The Brit

Steve Jones gave up teaching French in 1992 and now researches, writes and publishes for his company, Wicked Publications Limited. The first book London... The Sinister Side has sold over 100,000 copies in England and Japan. Twelve further, heavily illustrated books, mostly on social history and true crime, have been very well received. Steve, a Charlton Athletic fanatic, lives in Nottingham with his wife and baby son.

We chatted and he went on and on about the ignorance of Americans who never travel. He hitchhiked across the USA in 1972. That is when the friendly Canadian diver started talking about his travels across Canada in '71.
I told him I live in Taiwan, and I had been to Korea. And he commented with "God you have lived in some awful places".
He just granted the publication rights to one of his books to a Chinese company. They want to possibly use it to do ESL. Apparently "The Chinese are very interested in anything about London". I had to tell him Chinese people like to read he might do well with the translated publication.
He was a little excited and then we went on to talk about
"Other things Philipines" It was pretty interesting.
He mentioned how he made his books, I think it might be right up Ry's alley.

The Swede

Just because "he doesn't speak English very well", does not mean I won't make an effort to speak to him.
The bar was empty except for a thin Santa Claus and a sharp waitress.
He is a thin quiet looking, chainsmoking, San Miguel tipping, older guy. He had been in the Philipines on Malapascua Island for 50 days. It is his third visit to the island and he loves it.
Sweden is cold,wet and crowded. "Why would I stay there?" I own my own company "People think I am crazy for working". He looks about 70. He comes from a family of 8 and they are very close. He likes dogs and German Shepards are popular in Sweden. He owns 4 tractor trailers and several smaller trucks and he delievers parcels throughout Stockholm. He likes to work "I gotta to do something, I can't just sit here", as he (points to the newly arrived San Miguel and reaches for more cigarettes).
His bushy thick white beard was not a distraction, the sharp waitress was available to tease. Boy was I on my game. The Swede, the waitress and the Cannuck were having some real laughs. More of the new beer "Conversation-Ez" was ordered.
Diving blew through the conversation and fishing came up. I was supposed to get up at 4:30 and the Swede was to get up at 6. He was going fishing "I got to do something, I can't can't just sit here and (motions a finger at the new bottle).
We chit and chat, I take 5 minutes to talk about the weather and everything I ever heard about Sweden. He then tells me about giving coins to the island children every morning, fishing and catching nothing, over paying happily for everything. Buying his boatman, large bags of rice, bicycles for children, Tipping plenty, taking some pictures and enjoying the warm weather.
Quietly wondering about how to get a little special company from Manilla to pass the time. Popping out to the store for a packet of cigarettes. What cigarettes cost here and what they cost in Krona?(the basic monetary unit of Sweden). The offering of the hand of a fisherman's daughter (I think he may have turned down the cookie)
Some tequilla shots later, more people arrived and that would be a different post.

Mark and Satara

Day one met these two.
They split all costs on the spot. They live together and are a traveling couple. THEY have been to Vietnam, and Hong Kong, together. They decided to split costs because there would be "unfair expenses" because she likes to eat seafood (which is more expensive).
They bickered that "his friend" paid for his girlfriend to fly to England.

They were ok for a little while, but soon they were hinting. something about wanting to use the bathroom in my 1000 pesso a night shack, cause the 300 pesso didn't have lights and water. Wanting to use my phone to call Taiwan.. cause theirs was not working.. which I suggested they get it to work. That they could purchase a "Load" for their phones.
They seemed to bring too much baggage from Taiwan, they were trying to get a hold of their friend to meet them and bring them 40000 pessos because the exchange rate was better... blah blah. I think their friend went to Bohol instead.

Come on!! Dual income traveling couple dropping 36000 to get their open water dive and nickel and diming. They even walked out of a bar on the tab. I didn't pick it up but I just met the other couple who did. The new couple thought it was ok.

I knew it was time to cut them loose when I asked them if they wanted to get a boat and go snorkeling. They said yes. But first they had to change some money, then they told the boat guy they were going with another guy, then they had to change their clothes, then blah blah and they suddenly didn't feel like going because 500 pessos divided by 3 people was too much. I then had to go find the first boat guy I spoke to (cause there was never another guy). This took me 45 minutes. I was kinda pissed. Fellas if you didn't want to snorkel say "no thanks" and do not say "Oh yeah that will be fun" and then waste precious moments of my vacation time. I went alone, saw fish, a pile of Koreans snorkeling with life jackets.

I got to have some fun.

Thersher Shark

What I saw looked bigger than this.. in my 50 minute dive my group did a lot of commando style crawling for 50 minutes at 22m. I saw plankton, tiny insect like shrimp, and a pile of fish before 7am. I finished with 40bars and when my head broke the surface my left ear made a sound like sticking your head out a car window at 100kmph. I now have an ear infection, anti-biotics, deafness and a desire to dive in Taiwan some weekend.