#49 28th. April 2007

Moalboal 2007

Hi, friends of Moalboal!!

April and we are going towards low season but less so this year than
other years. It feels a bit like the high and low seasons have been
moved forward a month or two.

Fiesta; this weekend is the grand finale for the Panagsama fiesta.
Lots of pigs killed and eaten, happy people, loud disco and different
shows.

We are coming closer to election time, May 15, and there are posters
everywhere. It will be interesting to see who wins.

Jens Peters is now one of the readers of the newsletter that is close
to having 400 subscribers.

ACTIVITIES:

Moalboal Pool championship every Wednesday at Chili Bar. Starting
20:30

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.

There's now a hardcore biking group in Moalboal. Talk to Steve (Chili
bar owner), Jurgen (Rowena's husband) or Ferdinand (Swiss) and the
will let you join them. Some days they do 180 Km.

BIRTHS, SOCIAL AND GOSSIP:

Jesper (owner Neptune dive shop) is now an old man, 40 years old.
Send him an E-mail at jesper@... and write "shit, your
old man". He had a really good party at Neptune and there were a lot
of people with headaches the following day.

The "Mega Banka" Queen X, that I'm building together with a few
friends???.well????she will not be in the water until August.
Original launch date was December, last year. But ???well??..you
know. There's nothing wrong with taking it slow.

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.

For us foreigners Philippines is still a low cost country. Here's a
price comparison in Pesos.

Year 2000 Year 2007

One dollar 39 48
One kilo rice 17 25
Bag cement 100 180
Case of beer 240 350
œ" steel water pipe 120 270
Hollow block 4" 6 10
Carpenter / day 150 250
Bus to Cebu 50 89
Petrol / liter 22 40

Hotline internet café has bought equipment to beam WiFi down to the
beach. Hopefully that will work until Globe starts to send 3G. At the
moment you can subscribe to Globe for GPRS 2000 pesos / month for
unlimited but slow internet access. They do require that you sign up
for 24 months.

For the all Swedish readers: Martin Örnroth was in Moalboal for two
weeks. He will write an article about diving here in the
magazine "DYK"

WHALE SHARK SIGHTINGS:

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 can proudly tell you that I was at sunken Island and we saw 4 whale
sharks 6-8 meters long, that must be a Moalboal world record. I, my
wife and the Kasai Village staff (Kasai Micke, Mattias, Janna and one
guest) saw them for 30 minutes. One of them was only a meter from us.
WOW, that night we had a whale shark party at Chili.

Weekly now divers see whale sharks, the water is 28 Celsius and life
is good.

I have heard rumors about manta and hammer head. Dear reader, if you
know anything about that, please write to me.

Read more about whale sharks at : http://living-and-diving-in-
moalboal.blogspot.com

LETTERS FROM ABROAD:

Dear Lars,

Your Moalboal newsletter remains my only link to that place --
although everyone's still amazed whenever I tell them about sunken
island: (on a good day) 30m
visibility, a carpet of anemone, a moving wall of fishes, 20 or so
huge lionfishes hovering like helicopters. Is it still so?

I don't know if you can still recall but I managed Quo Vadis one
time, for ten months, six years back, with Marco as diveshop manager.
Is he still there?

I am now based in Indonesia and from to time, exploring the waters:
the reason why I moved here while working in HIV/AIDS. One day I will
visit again and for once and for all, see those whale sharks which I
didn't even see a shadow of!! ;)

Great job by the way, with the newsletter!
Regards,
Irene

JÖRGEN'S TROPICAL TIP (in these days with low water supply):

When it's yellow, let it mellow.
When it's brown, flush it down.

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

This one is for our German readers:

Hallo Tauch und Philippinenfreunde, wir haben hier ein neues Angebot
für Euch:

Sommerspecial

Tauchurlaub in Top - Bungalows mit Komplettausstattung zum Sparpreis
im
Taucherparadies Moalboal :

Flug mit Qatar Airlines ab Frankfurt/München oder Berlin, Transfer,
12 Übernachtungen im Hideaway-Garden- Bungalow bei Marcosas
Cottages*** und 10 Bootstauchgänge beim Blue Abyss Dive Shop mit
eigener Ausrüstung pro Person:
nur 999 ?

Hammerangebot: bei Buchung dieses Paketes gibt es für nur 55?
Aufpreis 5 Hausrifftauchgänge dazu!

Das Marcosas Resort*** inmitten einer 5000m² großen tropischen
Gartenlandschaft ist ausgestattet mit Swimmingpool, Massage und Spa -
Bereich, Whirlpool, Lobby, Rezeption, Restaurant sowie
Bar/Poolbar. Alle Bungalows sind inklusive Klimaanlage,
Kühlschrank, Minibar, Safe, modernes Bad mit Heißwasserversorgung,
eigene Terrasse, TV(DW), uvm.

Kommt und genießt mit uns einen herrlichen Longdrink nach einem
wunderschönen Tauchgang

Das Blue Abyss Team hat sein traditionell Philippinisches 12 m
Tauchboot Generalüberholt und neue Sitzbänke installiert welche die
Ausfahrten zu einem reinen Vergnügen machen.
In der Tauchbasis gibt es neue Sitzgelegenheiten mit großem
Sonnendach.

Neu:
Persönliche Unterwasser Filme auf DVD für 30? sowie
Tauch-DVD's für nur 15? werden von Klemens Gann, Unterwasserfilmer
des Jahres 2006*
angeboten.

Wir freuen uns auf Euren Besuch

Gütltig ab sofort bis Abflug 31.08.07(vom 06.07-05.08 +100?
Aufpreis)
Irrtum und Preisänderungen vorbehalten.

*(Jahresgewinner 2006 im Uservoting des Tauchmagazins Unterwasser mit
Auszeichnung des Goldenen Seestern)

Magellan-Travel
Jürgen Emmerich
Tel: 06078 910307
Fax: 06078 910308
Tel. Philippinen:
+63 9266706245
Fax: +63 324740031
http://www.magellantravel.de
info@...

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