#52 14th. December 2007

Moalboal December 2007

Hi, friends of Moalboal!!

Long time since the last news letter but here it comes. I'm actually
sitting in my own house writing and sending this letter. SMART now
has a deal, 999 Pesos / month and they will put up an antenna for
you. 358 KB up and down, unlimited surfing. Not sure if it's a good
thing, but some people call it progress. Now we can all sit in our
small cottages on the beach and e-mail each other???.hahaha

Some big changes have been made here on the beach. A new Japanese
resort will be built so they have torn down all the buildings
including last Filling station and the whole mini bar area. It looks
better now, in my opinion, when all the small shacks are gone and you
can see the ocean. The pier outside last filling station is also torn
down so sand has moved all the way up to Helens corner.

Last Filling station is not dead , it has just moved to Jochens
resort. Jochen just built a resort south of Pacitas Nipa Huts,
Tipoli.

Nelson, of Nelsons Dive Shop, is now Vice mayor. He won the election
together with the old mayor's wife. She is now Mayor.

ACTIVITIES:

Moalboal Pool championship every Wednesday at Chili Bar. Starting
20:30. Marc from Luxembourg won the last tournament.

Jochen, Planet Action, is still making sure that there's soccer every
Monday and Friday up in Moalboal. If you want to play, just show up
16:30. It does not matter if you are good or not. It's more for
drinkers with a football problem. Play until sunset and then a few
beers at Nancy's

BIRTHS, SOCIAL AND GOSSIP:

Neptune had a Lucia party yesterday and I'm still hung over. Thank
you Magnusson and Jesper for a great party.

PRACTICAL:

There is now a list at the notice board in Chili Bar where you can
tell your friends to sign up for the newsletter. Or just have them
send me an e-mail.

Chili is celebrating their 4 year anniversary tomorrow Saturday. Free
beer and Chili con carne with a pool tournament. All old guests
welcome.

The last few years there have been a problem with water and most
resorts these days have their own water truck. Moalboal is now trying
to sort out this problem. They are, as we speak, putting in a new 6
inch pipe. They are moving along with glacier speed and have yet to
reach the globe antenna up in Moalboal. Now we just have to wait and
water will come ?..eventually.

Shimamoto and Bim, long time visitors to Moalboal, has just built a
hotel close to Manila airport. They have double room and dorms at
very reasonable prices. If you want more information just write them
an E-mail: moyeri@.... I hope to write more about the hotel
next news letter.

There is now a commuter bus between the Domestic and International
airport in Manila. Transfer used to be a bit of an armpit with taxi
drivers trying to rip you off but with the free bus, that should be
taken care of

When driving towards Cebu you can see a big oil rig in the sea
outside Toledo somewhere. A Japanese company is doing some test
drilling for oil. So far they are down to about 2.5 Km. Let's hope
that they will not find anything.

For those of you that are thinking about a retirement Visa. Contact
Florence at Bank of Commerce, fypebenito@... . She is
located at the Fuente branch and she's good.

Ling Ling, owner of the restaurant at quo Vadis resort has now
started a Real Estate office in Moalboal. If you want to buy or sell
a house. Ling Ling is the one to talk to: lingling@... ,
www. Lingling.com.ph

The best dive deal on the beach (as far as I know) is at Nelsons Dive
Shop. 3000 pesos for two boat dives with equipment, hotel and 3
meals. Minimum 4 people. http://www.ibara.ne.jp/~bitoon/ ,
http://www.eveskiosk.com/diving.htm and E-mail:
oceansafariphilippines@...

Cebu Pacific, http://www.cebupacificair.com , has just started to fly direct
to Bangkok.

WHALE SHARK SIGHTINGS:

Savedra Dive shop had a student that when taking his dive course saw
whale shark 3 out of 4 open water dives.

To get the absolute latest whale shark sightings go to Chili Bar and
look at the notice board there. Anyone putting up a sighting receives
a free Ning-Ning drink. I just looked at the notice board and there
are 5 pages full of sightings. Moalboal is truly one of the best
places, if not the best, to dive with whale sharks.

LETTERS FROM ABROAD:

"Free diving the Cathedral"
Wolfgang Dafert, Scuba Instructor and Freediving Trainer at Club
Serena was
shown on Philippino QTV
http://wolfgangdafert.spaces.live.com/

Yes. That's the Cathedral in the video on his BLOG from November 11.
And he
is Freediving it.

GENERAL:

If anyone has any information that they think would be interesting
for people on this list, please do let me know and I will add it in.
If you know anyone that would like to receive this letter, please
tell him or her to send me an E-mail at the address below and I will
add him or her. I've found it to hard to do it through
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/moalboalmail

Regards, Lars Starner
starner@...

Moalboal home page:
http://www.moalboal.org.uk
Kalles blog: http://living-and-diving-in-moalboal.blogspot.com

Flights:

http://www.singaporeairlines.com and then http://www.silkair.com to Cebu
http://www.qatarairways.com
http://www.cathaypacific.com
http://www.malaysiaairlines.com
Tiger air airways, http://www.tigerarways.com , S'pore to Clark (close to
Manila) something like 60 US$ one way.
Cebu pacific: Cebu ? Hong Kong, http://www.cebupacificair.com.
Oasis: Gatwick, London to Hong Kong and soon Oakland, CA ? HK,
128US$, http://www.oasishongkong.com
Air Asia X: UK to Malaysia, starting July

Copyright (c) Lars Starner 2007. All rights reserved