Palawan

Hi! Just back in Lamut after an amazing vacation in Coron, Palawan. I feel completely rejuvinated. I really recommend to all of you - take a vacation! It was worth all the money...actually i just used my peace corps money....i never spend any while i am at site and i am really good at pinching my pesos! Even adam is amazed at how well i do considering ive been stuck in manila twice for medical and alwasy spend a fortune when i am there.
If you want, here is a little summary of my last couple of weeks and vacation.....
First of all, it was Adam’s birthday on March 29th. On the 28th I went with Mae to SIL – where I have my language lesson. If I haven’t mentioned it before – it’s the place where a lot of Americans live and do translations of the bible in the native dialects. Weird I go there but hey it’s nice! Tennis courts, a pool, library, and internet. It’s where I walk sometimes in the afternoons. So we went there together to bake a cake – yes they even have ovens! I went to my friend’s house with all the ingredients and we made my first cake from scratch! Frosting and all! Later that day I took it to Banaue. Not to brag but it was delicious!! Maybe my standards have lowered a bit - The cake here is terrible - bland and with buttery frosting - not sweet. Adam loved it (so he said) We even ate the leftovers for breakfast in the morning! I think it was a bit rich for his host family - they really aren't too fond of extremely sweet things. But hey he liked it and that was the point. The night of the 29th the two of us took a night bus to manila, arriving about 5 am in the morning. A funny thing happened during our trip. In the beginning the bus was entirely full - we were cramped and hardly slept. About halfway through the trip I noticed that some seats in the back opened up. I moved to two open seats and immediately fell asleep. Some time later, I felt someone tapping me – it was the conductor and Adam. I had in earplugs and an eyemask so it took awhile for me to wake up. I had no clue why but it turned out Adam woke up and noticed I wasn’t there. He looked around and didn’t see me – I was tucked up in a blanket in the far back. He freaked out thinking that I was left behind at the last stop. He ran up to the driver and told him to stop the bus. The driver said “jesus!” and slammed on the brakes. Luckily his attendant knew where I was and went directly to the back and woke me up. If I had been left I would have been screwed - I would have had no money on me or my phone! Lesson learned - never leave my seat again without mentioning it to my companion!
Anyways, in Manila we killed the day at the mall (typical). At 4 we got the ferry to Coron. The trip was 13 hours but so much better than the bus. It was amazing really -on the ferry you can stretch, walk, go to the bathroom, get lunch, and still be moving! Also, everyone gets a bed. The section we were in was a large air conditioned room full of bunk beds divided in groups of 4. It was way crowded but at least we got to lay down. They also serve dinner but because we bought the cheap tickets we got prison slop food – which we passed on and went to the restaurant for first class ticket holders and split a dinner. After a game of scrabble, we passed out. I slept so great it was amazing! I wish they had ferries in Ifugao. I wouldnt care how long it took.
We arrived in Coron on Saturday morning and went to a pension that our friend aaron, who lives there recommended. I slept for a good couple of hours more. That day Aaron showed us around the town – beautiful port town with mountains and palm trees and clear blue water all around. Adam and I took a trip that day all the way around the island stopping for a picnic and a swim in a small pool with waterfalls. Later that night when we got back we met a dive instructor at one of the dive resorts. We set up 2 dives for Monday. Sunday was a free day so we rented a boat with Aaron and Micky, another volunteer in Palawan. We went island hopping, stopping to snorkel at 3 or 4 different sites. We saw a lot of beautiful corals but my favorite part was this lagoon. Normally you have to swim through an underwater cave to get to it but the tide was low so we had some clearance. Inside, the water has different thermal layers – so the water is either very cold or very hot. If you go under the water you can see the difference in the water. Its way cool. Ive never seen anything like it. I think the warm water comes from the ground.
That night we all went to dinner. Just my luck in the middle of the night, I woke up sick and spent most of the night in the bathroom – food poisoning is my guess. Maybe some bad fish I ate. I was really bummed cos I felt like crap when I woke up and it was our first day of diving. But I sucked it up and went out anyways. I was so glad that I did. We took a boat out with Ron, our instructor, a couple from manila – one American and one Australian, and Morton, a Danish boatman. It was great fun. We saw two small wrecks and Ron took us through some “swim throughs” he called them. Its where we swam through sections of the boat that have cover overhead. Technically I don’t think we are supposed to go inside if we don’t have an advanced certification so this was a cheat way. It was great. The second dive was like swimming through a little maze. To give a little background….Coron is known for its wreck diving. They have around 12 Japanese boats in the area, sunk during WWII. Whats great is that they also attract corals which attract a lot of fish so you get to see a bit of everything. This was the first time Ive been diving since I was certified and I did great. Ron called me a mermaid cos I came up with so much air left in my tank. That night we were wiped so after dinner we crashed. WE did that pretty much all week. Diving is hard on your body so we were always exhausted at the end of the day. Tuesday we met up with a PC friend who’s parents were in town. We all went on a dive to Baracuda lake. Which is know for the different thermal layers. It was a trip. The water would go from freezing cold to unbearably hot – the difference much more extreme than in the lagoon. At one point we could see the layer of hot water but we were above it and it looked like we were looking down on the surface of water – like we were in the air – real trippy. The fish swimming though it like birds...hard to explain. Later, we ate lunch with the family and I talked with his mother Gail about my project and she said she would love to help out with my library project! Great news - she even said she will try to help get a set of encyclopedias donated to the school. Lucky we met them eh?
Wednesday we took a day off from diving and took a boat out to a beach (there are no real beaches on the main islands so boating is the only way to get to them) We had a picnic and played scrabble – thank you mom again for that! I definitely put it to use. Thursday we went diving again. This time with different instructors, a German couple, Larsen and Berren. Also with us was Sheme – Micky’s girlfriend from the states. Adam and her signed up to do a deep water course and I was planning to just dive along with them. Morton and Micky were also on board. Before we dove Berren talked me into doing my deep water course. We got a discount and she suggested it would be nicer if Adam and I were on the same level. And actually it was well worth it. I only spent 20 dollars more than if I just dove. We went on two wreck dives again. We weren’t underwater too long so we didn’t see much and we were also busy doing checks and technical stuff so it wasn’t much for enjoyment. Adam got narcosis for the first time. I have still yet to get feel it. Its nothing serious and it passes quickly - it can either make you really stressed and confused or give you a really good high. The dive instructors made it sound like youre lucky if you get it. Too bad for me.
For dinner we decided to start eating at the pension. Ate Bing, the cook/manager, is a great cook and fed us til we were full. She would bring out leftovers from lunch, fruit, dessert, whatever she had to offer us all for the same price. She was like my mama zonia replacement. You definately dont get that kind of service at a restaurant - or anywhere in the states. Thats pure filipino hospitality. Also, the food is really expensive in Coron because it is all shipped in from manila. It was still expensive to eat at the pension but it was more food for the money and we were doted on. During the days we'd eat sandwiches and fruit. For breakfast we ate oatmeal we cooked for ourselves. So by dinner we were hungry from diving and ready for our feast! And Morton was staying at our pension so we got a chance to get to know him. He’s a really cool guy – has traveled all over asia. He works on a ship half of the year and travels the other half. He had so much advice to offer us. Really a great guy.
On Friday we dove again – the best two dives yet! Again, we saw two wrecks. The "swim throughs" were really cool - long and interesting. In one of them we had to go down into a chute type thing. Its so dark and creepy inside. Its not scary just different. In some of the rooms there were old bottles, pieces of equipment, and on one of the dives Morton found an old gas mask! He brought it up to the boat to show us but they returned it so other people could have a chance to see it too. The coral on these dives were the best yet too. I wish i knew fish better but i do know we saw so much variety. It looks like straight out of finding nemo down there.
Saturday we exhausted again so we slept in late and did some souvenir shopping. Later we went to the dive resort for dinner. Its hard to get to. You have to get a boat to get to it. Its on its own little island. All week we'd been waking up to roosters and music at 5 am but over there it was so peaceful. Not yet possible to stay in luxury on our peace corps budget.
Anyways, it was Berren’s last day so they had a good bye dinner for her. It was a lot of fun. All the instructors are so interesting. Its such a mix of people at any dive resort you go to. I think you have to be an eccentric type to live abroad for most of your life and working as a dive instructor. We spent our last night eating, drinking, dancing (berren was a professional dancer back in germany), and having a great time.
Sunday, we relaxed and had one last dinner with Morton and Ate Bing. We boarded the boat around 11 – went to sleep right away. Monday in Manila we hung out at the mall again – what else is there to do there! We saw a movie – the first in a few months – called the Reaping – okay lang. And I finally met Jenny, an american staying next door to adam in banaue. she is doing research on the ifugao culture. Id been hearing so much about her but every time i went to banaue she had gone some place else. We really hit it off. I had previously been teasing about having some competition there but she is great. And really funny. Nice to have a new friend so close by that I can visit. We all went out to dinner and then decided to stay an extra night. Adam had packages at the office and it was still closed on Monday from the easter holiday so he wanted to wait and get them on tuesday morning. That night we walked on the boardwalk for the first time. SO surreal....its filled with different bands and shows - all filipinos. Some were singing bob marley, some old celine dion, i think i heard "eye of the tiger" There were two performers - baklas (gay cross dressers) who had a comedy/singing routine doing celine dion. They looked more like women than most women do! One of the bands were a group of hard rocker filipina girls singing old american top forty rock songs. At other stages they had bands well equipped with girls in very revealing clothing whipping there hair around and shaking their asses like strippers. guess you had to be there to get it completely.
Continuing on......Tuesday we got up and went to bus stop. Lucky for us the bus we were supposed to take bus broke down earlier so we were delayed about an hour and a half – extremely typical of travel here. We got a bus around 1130 - not bad cos we had movies to watch though one of them shut off half way through and another had subtitles from another movie which were a bit vulgar and full of cussing. And of course the bus took about 2 hours longer than usual.
Adam and Jenny ended up sleeping at my house which was great cos Jenny made a good impression on mama zonia. She is really friendly and seems really comfortable around filipinos.
Since my trip? Ive just been hanging out at the house. We have had our town fiesta the past two days. Today is the last day. Tuesday I joined the parade with all the teachers at my school. Yesterday I went with Mama Zonia to the search for Miss Lamut – our town beauty pageant. There were so many people there and all the seats were full. Lucky I went with Mama because she grabbed some chairs for us and sat us right in front. It lasted 5 hours and of course started over an hour late “Filipino time” so I didn’t get back until 2 am. Today I did all my laundry – hand washed-with the help of Mama.
The other day I switched rooms with Bembol. I moved into his room which is bigger. Too bad for him! It seems we are always moving him around whether he likes it or not. It took me a whole day to rearrange, clean, and get things where I wanted. It was nice to move - i like the change. Especially since our one year anniversary just passed, I just got back from vacation, and I feel really good about the next year. Our vacation was such a rejuvenator. I am looking back at the last year and really thinking about what Ive done and what else I’d like to accomplish. I feel like I have some great ideas for the upcoming school year and can really make some progress now. The first year was full of ups and downs and trial and error. I am feeling comfortable in my town and with my family and more settled.
Also, I have been doing a lot of thinking this past couple of weeks about myself. I have started to figure some things out personally. A friend of mine made a good point – in the US you can hide from your issues but here they find you, there is no hiding from them and you have to deal with them. Ive had a few realizations about myself lately and I am really going to try and work on them. I also have a new found attitude around here. Before I was very much self conscious of the attention I get everywhere. I would avoid eye contact and even kinda slouch down like that helps! Now I walk around smiling at everyone and saying hi and figure who cares – they are going to look regardless, its not personal, and I cant change anything but my attitude towards it. So far my new attitude has really helped me. One realization I had is that I have lost a bit of my personality here. I am more serious, joke around less, and I hate it! I am trying to relax, let the small things go – be more of the fun and easy going person I want to be. Before small stresses would really get to me – at the house, at school, etc. Even with friends I have this serious attitude. I gotta stop that. I was so sensitive to the culture when I got here that I held back a lot. I don’t regret it – I think it was important in the beginning so I could get established here and build a good reputation for myself. But now I feel the freedom to let go and be myself. I will be happier and others here will see that. They will like me better if I act like myself even if it is so different.
So I have a lot of new goals and ideas. I hope it works. Im feeling positive. I cant wait to come home in May. I was having some reservations about it considering things are going so well here for me now and I seem to do better if I am settled. But maybe some of that is that I just came back from a great vacation and this whole peace corps gig is looking great! Maybe after a couple of weeks without leaving Ill have a different opinion.
I hope you are all well. Ill let you know when I book my tickets and have a set date for coming home.
Love you all!