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Last day

Today is my last day in the Philippines, so I decided to climb up to the lookout point for some peace. For some reason here in the Philippines it’s hard to find a quiet place. Everywhere I go it seems to be booming with construction, buildings are going up everywhere and with that the lovely sounds of hammers banging and saws sawing. Also here in the Philippines cock fighting is huge, the sounds of roosters can be heard at all hours of the day. The town I’m staying in is called Coron, upon arrival it’s hard not to notice the big letters spelling out C O R O N. It seems they have stolen the look of the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. I decided to hike up the mountain and see the view from the top. Today was another blistering hot day, I had to take a few stops along the way to catch my breath and cool down. While I was sitting there in the shade all alone enjoying the silence I could hear the sounds of little feet running up the stairs. A group of 10 year olds followed me up the hill, they were curious since they don’t see too many foreigners. The view from the top was beautiful. They definitely don’t have the smog like they do in Los Angeles. On a totally different note my tooth has been hurting for last few days, so I guess it’s time to go see my dentist in Thailand. Getting my tooth fixed is just one of the reasons I’m going to Thailand. Before I came to the Philippines friends of mine told me that the food was pretty bad…well they were right. The food in the Philippines sucks! So I am looking forward to the lovely food that is waiting for me in Thailand.

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Posted by Jimmy under Philippines, Thailand, Travel Tips, Uncategorized | Comments (1)

It’s good to be alive!

Its not often we have never death experiences, but when we do, they sure can scare the shit out of you! I find myself in west Philippines in a group of islands called Palawan. My main reason for coming to Palawan was to dive on some of the world’s “best” wrecks (sunken ships). On September 24^th 1944 the United States handed out a serious ass whipping resulting in 24 sunken Japanese ships, which were part of the Imperial Japanese Navy. So thanks to the Yanks, Coron Bay is littered with ships for divers of all levels. The first thing they teach you when diving is not to panic, now sometimes that’s much easier said then done. I consider myself a decent diver, but after a bad experience a long time ago I find myself not wanting to go too deep, or into tight spaces. Well for some reason today I decided not to listen to my gut. Most of the wrecks have openings where you can go inside. I told my dive master that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go inside and that I would see how I felt when I got down there.

What I expected was to go down and see the whole ship and then swim up close and look inside one of the holes and decide if I felt comfortable, but this wasn’t the case. The visibility was crap; I could see maybe 2 feet in front of me. As I was going down I started to panic since I couldn’t see anything. We just keep going down and down. Finally my dive master, which was right in front of me signaled to swim straight ahead. I had no idea where the ship was until I looked up and could see the dim sunlight coming through a small hole. I totally freaked out when I realized that I was already inside the ship. I started sucking on the air like a crack head hitting the pipe. My lungs filled with air, which in turn shot me to the roof of the ship. I could feel my head bang against the roof stirring up the dust and sand and now I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face. At this point I was hyperventilating soo much that my lungs were hurting. I tried to remember to stay calm and not panic. I looked down and could see what I thought was my dive masters flash light. I made sure all the air was out of my BCD and tried to go down to the light. At this point I felt like I was caught on something and this is where I really started to shit my pants. Somehow in the process I got my backup regulator hose stuck on something. I was completely freaking out thrashing around cutting up my knuckles on the barnacles. In the frenzy I knocked my main regulator out of my mouth (the thing that gives me air…. The thing that keeps you alive) Now I was really losing it, I was trying to find my regulator while still caught on something and couldn’t see anything. My mask was getting bumped around, so I had salt water in my eyes, which was burning. This is pretty much the worst possible situation you could find yourself in. I finally found my main regulator and stuck it back in my mouth, it was a beautiful moment, at least I had air. I then felt someone under me, it was my dive master. It was such a great feeling to not be alone in all this. He was able to free me and lead me out of the cargo hold.

On my way up I was happy to be alive but yet pissed at my dive master for taking me inside the ship after I told him I didn’t want to! I was thinking of all the things I was going to say to him when I got out of the water, but in the end he did save my life even though he kind of got me into it. So I decided to let it all go and just be thankful to be alive. What seemed like 20 long agonizing minutes was actually only about 3 minutes. When I got to the top I found out from my dive master that when I crashed up against the roof I somehow shish kabob myself onto a pole that was sticking out. Next time around I will be listening to my gut!

Posted by Jimmy under Philippines, Thoughts, Travel Tips, Updates | Comments (2)

Up’s & Down’s

Life on the road is like riding a rollercoaster, it has it’s up’s and down’s. You will go from having the best time of your life to 12 hours later as lonely as an old man in a retirement home waiting for his impending doom. For me traveling is about the people. When I look back on places I have been I mostly remember the faces and the friendships that were formed, rather then what the Great Wall of China looked like. I find that the friendships I form on the road are pure and genuine. When at home we tend to make friends based on a certain criteria. We meet people through work, or friends, and in a way I find that these people are sometimes just friends out of convenience with no real connection. But when traveling people are people, we leave all that built up baggage at home, we let are guards down. I have found that most people including myself are very honest and up front. We don’t have years to let someone chip away at the wall we put up, at most we have a few days or a week if were lucky. So you tend to lay it all on the line.

We have nothing to hide or to lose for that matter, because we know that we will probably never see each other again. So as quickly as the friendships are formed it comes time for us to go our separate ways. It’s sometimes overwhelming to go from such happy times surrounded by great friends to being all alone. But I guess that’s part of it all. The best thing about it is you never know what tomorrow will bring. Traveling is all about the unknown, and for me the unknown is not about if my bus will break down in the middle of Africa and leave me stranded for days, it’s about what new people lye around the next turn and the stories and knowledge I will gain from them. So I go to bed tonight alone and somewhat bored, but in 24 hours from now you never know I could be having the best chat of my life with some new friends over a few beers. And for me… that’s what traveling is all about!

Posted by Jimmy under Philippines, Thoughts, Updates | Comments (2)

A Lesson from the Beach

Note to self: When on a tropical island paradise do NOT get sunburned on the first day! There are thousands of people from all over the world right now on vacation somewhere and there is a good bunch of them that are spending their first day of their vacation in the sun a little too long. Like them I was soo happy to be back on the beach I forgot to put on sunblock. I now have paid the price. I have spent the last 3 days avoiding the sun like it’s the plague. After a lot of Aloe Vera and loose fitting clothes I am finally back to normal. But thankfully I have a few more days left on Boracay to enjoy the sun, and then it’s off to Palawan (a group of islands in west Philippines) for some World War II wreck diving. Palawan has some of the best wreck diving in the world. There are a ton of sunken Japanese ships from the war that make for some awesome diving. I was able to scrap together a few photos from yesterday…. Hope you enjoy!

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Posted by Jimmy under Philippines, Photos, Travel Tips, Updates | Comments (2)

Back at it!

I can’t believe that less than 72 hours ago I was in Tokyo bundled up in winter clothes freezing my ass off! And now I am in the Philippines sitting on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. It has been almost 2 months since I have seen the sunset. For me it’s truly one of nature’s most beautiful things to watch. They call people that like to sit on the beach all day “Beach Bums” I choose to call them “Smart”. I was soo happy to be back on the beach I forgot to put on sunblock. So I am now sporting a pretty sweet amateur tourist sunburn! I think I have just realized why I like being at the beach so much. When I am sitting on a beach there is an innocent feeling in the air. The sounds of kids playing in the water with not a care in the world, old grandmothers frolicking in the waves as if they we’re 13 years old again. The real world seems to drift away for a moment. All the negative things in the world that are drilled into our heads on a daily basis by the media fade into the horizon. And for this brief moment in time, the 4 kids in front of me, the grandmother to my right and myself are 100% at peace with ourselves and the world we live in.

Posted by Jimmy under Philippines, Thoughts, Updates | Comments (1)