out of tin cans, soldered together end-to-end. They’d launch tennis balls (and other objects...) blocks away! While we were home, Georgia was describing cannons she played with as a kid, made of bamboo but the same principle as the ones I’d made. So off we went to a nearby bamboo grove and cut a length of thick bamboo. Hollowed out the inside except for one end and drilled a hole in the side of the bottom chamber, into which the gas is poured and ignited. Worked pretty well, not too loud but it shot some impressive flames!

So overall, great celebrations with old friends and new, lots of fun, too much great food. Hope you all had equally enjoyable times! We’re back in Kawayan Cove now, for a few weeks at least, hoping to relax and enjoy our time, as well as getting some things done around the house.

And of course, watch a few sunsets.

[mwcowan]

Return to Normal? At Least Returned.

Chapter 1, Manila

Night 2, 4:30am. I wasn’t sure if I would write a blog this trip, but jetlag has reared its ugly head and wide awake with nothing better to do, here I go again.

Besides more or less syncing up with our stated plans to spend winters here, we’re in the Philippines a little earlier for a special reason – for me to experience Filipino Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. Christmas is celebrated here probably like no other place on earth, with the season officially starting in September. Decorations go up, holiday parties start, shopping season begins, gifts are exchanged. I’m not exaggerating, it starts in September. I’ve seen glimpses of it before, being here in September 2017 and November 2018 as we were building our house, but never here for the main event. Likewise, New Year’s is also quite the celebration, an excess of alcohol and fireworks, and not the safe and sane type. Christmas is still a couple days off, so I’ll report again after the festivities.

I’ll start this blog by going back a few weeks. Georgia actually came over just after Thanksgiving to meet with our Bay Area friends Mina, Juni, Teng, and a few of their family members who’ve been on an extended vacation. With the kind help of our Manila friends Noel and Michelle, they all enjoyed a trip to Balesin Island (a unique private island resort – our trips there have been reported in previous blogs).

At the same time our Graeagle friends Todd and Kathleen traveled to Costa Rica for their own fun and warm adventure. They are Lizzie’s humans; Lizzie is Max’s sister and BFF. I stayed at home with both of the pups whose purpose was to keep me busy. Below, Max photobombs Lizzie’s serious portrait.

In the first 10 days of my dog-sitting we had 3 separate snowstorms with snow piling up over 2 feet. Nothing but good times for the dogs though, they’ll chase each other or a ball all day long in the snow, the deeper the better. They never seem to get either tired or cold, it’s me who does and I’m the spoil sport who always calls them back in to warm up.

Lizzie went back to her humans when they returned last week, leaving Max and I as bachelors for a few days. About that time it turned cold; when I got up the morning before heading here it was 5°F (-15°C). Max didn’t care but it definitely got me thinking about the nice warm weather in the Philippines!

My trip here was uneventful but longer than usual – a 6:00 am flight from Reno to SFO, then SFO to Seoul, and finally Seoul to Manila. Everything was on time until the last flight which was delayed a few hours, giving me a travel time (Reno airport shuttle to Dolly’s house in Manila) of about 29 hours. I slept really well the first night here but old jetlag is always lurking and eventually catches up with you.

Before you worry about Max, he’s staying with Lizzie, Todd, and Kathleen until early January, when Georgia’s sister Dignah will come stay at our house and entertain Max until we return in May.

Meanwhile, Georgia’s adventures continued. Besides the fun type in Balesin, she also ran into some bad adventure. Or to be more accurate, some bad adventure ran into her. After returning from Balesin she was driving back to her mom’s house and while stopped waiting for traffic to clear so she could make a right turn, a delivery truck on her left decided to squeeze in front of her. It was a bit too tight of a squeeze and despite Georgia’s energetic honking the side of the truck struck and removed much of the front end of our car. Georgia was rattled of course, but thankfully unhurt. To make it all worse, she then waited hours for the police inspector to arrive, and after that had to go to the police station to file a report. To top it off, it was raining. What a way to ruin your day!

We’re very lucky that Georgia’s sister Divine (Vinee) and her husband Alvin who live in Hong Kong have a few cars stationed over here. They’ve generously lent us a Toyota Previa van for as long as we need it. Since I still hadn’t arrived, poor Georgia had to deal with it all – police, insurance, towing, finding a body shop, etc. The car’s now sitting in a repair shop not too far from Dolly’s house. We’ll see how this turns out.

To wrap this up on a positive note, Georgia reports all is well at our house in Kawayan Cove. No disasters such as those which greeted us on our last trip; she’s very pleased with the way our new caretakers have maintained both house and garden. I’m looking forward to getting there – our plan is to stay here through Christmas day and then go to KC for the week, returning to Manila for New Years.

Finally, I want to wish every one of you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year!

[mwcowan]

Let's Try This Again

Chapter 12, Ginger, Buying Karaoke, Lago de Oro, Flowers, It’s a Wrap

This will be the last chapter for this trip as we've said goodbye to Kawayan Cove and started our journey back to California. Slowly started at least – we stayed at Noel and Michelle’s in Manila last night (Monday) for a combined early birthday celebration for me and Noel, then on to Dolly’s today, and finally flying Manila – Tokyo – LAX – SFO tomorrow (Wednesday). Sort of a roundabout air route, but alas, I’m an indentured servant to United Airlines, who in return at least allow us to fly business or first class, and use the airport lounges when on the ground. After arriving in SFO, we'll recover for a night at our friend Georgie’s in Antioch before driving to Graeagle on Thursday. Can’t wait to see Max!

Ginger

Speaking of dogs, a couple weeks ago we were sort of adopted by a stray dog. One rainy evening we noticed a wet, very skinny, sad-looking dog at our front gate. Being the types who want to rescue every dog we see (especially Georgia!) we got a bowl of dog food and some old hamburger and set it out for her. Even approaching with food she jumped away from us, after we put it down and backed away she came back and devoured it, but would constantly look over her shoulder and dart away at the slightest noise. Same thing the next night but then we didn’t see her for a few days. She returned again, and this time we sliced up some old hot dogs, and found her weakness! She loved the hot dogs, even picking out the little pieces, leaving the dry dog food in her bowl, and giving us that look that said “I know you have more hotdogs!” The next time she came I had a sliced up hot dog ready, and just sat down with it in the foyer. She slowly approached, took a piece from my hand, and was instantly hooked. By the last bite she was letting me pet her, and it seemed that she had more life, a little sparkle in her eyes, that she didn’t have at first. After finishing her dinner she lay down in the foyer and hung out all evening, protecting her new semi-home.

This pattern has continued, with her coming around every night or every few nights, eating and hanging out with us. We finally decided we needed to have a name for her – I decided on “Ginger” since she has red hair on her head. I didn’t think about it at the time, but now we have Ginger and Marry Ann (our housekeeper)! Unfortunately that’s lost on everyone here… if “Ginger and Mary Ann” means nothing to you, just Google it!

Buying Karaoke

Georgia had been asked by two of her sisters to get them a karaoke system while we were over here; those you get here have a lot of Filipino songs on them which aren’t available in the U.S. We’d seen them at S&R (Costco) so drove to the nearest S&R in Santa Rosa. Nearest, but still better than an hour’s drive. And there they were, a nice display of all their systems and even an attendant to help us select the one we wanted. After listening to her describe the systems and their features, Georgia decided and said “OK, I’ll take two of those!” “Wala,” said the salesperson (you all remember “wala”, right?). “OK, how about this one (the second choice)?” “Wala.” Hmmm, this has a familiar ring… “Do you have any at all?” “Wala.” “Can we order?” “Wala.” Been there, done that.

S&R is right next to a large mall with a big department store, electronics and appliance stores, so next door we went. After walking up and down and in and around the mall the closest we got was “Yes, we had them but they are sold out.” But we did get some advice that another mall in Santa Rosa was likely to have some, so even though the other mall is across the city, off we went, determined not to go back home without karaoke machines.

And there they were, gleaming on the shelf, the same model we wanted to buy at S&R! Georgia happily told the friendly salesperson we wanted two, and his downcast eyes told the story, “sorry ma’am, we only have one.” Oh No!!! Georgia asked if he could at least check their stockroom, so off he went. After a bit of a wait, he was back, triumphantly bringing a second system! We’ve got it! And then...

As I’ve written about before, everything mechanical or electronic you buy here has to be demonstrated to be in good working order before you can actually purchase it, even if it’s a light bulb. Well, that has to happen with karaoke machines too, and they’re a lot more complex than a light bulb. Our sales person hooked everything up to the TV and sound system, and endlessly demonstrated every single feature. When it came time to show that the microphones work and that the range is at least the specified 50 feet, what did he do? He cued up Ann Murray’s “Just”, and proceeded to sing (in a good voice at least) the whole song while walking all around the store! I still laugh when I think of him coming down the aisle, belting out “…I am just another woman in love!”

And then he repeated the whole process all over again for the second system…

Lago de Oro

We’d been promising Joyce Hufton that we’d come to Lago de Oro and dive with her before we left; with time running out we finally got there for a 2-night stay and a dive. Lago’s a nice resort, nothing fancy but clean and with a nice, relaxed vibe, and an excellent restaurant. No beach to speak of, it’s a muddy/sandy bottom that barely slopes outward. When the tide is in the waves lap against a seawall, when it's out you can walk a mile or more from shore without getting your feet wet. The locals use these times to gather edible snails; you can see many of them walking about with buckets that are usually full when they come back in.

For our dive, the plan was to take the boat out to the first dive spot, a reef with a maximum depth of 30m/98’, then for a second dive we’d come back in and inspect the artificial reef that was planted when we were last at Lago, on World Ocean Day. The first reef was nice, with a lot of corals and animal life. A gentle current took us uphill as planned to a final depth of about 20m/65’. The current made it hard to take pictures though, even of something like a nudibranch that’s pretty much standing still! Picture me with a dive light in left hand, camera in the right, breathing shallow trying to maintain depth, and a current’s trying to sweep me away! Almost impossible for me to manage but I still got a couple good shots.

At the spot of the artificial reef, the first problem was that we had a very high tide and the buoy that marks the reef was under water, nowhere to be seen. So we anchored where the boat crew thought the reef was and went in… soon finding that the bottom had been stirred up by strong waves and there was only 1-3m/3-10’ visibility. I was able to follow Joyce because she’d painted her initials on her flippers in fluorescent paint, otherwise I’d be lost. Hard swimming, trying to cover a lot of ground and find the reef. Every now and then we’d circle the troops and try to figure out where the reef was (besides me and Joyce, there were 3 of her dive shop employees with us. Georgia had wisely decided to skip this dive). So, four divers with compasses all pointing in different directions… after about 20 minutes of this I was getting tired and wished I knew the sign for “I’m not having fun here…” Thankfully it seemed everyone else was getting on the same page as we gave up on the artificial reef search and just explored the natural reef where we’d ended up. Not great visibility but it ended up a pretty nice dive anyway.

A nudibranch ("nudie"), 3-4cm/1-1.5” long. I looked it up and found that the end with the two stalks is the head, the many-stalked thing coming out of their back are the gills.

Clown fish in anemone. I know I’ve put a lot of photos like this in my blogs but these are just too cute!

Another nudibranch. There are over 3000 known species of these amazing sea slug relatives!

Flowers

Last chapter, I talked about our “growing season” and included a photo of a flower – one that was identified as a Spider Lily, thanks to reader Bill Tantau! Since we have a lot of flowers blooming now I thought I’d post a couple more photos for you.

This Gumamela (Hibiscus) in our back yard has showy red blossoms over white-speckled leaves.

The Kampanilya (Yellow Bell) beside our driveway is Georgia’s favorite flower.

Orchids grow on trees over here! We have a nice collection of pretty orchids; what people here do is tie them to trees until the roots grab on, then just leave them alone to do their thing. And they do it quite well. Should make those who struggle to grow orchids in the U.S. pretty jealous!

It’s a Wrap

Now for the hard part, saying goodbye. Not just to Kawayan Cove and our home and friends there, but to all of you as well. Especially now that we have most of the problems we faced when we returned under control. Many repairs and improvements completed, new floors and blinds installed, jungle beaten back and the gardens looking good again. It would be nice to relax and enjoy it for a while, but it’s time to get back to Graeagle and Max. It's still amazing to me that we’re so fortunate to be able to live in these two places, very different but both truly “paradise”.

Until next time, take care everyone!

[mwcowan]

Let's Try This Again

Chapter 11, Rainy Season, Growing Season, Kawayan Life

Hope you all had a great Fourth of July! Not an event over here, no surprise, we don’t make it a habit to celebrate other country’s Independence Days, either. I do miss the Fourth in Graeagle and I’m always proud of our little community when they put on such a fine celebration with the fireworks and parade.

We’ve been back home in Kawayan Cove since our last trip to Balesin, mostly doing back home things.

Rainy Season

It’s officially rainy season over here, which comes with habagat, or the southwest monsoon that's typically present from late June into November. Warmer weather and higher humidity persist, rain and thunderstorms are frequent. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I spent many summers in Alabama. The afternoon thunderstorms seemed so regular you could set your watch by them. Same here. A typical day starts with a clear and warm morning, then by early afternoon the clouds start building. Thunder rolls in from the distance at first but by 3-4:00 there’s a good possibility that it’ll be right upon you. We’ll typically get a little lightning and thunder and a gentle, steady rain. Sometimes we get a LOT! And the thunder and lightning are world-class. One evening when we were being rocked by an energetic thunderstorm, I counted visible lightning strikes over one minute. 24! All you need is a little Pink Floyd and you’d have nature's Laserium!

There’s also this sound that you hear when the lightning strike is very close that I don’t recall hearing anywhere else. It's a violent, loud, ripping sound that precedes the earth-rattling boom by just fractions of a second. I wish I could describe it better, or record it, but then you’d need a 300+ billion Watt sound system to reproduce it (I just looked that up – a typical lightning strike generates 300 billion to 30 trillion Watts!). Just think God ripping the sky apart and you might get the idea.

In rainy season the afternoon clouds often linger past sunset, so we don’t get as many dramatic orange and red and yellow sunsets. That doesn’t stop us from sitting in our favorite sunset-watching spot though. After all, sunset watching goes hand-in-hand with Happy Hour and tradition must be upheld! Here’s a view while upholding the tradition as a squall passes between us and Fortune Island.

Growing Season

When we arrived here at the first of April, it was the middle of the dry season, Amihan, or the Northeast monsoon. Though the Philippines is always pretty green, at that time of year a lot of the vegetation has lost its luster, many trees have lost their leaves. Still green but not GREEN green. And then Habagat comes, bringing its rains. The jungle is just waiting for this and almost overnight everything explodes into green, growing like there's no tomorrow. Ireland has nothing on the Philippines in terms of green.

If you remember the last Philippines blog of 2020, I showed you the Hass avocado we grew from a California seed. It had been raised in a pot at Dolly’s in Manila, and was about a year old and not quite 2’ tall when we brought it here and planted it in our front yard. Here it is today, just a touch over 10’/3m tall (not an estimate, I got out my measuring tape). I think Georgia was out looking for avocados to pick, but I think it’ll still be a few years.

Another stellar performer is Georgia’s Kamias tree (not my tree, Georgia’s tree. For a description of the dreaded Kamias ‘fruit’, see the March 2019 blog, day 10). Anyway, on our last trip Georgia bought a little Kamias seedling, just a few inches tall, at a nursery on the way back to Kawayan Cove. The little twig was planted in the back yard and it’s outgrown even the avocado, measuring 11’/3.3m and it produced a full bounty of 'fruit'! Georgia was overcome with joy.

Our flowers are flowering too, we have beautiful kampanilya (yellow bells), gumamela (hibiscus), kalachuchi (plumeria), and these strange but lovely things which I have no idea what they are…

The Kawayan Life

I think I’ve introduced Graham Coates before; Graham is our neighbor down the hill, one of the very few who was here with us during the pandemic lockdowns. Graham is English and has a proper English garden. He actually has four lots here at Kawayan Cove, his house occupies one lot, his garden occupies the other three. Here’s a link that’ll give you a look at Graham and his garden [Note: I can't get the link below to work directly from Tumblr. For now you'll have to copy the text and paste it into the address bar of a new browser page. I'll update this once I figure it out.]

https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/388559/megaworld-lifestyle-malls-heads-%E2%80%8Dchildhood-chore-now-a-lifelong-passion/

At Easter, Graham and his wife Lori hosted a potluck dinner, and invited us and the other denizens of Kawayan Cove that they’ve gotten to know. It was a fun evening and a great chance for us to meet some of our new neighbors. We decided that night to form a loose “association”, and start a chat group on Viber so we could keep in touch and share what’s going on. Since Herve knows everything going on here, we elected him president.

The chat group recently started rumbling about having another get-together, so Georgia and I volunteered to host it. Since most KC homes are second homes it’s hard to catch everyone here at the same time, but we had a pretty good turnout. Another fun night with great food and drink, ending up with loud music and dancing on the pool deck until late. Here’s the group minus two, taking a break: L-R Eric and Maryann Gustilo, Graham and Lori (with her hands around my neck), Herve and Let, our friends Michele and Noel Tanada, below them Georgia and our friend Joyce Hufton.

One More Sunset of the Week

Though we’ve had a lot of days without a memorable sunset, we had a little break from the rains over the weekend which resulted in nice weather for our party and gave us a decent sunset. Enjoy!

[mwcowan]

Let's Try This Again

Chapter 10, Turtle, Lago de Oro, Balesin, again

Writing about our trip to Coron (chapter 6 part 1), I mentioned that we'd bought native turtle and fish sculptures and were having them shipped to us . They’ve arrived and the fish is now swimming above our kitchen cabinets, while the turtle basks on one of our large white walls, adding a lot of color to the living room. The turtle in particular is quite large, at 140cm (55”) nose to tail, and weighs about 55kg (120 lbs). He actually swims straight up the wall; I rotated the picture as it fits better into this format.

Both the turtle and the fish are painted in a style unique to the Palawan artists, in thousands and thousands of tiny colorful dots. Someone has more patience than I do. A LOT more!

Lago de Oro

Lago de Oro is a beach resort and wakeboard park, just 30 minutes south of us in the town of Calatagan. We were invited by our friends Michelle and Noel to a program Michelle had arranged to celebrate World Oceans Day, and to mark the formalization of cooperation between the local government and the conservation organization she leads, The C.O.R.A.L. Movement (www.coralmovement.org). The 2-day event also featured the installation of structures which will form an artificial reef off the shore of Lago, which were built and deployed by C.O.R.A.L. and the Philippine Coast Guard.

The evening program was primarily a cocktail reception with many speeches given by a host of prominent figures, including political, military, and scientific affiliates of C.O.R.A.L., many of whom we had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with. One of the affiliate organizations happens to be the Miss Earth Philippines pageant, and we were charmed by the presence of Miss Philippines Earth 2021, the lovely Naelah Alshorbaji and her court. Ms. Alshorbaji is at my right, below. Just as notable is that this was the first time in many years I’ve worn long pants in the Philippines!

One nice surprise was to find my underwater photography being used to decorate the stage and also at Lago’s dive shop. I’d previously given Michelle permission to use my photos in any way that could benefit the C.O.R.A.L. Movement. Georgia’s also in the act – if you look at the blueish picture in the middle of a turtle with a diver in the background, that’s Georgia (the diver, not the turtle)!

Lastly for our Lago experience, one of the speakers was Ms. Joyce Hufton, who we’ve previously met and had the pleasure of entertaining at our home. Joyce is a remarkable woman, with many accomplishments including being the first female Filipina air transport pilot, having had a career with American Airlines among others. She’s also long been an advocate for the oceans, having spearheaded numerous local and international environmental initiatives and coral rehabilitation programs, together with the 505 Squadron Philippine Air Force, Philippine Navy Security Operations Group (NAVSOG), Philippine Coastguard Marine Environmental Protection Command (MEPCOM), American Chamber of Commerce and U.S. Civil Military Affairs. Joyce is an extreme technical diver (think very deep with exotic gas mixtures) and is now starting up an Eco Dive shop at Lago de Oro; we look forward to diving with her soon.

Balesin, again

OK, I’ll come clean to readers who are members of the MVSC. I canceled the June board meeting because “something came up”. That “something” was the opportunity to visit Balesin Island again, where I knew I would have little to no phone or internet connectivity. Balesin is a “something” we just couldn’t pass up.

This visit we were accompanied by Noel’s sister Karla, who lives in Palm Desert and because of Covid hasn’t been able to visit Noel in years. We had a great time meeting Karla and a lot of fun, that’s her between Georgia and Noel.

This trip I brought my snorkeling gear (snorkeling is all that’s available as their dive program is temporarily closed) and visited a few of the island's reefs. There’s a book in every room that describes the condition of the reefs when Balesin’s developers bought the island in 2010 – completely devastated from the effects of dynamite and cyanide fishing. The new owners put an immediate stop to that and instituted rules for sustainable fishing and protection of the environment. The results, just 12 years later, are a textbook example of what can be, and needs to be, done worldwide – the reefs and corals are now beautiful and healthy.

One interesting side note is that Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos (incoming Philippine president) and entourage arrived at Balesin on Friday. As we were due to fly home that evening, we went to our favorite restaurant at Toscana for an early dinner – only to find the whole restaurant reserved for the Marcos party! They made us a pizza to go anyway, then when we got to our plane we found that we had the entire 66-seat plane to ourselves. We’re not sure why this happened, probably an extra plane used to bring the BBM party over that they needed to get back to Manila. For whatever reason, it was cool to have our very own private plane! Michelle and Karla and lots of empty seats.

Until next time, take care!

[mwcowan]

Let's Try This Again

Chapter 9, Bacolod and Sipalay

Last Saturday we flew south from Manila to Bacolod, on the island of Negros, primarily to attend Dolly’s 86th birthday celebration at the family “farm” near Alangilan. Georgia doesn’t remember exactly, but the farm is about 40 hectares (100 acres) of lush, hilly land, with abundant spring water. It’s at about 1500’ (500m) elevation so is quite a bit cooler than Manila, or even where we are in Kawayan Cove. Nice to sleep without air conditioning!

There isn’t a lot of active farming going on any more, except for a few plots leased out to sugar cane growers, and a small vegetable plot at the house. Houses actually – there’s the older family house built by Georgia’s dad, and a newer one (~12 years old) built by Dolly, where she stays when at the farm, and where we stay also. Like our house, it, and the surroundings, suffered from Dolly’s being away for 2+ years but it’s slowly coming back into shape

Nang Belen in the upstairs, open air, kitchen/living room

Preparations for the birthday party started early, with the main course being noisily dispatched below our bedroom window. He was stuffed with lemon grass, coconut milk, and other herbs then roasted in the traditional way over open coals. About four hours of this got him nice and browned.

There were probably 30-40 people, cousins and friends of Dolly, attending the celebration. Lots of good food, conversation, even a band from Alangilan that was surprisingly good. I think Dolly was very pleased with the whole shebang.

After two nights in Alangilan we rented a car in Bacolod and drove south to Sipalay, which is about a 3 ½ hour drive, on the southwest corner of Negros. Not much to the town proper, but the area’s known for nice resorts and good diving. We stayed at a wonderful place just north of the town, the Punta Bulata Resort and Spa. Beautiful, totally relaxing. Highly recommended for you next time you’re in Sipalay! Here’s our favorite spot for happy hour and sunsets!

For our first day, we decided to take the car and spend the day exploring the area. We wanted to go to an affiliated dive resort and get some tips from the owner; we also wanted to check out the top-rated resort in the area, which wasn’t available for our dates. I was wondering why Waze (which we use to navigate here) said it was only 24km to the first place but about an hour drive… although we’d had good roads on the main highway down to Sipalay, once off the main road things got a little adventurous. Very twisty, sketchy pavement, sometimes no pavement. We got to the first place, the Easydiving Resort, which was very pretty but built on a cliff that makes our house look pretty tame. LOTS of stairs to get down to the beach area. You’d be in great shape if you worked there! We met up with the owner, a friendly Swiss man, Christian, who filled us with recommendations, and even called the dive shop at our resort to make arrangements for us, for the next day.

So on to the next place, the highly-rated Bugana Resort, for lunch. Should be a quick drive, it’s only 4-5km away. WTF??? Waze says it’s 56km and over an hour! Turns out that the EasyDiving resort is at the end of one road, and Bugana is at the end of another road that approaches from the opposite direction, with no road connecting the two. I didn’t notice that tiny detail when I first looked at the map! Anyway we did get there, and had a very nice (but late!) lunch. But frankly, we were disappointed with the resort- not nearly as spacious and scenic as ours. We may have lucked into it, but we both felt we were in the nicer resort.

On the way back, Georgia wanted to see if we could find the Sipalay Mine. This is where Georgia’s dad, a mining engineer, first met 18 year old Dolly, who's father worked there in the motor pool! Sure enough, we found it on Google maps, and with a little off-roading we got to the now water-filled pit, with the ruins of what we suspect were stamping or processing facilities on the hill above. Back in the day, there were large deposits of both copper and gold; apparently enough left that there were a few pieces of heavy equipment searching for a payday.

I have to mention the adventure getting back to Punta Bulata. We’ve had Waze adventures before, Waze usually sends you on the shortest, or lowest traffic route. Well, it found one for us… the last 10km to Punta Bulata we exited the main road for a smaller road, on a direct route to the resort. Good road. For a while. Shortly it turned into a one-lane road, we had to stop and back up into a wide spot once to let another car by. Then it was unpaved. Then it became very rocky. Our Mitsubishi Xpander (sort of looks like a mini-SUV but it’s not) was game though and we kept going. But nearing the resort, we descended a muddy, rocky hill, to find a hundred meters or so of mud at the bottom (due to heavy rains the night before). Thick, deep, sticky mud. We sat there looking at it for a while when a motorcycle came up behind us; we waved him around to see how he managed. Staying to the left side it looked like he had some traction although he was cheating and using his feet, so that was the way to go – anyway backing up probably wasn’t an option because it was a long way back to a wide enough spot to turn around, and we’d likely get stuck or go off the trail trying to reverse up the hill. Plus, Waze said we were only 250m from the resort, so I figured Georgia could slog her way out and get help if needed :) Time to go! I used the rest of the hill to get some speed, and tried to keep to the left but we were getting thrown left and right and up and down. The motor was revving but the little Xpander somehow had enough traction and maintained enough momentum to make it through! When we got to the resort, I asked Georgia “you got pictures of that, didn’t you”? When she said “no”, I said “well, then we have to go back and do it again”. She was having none of that.

As I mentioned, the next day we went on a dive trip. First was Danjugan Island, a marine sanctuary a short boat ride from the resort. Nice coral reefs and many fish there. Our second dive was at the Bulata Pier, which was built for the mining operations but hasn’t been used in 40 or so years, and has mostly fallen down. Lots of life around the old pilings and on the sandy bottom – it’s what’s known as a “muck dive”, which is a lot more pleasant than the name might suggest, featuring lots of tiny creatures such as nudibranchs, shrimp, and frogfish.

Technical note: this was the first time I’ve used a dive light. Just amazing what a light does for the colors, and the resulting photography. The only problem is that I have a camera in one hand, a light in the other, trying to stay in one spot, not drifting right, left, up, or down. Quite a challenge, at least for me! OK, enough words, enjoy some of my favorite photos from these dives.

Lionfish. Beautiful but don't try to pet him!

Up close and personal with a lionfish.

Nudibranch. There are more than 3000 colorful and bizzare species! This one was about 1" (2.5cm) long.

Frogfish. About 2" (5cm) long. He walks on his pectoral fins!

Hidey-seeky shrimp.

All for today, take care everyone!

[mwcowan]

Let's Try This Again

Chapter 8, Balesin Again, House Updates

Balesin

We’ve just returned from Balesin Island Club, where we spent the last 3 days with our friends Noel and Michelle, who are members of the club and who we’re fortunate to have as friends. They picked us up from Dolly’s house in Manila at 5:30 am Saturday (we had a 7:30 am flight to the island) and off we went to this fabulous private club, Fantasy Island with a little Jurassic Park mixed in. I’ve previously described Balesin (Philippines July-August 2019, days 3-6) so I won’t repeat it here, if you missed it just scroll down and you’ll eventually come to it. This time we stayed in Costa del Sol, the "Spanish" village.

We had a comfortable and spacious room with an equally large covered patio, looking out onto the pool area and beach.

On our previous visits to Balesin, Georgia and I were pretty active, exploring the different villages, the beaches, the on-island farms where they sustainably and organically grow all their own vegetables and farm fish and shrimp, renting bikes, etc. This time we just relaxed – every day we were on the beach in a special spot called the “Sala” which we chose mostly because of the plentiful waiters available to bring us drinks and snacks. The comfy bean bag beach chairs were a plus also.

A fun and relaxing trip, thanks again Noel and Michelle!

But wait, there’s more! This will mean more to my Filipino readers than the rest of you, but maybe interesting anyway. At the airport before our departure, Michelle, who if you remember from the 2019 blog was in her youth a successful actress/singer, saw an old friend waiting for the same flight to the island. She and Noel chatted with her and her boyfriend, then introduced us to Cherry Pie (yes that’s her real name) Picache and Edu Manzano. Very nice meeting them but I didn’t think it was anything unusual. Then after a bit Georgia whispered to me “do you have any idea who they are???” Uhhh, no… So Georgia explained, they are both Philippines equivalents of “A-list” movie and TV celebrities. When I had a chance I searched on the internet – yes, impressive numbers of Filipino movies, TV shows, Philippines and international awards, etc., plus TONS of recent gossip articles on whether or not they’re dating, and recently their revelation that in fact they were.

Anyway, on our second evening at Balesin, after dinner the four of us went to the tapas bar in Costa del Sol for a glass of wine, and ran into Edu and Pie (as she seems to prefer rather than Cherry Pie). We invited them to our table and spent an enjoyable evening with them, actually well into the next morning, chatting over a few glasses of wine. The nicest people you’d ever want to meet, warm and friendly, easy to talk with. It turns out that Edu has a place in Calayo, a beach development about 15 minutes north of Kawayan Cove, but is very interested in Kawayan Cove, perhaps to buy land and build a home here. He was excited to find out that we’ve done just that – which led to swapping phone numbers and an invitation to come for a visit. We ran into them a couple more times while on the island and the flight back; every time he assured us that they’ll take us up on our invitation. Hopefully they will; we’d really enjoy hosting them. I’ll keep you posted.

L-R Pie, me, Georgia, Edu, and Noel

Vigan Tiles

At last, the tiles in our bedrooms were finished, just before we left for Balesin. The last steps were sealing and polishing to give them the look they’re supposed to have. A two-step process, sealant first then topcoat. After the sealant was applied I was pretty freaked out, the tiles looked terrible. The porous but irregular tiles soaked up the sealant in some places, not in others. The tiles were all splotchy, randomly shiny and dull, bright and dark. Terrible! I didn’t sleep that night; I was just trying to have faith that the topcoat would produce the right look. And it did! The result the next day was beautiful, just what we were looking for!

As I’ve mentioned, the tiles are very rustic and variable in every way, size, texture, color, flatness, thickness. I even found this in our bedroom, a tile with two little cat footprints. Love it!

Entry Steps

I mentioned the entry steps last week, and here’s the full story. When the contractor first put the steps in, they were solid concrete, intended to be topped with decorative stone or tile. But, when inspected by Kawayan Cove, they informed us they were in violation of the required 3 meter setback from the street and had to be moved. There really wasn’t another practical place to put them, but KC wouldn’t budge. Finally, they agreed that if the steps were changed to just a concrete frame, which could be filled in with loose pebbles, they would be a “landscape feature” which would be allowed. That’s how we ended up with these ridiculous pebble-filled steps which were uncomfortable to walk on, and the little pebbles got kicked everywhere. I’d just try to hop from frame to frame to avoid the pebbles.

When we first saw them we decided we’d just wait until after we got the final inspection from KC and then change them, but of course the pandemic got in the way of the change part so we just had to live with what we had. Not any more! We had the same guy who did the Vigan tile installation replace the loose pebbles with exposed aggregate concrete (the aggregate is the original pebbles) with inset tiles. Much nicer looking, and much easier to walk on!

Next up for us, starting in just a few days actually, is a trip to Bacolod on the island of Negros. Bacolod is the city where Georgia was born; it’s where her Mom and Dad established a farm many years ago. The farm is actually outside the town of Alangilan, about 20 km east of Bacolod. The primary occasion is Dolly’s 86th birthday, but after the birthday celebration we’ll drive south to Sipalay, for some R&R and a little diving. Yeah, this trip seems to be turning into more R&R than work, but it’s about time. I thought that was the whole idea!

[mwcowan]

Let's Try This Again

Chapter 7, Miscellaneous Ramblings Again

We’ve been back at home from our Coron trip for a week or so now, still doing a lot around the house but it’s become a much more relaxed pace as the “gotta get it done right now” jobs are behind us and we’re getting to the things we want to do, improvements and decorating and such in and around the house. The Vigan tile floors in the bedrooms are still in progress, though the only thing left is sealing and polishing. That’ll start next week; the tile adhesive and grout have had a few weeks to cure so the timing’s good. The same guy who installed the tile is also changing the entry steps and the steps down the side of the house to the caretaker’s apartment from loose pebbles to exposed aggregate concrete. The reason we ended up with pebbles was a ridiculous interpretation of building restrictions by Kawayan Cove; I’ll tell the whole story in the future when the steps are done and I have some before-and-after pictures. Finally, the gardens are looking pretty good again. A few rough spots still but in general, after cleanup and sufficient water it’s all coming back. Plants do grow fast here!

Last night I was sitting in my favorite sunset-watching (and gin-and-tonic drinking) spot when an otherwise so-so sunset turned the cloud cover a vibrant red. The house had a beautiful warm glow in this light; when I went down to the pool to take the picture below I felt pretty good that we’ve gotten it back in order.

Home Depot

While there are big home improvement stores in the Philippines, and we even have John & Carl Home Depot (a.k.a. the “Wala” store) here in Nasugbu, the real action in hardware and home improvement is in the little roadside shops and stalls scattered along the main road in town. Each shop seems to have a specialty - building supplies, paint, plumbing, marine hardware; you name it, you can find it. My favorite is Lucelyn Store (just a singular first name is typical here, there’s no possessive form in the language) which is a general building supply store. I first went there to get the conduit for the fiber internet, since then we’ve sourced our tile adhesive and grout, concrete for the steps, and other miscellaneous supplies from Lucelyn. It’s run by Lyn, who’s very friendly and helpful. You don’t go in and browse, you tell Lyn what you need and she goes inside and comes out with it for you. Unless it’s 40kg sacks of concrete, then she calls one of the smiling young men who load them on their heads and trot them out to your car. That's Lyn at the checkout counter in front of her store; leaning on the chair is a mahogany board I was buying to make new door thresholds to go with the new tile.

Balikbayan Boxes

OK, this won’t be too interesting for my Filipino readers, but it’s pretty unique to me. Balikbayan is a Tagalog term generally applied to “a Filipino returning to the Philippines after living somewhere else”. One thing Balikbayans have typically done when returning home is to bring a lot of goodies stuffed in a box, thus the term “Balikbayan Box”. This practice has expanded as Filipinos abroad often send Balikbayan Boxes back to family in the Philippines, filled with special things that are hard to get or expensive over here, and often around the Holidays. This even started a whole industry – any country where there are a significant number of Filipinos will have freight forwarders who specialize in delivering Balikbayan Boxes to the Philippines. The boxes are fixed sizes, designed to pack well into containers. The cool thing is that the cost is fixed depending on the size, and there is no weight limit at all. Yes, you could fill the whole box with cans of Spam (and I bet it's been done)! This trip we shipped 5 boxes to ourselves before we left; they took about 60 days to get here and were waiting for us in Manila when we got back from Coron. This year’s boxes contained a little of everything, except Spam. A portable speaker, power tools, framed artwork, linens and bedding, auto parts, clothing, kitchenware, floor polish, a push broom, pool toys… everything from a list we started keeping when we were here last time. And the best part? It’s like Christmas when you get to open them up!

Sunset of the Week

This is the tail end of the sunset that gave the beautiful glow to the house. Enjoy!

[mwcowan]

Let's Try This Again

Chapter 6a, Coron Adventures, Part 1

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, but unlike the previous weeks, busy in the best sense. Busy with new adventures, relaxing, having fun. Lots of everything; this will be a long chapter with plenty of photos. The map below is to give you some reference of where we’ve been and what it took to get about.

Almost any travel in the Philippines, beyond the mundane like driving to Manila, can be a bit of an adventure in itself. Heck, even driving to Manila can be an adventure, but that’s not part of this story. Going almost anywhere you can count on a full day involving more than one mode of transportation. We were picked up at Dolly’s house in Manila at 9:00am for our 11:30am flight (the one that finally departed at 2:00pm…) to the island of Busuanga. There we were picked up by a van that drove us to the port at Coron Town where we boarded a small boat with two other guests bound for Chindonan Island. After four nights on Chindonan we were back on the boat for Coron Town, where we spent two nights. Our hotel there had a shuttle going to the airport; where we’d arranged to meet another van to start us towards out next destination, Club Paradise on Dimakya Island. This van took us to a pier on a river on the north side of Busuanga, where we boarded another boat bound for Paradise. Sounds like an Eddy Money song? Coming home we reversed that last bit to the airport and back to Manila… so over 10 days we had 2 legs by plane, 4 by van, and 4 by boat, not to mention to/from Manila in our car. Pretty typical, sounds hectic but it really wasn’t and everything went smoothly.

Chindonan Island

Chindonan Island is pretty sizable but has only one small village, no roads, and one resort – the Chindonan Island Dive Resort. The island sits on Coron Bay, nearby the site of the battle of September 1944 (if you can call it a “battle”; American forces surprised a Japanese convoy, and quickly sent at least 12 ships to the bottom). The resort can accommodate 20-24 people in somewhat rustic comfort – the rooms are spartan but spacious and clean, the included buffet meals are delicious and healthy. Water is pure, from their own spring; power is solar or by generator and is shut down most of the day (you’re expected to be out of your room doing something). Phone and internet service is sometimes.

After our last 3 “hell weeks” at home we were just wanting to relax. The first evening after dinner we talked with Matt, the dive shop manager/instructor to get a little info about maybe doing some diving while we were there. He explained the various opportunities, talked about some of the reef dives and especially the famous shipwrecks. We said we’d think about it, but in any case we didn’t want to dive the next day, we just wanted to chill out on the beach. We’d catch up with him in the morning.

Well, in the morning I was surprised when I asked Georgia what she was thinking, and she said “let’s get our Advanced Diver Certification!” Fast forward a little – instead of chilling out the first day, that afternoon we went on the first dive of our advanced course, and by the time we left Chindonan 3 days later we’d made 7 dives, 4 of them into wrecks, and gotten both our Advanced Diver and Enhanced Air/Nitrox (EANx, or just “Nitrox”) certifications! The Advanced Diver course is more practical than the basic course, focusing on enhancing your skills and expanding your diving knowledge. There are two required dives, a deep dive and underwater navigation, plus 3 electives – we chose performance buoyancy control, wreck diving, and fish identification. One of the major benefits of the Advanced rating is that your allowed maximum diving depth increases to 100ft/30m, vs the basic certification’s limit of 60ft/18m. During our wreck diving we also got an introduction to Nitrox and since we were only two more dives from a full certification we decided to add that in as well. Nitrox is a term for any mix of air with oxygen having more O2 and less Nitrogen than normal air (air has 21% O2), up to a max of 40% O2. The benefit of using this isn’t from the increased oxygen but from the lower percentage of Nitrogen. This allows you to stay at depth longer with less danger of decompression sickness (the “bends”) which is caused by nitrogen being absorbed into your blood while you dive. But having more O2 creates its own limitation – oxygen becomes toxic at higher pressures, so the higher the oxygen percentage you use, the shallower you have to limit your dive. Sorry if all that was a bit geeky…

As I mentioned, we dove on/in four wrecks. The Morazan Maru, a civilian cargo ship; the Olympia Maru, an army supply ship; the Akitsushima, a seaplane tender (the only warship sunk in the battle); and the Okikawa, an oil tanker. Each had its interesting points. The Morazan Maru was actually built in Belfast at the end of WWI, captured by the Chinese at the start of WWII and later on captured by the Japanese. Fire bricks in the engine room are stamped by their manufacturers, which are in Ireland and England! On the Akitsushima we saw a mostly-intact crane used for lifting seaplanes out of the water, and a coral-encrusted machine gun. The tanker Okikawa was notable for the large oil holds, eerily lit by light coming through ‘skylights’ courtesy of American bombs.

Generally, though, you didn’t get much sense that you were diving on a shipwreck. After 80 years they are fully covered in corals and other marine growth, fish are abundant. Approaching the first ship, I wondered why Matt was taking us to a reef when he’d said we were going to a ship. You couldn’t see the whole ship at once to get a sense of what it was, and inside it was mostly dark and you could only see what your light could show you, mostly twisted, rusting steel, a testament to the power of 500-pound bombs. Photography was also difficult, at least with my simple camera, as reflections from silt kicked up (by us) was often all that was captured by the camera if I used my flash; if I turned the flash off it was just too dark. Here are some of the better pictures from our wreck diving.

Part of seaplane crane, outside Akitsushima

Machine gun, outside Akitsushima

Rice sacks, Akitsushima cargo hold

Georgia inside a passage on the Akitsushima

Tight spaces! Inside the Okikawa

Entering the Okikawa oil bunker

I’ve got to say I’m very proud of Georgia for sticking with the wreck diving; I never thought there’s be any chance of her getting into one. She didn’t think so either! Anyway, while it was interesting, neither of us got really excited by the wreck dives. The diving is challenging with frequent depth changes, twisting through tight, dark passages, frequently bumping your tank if not your head, but not all that scenic. Outside, you have a rusty reef, pretty but not as much so as a natural reef. Neither of us have the attitude that we’ll never do a wreck dive again, but it’ll have to be a pretty special one!

Coron Town

After Chindonan we spent the weekend in Coron Town. The last time we were here, 9 years ago, Coron Town was bustling with mostly young, American and European tourists. Although it’s finally opening up again, the toll the pandemic has taken is apparent – one example was related by our hosts at Chindonan who told us that before the pandemic there were 26 dive shops in town, now there are four. Many of the hotels and restaurants still haven’t re-opened. In a town once packed with tourists we often felt like the only ones there. Anyway, it’s coming back, places are staring to open, and there are still opportunities for divers, shoppers, and eaters.

We spent most of our free day wandering around town, buying a few souvenirs and enjoying a good lunch. We ran across a shop that specializes in very nice local art; we ended up buying a turtle and a fish. Painted wood sculptures actually… they’re being shipped to our house and I’ll send a picture or two when we get them.

We stayed in a lovely hotel, the Corto del Mar, which is right on the edge of the downtown area. It’s in a Spanish-style architecture, with lots of beautiful stone, wood, and tile. There are many displays of both contemporary local art as well as museum-quality artifacts that were unearthed around Manila.

From our breakfast table at the Corto del Mar Hotel

The hotel also, unfortunately, provided a stark example of the dichotomy of Philippine society, the gulf between the few affluent and the many poor. The view from our “seaview room” did indeed have a nice view of the harbor, but to see that you look over a squatter’s slum built on the water. Sad to see this, but it exists everywhere in the Philippines.

Sea view from room

[mwcowan]

Let's Try This Again

Chapter 6b, Coron Adventure, Part 2

Club Paradise / Dimakya Island

This was a long-awaited return as we’d first visited Club Paradise 9 year ago. It was a bit of a splurge then; since the prices have more than doubled it was a bit of a splurge now!

Picked up by a van at the airport, we bumped along the highway for a while, then for the last few miles the pavement became bumpy dirt which took us to a dock on a river – I’ve been trying to find the name of the river but the only name I can find is “boat trail” on Google maps. The journey now became a jungle cruise through a thick, impenetrable, mangrove forest. I could only imagine what lives in and around those waters… I kept expecting the hippos to rise up, baring their teeth, and the boat driver to pull out his cap pistol to save the day!

Following the river to the sea, we soon got into open water. One of the first things we recognized was Isla Walang Tao (island without people). We’ve heard reports that it’s sometimes called Isla Walang Damit (island without clothing) but we can neither confirm nor deny this.

Club Paradise resort occupies Dimakya Island, which is about 17 hectares (42 acres) in size. Nice rooms on two beaches, plenty of activities, a wide white sand beach, and the bluest water you’ll ever see. It’s one of the prettiest islands we’ve ever been to, obviously worth a second trip. In spite of some pre-trip and check-in aggravations, we quickly succumbed to the tropical breezes and the view from our beachside cabana, and gave in to sheer relaxation.

Dugongs!

One of the big attractions here, at least to the diving crowd, is the proximity to a dugong feeding ground, and the resort offers a dive trip there. Dugong, a.k.a. ‘Sea Cows’ were once plentiful, native to most warm, shallow, coastal waters, but due to being hunted for meat and oil are now endangered and in most places a protected species. Eating only sea grass, these mammals can grow as long as 3m/10ft, and weigh up to 900kg/2000lb. Something we’ve never seen and may not get the chance to see again, so we signed up for the trip.

A 45-minute boat ride took us to the north of Calauit Island, known to the locals as Aben-Aben Island. I was anticipating that we’d be dropped into a herd of happily grazing sea cows, and was surprised when we anchored and our crew started scanning the area for the dugong. THE dugong. Singular. It turns out that dugong are generally shy and quickly flee from anything human. The one in particular we were looking for was a male that was known to be tolerant of visitors, who usually shows up in the area mid-morning. Males are also very territorial, so one male is all you’re going to get. Finally after about an hour of looking our crew got excited, having seen him surface for a breath, Aben as they’ve named him, so our local guide jumped in the water to track him as we all hurried into our dive gear. But alas, something spooked Aben and he disappeared. Another half hour scanning the sea, then Aben surfaced right beside our boat to take a breath! This time we were ready; everyone over the side! The water was only about 8m/25ft deep, and pretty murky due to the sandy bottom (and not helped by the dugong’s feeding style). And there he was! Happily sucking up all the sea grass in his path, along with clouds of sand which he expels through the sides of his mouth before chewing up the grass.

After a minute he surfaced for a breath, then came back to eat

A messy eater. The yellow stuff at this nose is fish hanging around for any goodies he stirs up

Another few minutes with Aben and he was gone, maybe full, maybe off looking for a lady friend. At least we got to spend a few minutes close to one of these magnificent creatures.

Diboyoyan Island

On the way back from our visit with Aben, we stopped at Diboyoyan Island, just a short way from Club Paradise, for a dive at the reef there. This was a beautiful reef, with one of the most diverse collections of marine life we’ve seen. A fun dive! Some of the more strange and unique species we saw:

Glass Shrimp – see if you can make out the outline of his body

Nudibranchs on purple coral

Mermaid striking a pose in front of a gigantic cabbage coral

Spotted Eel

Our dive crew with friendly island dogs

[mwcowan]

Let's Try This Again

Chapter 6c, Coron Adventure, Part 3

Things that will kill you, Club Paradise Special Edition

Club Paradise is home to some interesting wildlife. I must admit that neither of these will actually kill you, and on the island you quickly learn peaceful coexistence. You have to, because they aren’t going away.

First up are the bats. Big bats, really big. Lots of them. They are Fruit Bats, also called Flying Foxes. Males can have a wingspan of 1.5m/5ft! Luckily, as their name suggests, they eat fruit, not you, nor do they drink your blood. They roost on Dimakya and nearby islands by day, fly off to Busuanga in the evening to feed, then return early the next morning.

The things hanging from the trees aren’t fruit...

Though they mostly sleep during the day, they do fly around a bit

The migration starts after sundown and continues on for hours

Club Paradise also has a large population of Monitor Lizards. Big lizards, some well over 2m/6ft long. You encounter them all the time, walking along a path, basking in the sun next to the restaurant, hanging out in a tree over your beach cabana. I don’t know what they eat but they don’t seem interested in us. The little ones scamper away when you approach, the big ones just eye you as they amble by.

Lizard crossing

Georgia almost stepped on this one walking into the restaurant

Well, that’s it for Club Paradise. We didn’t really do much – hung out at the beach, a day of diving, got a massage, hung out at the beach some more. Oh well, I guess that’s what Paradise is about. And that’s it for this chapter, too. I’ll leave you with something different though. Instead of a sunset, here’s a sunrise, from our veranda at Club Paradise (Georgia took this photo, I was still sleeping!).

Take care everyone!

[mwcowan]

Let’s Try This Again

Chapter 5, Gone Fishing. Or Diving. Whatever, just Gone.

Back in Manila tonight, to catch a flight to Coron tomorrow morning for a little R&R. Not a word from any of you about life being nothing but R&R over here, not with the way we’ve been working to get the house back to where we like it.

A few updates on the house: The Vigan tile installation in the bedrooms should be done today, except for sealing and polishing, which we’ll do when we get back. Blinds (26 of them!) for our windows were installed this week, a long-awaited, pandemic-delayed, improvement in sunlight/heat resistance and privacy – you never know when those sneaky monkeys might be taking a peek. And with much work on the landscaping the outside is looking much better. A number of areas where we’d tried to have grass are now covered in decorative stones, which will outlast even the worst gardener. Plus we now have plenty of rocks to throw at the monkeys.

Our coming trip will take us to one new island, Chindonan, a small island known for it’s diving. It’s in Coron Bay, south of the island of Busuanga, which in September 1944 was the site of a famous battle where US Helldiver bombers sunk 12 Japanese cargo and warships in one day. We’re not really into wreck diving but there are a lot of other good spots around the island. We’ll go back to Coron Town on Busuanga for a few days. Coron Town is a fun/funky spot we’ve enjoyed before. Then finally a few days at Club Paradise on Dimakya island, just to the north of Busuanga. We were there 6-7 years ago and have always wanted to go back. This time I hope to dive with Dugongs (manatee-like creatures) which inhabit the waters around the island.

Since we probably won’t have internet/WiFi on the islands, and maybe (hopefully?) not even cell service, it might be a couple weeks until you hear from me again. I should have some good pictures to share by then so hopefully it’ll be worth the wait. Until then, a couple random things…

Beach Day!

OK, I started off with a rant about working so hard, but apparently last week’s rant about working so hard struck a chord with the boss. We finally spent an afternoon at the beach! It was good to get back, still as beautiful as ever and the San Migs were as cold as ever. Hung out in the shade of our favorite tree. As usual, we were the only ones down there.

I snorkeled my “personal aquarium” and was pleased to find a lot of fish. My underwater photography skills were a little rusty, but I did find the first nudibranch (slow mover, good photography subject) I’ve ever seen there. Never sure which is the front end of these guys.

Strange Fruit of the Week

If you’ve been reading my Philippines blogs, early on this was a frequent topic, but it tapered off as there were fewer and fewer strange fruits I hadn’t tried. Today I was presented with the Kamatsile or Camachile. Native to Mexico and Latin America, it was brought here by the Spanish some 400 years ago and is now found throughout the Philippines. It’s also called the Manila Tamarind because it's found in Manila and the seed pods are somewhat reminiscent of a tamarind, but there’s no relation to the real tamarind.

The “fruit” is the pithy whitish part surrounding a small seed. Kind of mealy and dry, a little sweet, astringent, maybe a bit apple-ish in flavor. Not much to it, not on my list of things I need to have again, but I tried it.

That’s it for now. I just wanted to write a quick update, and to let you know that I’ll be checking out for a couple weeks. Take care!

[mwcowan]

Let's Try This Again

Chapter 4, Cleanup, Repair, Rinse and Repeat

Happy Easter everyone! It’s Easter Sunday afternoon as I sit down to write this, just past midnight on the West Coast so Easter for you, too.

The last two weeks have been an endless cycle of house and yard cleanup and repair, but at this point we’ve gotten a pretty good handle on the most urgent things. Maybe the boss will give us a day off next week and we can finally go to the beach!

Vigan Tiles

Not vegan, although I assure you no animals were harmed. Vigan is a city in northern Luzon, with many buildings dating from the Spanish colonial days. Everyone tells me it’s quite beautiful; I definitely want to visit some time. Anyway, many of the Spanish-era buildings are known for their flooring of polished terra cotta tiles, which were made by the locals under the guidance of the Spanish builders. Vigan tiles, as they are called today, are still being made in the same way – by hand with variations in size, thickness, flatness, and color.

In the photo below are about 600 Vigan tiles; there are about 250 more leaning on the opposite wall. Georgia actually wanted to use Vigan tiles initially but our contractor had already purchased the flooring before we could intervene. But thanks to Typhoon Jolina, which passed just north of here last September, Georgia gets her wish. Besides ripping off about 80 of our concrete roof tiles, Jolina drove enough water under our 3 bedroom doors to badly damage the Narra wood flooring. The wood might have been repairable but we came to the conclusion that when a typhoon hits, there’s going to be water inside. We decided to go with the flow and put in floors that won’t be affected.

Here's our master bedroom in progress. The plan is for the installation to be complete by this coming Thursday, ahead of Dolly’s arrival from Manila to help us celebrate Georgia’s birthday on Saturday. Notice that the tiles don’t have a polished look at this point. Vigan tiles are unglazed; after the adhesive and grout dry they need to be sealed, then finished with a glossy topcoat. I’ll be sure to show you the finished product!

Mark 1, Jungle 0

Saturday morning I decided to tackle the vegetable garden. Or, at least the area where I remembered it to be. It had been overrun with bougainvillea, some unruly lemongrass, and various jungle vines.

Much of the day on Saturday I hacked at the bougainvillea which had to be cut back to gain safe access to the area. That’s nasty stuff, especially when you’re wearing flip-flops and shorts. My hands and legs felt like pincushions. Up early this morning I hit the lemongrass and jungly stuff. The final result, ready for veggies!

Cable Guy

Or internet installer guy. Whatever, they’re the same everywhere. Kawayan Cove had brought fiber cable to the village while we were away. We’d completed all the paperwork before coming over, and once here Georgia called to get an installation appointment, and to find out if there was anything we had to do. Nothing for us to do they said, the installers will take care of everything. Of course they didn’t come on the appointed day and after 3 more days of calling the office they finally did show up. “But sir, we can’t do the installation, you’re not ready.” We needed to have a conduit for the fiber cable from the telephone box next to the street into our house. Off to the hardware store (that’s another story in itself…) for the plastic conduit, and 2 days spent installing it and running the cable from our bedroom to the phone box. Got another appointment for installation. Didn’t come that day of course but the following day we noticed them standing by the open telephone box scratching their heads. “Sir, we can’t do the installation because there’s no fiber to your box and it needs to be run 500 meters to the NAP (Network Access Point?).” On top of that, there’s no pull cord because someone (they blame Kawayan Cove) forgot to put it in the conduit. But finally, not sure how they did it, two days later they got the fiber cable pulled and connected. We now have blazing fast internet here, better than in Graeagle.

Tuko

A couple people have asked about the Tuko that lived behind the Capiz windows when we were here last time. Yes, he’s still there! Well, I can’t be certain it’s the exact same one but one’s here and we see it pop out and snatch bugs from time to time.

Sunset of the Week

We haven’t had really consistent sunsets so far, either too many clouds or not enough. This one will do. Take care everyone!