Travel – Page 13 – pierreo.com – Join me on my journey

Exploring Bali from below

Posted on 8 October, 200721 July, 2011 by pierreo

Several weeks ago, I received a note from Sinoto asking me if I was interested in a diving safari in Bali. I immediately answered ‘yes’ without knowing what I was getting myself into. I had already gone diving with Sinoto before, in Manado (also Indonesia) and we had an excellent time. So I was looking forward to more of the same.

Sinoto, Su Li, Andy, Eric and I left on Tuesday evening (24 October) for Denpasar and an immediate transfer to Kuta Beach. We arrived at the hotel after 10pm and immediately went in search of food and drinks. Contrary to its reputation, the town seemed empty and quiet. We stopped for Satay and a few beers in the only place that seemed to be still open.

Next day early checkout of the hotel. We fill out all the paper work typical before going diving and we are off for a 3 hour drive to the north of the island. Our first diving day is in Tulambeh. We leave from the shore and drop down a vertical wall only a few meters off the beach. The first dive is an easy ‘refresher’ dive just to get our bearings. I quickly discover that when some one points a camera at you underwater, you better hold your breath – Eric had obviously been there before…

The second dive is around the wreck of a WWII Liberty ship. The ship was hit by a torpedo as it was delivering military hardware to Bali. The captain had the presence of mind to ram the ship onto the beach so that it could still deliver its goods. After languishing on the beach for many years the ship finally slipped down the wall after the eruption of a nearby volcano, creating a fantastic artificial reef. It is full of life, from the tiniest nudibranch to a giant barracuda. We do a third dive before heading towards our new hotel.

I have discovered that a ‘diving safari’ is an adventure where you change dive site, and hotel, every day. The second day we were at Secret Bay – and I think the secret is safe with us. Visibility was not very good and we saw more seaweed than anything else. We were supposed to do a night dive, but all decided that it would not be worth it, especially since we still had to drive to the third hotel on the itinerary. We did find a few interesting animals amongst the weeds: a leaf fish, a unicorn fish and a beautiful seahorse.

Day three and we do the first boat dives of the trip near “Deer Island” or Menjangan to the locals. Three excellent dives along coral walls with small and large creatures everywhere. At the end of the day, we drive back to Kuta Beach where there is definitely more atmosphere than the previous Tuesday.

By now, I have improved and can hold my breath, however, I do not appreciate when the photographer seems to take a long time to actually take the photo…

Day four will remain to me one of the ‘memorable’ experiences of my life. We went to Nusa Penida by speed boat. The first dive was at Manta Point. As advertised, the water was cold, around 21 C which is low since we were all wearing 3mm wet suits more adapted to tropical water conditions. Fortunately, we did not have to go very deep (only 9 m) and we did not have to stay down very long. There is only one thing to see at Manta Point: giant Manta Rays – and I mean GIANT! This was a rather technical dive as there was a very significant surge and one had to be careful not to get pushed into the rocks. At first we marvelled at a large group of divers all moving in unison, as if they were dancing to some imaginary music. We wondered why they were just floating there, doing nothing. Than we looked up and saw two Manta Rays slowly circling overhead. The larger of the two must have had a 3 m wingspan at least.

We joined the back-and-forth dance of the other group and gaped in awe at the majesty of the two flying beasts. After 30 minutes or so, the cold got the better of us and we headed for the surface.

The second dive was even better! After lunch and relaxation, we went to Chrystal Bay and plunged initially into 25 C water. I was pleasantly surprised as I was expecting colder given what we had been told. Than, somewhere between 8 and 10 m depth, the temperature dropped to 19 C suddenly, as if we had suddenly swam into a refrigerator. We kept going down and swimming against the current for a while, until our divemaster decided to turn around. He signed for us to wait for him at about 22 m depth and he went deeper. After a few seconds, we heard him banging on his air bottle and signaling for us to come. We did as we were told with much anticipation. Out of the depths came one, than two and ultimately four Ocean Sunfish, or Mola-Mola! These are fish with no tail – the body is roughly shaped like a rugby ball with one large fin on top and another on the bottom. One Mola-Mola came directly towards us, passing right in the middle of the group.

We stayed as long as we possibly could, until our dive computers were beeping at us to indicate that we were close to our no-decompression limit. We slowly rose back towards the surface, and warmer waters. It is only at this point that I realised that I was shivering uncontrollably. It took us a long time to warm up even after we came out of the water. A very memorable dive!

Saturday evening, we had a great seafood meal on the beach in Jimbaran.

From the left: Myself, Andy, Sinoto, Eric and Su Li.

The meal, for 5 of us, with a bottle of wine cost a grand total of 1,200,000 rupiah, or 135 US$. That by itself would not be worth reporting. However, on Friday night, we stopped at a shop along the road and had a complete dinner for seven (including our divemaster and driver) and spend a grand total of 100,000 rupiah!

On Sunday, we had a late evening flight and therefore we decided to go explore Ubud and a few craft centers along the way.

Before we arrived in Ubud, we visited the Monkey Forest, where we found (Oh what a surprise) …. monkeys! This sleeping family group was particularly touching.

In Ubud, I found a very nice painting. I though to myself that I was ready to pay up to 100 US$ for it. I asked the price and was told 80 US$. I know I should negotiate, so I did and we settled on 70 $. Now I need to frame it, but I think it will look really nice in my apartment.

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Travel

Australia – 7th Installment

Posted on 23 September, 200714 July, 2010 by pierreo

As I said before, I really need to stop scheduling a trip right after a tough physical challenge! This time, having to wait until 1:20 AM for my plane to Perth (for my 7th visit to Australia) was sheer torture. However, it took me only 5 minutes to fall asleep after the plane took off and I slept really well until the plane started its descent towards Perth.That was only 4 hours of sleep though and by 7:00 AM Monday, I was on the road towards Kalgoorlie, 550 km away to the east. The drive with my rented ‘monster’ truck (4WD Nissan Patrol with 3.0 liter diesel engine) was more pleasant than I thought, with a lot more variety of terrain and scenery than I had anticipated. I stopped for breakfast at the first town I crossed, bought water and snacks in the second, had lunch in a pub mid-way between the third and the fourth town on the road, got gas in the fifth and stopped briefly in the sixth for local information. 30 km later, I arrived in the seventh town I saw since I left Perth: Kalgoorlie.

Kalgoorlie and the nearby town of Coolgardie (I am not making these names up) were at the heart of the Australian Gold Rush of the late 19th century. Some of the richest finds were in this area and a lot of mines remained active until well after WWII – few still are today producing gold but also nickel, cobalt and other associated metals. There is a Gold Quest Drive (965 km) which tours the most important relics of this past glory. The guide is very well done, including an audio CD with documentary evidence of the area that the road drives through. Ghost mining towns, abandoned pit mines and recently rediscovered water holes are all on offer.

However, it is the human story that is the most striking. The area that I am traveling in is as arid as can be; no water to be seen anywhere and yet men were leaving civilization behind with sometimes as little as 2 gallons of water, hoping that they would find either gold, or more water, before their initial supply ran out. Nobody knows how many died on the tracks that led North of Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie – the number is probably very high. Those who were found, or who died in one of the many small towns that were growing throughout the area were buried in ancient cemeteries which are a strong reminder of how young they were.

There were fortunes to be made but life was difficult for most of the people involved. Many famous Australians made a fortune here; one of the most famous foreigners to come through this area, and come out much richer, was Herbert Hoover, before he became President of the United States. He started as a mine inspector and became a mine manager before going on to China and than returning to the USA for a rather successful political career. In his memoirs, Hoover gave the best description of an engineer I have heard, or read, so far. It puts into words better than I ever could why I chose to be an engineer while in Business School. I was standing on the side of an abandoned mine pit when I heard a small noise below. After a careful look, I noticed a goat (I assume wild) slowly walking out of the mine along the old track used by trucks to bring the ore out. After this encounter, a little further down the road, I had to make a sudden stop to avoid running into four emus crossing the dirt track I was on. It was a close call. I was driving nearly 120 km/hr down this dirt road – I have gained a lot of confidence in the ‘car’ (or Monster) I have rented: a Nissan Patrol 4WD with a 3.0 liter diesel engine that is just great! The road is smooth, perfectly straight and I have not seen another car in more than 2 hours – yet I probably should slow down just a bit just in case there are other animals crossing. Saw a wallaby in the distance too…In the middle of this desolate land, on the bed of a dry salt lake more than 50 km outside of the nearest town, Menzies (and only a one street town at that), some one, some where, had the weird idea to install 51 human silhouettes over 7 square miles. It does not make any sense, but does create interesting views.

Near one of the only watering holes in this whole area, there is a rock called Ularring Rock, similar in composition and history to Uluru and the Olga’s in central Australia, but not as spectacular as it only barely sneaks above the local countryside. The rays of the sun forming a near perfect fan were spectacular. So much so that I almost lost my instincts – when the engineer in me returned, I wondered where these boulders, sitting on the top of this rock, came from.

On Wednesday, I drove down to Esperance, on the South Coast. Most of the day driving, raining at the end, so not much to report. In Salmon Gum (still not making up the names of towns around here) I fed the Monster – it cost me 153 dollars – fun to drive, but a bit thirsty too. I found an excellent Bed & Breakfast with breathtaking views of the sea, and an excellent restaurant, the best so far this trip, where I had scallops ‘en-croute’, rack of lamb and sticky date pudding all accompanied by an excellent Margaret River wine (a blend of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot from the Fifth Leg Winery – bottle I brought since the restaurant is not licensed and does not serve alcohol).

Thursday, I stayed put – not wanting to drive another long day and since the weather was much better, I decided to visit some of the local National Parks. I started on the Western version of the Great Ocean Road. It is only 11 km long, but just as scenic as the Eastern version near Melbourne.

In the middle there is a wind farm which produces up to 25% of the electricity needs of Esperance. Some people can see this as an ecological disaster, putting a real ‘eyesore’ on such a beautiful coastline; others can see it as an ecological success story, using modern technology to help fight global warming. Personally, I think this is a success – the windmills are far enough away from the coastline that they do not detract much from the beauty of the scenery. It is certainly better than alternatives such as coal or oil fired power stations belching large plumes of CO2, or worst SO2. Therefore, until we are ready to stop consuming electricity, this is a very attractive compromise (the above message clearly intended to be provocative and solicit comments from you, the reader!) After some exciting 4WDriving in the dunes (only on marked paths, I quickly add before there is a clamor of disapproval from the audience) I head for Le Grand National Park. This whole area was initially discovered by French sailors aboard the “Esperance” and the “Recherche”. They named the town Esperance and the archipelago off-shore “Recherche”. Le Grand was the first officer on one of the ships. Unfortunately, what started as a beautiful day is now rather gloomy and the pictures from the top of Franchamn’s Peak are not as spectacular as they could have been. Even the wildflowers just blooming cannot be seen well on these shots, even though they are really everywhere.

In the evening, I am rewarded by a rather nice sunset that I can shoot directly fromn the balcony of the B&B where I am staying. It is not all that special as the temperature is below 10C and the wind is howling! But the view is worth it.

Friday is back to gloomy weather and I have rain on-an-off for most of the drive back to Perth. In the evening, I go to Balthazar, an excellent local restaurant where I have an almost Belgian meal: Prosciutto as appetizer (OK, not Belgian), venison with corn mash and whitlof (local spelling for Belgian Endive) as main course and Callebaut (Belgian) chocolate pudding as desert; the wine, fortunately, was not from my home country but from Margaret River – an excellent Cabernet Sauvignon.

Saturday, I had decided to explore the coast South of Perth. I started in Rockingham, and particularly a small island called ‘Penguin Island.’ It can only be visited by daylight and most of the island is closed to the public. A small ferry brings people there every hour and there is a Penguin Hospital where they care for orphans, wounded or other penguins who could not live in the wild. The name comes from the fact that there are many penguins nesting on the island, but these cannot be seen. There is also a huge colony of pelicans nesting on a rocky outcrop, as well as cormorants, frigates and thousands of sea gulls. The gulls have their nests everywhere on the island and they fearlessly defend these against intruders. As I walk on some of the boardwalks, I am heckled by hundreds of sea gulls, swooping menacingly over my head. For a second, I fear that I have been mysteriously transported into an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Fortunately, they do not start to attack and the guano that they dive-bomb towards me always misses because they have not yet learned how to compensate for the high side wind.

After two hours, and a session of penguin feeding at the hospital, I head back as the rain is coming again, and I do not have any waterproof jacket. I head for Fremantle, see if anything has changes since I was there last in 2004. I take a look at some kite surfers just south of the town – the wind seems ideal for this.

I hope, in vain, for a spectacular sunset, and a new version of the photo I took here in 2001, but clouds cover the sun just before it dips down below the horizon and I am left with nothing. Maybe I can do better next time, but it will have to be on a future trip as I will have no more opportunities this time.On Sunday, I am actually quite lazy and get up after 8:30 AM (very unusual for me, even on vacation!). I do go for a long walk in King’s Park and enjoy the scenery, and a short visit to the Aboriginal Art Gallery located nearby. There are several paintings by Norma MacDonald, an aboriginal painter from the Northern Territories – I am really attracted to them as they have an obvious aboriginal character, without the typical style or dots and stylized animals that all the other artists seem to employ. Unfortunately, neither of the two paintings available would fit with others I already own and therefore I decide not to buy anything, but I was really tempted and I will have to keep the name in mind in case I hear of other exhibits.

In the evening, I have booked a ticket for “Varaquay” by Cirque du Soleil. I really enjoyed the first show I saw in Quebec: “Corteo” and therefore I was really looking forward to this one. I am afraid that I was somewhat disappointed! The music was OK but not thrilling; the acrobatics were interesting but just short of “jaw-dropping-how-did-they-do-that”. I am not sure of this is a case of running out of bright ideas, or just the fact that the performers for this particular show were not good enough to ‘amaze’ the audience. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good show, just not up to the level that I was expecting based on what I had heard from friends, and seen with my first experience. Monday, just before leaving Perth I decided on a short visit to the wineries along the Swan River Valley. I stopped at Led Swan for some excellent organic wine and organic chocolate – what could be better than the combination of those two great tastes. I also stopped at the Edgecombe Brothers winery for lunch. They have a very interesting ‘fortified shiraz’ that I just have to bring back to Singapore … In 7 days, I drove over 2500 km, into the desert, along the coast and up and down the Swan River Valley. An excellent trip once again.

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Culture, Food, Sports, Travel

Jurong Island Race, Tokyo, Lau Pa Sat, BBQ, Casinos and a Typhoon

Posted on 19 August, 200710 May, 2010 by pierreo

There are so many possible titles for this post but all would say too much. You’ll have to read to the end to see what this is all about.

The Jurong Island Dragon Boat Race has been ‘owned’ by ExxonMobil (EM) in the last few years, ever since Georges (the then Chemical Plant Manager) extended a challenge to all of us in 2003 after no EM teams even got into the finals. Our top men’s team “EM Ace” and our ladies’ team “The Tiger Lilies” have each won their respective competition three years in a row (2004 to 2006) and last year we had four Gold and one Bronze medal. However, our competition is constantly improving, and there are several new teams this year, always an unknown quantity.

We knew we were in for a long day after the second heat of the 2007 competition on Saturday 4 August. EM Ace finished third in their heat and only the top two in each heat qualified for the final. They would not get a 4^th consecutive victory.

Fortunately Sea Blades (often, and unfairly, referred to as the ‘other’ men’s team) did qualify for the final in the open competition, Roaring 40s qualified in the veterans, the Lilies were directly into the ladies finals (as only three teams were entered) and Papillon qualified with the 4^th best time overall for the mixed final after finishing a close second in our heat.

Our ‘Old Men” won their final, by 0.05 seconds; the Lilies did even better, winning by a mere 0.01 second. Sea Blades was a very close third in the Open.

Papillion is ready and eager in preparation for the final of the mixed competition (front to back, right than left rower – Desmond, Jonathan, Su Li, Christy, Dawn (hidden), Yen Nee, Samuel (hiding), Ken, Ben, Myself and Patrick in the back). We actually won it by 0.03 seconds, but we were disqualified because we ended the race in the wrong lane, actually locking paddles with the second place team in the lane next to ours. It was a decision we could not dispute even if our ‘mistake’ probably did not influence the ultimate outcome of the race.

Last year, we had the best time of the heats and fell apart, due to our own lack of race experience, in the finals. This year, we did OK in the heat and much better in the final, leading all the way from an excellent start, and still did not get our ‘toy’ – the gold medal.

I really think now that we are jinxed!

We know that we gave it our all and we were first across the finish line. Nobody can take that away from us. Two EM teams were very disappointed by the results that day. It was very heartening,though, to see how all the other EM teams rallied around them in the true spirit of teamwork. You can see from the attached photo that we have a very large Dragon Boat family at ExxonMobil. They all helped a lot in making us feel better after what was very much a disappointment.

No time to celebrate, or commiserate, as that same evening at 11:30 PM I am off to Tokyo for a training class. I sleep the “sleep of the just” in the plane, undisturbed by the events of Saturday, and really tired from all the efforts and excitement; when I finally wake up, we are only ½ hour out of Tokyo. I am surprised to discover that the temperature is in the high 30’s and the humidity in the 90’s. Not the ideal weather to ‘explore’ a city; and not what I remembered from previous visits (until I realize, of course, that the other visits were in December and January!). I walk around the Ginza and Imperial Palace areas for the afternoon before meeting others for dinner at the hotel. In the middle of this very modern city, I run into young (20-year old) women wearing very traditional kimonos and wooden shoes yet talking on or texting with their very modern 3-G telephones.

That evening, we go to a ‘shabu-shabu’ restaurant right down the street. No one really speaks much English in there and there is no English menu, but we still manage to get a lot of excellent food, and really cheap for Japan and especially Tokyo. Next day training and another excellent dinner. Tuesday, back to Singapore. Typical business trip. I saw a lot of airplanes, airports, busses, taxis, subways, hotels and offices and very little of Tokyo itself.

Tuesday evening, I had dinner at Lau Pa Sat with friends. Ben and I arrived early and even though we were clearly together, the taunts seemed to treat us separately, pulling me in one direction and him in another, as if they could not believe that we would actually have dinner together. We finally got a table for eight and had immediate offers of satay and all sorts of other foods. The ‘Tiger Girls’ we there too with jugs and mugs – not those jugs for those of you with a dirty mind! – I am not sure you could call them ‘girls’ any more as they had probably been doing this work for quite a few years…

On Wednesday, I discovered that Singapore can still surprise me. I found a legal gambling hall! Papillon was having its annual BBQ at the Costa Sands Resort. I arrived early so I started to wonder around the place. A door caught my attention as there was ‘Jackpot” written over it; I reallt expected to walk into a ‘casino-themed’ restaurant. I walked instead into a room with 2 dozen slot machines and nobody asked me anything or tried to stop me, and the world did not end, and the police did not come out from behind one-way mirrors calling “Everybody put your hands up – this is a Sting Operation”. I had seen ‘game rooms’ very discreetly hidden in some private clubs, but I had no idea they existed this openly available to the general public. We had satay, bacon and mushroom skewer thingies (the new Papillon signature dish if we can find a better name for it), hot dogs, pork chops, otah, chicken wings, mee goreng, and much more. We had chocolate cake and champagne when Freddy and Christy finally joined us. We watched the videos of our last races – it is the first time that I am actually seeing myself rowing – and saw that we did very well in the CCG (bronze medal) and in the JI Race. We talked ‘till early in the morning while others played Mah-Jong (I am still not sure if they play with the correct rules here!). I had to go home early (I got there at 4AM) because I had an early flight to Hong Kong that same Thursday morning.

I finally figured out how to go directly from Hong Kong Airport to Macau. But it cost me a brand new tube of toothpaste! My first time in Hong Kong, I went there first and than to Macau. On the last day, I took the ferry back to Hong Kong and immediately the train to the airport (a 4 hour trip!). On the second trip to Hong Kong, I decided to start with Macau. Coming out of Immigration and Customs, I asked how to go directly to Macau, and was told that there is a way, but you have to do so before Immigration. I had to take a train followed by a ferry for another 4 hour trip. This time, I was determined not to miss it again. Just to make sure, I decided that I would only have carry-on luggage, one small back-pack, so I had ultimate flexibility. I found the desk for the ferry to

Macau and got a ticket for the 3:30 sailing. However, I had to re-enter security after I got my ticket, and there, they confiscated my brand new tube of toothpaste because it was, allegedly, over the maximum allowable volume of 100ml! Singapore did not seem to mind, but Hong Kong said NO!

Macau is a very interesting mixture of modern and traditional. Upon arrival at the ferry terminal, the announcement is made in Chinese (I suspect Mandarin rather than Cantonese) then English, Japanese and finally Portuguese. 10 years later and it is still the second language here in Macau. Even new signs, erected since the end of colonial rule, still include Portuguese. Most restaurants have a sign which says “Estabelecimento de Comidas” followed generally by a typical Chinese name such as ‘Tin Fock Lai’.I

am staying at the new Wynn Macau Casino Resort.

Macau has changed a lot since the last time I was here for Chinese New Year in 2004 (a potential future post?) and yet some things have not changed. I went into the historical district for dinner and found a little restaurant where I had excellent food for little money. They had one menu which was translated into English but I really had to have imagination to attempt to understand what the actual food would be. They have “fired fish brain with chilly” and “beef tenderness”; since they had fried in other places, I was puzzled by ‘fired’ which was repeated for many dishes; I am still not sure what ‘tenderness’ was all about – I know that mores are a little looser in Macau but I doubt if that had anything to do with it – I do not think that they were offering sexy massage with dinner; you only get that with a hair cut!

The weather is not very good as Hong Kong and Macau are under the influence of the trailing edge of the latest typhoon. Wind is not strong but there is a constant threat of rain and there is a complete cover of low clouds. The light is grey and would remind my of my native country of the temperature had not remained around 30 C. It should get better later as the remnants of the storm are moving away from here.

The biggest change is the construction of mega-casino resorts such as Wynn’s where I am staying. In 2004 the Casino market has been opened to competition and several of the major Las Vegas companies are establishing a presence here.

You can see about the weather on this shot from my camera-phone. The three-coloured tower on the left is a new resort being built (from the lion statue at the front, I suspect it may be MGM) and in the middle of the picture is the Wynn’s Resort where I am staying. You can also see several sets of tower cranes for new buildings. Further along the same view, Sands is finishing their resort and Venetian is also under construction on reclaimed land South of Macau – they are building a resort larger than the one in Las Vegas. In the last year, Macau has surpassed Las Vegas as the largest gambling city in the world in terms of money played! And they are building here twice as fast as they are in LasVegas.

However, Uncle Ho, former holder of the gambling monopoly in Macau, is not giving up without a serious fight. His main casino was always the ‘Lisboa’ but he had gambling halls in most other major hotels. He is building an incredible tower (it may look like it should belong to Playboy instead when it is finished – look for the bunny ears coming up…) with a huge Casino underneath. The Casino is already open even though the tower is not yet completed – you do not need a hotel here in order to attract visitors to the casino. Hidden under the tree, to the left of the massive building, you can almost see the entrance to the old casino, which used to be by far the largest in Macau – just to be sure you do not miss it, here is a blow-up of that same area. It also gives you a better idea at the actual size of the new tower.

I tried my luck in several casinos and made it without losing too much money, actually a lot less than I was ready to loose, mostly due to two big wins which made up for all the small losses.

I headed for Hong Kong on Saturday (lucky for me I did not try to do it Friday as all the ferries were cancelled due to bad weather) and just walked around to reacquaint myself with the city. The weather continues to be bad and therefore I am not really tempted to go anywhere far. However, the views of Hong Kong Harbour, with low grey clouds, can create dramatic images such as this one.

The large building in the middle disappearing in the clouds is the tallest in Hong Kong and there are twenty more floors that are currently. I doubt that they can see the sun above the clouds even on the top stories…

On Sunday, 12 August, I was heading back to Singapore, 8 days after the beginning of this post.

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Culture, Retrospective, Travel

Phuket – Thailand

Posted on 15 July, 200710 May, 2010 by pierreo

I do not have something exciting to share with you every week. However, there are many events that have occurred in the past which I never got a chance to share. I will therefore regularly go back and re-visit, as much for my benefit as yours, some memorable events of the past.

In April 2003, I went to Phuket from where I would depart on my first live-aboard dive trip. 5 days in the Similan Islands. I arrived on Saturday and was not due on the ship until Sunday evening. I had one and a half day to kill and so I rented a moped to be able to move around the island a bit and go to places I had not visited before. All went well on Saturday afternoon. I was able to visit a good restaurant I like that is hard to get to without transportation – White Lotus, owned and operated by a Vietnamese woman who is very friendly.

On Sunday, I decided to explore the southern coast. I left the hotel relatively early and as I go around the first bend on the main street, a couple of kids toss a glass-full of water at me… I am not sure what happened, but with the heat it actually feels good, and I do not think about it further. As I go through the first village south of Patong Beach, I get ‘attacked’ by a few teens with water pistols. There is definitely something going on as I see groups of people setting up large barrels of water along the road. I am still in the dark as to what is about to happen.

As time passes more and more people are along the road and are throwing water at everything that moves. Soon, I start to see pick-up trucks with large barrels of water in the back trying to soak the people along the side of the street. A giant water battle is building. And I am totally unarmed! However, it is rather hot, I am only wearing shorts and t-shirt and I do not mind being a little wet.

As I head back to Patong, I get a new experience: some people actually put ice in their water barrels and therefore I get the occasional really cold shower. There are also some people trowing talcum powder, and even coloured talcum powder.

I am soon soaking wet, with blotches of green, orange, purple and red all over my clothes. And it is almost lunch time. With some embarrassment, I walk into a local restaurant, wondering the kind of reception I will get given my current state. However, I guess it must be expected on this day and I have no trouble getting a table and decent food.

After lunch, I continued to explore and continued to get soaked. The more the day progressed, the more people were out celebrating, dancing, cruising etc.. while continuing to trow water at each other. In Patong, the main street was one big party. Many of the local bars had setup speakers outside and were playing loud music while patrons were dancing on tables and soaking passers-by. On the street, people were dancing on motorcycles and in the back of pick-up trucks while soaking the patrons of the bars. And, as before, I seemed to be stuck in the middle and getting soaked from both sides … but really enjoying every minute of it.

When I got back to the hotel to check out, I was totally wet and dripping all over the floor.

I discovered later that this is a tradition at Thai New Year in Phuket. This happens every year and is beginning to attract more and more tourists. This was my third “New Year” celebration this year, after the “Christian New Year”, “Chinese New Year” and now “Thai New Year”.

A great experience – I was lucky to be at the right place at the right time for it.

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Sports, Travel

Cebu – Philippines

Posted on 8 July, 200721 July, 2011 by pierreo

I am completing an excellent long week-end get-away in Cebu, Philippines. I arrived here Thursday and will leave in a few hours back to Singapore.

The primary reason for coming here was to do a bit of diving. The area is quite renowned for this and easily reacheable from Singapore. The secondary reason was that I had never been to the

Philippines and here was a chance to add one more country not to be missed.

I did three dives on Friday and two more on Saturday with Dindo, a local divemaster. On Saturday I was joined by another Singaporean – small world. His three friends would snorkel while we dove. All dives were wall/drift dives, the most relaxing kind, I think. We set off on top of the wall, with about 5 meters of depth and than, clearin gthe edge, descended to our agreed starting depth. Once you adjust your buoyancy, you can just let the current take you along the wall, occasionally swimming against it to look at details longer. There was a lot to see, from huge schools of jacks that almost surrounded us to the largest and smallest clown fish I had ever seen – the small one was probably only 2-3 mm long. Saw quite nice nudiebranches and some star fish that look more like a plush stuffed toy than something you would find on a reef. One of the dives had the most inclredible anemonies I had ever seen.

One surprise on the first dive. There were two loud bangs, accompanied each by a noticeable concussion while we were at about 20 meters depth. Dindo immediately gestured to me that all was OK! to which I replied OK even though my heart rate had increased a bit and we kept going. After the dive he explained that some people still fish with explosives, but these were far away, probably more than 50 km on another island. I would not have wanted to be any closer than we were.

Saturday afternoon, after the two dives, I took a 4 hour tour of Cebu city, one of the oldest in the Philippines, and the first place where Magellan landed, also the place where he was killed (I am going to visit the actual battlefield just before I leave the Island – there is a shrine to Rajah Lapu-Lapu and a monument to Magellan on the spot where it all happened. Lapu-Lapu was the leader of the local people who opposed the Spanish invasion. It is amazing that a lot of people know about Magellan’s travels, and the fact that he died in the Philippines, but until I started reading the local history in the hotel, I did not realize that is all happened right here.

The cross that Magellan planted in Cebu is still there, now protected inside a rotunda and inside a hollow wooden cross to protect it from the local population that considers pieces of the original cross to be lucky-charms – there would be no cross left by now if it were not protected.

The original Fort San Pedro built by the Spanish when they came back in 1564 is still here. The first church built in the Philippines is also in Cebu. It celebrates a relic left here by Magellan and recovered by the Spanish when they came back. It is a statue of the infant Jesus – El Sancto Nino, reputedly carved in

Belgium.

The city of Cebu itself is growing rapidly, but is still able to protect some of the original buildings. I had a really nice tour during which I was also able to try a local “delicacy” in a local market: Coconut Wine. This is the local red wine, made from fermented coconut milk – I am not sure what they add to make it reddish. It is not bad, and very cheap. I ended up buying a bottle, for 35 pesos, or less than 1 euro, and for a moment, I was the biggest attraction in the whole market. Since Dindo is the one who told me about the coconut wine, I left the rest of the bottle for him in the dive shop as I was heading out – it is certainly not good enough to try and smuggle back to

Singapore!

I had excellent food while here too. On Friday, I decided I wanted to go to a local restaurant I had read about. Dindo indicated that it was quite good, but when I asked at the hotel, they were more reserved, even surprised that I was willing to go there, indicating that it was “not very clean” and only for locals. The hotel also recommended to take a taxi, even though the restaurant should only be a 15 minute walk away. I have never been one to shy away from adventure and a challenge and I decided to go on my own. Outside the hotel, I met a motorcycle rickshaw driver who proposed to take me there for only 50 pesos. I know he grossly overcharged me, but am I really going to complain about having to pay about 1 euro 50? I can fortunately afford it – and I am glad I took the ride. The restaurant was somewhat off the street in a small alley and I may not have found it easily on my own. I had excellent local steamed fish and grilled prawns. The restaurant was clean enough and quite comfortable, and I enjoy going where locals go – I did not see any other tourists there. I am sure locals cannot afford to go there very often though as the prices were relatively high. That might have been just for me … maybe, again, locals pay a lot less! Again, I can afford it and I am sure that it is money well spent.

When I travel to countries that are less well-off, I do not like to give money to people who just beg on the streets or at traffic lights, nor to those who are obviously trying to trap tourists. However, I try to be generous with people who help me, and with local shops, when I know that the money will stay in the local community. I am always surprised by the genuine delight that these small, and not so small gestures always bring from the people I have been with.

Another great experience. I think I will have to go back!

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