Philippines : Milepost #3

Today, our island hopping tour began. While eating dinner at The Alternative, last night, we made reservation for the voyage and headed down to the restaurant early to eat breakfast before the trip. Having a great vegetarian menu made this our favorite restaurant in town. Many establishments offered a multiplicity of services: a pawn shop offering tours, pawned goods, and other banking services, restaurants offered food and tour agencies, tour agencies offer tours and information services; it is a competitive market. Besides these tours, people have the ability to charter private boats for a day's outing. The government regulates tour prices, and a tour is "x" amount of dollars with any company. Much like how benefits came about during the times of stagnating wages in the early 1900's, as a means to entice employees, different companies offer extras. The Alternative offered free snorkeling equipment, to use of the day, while other companies offered free fruit, or drinks, or a more expansive food selection, or whatever they could do to separate themselves from the competition.

I'll admit this even before I begin this post. Most of the coral in these areas outside of El Nido were damaged or dead, still beautiful, but it was very sad. We visited fields of coral on Coron though and my horrible documenting skills captured next to none of it. Sure I have excuses in my head, but upon returning to land I haven't stopped kicking myself. I cannot be angry with anyone but myself which is probably even more frustrating because there isn't a way to externalize such feelings. It was the first time I've swam among such living wonder and I missed photo documenting it. But such is life's learning experiences I guess. Anyway.... back to today.

An eating pod hanging out over the water at The Alternative

 For those who know me, I am not one for ambiance. In fact, it is something I actively seek to avoid. Stuffy, intimate settings that require one to dress up and act a certain way... yuck! Yet, I make use of my existential quantifier and say that this restaurant offered a really cool option. Four intimate seating arrangements, two overhanging the ocean below, and two tucked close by, offered ambiance that some people might really enjoy. Sitting over the ocean, eating breakfast, I can say that this unique ambiance fit my style just fine. These pods consisted of a table in the center, raised about eight inches, and cushioned seating with about a foot and a half spacing between the table edge and the guard rails.

In the center of the image, various banca's can be seen. The one directly in front of us, I believe, is the banca we took out island hopping.

Island hopping is a very popular attraction in the Philippines and consists of taking a banca boat on to various islands for a few purposes: snorkeling, scuba diving, relaxing on the beach, and exploring the island. These tours usually offer lunch and can either be taken exclusively (for rich assholes) or joined up by smaller parties.

After a slight delay we headed out to the boat. Quiet at first, the ice was quickly broken and a day of conversation, relaxation, snorkeling, food, and laughter ensued. Although I have pictures of these folks, I will not post them because I did not remember to ask their permission. Am I the only one to think posting pictures of other people online is not polite unless permission is granted?

An older Korean couple were the only people we didn't converse with for a decent duration of time. They were quiet and much older than the remaining five people (besides us and the four crew members). The other five people will be spoken of for a few posts because this ride served as a basis for a few additional meetings.

A couple from Sweden, Victor and Ana, were awesome and funny. They laughed at my jokes ... so you know how nice they must have been. Without them showing us the snorkeling ropes, our time in the Philippines wouldn't have been as fun. They also answered all my questions about life in Sweden. Everything from politics, religion, social structure, political party divides, etc. was discussed and I am indebted to them for the information.

Three friends from mainland China also joined the trip. Mini, Michelle, and Abbey. They will also come up again. Dacota surprised them with his command of the language which set into motion a whole slew of future events.

Because Chinese New Year was in full effect, Dacota spent his time in the Philippines practicing Chinese with every person he could. With his loquacious lead, we met more people than can remember, literally hundreds of people. We probably obtained thirty new contacts from our time in the Philippines and, if we had so desired, could have obtain significantly more. For whatever reason, tourists in Taiwan have generally been assholes, why these folks, here in the Philippines, were so nice suggests that perhaps people visit Taiwan expecting to be the unique foreigners whereas nobody expects to visit El Nido without meeting tourists. We did notice that people put off colder edges than they intended to, looking surly while in paradise, which was still confusing. I wanted to express to them that,although they couldn't smoke a joint to chill out, paradise is paradise, relax and enjoy yourselves with a smile on your face, who knows whom you'll meet. (foreshadowing?)

Beautiful islands were passed on during one of six main stops

This picture is pretty reflective of the beauty of the islands

Does anybody feel like snorkeling?

Selfies in the Water?

More mushroom looking things

Awesome mushroom looking structure under the water

Its hard to distinguish, but the little critter with big lips shrunk down when our shadows passed over it

Fishes

 At this point, I once again have to expound upon my poor documenting of the voyage. Fish about, colorful and wonderful, and yet I failed to photograph them. Perhaps when I am more skilled at snorkeling, I will be more focused on pictures and not experiencing the moment.

More rock formations

 I couldn't take enough photographs of these formations. They are too beautiful to describe.

Goofing off in the "Secret" Lagoon

This name is rather deceptive. Perhaps at one point, this hidden lagoon, accessed by a 3'x3' opening in the rock face, is indeed rather hard to see from where the bancas set anchor, was secret; however, hundreds of tourists discovered the secret that day. Did they all read the same book? Ha. Not funny.

Dacota, speaking with the girls from China, and me, speaking with the Swedes, each made plans for that evening. We were to get dinner, at 6 pm, with the ladies and later go for food with the Swedes at the same restaurant. Even for two identical twins, miscommunication is the name of the game.  I can eat two dinners no problem, so I didn't foresee a problem. We rushed back to our cottage, showered, put back on the same dirty clothes, and returned to the Alternative where the three ladies from China were seated in a pod that was not overlooking the water. Dinner was ordered, I obviously ordered the banana heart curry again because it was too delicious to risk trying something different, and Dacota ordered a curry eggplant dish. The girls ordered their meat dishes and we ate and talked. Or rather, I attempted to understand the gist of the conversation or, when Mini spoke in English, I joined in.  Two hours came and went and the Swedes showed up to meet us for dinner. They saw we were in conversation and, after apologizing to them, they went to eat dinner by themselves. I felt really bad but was happy to see them happily eating in a Nordic reunion some ten minutes later. Apparently a half dozen or so Swedes, unknowingly, arrived at the same restaurant, at the same time. They did not know one another but soon were in deep conversation. At least, the harsh Swedish language makes an untrained overseer assume that intense dialog, perhaps on topics such as the existential implications of our time or the ontological quandaries that plague humanity, was taking place.

Back at our table, one of the ship hands came over and asked to sit down for a second. Of course we said "yes" but should have emphatically exclaimed "No!". Slightly intoxicated, and become exponentially inebriated with every sip of beer, he stayed around for the next two hours making lewd comments (which fortunately the girls didn't understand) and attempting to convince us to, not only take these girls home, but to somehow hook him up one of them. He attempted to tell us which "one he wanted" and other such undesired conversation topics. It was very uncomfortable. We attempted to change the subject, talking about his kids, with multiple women, and about how shitty he gets paid for an entire days worth of work, but he persisted in his futile efforts. This, hooking him up, wasn't on our agenda and after an incredulous amount of time and scheming to excommunicate him from our meal, Dacota took him aside, after speaking some fast Chinese to the girls who responded in kind, told him that he asked Abbey if she wanted to go home with him of which she declined. He said that, "She's just too shy." Finally this guy left, thank god! What a stressful weird time. You'd think people would get the hint, (Literally I told him he should go home and get some sleep) but alcohol is an interesting drug (and somehow legal?!?!). This was the first time that I've had any sort of negative experience with drunks in Asia. Generally people are just really funny or silly and don't harm anything. Afterwards, Dacota explained the situation to the girls and they thanked him for protecting them. I'm a pretty passive-aggressive guy (understatement?) but made it pretty clear to this guy that didn't stand a chance and that he should get lost. Without "getting in his face", perhaps further social maturation will give me the tools needed to navigate these tumultuous water.

Victor came over to say "Good-bye" and we made plans to visit with him and Ana at Marimegmeg beach the following day. I still feel back about ditching them but fortunately were able to hook up the following day.

We drank until late into the evening, far later than the restaurant was to remain open. Why they let us stay is a mystery but perhaps we weren't a bother since the workers sat around drinking and chatting amongst themselves until we left. During that evening, we all made plans to make a hot pot together, the following evening, as a way to usher in the Chinese New Year. (a tradition that some people follow)

Perhaps the reader wonders if we returned to our cottage alone, or with the company of these beautiful girls; chickens pecking around the yard, puppies whimpering, roosters kakadodoodledoodleing at all hours of the night. Perhaps we returned to their fancy hotel. I'll let the inner fictional narrative within the minds-eye create some tale of debauchery, excitement, love, disappointment, passion, boredom, etc. that s/he wishes. With luck, hopefully I'll be entertained by some of the suggested possibilities that occurring during that evening/early morning.