#46 9th. January 2007

Moalboal 2007

Happy New Year, friends of Moalboal!!

2007 has not really given us any nice weather. Lots of rain,
yesterday the whole basketball court outside Nelsons dive shop was
submerged. First time I have ever seen that. 24 Celsius in the
morning????COLD man.

The Philippines is now starting to take off in many ways. The stock
market here just got over 3000 points, something that was last seen
back in 1997 and before the Asian crisis. The Peso is getting
stronger by the day, now below 49 to the $.

Internet has been slow here in the Philippines. The earthquake in
Taiwan destroyed a lot of cables so internet and phones have been
slow.

ACTIVITIES:

Soccer every Monday & Friday. Jochen (Planet action) has now had new
goals made. Roland (Ruffas husband) took care of the net part.

BIRTHS, SOCIAL AND GOSSIP:

Simon, dive instructor at Visaya divers had a diving accident before
Christmas. According to his girlfriend, Jing-Jing, he had 9 sessions
here in Cebu at the re-compression chamber. He has now had 3 in UK.
He has full function: waist up. Feeling in his toes and getting some
feeling in his legs

PRACTICAL:

Emma's old restaurant is now a Thai restaurant. For those of you that
does not know where it is. Just walk past Visaya dive shop and go
south 200 meters on your left hand side. Very good food but also a
bit slow now during start-up.

Retirement visa, they have now lowered the requirements for getting a
retirement visa. If you are above 50 years old, you now need to bring
in 20 000US$ (before it was 50 000) into the country. Cost right now
is 1500US$ and you will then get a lifetime visa and no more hassle
with going to immigration. Interest now is 5% for the US$ and more
for the Peso. I found Florence, business manager at Commerce bank,
Fuente circle, very helpful. Her e-mail: fypebenito@...

The ASEAN summit that was going to be held 12-15 December got
cancelled. Typhoon was coming and the thought it safer to cancel. The
ASEAN summit will now be held 12-15 January this year. Be prepared
for huge delays in flights and traffic.

WHALE SHARK SIGHTINGS:

Next letter I will give you the exact dates and location where they
were spotted. I know of at least three times that they saw them in
December. Looks like white beach area is where they hang out these
days. Please, if you see whale shark, go to Chili and write where &
when you saw them. There's a list on the notice board and Chili will
give you a free Ning-Ning when you write.

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

Copyright (c) Lars Starner 2007. All rights reserved