Malapascua Island, Philippines - February 5, 2006
Explored more of the Philippines last night and today. There is a famous 'shooters bar' where you have to drink for your country. Essentially if you drink 15 shots, you get to mark a point for your country, have your picture taken and put on a wall, as well as your name engraved for the wall. Top runners were 1) Germany, 2) Sweden, and 3) England. It also shows where most of the tourists here are coming from.
Early this morning, my girlfriend and I woke up early to attempt walking around Malapascua Island. We made it about half way, but then had to cross over mountains away from the beach. We went through a few villages and such. Not bad. There seems to be tons of development for future individual projects. Not much is really up and running though, and I'm not sure if Malapascua has the tourist infrastucture to get them there - based on buses from Cebu and boats across from Maya are not really there. There isn't even a restaurant or covered waiting area for tourists in Maya (the port from Cebu Island to Malapascua Island). In short, you can see money-making opportunities for locals all over the place, but none of which are really utilized. In addition, there isn't even an ATM machine available on Malapascua, which is strange for how many foreigners are visiting here. That alone could be a good money-making opportunity for a local just charging a $1 or $2 on ATM commission transactions. I suppose in time, it'll all be there though.
This afternoon we were invited to see cockfighting. This is famous in the Philippines, and basically two cocks fight each other to the death. They attach one large blade to the back of one foot, with which they can mortally kill their opponent with it. Its definetely an art. The pen itself is surrounded to keep the onlookers as only onlookers. People make all kind of bets and such, there is a definite procedure behind the entire thing. My girlfriend and I were able to get two prime seats by paying 10 pesos each (20 US cents) to be right next to the fenced in area. We watched about 5 matches which took a couple hours in total of the afternoon. A cockfight itself only lasts a few minutes. But the ritual of choosing cocks, placing bets, and everything else takes some time. There were also a few other foreigners hovering around watching, and even one who was betting on the cocks - and even won!
Met another character during luncthime. An old retired British guy who had his own boat. He was a captain of a ship and took tourists out on the boat. He was quite drunk though, and ready for bed by noon. I take it thats basically his life - just drinking and taking people out on the boat. He said he was retired in England, but might retire soon from this current profession as well. He said most of his life here was basically sleeping. Later we saw him drinking with some locals as we were heading for the cockfights.
In the place where we were staying, we met the owner. Apparently she used to be married to a Danish guy - who is now deceased. She owns a lot of different businesses and properties on the island. Apparently she rents out a dive shop to a handful of British guys - who are raking in money! They put up advertisements in Europe, and Europeans sign up for extremely expensive diving excursions. She estimates they are making close to $US2,000 a week! Incredible if that is true, and it could be, but its hard to say. She was complaining however that they cause a lot of problems and treat her property extremely poorly - decreasing the property value. So she would like to get rid of them as tenants. Interesting local to talk with though.
While we walked around the island, we also met other locals married to foreigners working on businesses around as well. Malapascua Island isn't much right now, but individual investment seems to be popular around here anyways. It feels best for divers overall - most go to see something called a Thrasher Shark. It feeds in this area. For swimming itself, I didn't see much of that. The waters aren't taken care of that well - well not like Boracay anyways. Lots of seaweed and such. Maybe that will all change soon as well though.
More on the Philippines..
February 8, 2006
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