Malapascua - above the water

As always seems the way I meet so many amazing people while diving. I was diving with a 50/60ish english couple Louise and Dick, and an english couple Evonne and Jamie who were around my age, Belinda and Wong a couple from singapore, and a South African couple in their early 20s.

They were great diving and drinking and dining companions for the 5 days on the island.

Lousie and Dick gave retirement a great name, they were outdoorsy sporty adventures, with a taste for the good life who were such amazing company. Evonne and Jamie were also an interesting and fun couple, in fact everyone was friendly and interesting, apart from the dive shop operators. Apparently they had run bars in San fran, the guy looked like a bouncer, and the woman called andrea was a bit hard. They were not very nice to the philippino bar staff either...anyway....back to the others.

We had lots of great conversations about travelling and diving, between all the people we had travelled the globe many times. Most people were into outdoors action, a little off the trail if possible, which I must say is my favorite destination. THese conversations were indispersed with conversatoins about the world, our countries etc. I did not know that in south africa there is load sharing, which means that there is no electricty 9am to 5pm in houses everywhere!

Also meet an American women around my age living in Manilla diving there, and Australian 2 and 3 a great couple from sydney ANthony and Helen who had already been travelling for a year though SOuth AMerica and Asia, and were heading to SE Asia. Michelle was a pilot and her stories about the sexismin the industry made my work place look like a girls club. She was the only women in 80 people in the philippines and was denied invitations to company events cause she was a woman!!!!!!!

WIth the rumor of a second cyclone approaching the island i left with the aussie couple a day early than planned. This involved a lengthy negotiation with the boat men who ripped us off (all realative but still the princible). We talked to the boat owner, the captain, their mates etc. The typical fiasco. We got a reasonable deal (but still 4 times what the locals paid) with 3 of us negotiating for an hour. When we arrived at the port at the other end, they forgot to get the money as they got carried away singing to a george micheal song blarring out from another docked boat. We were almost celebrating a small victory for the tourists when they remebered, and the row boat we were on was turned around to get the cash.

Got bus to Cebu......4 hours later arrived in a typical small asian city.