“Was that a little taste of a sunny Spring the other day?”

Dave & Tessie’s House Warming Diary Continued from previous month.The weather has gone bad again so Tessie & I will move over to the other coast in search of the sun.So we are on the Ceres bus, past miles of sugar cane, miles of rice fields dug into the mountain sides &overflowing with water, on to the town of San Carlos to find a nice hotel room with a nice matteress.The weather is a little better but not good enough to go diving, so we go for a trip to Sipaway Island. Atthe pier we asked the cost of the fare. 16 Pesos Maam! When is the next trip? When some passengersarrive Maam! How much for a special trip? 110 Pesos Maam! Okay lets go then. So when Tessie & myself are on board the banka boat, 10 more Filipino’s climb on board for a free ride across. Such is life inthe Philippines.Tessie has bought a huge new suitcase the biggest one in the department store. I hope she is not planningto load it with chocolate on her next visit! But it could be handy for taking home a few bottles of Tanduayrum. San Carlos is not the right place for a man with a new underwater camera, so we are moving toDumagete – 153 km away. We load Tessie’s huge suitcase & my 2 bags into the front of the bus, blockingthe bus driver’s access to his seat, but he is not concerned for he has a piece of angle iron fastened to theside of the bus that rests he rests his foot on then with a slick sideways wriggle he is in through thewindow & in his seat beside his sick gearbox that will not move into first or second gear. When the busstops so does the engine, so he restarts while first gear is engaged causing a severe jerking motion makingones head nod for 4.5 hours. I visit the motor bike rental co & for 200 pesos per day I have 110cc fourstroke Honda. A blue one, they never had any yellow ones, but it has 2 rear view mirrors so it’s okay forthe 30km of rough road to Tamboobo Bay where I’m visiting my Australian friend Ron. Ron, his wife &daughter live on their 43 foot yacht that has 8 large solar panels to create enough power to run hisrefrigerators keeping his beer cold. He has two crook knees & a bad hip, so it takes 20 bottles of SanMiguel for the pain to go away, although sometimes only 19 bottles. It just shows how much goodness isin each bottle. We have moved into a bamboo nepa hut just 4 metres from the sea where I can try out mynew digital camera. There is a coral reef further out & my camera works real good. I can snorkel aroundout there & take lots of photos, then come back to shore & sit on the veranda to delete the ones I don’tlike. Then go back out & take some more, no sweat! My motor cycle skills are improving each day & Ihave endured a 30km ride in torrential rain that killed my yuppy phone. I should have bought a underwaterhousing for it! I have travelled the 30km Tamboobo Bat Rd as rough as Mars, travelled the ).5Km floodedaccess way 40cm deep all the way into this Malatapy resort. There a re two bamboo bridges just a metrewide & on exciting the bridge one is faced with a 150cm drop, a 150cm puddle, an iron gate half open & a30 degree bend with a rock wall. And today the rock wall won & Tessie ended up with a wounded knee &is not speaking to her hubby. This is a dam shame as she is the one who can speak the language here. Inthe interest of the scars gathering on Tessie’s legs & matrimonial communications, I reluctantly return themotor bike to Dumagete. I never achieved the silky skills of some of the Filipno riders who can ride withone hand while the other holds an umbrella, but I did manage to avoid the crazy cow with a rope throughit’s nostrils, running circles in the road. The return trip to Malatapuy on the modern bus with springs,foam, air con, even a television was comfortable enough but sadly lacking in excitement. Next stop isSipalay 3 buses & 3 motorbikes & we have circumnavigated the island of Negros, just another 4000islands to go. Here I scuba dived on a ship wreck & some pretty coral, but the two sunken island dives amile or two offshore were great. These offshore reefs are found by firstly lining up land marks then usingthe fish finder that is simply a 4 litre paint tin filled with concrete with 45 metres of string attached. Whenit snags the bottom down we go, 40 metres to the top of the reef. There is no need for an explanation onwhat the concrete fish finder does to the beautiful reef, but it’s the way it’s done. The fish here areplentiful with a very tame school of Barracuda that I was able to get as close as 2 metres but at this depthmy camera will not take photos without a flash. The next reef was at 30 metres & the camera workedokay.To return to our new house in Grand Estanzia one departs the jeepney, hopefully without hitting ones heador dislocating you back. At Lopues then board one of the 50 or more waiting tricycles, these are mostly110cc with a sidecar fitted. After waiting for a maximum of 5 minutes one is joined by another 6 or 7passengers & away we go slowly at about 2kph to our house for the cost of 7 pesos or for a special tripyou pay 30 pesos. 7 pesos equates to 2 cents NZ.