APO ISLAND 2002 - The Diver's Paradise, Single Adventure Tours 2002 - part 5

After 10 days of diving and relaxing we had to leave Boracay with the direction to the South. We took a boat around 8.00 AM and what a pity that we missed the first aircon-bus to Iloilo City. So we were sitting inside a non-aircon-bus. The beautiful sun made the furnishing of that bus including us to a pressure cocker and I started to run out after one hour of waiting. Around 10.30 AM the bus moves slowly to the highway with the direction to Iloilo City. There is not much to say about this bus-drive. After every two hours they made a stop at a sort of a rest house where you could purchased this typical cheap greasy food from what your doctor is always warning you. I had I piece of tasteful boiled fish in Jenny's succsessful attempt to point on it again and again after the seller pretended no understanding and offered us every other piece he has before we got what we wanted to buy. I was satisfied with my food and lucky about Jenny's engagement. Around 5.00 PM we reached Iloilo City and after a short trike ride the port. The bad news was that I only could purchased some sort of stand-by tickets, because the 17.30 ferry was fully booked. On that day most of the passengers were students going to Bacolod because the end of their summer holidays were comming. This was the first time where I had got an idea of the Filipinos which live in the affluent society while other Filipinos suffer from their poverty. Some of them looked at me very affected and made me feel like a tramp. This students are completely different from that what I had experienced during my study here in Germany. As I was a studend I had not enough money to buy a new Jeans so that I had learned how to use needle and thread, but this people looks like they would know that they never need to work for money in thier whole life. Anyway to be rich is no shame. Our stand-by status changed quickly into a non status as the ferry was loaded. As next we tried to find a restaurant in the back of the ticket counter. I bumped into a friendly guy how invited me to a sort of stew which was offering in his little pub. Probably this kind of food was very tasty, but I was filled with scepticism about the stew, because I did not know from what it was made, even a half dozen Filipinos had ate it already. He felt that I had a problem with his stew and suggested me to wait in his pub while Jenny could go to Jolleybee buying some western food for us. We made what he suggesed and I have ordered one San Miguel. Here I could wait for a while enjoying my beer while MTV Asia was running on the TV and watching around who is coming in or going out. It seems that this friendly landlord was new in his business, because he was whirling around a lot and nobody had to wait for his order very long. This was interesting to see how diligent and courteous he was compared with an average waitress shuffling around and let you wait until you have forgot what you had ordered. After some more beers i felt more and more comfortable especially as Jenny came back with the food. In the evening a basketball game took place and I was invited to play with them, but the next ferry boat would going in one hour. This boattrip from IloIlo City to Bacolod City last two hours. How often I came in a new town and tried to find a hotel in my travel handbook. This is always the same procedure like a lottery when you are put your finger on a line in your handbook where an inexpensive hotel will be suggest with the comment: "acceptable rooms for a suitable price". Sometimes you will be lucky to find what you are looking for, but in our case it turned out to be a real challenge to stay there. I did not saw much of the facade on my way from the taxi to the reception, and I really would find fast a room to have some time for the nightlife of this to me unknown city. There have a Goldenfield entertainment complex a little bit out of the city's center that wanted to be explored by us. Let me tell you that this was one of the shabbiest hotels what I have ever seen during my trips to the Philippines. Jenny told me the front of this building would look like a hotel that would be used by whorse for short time jobs. Inside it looked more bad than that. Useless to mention that we got not only the best room of this hotel but also it was a private room of the management. The whole building had a lot of water damages as there were a lot of stains on the ceiling and swellings in the full of holes wall-to-wall carpeting. I tell you honestly this place was really a shock, but it did not bother me untill now, wait what we saw later at night. Jenny was very disappointed about our room, but we would stay there only some hours, because the bus to Dumangete would leave around five in the morning. So we were visiting this entertainment complex specially a bar with the name "Red Castle". Inside we found a bigger bar with around 40 tables and an expand dancing stage. By the way the whole complex is worth a visit. It is the only must to seen in this run-down town, looks a little bit after Cebu's down town. Their were five girls inside dancing half and maybe later complete naked on the stage. Five girls are not much for such a big bar, but let me tell you that three of them were real stunners and some dubious Filipino guys had a great time with the interaction of the girls ,even the place was very empty around 10.00 PM. I had some San Miguels and Jenny a San Miguel light. I did not believed my eyes as I saw the bill, on which Jennys drink was calculated as an expensive ladies-drink. We rejected to pay this bill immediately. Jenny told me later that the waiter was asking her if he could defraud me with the bill because he wanted to make some money and I looked like I had enough ! They came back presenting me a much lower bill, but the lady drink was still on it. Instead of deleting this lady drink they gave me 10% discound on any drink we had ordered. Now I had paid this wrong bill, because I did not want to continue this stupit discussion especially the price was now the same as when they had deleted the lady drink from the bill. So I had to leave because Jenny was very jealous now. Back in the hotel I noticed some black streaks on one pillow which was clean before we were going out. I have only one idea on this, it looked likes a Duko (reptile) had a fight with a very big cockroach on the pillow. If you ask me, but I would not bet some money for it, my conclusion or my tip about this fight is, that probably the cockroach had lost the fight. I'm sorry that i had not enough time to investigate more in this clash of the titans, because Jenny was crying about some lousy excrements from a cockroach or cockroaches on her sheet. I stop this story now, but I tell you it was a hard work to convince my honey to take a shower and lay down with me on this bed, but at the end she did it. Don't ask me about the name of the hotel, I will take this information into my grave. On the next day we took the bus at 5.30 AM to Dumaguete. We found this information in the travel book of Jens Peters, which is the best in the world, but the bus leaves much earlier. The next bus will go around 11.30 PM, so make sure to be there a half hour earlier. Now we were moving close to the enemy, and it is really a risk to go so close to Zamboanga. The Abu Sayyaf needs only two hours to take you away from Apo Island and there will be no security at all. You may think why this guy like to made this dangerous trip, because the diving there is so much fu*king good, that I had forgot everything about cowardly muslim murders with no understanding what thier own religion is teaching about killing somebody. Somewhere I had read that the Apo Island Beach Resort has a travel agency in Dumaguete. I told our trike driver to bring me there. I wanted to make sure to get a vacant room for a reasonable price, because I had absolutely no idea of the costs for diving and accommodation. This was a good idea because I had got ten percent discount for my room and learned that the number of divers would be limeted to 15 divers per day. So if they know that you are coming, they will make sure that you can dive every day. In opposite of safary boats the divers on the island enjoy the preference. I was only disappointed that they could not offer us any transportation service to get there. So we took the waiting trike to the boat station for P400,-. Another P400,- I had to paid for the special trip to Apo Island. They have only one regular boat to Apo Island going around 5.30 PM and we arrived there 2.00 PM.

You need to bring your honeyko with you, if you do not want to get mad from your loneliness at this quiet place. If you can not bear such a quietness you can stay in Dumaguete. Some dive shops there offer trips to Apo Island. A small village exist on Apo Island, but this people are very reserved and it seems that they do not like the divers, because they are fishermen. That's why no pub or restaurant will be found outside of the resort, but you can buy foods, beer and rum there. Now I have to tell you some inconveniences which could bother you. The power is restricted from 6.30 PM until 10.00 PM. All sweet water will brought from Negros, therefore it is gold on this island. I took only one shower per day, because I need the water to wash my cameras and honestly Jenny tend to waste some water. As we arrived only one odd german married couple was there. First I had decided to stay some where higher in the wooded hill, but Jenny was very disappointed. The first two hours she laied down on the bed and looked shocked, probably she had took a notice of that there was no tv in the room. After that she told me:"Oh God honey, we will live like monkeys here, look what you can see here". She pointed at two green reptiles which mated under a tree. I told her, if she like one of the other rooms more, we will immediately move there and we moved to a room direct in front of the beach. Indeed she was right to choose this room I thought as we were sitting on the bank in the front watching the beautiful sunset. On the next day I woke up early in the morning and asked in the front desk after the divemaster. She told me that she will going to the village to pick up the divemaster I should be patient and have a breakfast first. I went back to the room to prepared my camera. After that I had met the divemaster, a very skinny and tall young guy. Later it should to be turn out that he is very honest, helpful and all around one of the friendliest men I have ever met in my life. His first words were: be cool sit down and have a breakfast while I will fill up the tanks. He was born on Apo Island and very familiar with every dive spot, current and behavior of every species under the water. This area is protected since 25 years and they need to charge a small fee for the expense of the protection which is more than fair. The first dive took me to a place with the name "Marine Sanctuary" including Clown Fish City, a beautiful shallow dive around 14 meters deep. How the name it says by itself there is an area with thousands of Clown Fishes and every kind of hard and soft corals. I found nearly no pale corals in the shallow water as well.

During this first dive I saw so many interesting things to take a picture from, that my film was already finished as we were arriving at Clown Fish City. That was a pity, but it became more than a real annoyance when I was later drifting in the middle of a school of Jack fishes. It was a little bit embarrassing to answer questions like: why you did not take some pictures of the Jack-fishes ? On the short boat ride back to our little bay, I asked the divemaster where the American helicopter Chinoock was crashed into the sea. He told me that was far away from Apo Island, but he would still remember that there were two helicopters flighing over the island to Basilan every night. The whole time I felt a little bit unwell, because of the battles that were going on in our neighborhood. I would not wonder, if a pumb-boat with heavy armed fleeing Abu Sayyaf members came close to the island. The second dive toke me to a place with the name "rock point". It was all around interesting, but I do still remember only one turtle and how Ronel teached me how to sneak up to a turtle and in which direction she will fleeing.

In the evening I had enough time to enjoy a romantic bath with Jenny in front of the sunset. Jenny had noticed very fast that we had the whole bay for us and that nobody would disturb us, so I have got another spontaneous erotic experience what I never would expect to have it with a german girl. She started laughing and took out her panties and the rest of this experiences I will cover in quietness. At night we were sitting with candlelights very long on the bench in front of our room watching at the wide ocean. On the next day Ronel's brother came to pick us up with a little boat for our next dive at "Mamsa Point". All dives with one exception I undertook alone with Ronel. His brother steered the boat and from time to time Jenny accompanied us for snorkeling. The boat was so much narrow, that we had to put on our diving gear in the water, what was not a problem at all. This was the first dive with a little current, but not much difficult. The highlighte of this dive was a large school of Jack-fisches. At this time my camera was ready to get the shots on this page. I came closer and closer to the school until I was inside and became a member, a great experience. As I looked back I saw how much I was drifted away from the reef and needed a lot of power to go back against the current. After that the divemaster (Ronel) found a parrot fish or what was remaining after the bite of the shark. The parrot fish had have a half-moon-shaped bite-wound, that cost him all of his innards. This must happened last night to him, because it looked very fresh. Sorry that my film was finished again. After this dive I have had a very delicious lunch with my cute Jenny. The second dive was very interesting too. The place was named as "Chapel Point". He brought me to a cave 17 meters deep. The atmosphere there was really creepy. Around the cave many scorpion fishes were guarding the entrance and a lot of odd sponges were hanging around. The sponges were over and over invaded by white worms. Inside the cave many langoustes were found. When I was taking pictures of the Scorpion-fishes I had some problems to hold a certainly deep, because I was very excited. How close you can move the camara to a Scorpion-fish ? The answer is: not close enough. If you do it very careful he will slowly put up his backfin and before or when the flash is set of he will swimm away more fast than you can follow him with your eyes. Make sure to be no obstacle for him, remember this kind of fish is very dangerous. During all dives it is possible to see large turtles and the all around the Philippines common sea-snakes. There is a place with very incalculable currents. I heard that two divemasters from differnt safari-boats got lost in this currents. One of their bodies was never found. For my self I had some trouble at "Coconut point" where I had lost Ronel for a while. I found some protection against the current behind a coral formation. I had only two opportunities to wait there or to let me blow away. It was not possible to get straight to the surface, because when you will reach the surface you may are blown miles away from the island. I decided to wait, because I was sure Ronel would see my bubbles. After a while he found me. He looked a little bit angry, but i would make the same decision again. This place is excellent for watching at big solitary robbers like big Baracudas or big black Jack fishes or even sharks. This place is the location of four big Baracudas, but they were not there during my dive. As a kind of compensatior I saw some very big "Bolbometopon muricatum" or better known as buffalo-head-parrot-fishes. There were grazing in front of us and while we came clother they take off with the current and were blowing away without using their fins. What for lazy fishes. One day a safari boat with people from France came to the Island. They were also guests of the Apo Island Resort. All the beautiful girls of the staff sung in the afternoon for the Frenchmen and made the atmosphere became very familiar. There was a lot of flirting between them to watch. Jenny became some problems with her allergy, but she lost her mood for a view minutes only. When that happened I was embracing her and we were walking along the beach to have some consoling conversations. During such a walk in the nighttime with a flashlight we had found a big nudy branch with the name spain dancer in very shallow water. Jenny was very happy about that, because she had never seen like this before.

All in all my trip to Apo Island was very instructive, impressive and romantic for both of us. The only thing we did not like was that someone was whatching us through a small hole in the window when we made love. Jenny guess it was an old man, but we are not sure aboud this. So be careful if you do not like a spectator when you get intimate. I took only six dives on that island, because I had a badly accident, but this is another story and will following soon. So far so good.

Regards Henry