HAPPY NEW YEAR! From Going Nuts to Inspiration. December 12 - January 1

December 12 –  January 1: “From Going Nuts to Inspiration”

Before anything else:

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you! May it be a year full of new opportunities that you are able to grasp.

We celebrated a sober, but intimate start of the new year. For Westerners there is not much to do around here, and the Philippinos are not the people I’d like to celebrate it with. We had some drinks at Aaris’ place before heading over to the public beach. We sat there talking and drinking with Ella, Aaris and David. There were big fireworks all around us and we shared a precious turning to the new year.

Contemplating about the past year, the dynamic I find myself in now and the future, had me taking in the very moment completely. The fireworks cleared the spirits of 2013 and a new year is there to come. 2013 has been an amazing year for me. I met truly amazing and inspiring people, been to magnificent places, deepened my relations with the ones who really matter to me and most of all; I found myself. Ever since graduating from university, my life put me back on the surfboard with two feet to ride the rolling waves from the dynamics of my own life. It taught me more about myself and my life than anyone or any institution could ever teach me. The canvas of 2013 is completed and a blank one is presented for the year 2014. This presents many opportunities by itself in a spiritual way. With so much inspiration at hand and with the right people around me, I’m determined to make the painting from 2014 into a masterpiece.

It has been a while since my last entry. Time goes by very quick and life here with our own boat is as hectic as it comes. A lot has happened since. To my regret it also means that my report got a bit out of hand in length. Nine pages of text in Word simply is too much to throw at you at once, but since it also is my own travelling diary I didn’t want to skip anything that mattered to me. From now on I will try to make a weekly entry to make it more readable and to give myself a much easier time writing it.

December 28: my Birthday!

Last Saturday I turned 31. For the second time it was a birthday far away from home. Last year I had the luxury of celebrating it with my family travelling together through Cambodia. This year they were unfortunately not here to celebrate it with me. Celebrating it on the other end of the globe makes it another kind of happening. It just more or less suddenly roles by and you realize it’s going to be your birthday soon. This all said it turned out to be a great one. The unbelievable energy that came my way through all sorts of channels was a joy to behold. Being physically so far away, but then on your birthday so many people are spiritually suddenly so close. It really warmed my heart.

Not in the least, it was David who really made it a proper feeling of birthday over here. When I woke up he was already up. He congratulated me quickly and said he was going to get us a new gallon of water which we finished the day before. He left and I stayed in bed a little longer, checking out some messages for my birthday. David was taking quite long and I suddenly realized he was up to something. I jumped out of bed into the shower to get ready too. When I came out of the shower and opened the door to go into the room, David scared the crap out of me by blowing an incredibly loud birthday horn. It certainly woke me up completely! He had gone out to fetch me a birthday cake with candles and balloons. As a present I got a bottle of Bacardi. His original birthday gift unfortunately didn’t work out he told me. Very sweet of him he had tried to get his own Blackberry repaired to give me as a replacement of my stolen one. This couldn’t be done unfortunately. But the thought alone was a gift by itself…

We started to get ready for our planned trip out on our boat, when Aaris suddenly showed up. He brought his haircutting scissors and was going to cut my hair. We talked about it the night before and I was in dire need of one. Aaris warned me for the Coconut style haircuts they do here (Bloempotkapsel in dutch) and I trusted him with his artistry ways that he would deliver to get my hair cut properly. I was getting lion manes again and there was no better moment to look fancy again than on your birthday. He did a great job and I started to make my way to the boat fresh as being newborn.

We loaded the boat as usual and went over to Gilutungan Island. Here they have a great fish sanctuary. It takes around 40 minutes to get there with our boat. On the way over I fiddled around with the Go-Pro camera to make a nice diving movie as a souvenir from my birthday. Once we got there the place was literally swarmed with Korean people. Big Bancas (the traditional Philippine boats) everywhere, but luckily one more free buoy to anchor our boat on.  We started to get our gear ready when Aaris found out he forgot his fins. Fortunate for him we managed to rent a (not so well fitting) pair through the collectors who come to the boats to take the entrance fees.

We made two fantastic dives and I managed to take a lot of nice footage with the camera. In between the dives we were chilling out on our boat. Such fine moments. Realizing you are standing on your own boat in a paradise place felt like I was dreaming. That place, that moment is completely yours. Whatever is going on around, you are there completely free. I took in the moment like if I was eating a dish from a Michelin 3 star restaurant. Gently take it in, sip on it, chew it, roll it through your mouth and all over again before swallowing… We made our second dive and started to make our way to Mactan.

Some pictures from the day:

 

 

 

Back home I managed to get my brother and parents on Skype. We went out for dinner to our newly discovered Thai food place. David and I continued and went to Lotus, the local Philippine discotheque. Met again some nice and completely out of their head locals. There was one woman who craved my attention. When I came in she wanted to dance. I declined friendly and told her maybe later. Not even 5 minutes after she was standing in front of me taunting me by constantly giving me the middle fingers. I tried to ask her why, but she started to be more aggressive. I hate negative energy and even thought of leaving. Some nice Philippine guys told me to come sit with them and ignore her.

The nice Philippine guys

David went to talk to her and suddenly she calmed down completely. I suspect she was heavily  on drugs. Once calmed down she started to make conversation and even started to thank me for telling her to enjoy and make it a nice night instead of being obnoxious. But when I turned my attention away from her, she started to find annoying ways to get my attention again like a spoiled child. I was happy to be on good terms, but in no way planning to spend my party with her. At a certain point she was probably getting annoyed that I didn’t act as she pleased and when I turned around, away from her again, she threw a glass of beer in my neck. What a bitch. The Philippine guys went straight to the bouncer and she luckily got kicked out. We had a couple more drinks and made our way home…

The Boat:

My last entry I ended on the notion that we had a warning on our address concerning our boat. Ever since we have been working like crazy to get it all in order again for ourselves. Our first concern was to get the boat registered so everything we do would be completely legal. In this whole situation Aaris has been an asset of great value.

The initial plan was to register the boat in Ella’s name. Aaris went to the port authorities and came back with a package of paperwork bigger than the bible. To get the boat registered is working your way through a jungle of paperwork that needs to be fixed in a jungle of a society. He made trips back and forth to the notary, port authorities, the captain of our barangay and so on. Until the notary told him to get the previous owner over to the notary office to make the paperwork in order. 

Through our boatman Enoy we tried to get to get the carpenter, of whom we were told to be the former owner, over to the notary on Mactan. He declined to come and Aaris went nuts. Somehow in this process Aaris found out that the carpenter wasn’t the real owner, but sold it for his brother. As well as that the boat has a registration with the port authorities. This guy was on an island around 1000 km away. Luckily Aaris arranged everything properly with the notary. This gave us leverage over the man to get over here to make this right. Otherwise the notary would go to the police to sue him for fraud. Somehow this really worked and the next morning the real owner showed up with Enoy at Aaris’ house. They went to the notary together and it was resolved. 

Unfortunate to not have known this before which would save us a lot of stress, money and time getting this fixed. Fortunate though to find out that the boat is registered and we could skip the whole jungle of paperwork. Now it was only a matter of changing the name on the deed of the boat. A while before I was talking with Aaris and spoke about the fact that so many people get inspired by our project. We came up with the idea to rename the boat Inspiration. A much more elegant name which resembles our ways much more to the point than Going Nuts. The day Aaris got the paperwork done he changed the name as agreed on the deed from Going Nuts to Inspiration…

Although the paperwork was in order, there came up a lot more work to do. First we needed to paint over Going Nuts on the hull while Aaris was going around to fix the paperwork. David, Enoy and me put the boat on blocks again in our local marina and spent the day painting the boat and finished gluing the last of our rubber carpets on the top of our boat.

On a diving trip, a couple of days later, we checked the hull of the boat more thoroughly and found out that there’s some patching to do. When we will take our boat out for longer and farther trips she needs to be in tiptop shape. To get this done we rented two high wooden stands to put the boat on. Enoy came late in the evening to our harbor at high tide to find a place to get it high and dry on the blocks for when it gets low tide. Around 11 o’clock it was spring tide and we went in for a night swim to drag the boat close to shore. We positioned the blocks and put some sacks filled with sand (stolen from a private beach) on them to keep the blocks firmly in place. Now we had to wait till the next day for it to become low tide to work on it. Enoy stayed over and slept on the boat. 

Our boat high and dry on the stands

The first day with the boat on the blocks our first priority was to fill up any holes in the hull. Close to the propeller we found a hole which didn’t look good at all. There was only a small hole in the fiberglass, but when we dug a bit deeper it seemed quite an opening.  For this we needed new fiberglass and I was sent out to go get it. I took our motorbike and was told that they sell fiberglass in a hardware shop in Lapu-Lapu City close to the bridge. No idea where to go I decided to hop on and just see how to get it done on the spot. What a trip it turned out to be! 

To get to Lapu-Lapu on the bike takes around 30 minutes. Once there, there was no hardware shop to be found. I drove around and was asking around for a while where to get fiberglass. Everyone I spoke with told me in their first response to go over to Cebu. When I told a guy at Homebuilders shop there should be a shop here close where they have it, I was sent to some hardware shop in the next village. When I finally found it and asked about the fiberglass he said they don’t have it and sent me to the Homebuilders shop. So far for going in circles. Determined to get back WITH fiberglass I decided to cross the bridge and see if I can sort it out in Mandaue City.

With no idea where to go and almost no knowledge about the city, I came over the bridge and entered the jungle of Mandaue. My god, what a traffic. I drove around close to the harbor hoping to find something; nothing. I tried different roads, places and in the end even ended up all the way in Cebu City. When I finally found a hardware shop there, they ,again, didn’t have it. The friendly lady told me to go back to Mandaue and gave me a paper with 3 names of shops that should have it. With no idea where to go, but armed with some names from shops I hopped on the bike again. Luckily I’m a quite good and assertive driver which made me get through the aunt’s nest of cars, trikes and motorbikes. 

When I was close to the other bridge to Mactan again, I found a pretty big looking hardware shop. It wasn’t the name I was after, but worth trying. I asked them for the fiberglass and to my big surprise he told me they have fiber mat. Unbelievable at the moment. Very nice to have some success in this stressful and fruitless endeavor. I was relieved and thought I was ready to go back. Of course this wasn’t completely the case. When he brought me the fiber mat, the vendor told me to get Resin and hardener to patch it on the boat. He showed me what I needed in a folder and walked off to get it. He came back empty handed and told me it was or out of stock or the date had expired. Damnit!@! He told me to get it in another shop on the same road. It took a while to find it. Philippinos are absolutely horrible in giving directions!

Of course they didn’t have what I was after and again was sent to another shop. Jumped on the bike again and after searching for a while I got to the right shop. They had the Resin, but the hardener (of course!) was out of stock. Bought the Resin and off I was again. I was completely done and went back to Mactan to have a look for it there. I ended up in the same village at the hardware shop I tried before and YES they had the hardener… My god SUCCESS! I had spent around 5 hours driving around like crazy, but eventually had all the stuff I needed. If they would only have a Gamma or Praxis here…..

On the way back to the boat on the bike, I had to move aside for some crazy trike drivers and hit a stone with my front wheel. Guess what; flat tire!! Really?? Could it get any worse??? It was still possible to drive, but very, very slowly. I couldn’t find a tire shop and after 40 minutes of more agony I was finally back home. I met David and Aaris and they just finished for the day. The next day we could start putting it on…

The second day the boat was on the blocks, we spend our time painting it and filling the holes with epoxy. Aaris sparkled the whole boat, filling up the small holes and patch the bigger ones with epoxy combined with the fiber mat. David took the task on him to paint our boat’s registration number and her new name; Inspiration, on the hull. In no way being an artist, but determined to get it done he came up with a design. I had to go first to the motorbike shop to get some minor repairs done. My back was hurting pretty bad at the time, meaning a welcome break from sitting underneath the boat.

When I got back from the shop, David was already quite far painting the name on the boat. I made a diving flag on the side of the boat which came out pretty neat. When that was done I helped David to finish the rest of painting the name. Also we finally had the chance to do all the finishing touches. Happy with the result of 2 days of hard work we went home satisfied. We kept the boat on the stands for one more day and at high tide at night we sent Enoy with the boat back to Olango.

David drawing the outline for the name

Painting like a real Picasso

 

Enjoying a well earned beer with Enoy after 2 days of hard work

My diving flag

So far all done!

We made quite a few diving trips around the area, with my birthday trip as highlight. Coming back that day from Gilutungan, another problem came up. Aaris found out that the motor was burning and leaking oil. Again a big setback. The whole motion of this project is taking two steps forward and making one back again. We sent Enoy away with the mission to put the boat on blocks in Olango and to arrange a mechanic to repair it. They took the engine apart and told us the gasket and piston ring needed to be replaced. This of course is easier said than done. Aaris went into Mandaue to buy the needed parts. After being sold the wrong part at first, he had to come back the next day. When he got back to the store the required piece was (of course!) out of stock. 

That day, December 31^st, David and I went over to Olango to check up on how things were looking. We took an early boat from a pier close by. Unbelievable how many people they are able to fit in these little boats. It was already fully packed (according to Western standards) when we arrived at the pier. We thought we had to wait for the next boat, but were told to enter. Once on the boat, at least the double amount of people who were already on entered after us. No wonder quite often a boat goes down here. Got me thinking that every meter we were making towards Olango, was one that I wouldn’t have to swim if something would happen. We saw dolphins on the way and arrived safely in Olango. 

On the ferry to Olango

Completely packed boat

Olango

We checked out the state of the boat and had a talk with the mechanic. The work could be done in a day once we get a hold of the needed parts. He’s very much overcharging us, which is due to Enoy. It starts to become more clear that Enoy’s loyalty is in the first place with the people from Olango, instead of with us. I suspect him to opportunistically trying to make the most out of us. This is not a good feeling for someone you have working for you and being so closely involved in your personal life. The same kind of behavior I’ve experienced before in Cambodia with a Personal Assistant I hired.

On the blocks with the engine taken out

Even though we put a lot of effort and care in painting the boat’s name, we were not at all satisfied with the sloppy result. Enoy fetched us a professional calligrapher to get this redone. I asked the calligrapher how much it would cost and he named his price at 1500 peso. The same price the mechanic asks (coincidence??). Aaris told me before we went that it should cost no more than around 300. Therefore I was a bit shocked and told him we would leave it. He asked me in turn how much I wanted to pay and I told him 500. He made it 600 and we agreed. It’s a good lesson out here to start to learn to pay the price. Be royal yes, but stupid no. If you overpay it won’t be seen as kind, but taken for an opportunity that you could be sucked out. The calligrapher started working and it started to look amazing.

The calligrapher and his craftmanship

David, Enoy and me went to get some lunch, which we ate at his house. Walking around his village in Olango feels as you’re in a place where time stood still. Little sand roads connecting the very basic houses. It’s a bit like as if you walk around a natural campsite. We met his mother and all his brothers and sisters. His brother climbed the coconut tree on their turf and picked us a fresh coconut to drink with our lunch. The waiting now is to get the engine repaired and maybe buy a new one. This would ensure that we won’t have a massive breakdown in the middle of the sea.

Enoy's neighborhood in Olango

Enoy's brother picking a coconut

With Enoy there have been some complications lately. Especially David and I were very kind to him; more like friends than being his boss. Instead of creating the expected loyalty, it’s having some serious side effects. He’s starting to believe that it is his boat as well. In the morning of the 26^th of December before a trip, Enoy showed up at Aaris house with a friend; Eduard. I knew he sometimes took people up and down from and to Olango and thought this was the case. They helped us to carry our diving equipment and the tanks to the pier. We started to load the little wooden taxi boat to bring our stuff on board. When we arrived at our boat there was, to my big surprise, another Philippino guy on board; another friend! This was clearly going the wrong way, but I wanted to wait for Aaris to arrive to decide what to do and say about it. Aaris was clearly displeased, but bit his tongue for the day. 

In all kind of ways it became clear that our approach is not producing how we want it. For example; I brought a big bag with lunch on the boat. A lot of different little breads and some muffins. Even though I was annoyed about the unannounced friends on board, I decided to offer them something to eat. A big mistake. Without asking all the muffins were plundered and after we came out of the dive only 1!!! Piece of bread was left over for us. They ate together more than 10 pieces and now we didn’t have enough for ourselves. Besides that they finished the water we had on board. We had to go on land in Marigondon to get some new water. Lesson learned to not just give them a finger, because they WILL take the whole hand. On top of this there is no shown gratitude for the things you share…

David overseeing Enoy and his friends doing some work

Enoy and his buddies

Enoy drops the anchor

Back at Aaris’ place, where we rinse and keep our diving gear, he expressed his frustration. He wanted to fire him on the spot. David and I are much more lenient than he is and we tried to come up with a different solution. Enoy has proven himself to me as being a good boatman and I like the guy. He’s only 18 years old and this is all new to him. We wanted to straighten him out and give him a chance to prove himself. Aaris didn’t agree and planned to give him a month to look for something else and then kick him off. For him Enoy has become like a false dog. The only right thing to do with a false dog is to put it down, before it bites again. Enoy’s father (who works at Kon-Tiki as a boatman and joined us one day for a trip) passed by and Aaris told him to come the next day to join the conversation. 

Aaris place where we made base

The next day Aaris set up a meeting with Enoy and his father late in the afternoon at Kon-Tiki. When we arrived Enoy and his father weren’t there yet, finding Aaris sitting alone at a table. We joined him and he started talking about how to do this. He said: “I’ve been thinking and since I have to fire someone, I’m going to fire you two.” Clearing up what he meant with this, he explained that after calming down a bit, he wanted to try a different solution. He was going to keep Enoy on as our boatman, but wanted to cut us loose from him, so that he answered only to him. This way he hoped to get a leash on Enoy and steer him in the desired direction. We just had to play along with him in this story. Enoy didn’t show up, but his father did. Aaris had a good and clear chat with him explaining the deal. His father took it to heart and would straighten it out with his son. Now we have to wait and see how this works out. David and I were very pleased about the presented solution. Aaris turns out to be a reliable partner, being very considerate to what we think and want. 

The last 3 weeks we found out much more about the person Aaris and bonded stronger with him. He’s a 49 year old guy originally from Iran. His life stories are like reading a book and I believe you could easily make a movie about him. Being around him works very inspiring and he has a good oversight over all that is happening. In many ways he has shown us his commitment, passion, desire, love and care. He is a man who makes things happen and our partnership gets deepened along the way. Everything we do in respect to our project we share on our 6 shoulders. We experience together the highest peaks and deepest valleys.

The three musketeers in the jungle

Motorbike Troubles

Since my last entry, I got in trouble with the law on the motorbike two times. The first time I went early in the morning to the money exchange office to buy some Pesos. It’s only a short drive (about a minute) from our place to the money exchanger. I got on the bike and when I turned the corner, a traffic official stopped me for not wearing my helmet. He wanted to see my license, which I also didn’t bring for this quick trip. I told him I live around the corner where I had my license and only had to go to Metro, 50 meters farther. He let me go to get our money changed, but I had to come back. 

I tried to tell him that I learned my lesson (which I really did) and that I just wanted to leave to go diving. He clearly knew he had a fish on his hook and started to stipulate my mistake. His English wasn’t that good and some local guy from there joined the situation. I expected him to be a bit on my side. On the contrary he started to make my violation look serious. I didn’t know what to expect and certainly didn’t want to get in trouble with the Philippine law. The traffic official threatened to call in the police twice but never really did it. It became clear why when the involved local told me they have a relation. He told me I could pay him off by paying him. I only had 500 peso bills in my wallet from changing the money and gave him one. I was dismissed and on my way again. 

The second time was when I got stopped near Grand Mall. I had to go there to the ATM to get some money for us. Close to the crossing before Grand Mall there was quite a line of cars and trikes. I passed them by like normally everyone here does to get to the front. There a traffic official was delegating the traffic stopped me. He pulled me over to the side of the road and accused me of driving in the wrong lane. I was as startled as disgusted about getting pulled over for this. It’s general practice here to skip the line like I did. Obviously my white skin was the reason for stopping me for this. He made it look like a major offence and told me it would cost 1200 peso when he would call in the police. Somehow experienced by my last fine I offered him to pay it off. 

This, of course, was possible, but not for less than a 1000 peso! I just wanted to get it over with and told him I had to get money out of the ATM first, since I didn’t have anything on me. He took my driver’s license and I went to the ATM we usually take money out. Of course that day it was out of order and I had to go inside the mall to find another ATM. Very stressed with this man having my license I tried another ATM; out of order! There was only one working to which a very friendly Philippine woman pointed me out. Since it was the only working ATM, there were 15 people standing before me in line. I tried to calm myself down and crossed my fingers that it wouldn’t run out of money before I was up. 

After 30 minutes waiting it finally was my turn and guess what; I can’t take money out of that machine with a foreign card! I went back to the official and explained my situation. He allowed me to leave on the bike to get the money while he was holding on to my license. I went to Tamiya (the town center where BFK is) to try another ATM. Here as well was standing an enormous line. Having no choice then to wait and sort it out I joined the line. There were 2 machines which were left alone and because I had to wait that long, I decided to give it a try. It worked!! Such a relief! I got on the bike again, went back and paid the official. Got my license back and again learned valuable lessons for white skinned dummies in the jungle…

The Diving

The last 3 weeks we have made quite a few trips around Mactan. We found a beautiful place close where no one else dives. We decided to name it Coral Garden. Like all the dive sites it is a deep sloping wall to around 50 meters. The amount and the state of the corals is absolutely amazing. In between the diving we enjoy our own lunch. These moment are true treasures by itself. Lying on the boat in the sun is like a good session of meditating.

After 6 weeks of diving and learning about the reef, I finally got to a point where I can relax in a dive. I more or less know all the fish there is by name. Finally I can start looking at ease for the small stuff and rarities around the reef. This also enabled me to take the Go Pro and make some diving movies. I tried it before, but I always ended up identifying all kinds of fish instead of making a movie. Having some experience in filming I decided to take the camera and make a movie. David has been filming a lot so far, but the clips ended up unedited on his hard drive. It would create the best souvenirs you can have as well as that David might pick up a thing or two. 

On Boxing Day I made the first one. We were trying out new places to dive and it didn’t provide me with great material, but I managed to make a nice movie nevertheless. On my birthday in Gilutungan I was filming again and had so much good footage this time that the movie I made was 30 minutes from 2 dives! We are working on ways to get some of it online to give you a good impression of the beauty we indulge ourselves in… 

The reef life in some places here is great. Unfortunately no big stuff to be found, but the life combined with the corals is stunning nevertheless. On Friday the 13^th we couldn’t take the boat out and  decided to make a dive at Kon-Tiki Reef. Before the dive we were joking about what would happen when diving on this day. It turned out to be our lucky day. On the way back David banged his tank with his pointer stick. He winked me over and when I came close I saw 2! Frogfish!! They were lying together and gave David a well-earned round of applause. The only bad luck was that we didn’t bring the Go Pro that day. Other great finds were a sticky pipefish (short-tailed pipefish), a Dragon Seamoth and Mandarin fish.

Short Tailed Pipefish

Dragon Seamoth

Mandarinfish

A couple more snapshots:

 

 

 

Plans

At the moment we are waiting for our engine to get repaired. Also we are planning to buy a brand new one. Aaris found one for a reasonable price. When we take our boat out on a longer trip we have to be sure that we can take care of ourselves at all times. We could install the new engine and take the old one as a back-up. We bought some canvas to attach to the sides of the boat to function as a tent for when it’s raining. On our longer trips we plan to sleep over on the boat. For this we already bought sleeping bags and mats. Once the boat is running again and we installed the canvas our beauty is good to go.

We have two trips planned. First we want to go down south to Apo Island. There they have the oldest and best protected fish sanctuary in the Philippines. It’s even mentioned in the top 100 dive spots in the world. On the way over we want to stop by Cabilau, Oslob (to dive with resident whale sharks) and Siquijor (To visit my friend Coco from Thailand who works there). The second trip we plan to make to Bohol. Bohol is a very big island with a lot of diving opportunities we’d like to explore. Before doing this we're going to make a try out trip to Camotes Island around 4 hours away. This will give us great insight in what's required for the longer trips. After this we are thinking to ship our boat to Palawan. We still need to find a way to do it since it is around a 1000 km away, but it seems to be amazing there…

I’ll keep you posted! Hopefully on a more regular basis! Take care!!