Title picture: A Filipina eat Balut at Makati City of Manila.

We followed this tout to his brother's boat. He wanted P1500, for the nightly special ride to Sabang. We took a 10 minute trike ride to the landing stage on the canal.As we arrived on the boat, there were more Filipinos than I had expected. Everybody was offering something and we were aware that this was a dangerous situation so we didn't haggle about every tip. On the boat the crew was waking up including the wife of the owner. She stood with her nightdress dazed on board and was covering her half nacked body and her husband helped us get on board. Somebody was selling could beer, but I told him that I didn't want any because I knew the price of being intoxicated in dangerous places at night. After sitting in the boat and listening to the sound of the diesel engine we became more relaxed This boat was a bit too small for the crossing, but we couldn't go around at night. I was happy to leave the port of Batangas with directions to Sabang Beach. Around in the mountains we saw lightning several times. We probably felt that night like the old Spaniards had felt when they reached Puerto Galera with their cargo of gold while a typhoon get closer. This port is very famous for it's typhoon safety. We saw the lights from Sabang a half hour after we left Batangas, but we wouldn't see outlines during the next hour. It seemed that our captain was not sure, if we went a few miles or not, because he sometimes tried to increase the speed until thick smoke was around us.

As I was standing on the beach at 3.00 AM, I was overjoyed. A friendly fisherman greeted us and offered his help to find a room. He told us that he woke up at 2.30 AM to check his boat and saw us. We were lucky met this man, because he tried to wake up the owner of the hotels around, once with success. We put up in a place at the back of Captain Greg's for the first morning. I was very thirsty so I went out to the last open place ( a little fast food stall with people sitting around the kitchen) to order a San Miguel. It was at this time that the last disco was closing. I don't need to wait for some night-revellers. Some girls came over with the usual "handsome" talk. One of them sat next to me and ordered some foods. At first I saw that she was probably not a good girl, but after talking with her I found she was very funny. She always tried to feed me with her meal. Next a local "drunkard" explained to me the changes that had occurred since my last visit. That night we didn't want to sleep. After sunrise we finished our breakfast and went around to say hello to our friends and the local heros. First we stopped at Lucky's Saloon where I stumbled over his big dog. I was lucky that this dog wasn't very aggressive. Lucky was reading an interesting book in his empty pub. New is that he is now dealing with products from the brothers of ALDI (a german cut-price-offerer for foods). That's cult. You can now buy some indispensable things, for example: sauerkraut or pickled cucumber in the middle of the Philippines. Congratulations Lucky continue that great work !! Our next station was the unavoidable visit by Mac Mac of Octopus divers. He always serves a cold beer at first. This is german hospitality. I don't remember every having to pay for that first beer. While you sit there and drink your beer you can ask what ever you like. Mostly Mac Mac is well informed and very helpful. Often you can see him fighting with his computer and all the power outages in that area. There are no telephone wires in existence. If you want to surf in the internet you need an expensive cell phone. So don't be angry if you have to wait for your mail to be answered. There is a new divemaster from Austria working at Octopus. His name is Walter and he is also a nightlife hero. So don't worry if you are travelling alone.