One Fish, Two Fish, Big Fish, Small Fish

The Philippines is known for its underwater biodiversity, and Cebu is one of its premier diving locations.  When our longtime friends, Peter and Trish, began planning a trip to visit us in Singapore we started looking for diving locations and Cebu quickly floated to the top of our list.

Cebu is about a 3-hour flight away and serviced by Scoot Airline, a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines.  In other words, an easy trip.  Cebu has a new international airport which appears to be built for their future as there are only about 15 flights a day into it today.  This airport is also stepping it up for hospitality as the staff places free luggage carts strategically around the carousels, not in a group away from where you need them—Good on you Cebu!

After doing a bunch of research last fall we decided to stay at The Turtle Bay Dive Resort in Moalboal, a short 3 HOUR DRIVE AWAY.  We arranged transportation through the hotel so getting there was easy enough.  Like most countries in Asia, traffic is a way of life and in Cebu the roads are narrow and crowded with buses, tricycles and jeepneys.  Plus, pedestrians and dogs—lots of dogs.

We were in Bali almost 10 years ago when we first noticed that almost ALL dogs in poorer areas of Asia look pretty much alike.  My sister pointed out that is a real-world illustration of “regression to the mean”.  Regardless of their origins, these dogs seem to always be doing one of two things.  They are either sleep wherever they want, the road, a trail, a porch.  Or biting an itch on their back—it always seems to be in the same spot.

The other thing that you see in the Philippines is religious imagery—It is EVERYWHERE!  It seemed almost every truck, car, and tricycle had icons dedicate to this or that saint, or most frequently, the Virgin Mary.  In those few instances where it was non-religious imagery it tended towards Playboy logos and others of questionable taste.

The resort was great. As is so common in Asia, the staff was friendly, helpful, and always there when you needed them.  There was a bar with Italian food that had a wonderful view of the bay.  There was also a restaurant that served a wide variety of foods.   After 4 nights the food was beginning to get a bit tiresome, but it wasn’t because of the staff or quality.

The rooms were simple and clean which was what we wanted. We had a small deck in front that we could just sit and watch almost nothing while drinking a beer.  While we were there they were installing a Wi-Fi extender which meant that we had good Wi-Fi.

One of the reasons we came to Turtle Bay was there were lots of dive sites close by.  We found out how close the next morning when we met at the dive shop at 8:30 am.  After getting our gear we headed to the dive boat and set off to Pescador Island, a 5-10 min ride from our resort.

The boat type is called a Bangka.  Basically it consists of a very large canoe with outriggers on each side.  It is fast, stable, and has a shallow draft.  Ours could hold about 12 people with tanks and other gear.  Overhead there was a sunshade to make it more comfortable.  At the back was an outboard big enough to get the boat up and moving.

Entry into the water was a back roll.  After getting in it was easy to hang off one of the outriggers while everyone got in.  But the best part was the way you got out of the water.  They had a fold down stairway that paralleled the main hull.  Even with all of your gear and weights on it was easy to swim up to the steps, walk up a few, swing your butt onto the gunwale, and you were onboard.  Much easier than climbing up a ladder to a swim step.

The diving at Pescador Island was as varied as it was beautiful.  We had a wall dive on the west side of the island, as well as shallower one on a sandy coral covered slope to the south.  Everything from moray eels, hawk billed turtles, seahorses, poisonous sea snakes—far too many things to remember.  And all of this with a spectacular backdrop of corals.

My favorite dive from Moalboal was to the sardine ball off Panagsama Beach.  We entered the water a little to the north and headed south along a wall.  All of a sudden our dive master pointed to a dark, shadowy place.  Getting closer we realized that it was millions of sardines moving like a flowing cloud.  As you entered the cloud they parted and you were swimming through a living tunnel of fish.  (I need to also point out that millions of fish means millions of tiny fish turds in the water, nothing a hot shower afterwards couldn’t handle.)

At one point Trish entered the sardines slowly with her arms pointed in front of her.  They parted but stayed very closer to her.  All of a sudden she quickly moved her arms apart.  When hundreds of thousands of fish move away at EXACTLY the same time they make a thump you can hear through the water.

One day we did a dive with the whale sharks at Oslob.  This meant a very early departure for the 90-minute drive around the southern tip of the island.  Julie and Christopher joined us since there was a snorkeling option.  When we arrived at the beach, the snorkeling group went their way while we geared up.  A beach entry and 200m swim brought us to the feeding area for the whale sharks.

Swimming at about 10m we suddenly saw a shadow turn into a huge whale shark, 8-10m long.  The first one swam towards and directly over me and reminded me of an opening scene from Star Wars.  Another swam close enough to me and Trish that we could have easily touched it.  These sharks are fed by the fishermen above us in small outriggers.  As they open their mouths they go almost vertical and the tails get close to the sandy bottom.  Julie and Christopher were snorkeling up above us somewhere holding on to an outrigger as the fish were just below and in front of them. 

We all came away awestruck by our experiences with the whale sharks.  These feeding stations are controversial though as these fish are no longer migratory.  The other side of the coin is that tens of thousands of people each year have an encounter with whale sharks that raises awareness and hopefully makes a difference in habitat preservation.  I truly don’t know how I feel, but I do know I will never forget this experience.

I Ran Here to Eat

India is a complex place, full of contrasts.  I normally spend most of my time in Mumbai near the Banda Kura Complex by the airport.  But Friday we had a meeting in South Mumbai and since traffic in Mumbai (and India in general) ranges from Bad to Horrible, we headed out early to make sure we got to the client on time and figured we would have lunch at a nearby restaurant one of the team knew.

South Mumbai (or South Bombay as it is still referred to) was the center of old colonial Bombay.  It is filled with buildings that the British built (or had built) and has a charm to it not present in the more modern India.  Our car dropped us off in a charming, vintage, colonial section of town at Britannia and Company.  The somewhat shabby exterior belied what we would experience on the inside (although still shabby).

My co-worker told me this was a very special restaurant.  It was opened in 1923 by Iranian immigrants and serves Parsi food.  It is only open at lunchtime (11:30 to 4:00) and its owner is a 95 year old who still shows up every day.  Checking in we were directed to a large table “over in front of my father”.  Sure enough there was a well-dressed older man watching the goings on from a table.

Showing his photo with
William and Kate

As my coworker tried to get the attention of a waiter, he was waived off a couple of times.  Finally, one of the waiters indicated that the owner would be taking our order.  Then Mr. Boman Kohinoor came over to make a little small talk and take our order.

He asked where we were from and we never got passed Singapore.  “Too many rules there” was almost the first thing out of his mouth, then went on to praise the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew and what he accomplished.  As we took our order, he scrawled the initials of the dish on his note pad.   “2 M.C.” meant two orders of mutton cutlet.  “4 M.B.P.” meant four orders of Mutton Berry Pulav. We also each ordered a bottle of a raspberry soda that is popular with the Iranian community and is getting harder and harder to find.

  

The food was wonderful.  The mutton would just dissolve in your mouth and the layers of flavors were evidence to the complexity of the dishes.  The berries are evidently imported from Iran because nothing else compares.

Raspberry juice with
 "No Fruit"

And as good as the food was, it paled to Mr. Kohinoor.  As we chatted with other tables he brought out one of his prized possessions—a picture of him with Prince William and Kate.  Towards the end of our meal I looked over at his table.  First he was leaning back, eyes closed.  A little later his head was down and the table, resting on his crossed arms.

I feel very lucky to have experienced Britannia and Company as it is today, for it will be changing—no one lives forever.  But I think and hope that the unique hospitality continues as the 5^th generation of the family is working at the restaurant now.  Hopefully they have learned a lot at the knee of Mr. Kohinoor.

Ubin Here Before?

Singapore is a pretty special place.   It is one of the most, if not the most, modern countries in the world.  This is evidenced by an outstanding public transit system that is clean, quiet, and frequent (everything that BART is not), its public housing (HDBs) that everyone can have a place to call their own, and its world-class education system.

But not that long ago Singapore was part of the third world.  Today’s HDB estates were just jungle.  The roads and expressways that crisscross the island were nothing but dirt tracks and roads.  Neighborhoods were kampongs (villages) and wild animals were encountered frequently ( the last wild tiger in Singapore was killed in 1930).  Luckily a little bit of old Singapore still exists at Palau Ubin.

We had talked about visiting Palau Ubin since we first moved here.  The cool(er) January weather seemed like the right time of the year to go so we headed out on Sunday morning to Changi Village Ferry Terminal.  

Immediately you felt like you were stepping back in time as you were directed aboard a “bum boat” for the 15-minute journey to the island.  There is no schedule for the boats, as they fill up to their maximum of 12, they head out.  Fares are $3 SGD each way and collected in cash.  Nothing fancy about these boats.  Great views from the boat, including a sea eagle circling over the water.

After arriving at Palau Ubin you walk down a pier from the landing to the island proper.  A village is on your left, but we headed to the right and on to the Sensory Trail .  A smooth and level dirt road leads you past trees and orchards.  A wrong turn at one point brought us to a small beach with a view of Singapore proper across the strait.  As we were walking along a pond later we startled a large monitor lizard that scampered into the water and dove out of view. 

At the end of the Sensory Trail we were on a paved road and headed towards the east end of the island.  Before long we were at House #1 and its pier that headed out over the water.  The building was so typically English and so out of place in equatorial Singapore.  A walk out the pier provided a good glimpse of Palau Sekudu and read the mythology about it.  It also afforded us a view of Palau Ubin from the water.

 

We headed up the Jejawi viewing tower and its 120 steps to the top with views of Malaysia and Singapore.  As we started heading back we ran into monkeys on the ground and in the trees.  A little father down the road we spotted some wild boar crossing the road.  The disappeared into the jungle and as we got closer we could barely make them out and would have never shown in a photograph.  We passed some others that had spotted a 2-foot long bright green snake that looked like a vine if you didn’t know it was there. 

Periodically we would come upon old houses that had been there for decades, examples of life as it was in Singapore decades ago.  We ended up at the village near the pier where we arrived and decided a couple of beers and some lunch was in order.  Good food, cold beer, and wonderful views as we reflected on our morning walk—who could ask for more.

Next time we will rent bikes on the island and explore the western half—who knows what that will bring?

A Thousand Points of Light

New Year’s Eve is an event in Chiang Mai.  We had two objectives; 1) Find a place to eat that we didn’t have to wait for an hour or more to eat and 2) Stay awake until midnight.

As we get older it has become harder and harder to make it to midnight.  We have had more than one New Year’s Eve party in California where everyone watched the ball drop in NYC at 9PM PST and call it shortly afterwards. 

We assured ourselves that this year would be different because we read that in Chiang Mai people release thousands of lanterns at midnight, floating into the sky, each carrying a wish for the new year.  So we bought our lanterns and candles so we would be set.   We knew that we could do it.

We found a pizza place for dinner run by a guy from Lake Como and it was pretty darn good.  We had been pretty good about experiencing the foods of Thailand and Vietnam, but I have to admit a good pizza was very welcome on New Year’s Eve.  And while my Negroni was served with my pizza rather than before, it still tasted good.

It was now about 8:30pm and time to take an advanced look at the area around Tha Phae Gate which we understood to be the center of the activities.  Even before getting there we saw at least 100 lanterns in the sky.  As we got closer, we were right there as people were buying lanterns from vendors and launching them.  There was now a stream of hundreds of lanterns floating up into the sky.  There was a very slight breeze that blew this river of light towards the north.

Of course, we had left our lanterns back at the hotel to protect them.  Not surprisingly they are pretty delicate as they need to be light to be able to float with just a candle.  We walked back and retrieved ours and grabbed a lighter that I had picked up earlier in at a 7-Eleven.

We found a place along the water that wasn’t in the center of the crowd.  The water is lined with trees, but this spot had one missing so there was a good clear route to the sky.  As we started watching and figuring out how to launch them one of the vendors asked to borrow my lighter--”no problem”.  When he returned it he showed us a trick to pinch the circular candle in the four places where you light it.  Karma is good.

Holding the lantern upside down you light the candle in 4 places, then quickly invert it, being careful not to catch it on fire as you flip it.  Resting it on the ground to build up the heat, you raise it carefully after a couple of minutes.  You want to toss it into the air, but just a gentle release is all it takes.  (Don’t forget to make a New Year’s wish.)  The lantern takes off fast, joining other lanterns rising up into the sky.

We launched all five of ours successfully and had one left.  We decided to give it to a couple who were just watching everyone else launch theirs.  They were appreciative and we watched them launch theirs—it’s got be good karma.

The reflection of the lanterns in the water coupled with the river of lanterns floating up into the sky is a sight we will never forget.  What a great way to launch 2019!

Putting the Chang in Chiang Mai

Today is one that we had been waiting for.  Not only was 2018 ending, but it was ending in a great way.  We were going to an elephant sanctuary.

First a little background on elephants in Thailand.  A hundred years ago there were over 100,000 domesticated elephants in Thailand.  They were used as living bulldozers in logging and clearing land.  Some were also used as breathing SUVs to transport people through the jungle.

Today there are fewer than 3,000 domesticated elephants and even fewer in the wild.  Logging was banned in 1989, but their use in the tourist trade continues.  Some are preforming in shows and others are used in trekking.  These animals have hard lives, both psychological and physical. 

When we were in Phuket, we went to an elephant sanctuary where they purchase elephants used in tourism and let them live out their days in peace.  They had about 7 or 8 elephants there.  It was a well run operation and was very popular with American tourists.  The revenue goes towards both supporting and buying more elephants.

The Elephant Nature Park (ENP) in Chiang Mai is the first and possibly largest.  Founded by an amazing Thai woman, Lek Chailert, this facility is changing the way that elephants are being treated in Thailand.  It is humbling that one woman can do so much.

We booked well in advance since the time between Christmas and New Year’s is a popular time in Chiang Mai.  Chiang Mai probably has the densest concentration of American tourists that we have experienced in Asia and ENP is very popular with Americans.    Our driver and tour guide picked the five of us up at our hotel and along with seven others we headed north for the 90-minute drive.  Along the way we watched two videos, the first on the rules of the park and the second a 10 year old Animal Planet video that included ENP.

The Chiang Mai facility is quite large.  The first thing we did was feed watermelons and bananas to a herd of seven elephants, including a baby.  There are 150,000 muscles in an elephant’s trunk and they know how to use every one.  They would want to have two pieces put in the end of their trunk and then bring it back to their mouth.  It was fascinating.

 Our group walked out to one herd of about five elephants who were five with mahouts (elephant keepers).  They were gathered under a large tree and one of the mahouts brought out some more banana and watermelon for us to feed them.  These big animals can be so gentle, but you are always aware of their size. 

Most of the mahouts are from Myanmar (Burma) and it was rewarding to greet them with “mingalaba” (hello in Burmese) and watch them smile and return the greeting.  Each elephant has her mahout and they use only words and positive reinforcement (i.e. food) to guide the elephants.  We watched one mahout stare down a baby elephant and the elephant backed away.

Walking in open space with both elephants and water buffalo walking about freely was a little surreal.  This is truly an animal sanctuary.  The food served for lunch was all vegan.  The water buffalo were on their way to the slaughterhouse before ending up here at ENP.  Dogs (quite well behaved ones) and cats were also up for adoption.  There was a board where you could sign up to “deliver” a dog to homes around the world.

After lunch we walked to the river to watch the herd we fed in the morning have their daily bath.  It was amazing to watch these huge animals roll weightlessly in the water in what looked like pure bliss.  Our guide told us that because it was rather cool the baths would be short.  And he was right.

Even cats have a safe place

After the bath it was time to play in the mud.  Not so much play as cover themselves with dirt as sun protection.  They would toss trunk fulls of dirt up on their back perfectly.  There was a baby elephant whose skills were not quite there yet, but others in the hood made sure she got covered.

Later as the baby was walking around something spooked her and she began to run.  Everyone made sure to get out of the way quickly.  With their eyes on the side of their heads it was a little hard to tell where she was running.  The good news is that no one was trampled.

A quick stop in the gift shop where we bought some elephant wood carvings done by mahouts to make a little extra money.  These were only 500 THB and a great way to remember a wonderful day.