Sabang 2003 - Lovely Ladies, Strong Drinks and Deep Diving

In the middle of December when the countryside becomes snow-covered and the people come together to sing some old stuff of fairy stories, than Henry starts to stuff all his diving gear into a to much small case to prepare a new Single Adventure Tour. In the end of the last year 2002 something was different, because the time was short to get all this god-damn papers that you need to marry a Filipina. I expected to spent all my valuable time in Manila to change papers with my embassy and some reserved officials in town, but I needed only three days to get something like a preliminary marriage contract. So we went of to Sabang for some diving adventures and lovely x-mas events. I decieded to stay in Villa Sabang close to Octopus- divers. This is my recommendation for you as I know that you will be always surrounded by divemasters with more than thousand dives in this area. Octopus divers are a big family of always returning dive freaks which are mostly high certificated. Many of them used to stay there for month or the half of a year. There all had once enough time to get their certificat as a dive master. I noticed that they rigour make groups of divers with equal abilities, aptiudes and interests. Self-evident they are offering trips to Verde Island, a place that you have to see, if you really want to say I have been in Puerto Galera for diving. I never saw a place like this where you only need to hold your camera into the reef to get some particulary delightful shots of this exciting reef-scenery. Mostly the current will be strong and the visibility excellent. They offered two groups, one for a deeper dive and one for the shallow dive. After the first dive the bootsmen prepare always a tasty barbecue on the beach of Verde Island. Mostly some curious children from the island watch at this odd people from all over the world grilling on the beach. Probably is this the only atraction of the day for them. In spite of the fact that this place is occupied by divers very often the children act very shy and go away if you try to approach them. A cemetery is situated in the back of the picnic area. Some divers tried to catch some pictures of the kids in front of the beach with the palm trees and the cemetery in the back. To my regret I was not prepared for such motives, because I was here for underwater photography. I guess this naturally behaviour of such beautiful kids, you will only find on a paradisiacal island. So don't forget your camera if you go there. The second dive began with heavy current. The boat lies at anchor on a little rock in front of Verde Island, where you will start every dive. After the jump into the water it was a hard work to go on the rope through this strong current to the rock, that was used as a shild against the current to find a way down. The rock expands under the water to a considerable drop-off reef. Mostly the reef is on your left shoulder when you go slowly down to 40,0 meters against weak current. In that deep you will find big Gorgonarias on a lush covered wall. The beauty of this wall turns you down to the deep. Suddenly I was 45,0 meters deep. My fascination of this wall was such big that I had forgot to watch at my computer. On the way around the rock we came slowly up to a point where the current changed the direction and became very strong. Step by step diver by diver climbing through the reef against the current. There is also the point where gorgeous soft corals flourish. It is rarely possible to lap the rock, but we did it. It is highly recommended to use light equipment in this strong current.Do not think about bringing your Niconos RS to Verde Island. I saw it ones that somebody was going around the rock with a Niconos RS. It was an agonizing torture for the photographer. Very seldom I saw him taking a shot.

Jenny is so sweet that she always go with me there, even she do not dive. After the second dive everybody got his SAN Miguel and I had three. Back in Villa Sabang it was time for a nap and a very fine meal prepared by Jenny. She brought a cookbook from her mother. On the 27 of December we headed back to Manila for some paper junk, because this date would become the date of our merriage. If you get crazy like me one day and you really want to marry your honeyko, feel free to ask me for a step by step guide for the marriage in the Philippines. I will give you the addresses of people who offer the whole service to get all papers without any hassle and without waste of your time. I had not any problem to marry my girl, because I got all the informations from a very good friend. So let me be yours. If you think the girls in your place are beautiful, let me tell you, that a Filipina-gilfriend is a goddess.

Jenny always likes to hang up at the Hard Rock Cafe of Makati City. I like this place to, but I do not like the bands playing there. They should forbid all bands to play there whose do not know to play one song by AC/DC or Metallica. On the next morning we took a bus to Batangas but in Malate and not at the BLTB- terminal in Passey City, because the traffic on the Edsa Street is terrible. The government works on that problem and had closed some of the bus- terminals, but I do not think that the situation will become better. The bustrip was P100,- only and much faster than the BLTB-liner was before. Back in Villa Sabang we got a new, bigger room, but fortunate for the same price as what we had paid before. This was the room number 20. This room looks like the residence of a president. We had a 8 meters long glass front with the impressive view over the bay. This room was excellent for our New Years party. For that reason we invited Jenny's sister and her husband. We bought a lot of foods to cook it in the nighttime. The most important for Jenny was the fruit-salat. She told me that it would be an old Filipino tradition to offer fruit-salat at the New Years Eve. For my taste she put to much cheese on it, but all in all a nice salat. I was brave enough to light some firecrackers. The filipino firecrackers are cheap,but probably not very careful produced. The rockets, each cost P5,-, looks like a product of improvisations with the very thin bamboo strips, but they do for what you buy them. They fly high and exploding noisy.

Walter from Octopus Divers asked me for doing a NITROX-course, because he know that I like to take pictures in the Canyons. I said yes why not. So I did a NITROX-course at the 24. and 25. of December, as most of you probably were sitting together with mom and dad in front of a prize catch or a christmas goose, impatient waiting that grandma try her new sox. No,thank you men, this kind of stuff is not my cup of tee. For those of you whose do not like to sing christmas carols with mom and dad I try to do some work to kick you ass and get you to Sabang, where you can booze good value beer surrounded by sweet, charming girls and last but not least where you can dive deep. But lets go back to the NITROX-course. The course is theoretical one of the more demanding, but Walter will pump it in your head in his unmistakable, humorous way, even you are one of the biggest numbskulls, that stumbling around on this planet. When you make the final examination, you get a free beer. I recommend you to take a SAN Miguel light, because of the 5 percent alcohol in it.

Now to the main interest of most of you. I know this, because I have got a lot of mails concerning the nightlife in Sabang but only some about the dive-spots there. Well the three girlie- bars are still alive. How ever you think about this topic, I must confess that this three girlie-bars makes SABANG BEACH to the absolute highlight for single traveling divers not only in the Philippines but also all over the world. Why this palce is so much attractive for single traveling divers:

• short boot trips to the dive spots
• no big hotels ruin the beautiful bay
• good value for money, because the big tourism industry do not excist
• you can find the nightlife of a large town in a small village
• You plan your trip alone, you travel alone but you are never more alone after your arrival. I mean if you go there you get a guarantee for a hot love affair, because the girls are not so much reserved like in other countries.

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