#60 28th. September 2009

Moalboal September 2009

Hi, friends of Moalboal!!

To start with, most of you have heard of the flooding in Manila. Moalboal
however is OK. I just got a letter from MickePinoy, co owner of barefoot resort
and he said that they did have gusts of wind up 100 km/h but Moalboal is mostly
OK.

MickePinoy is also helping me write the news letter this time:

This year I wished that friends of Moalboal would have spent the summer here in
Moalboal. Even if it is called rainy season or typhoon season it actually
doesn't rain much. Since May we only had a total of 14 days rainy weather and
the rest have been very nice days with calm sea and sunshine. Perfect days for
diving or volleyball at White Beach! Why not change your travel schedule next
year?

As of today, we are 445 readers of the Moalboal mailing List.

ACTIVITIES:

To get ready for the Pool tournaments at Chili you should really look at this
video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHH_5EClbAU&feature=related a few nice
shots in that one :)

BIRTHS, SOCIAL AND GOSSIP:

From MickePinoy:

Michael Herzentiel (Marcosa cottages) just celebrated his 60 years birthday with
a great party that lasted two days. The party, held in Marcosa cottages, was a
success with dance show, rock band, food and drinks and great fire works. Thank
you and Congratulations Michael!
Dolphin House Resort has been closed since June 1 because of a major renovation.
It includes a larger and deeper pool, a sea view launch on top of the
restaurant, a more spacious dive centre, a souvenir shop, upgraded rooms and
three new suite rooms. 150 workers are working hard to get everything ready to
November. It's good to see that Moalboals resort owners believe in a life after
the recession!
Road toll is now being charged White beach visitors by the Barangay in White
beach. The toll is 5 peso and goes to a clean and tidy White beach that recently
won Governor Gwen Garcia's "Cleanest Barangay" competition.
It looks like the water shortage is over. The water pressure is much better than
it been for many years and almost no water trucks is seen on Panagsama road
nowadays.
Arista Restaurant have now expanded the business to include a professional
catering part as well. Arista has been catering both weddings receptions and
birthday parties lately with great success and we wish Ling Ling all the best
with her new venture.
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.

At the moment the
exchange rate is:
1 $ = 47.37
1 Euro = 69.61
1 Pound = 75.60
1 Swedish crown = 6.83

To look at old mailing list letters sent out. Go to http://www.moalboal.org.uk
Simon has added them all there for easy reading. ENJOY

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.

Once you have taken a picture of your whale shark you should go to
http://www.whaleshark.org, they will register that shark.
LETTERS FROM ABROAD:

Hey Lars,
I recieve your Moalboal update as I was living there last year over at Greg
Rittger's house (Gorrio) and intend to return again in the next few years.
Anyway, while I was there I made a vid of me and my friends (including his son
Elison) enjoying Moalboal and the surrounding area. It was all filmed in town,
white beach, and Kawasan, and got featured under Travel on DailyMotion.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5m43n_lifecation_people
I dont think I sent this to you in the past (tho I intended to), but if you
think it'd be interesting to share on your newsletter you're more than welcome
to! Original soundtrack by Brandon Crowley (the blonde guy in the video).
Jessica Ryan
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In the last letter Roland wrote about problem with VISA cards and Cebu Pacific.
Here's a reply from Dennis. Dennis has a resort on the southern tip of Cebu and
is worth visiting I've heard. Never been there. :
Hi Lars and Roland,

You might want to mention that this isn't fully due to Cebu Pacific.
They are in fact doing you a favor by not allowing unsecured use of credit cards
online.

VISA and Master Card has developed a new service they call 3-D Secure (Verified
by VISA or MasterCard SecureCode)
What it does is it require an active roundtrip to your bank where you identify
yourself (how is up to your bank to implement.)
This way a transaction will be secured as only the proper card holder could
verify the transaction through their internet bank.

Many banks are lazy to implement this. Some banks require the cardholder to take
an active step to activate 3-D secure on their cards.
Cebu Pacific will not allow any transactions the unsecured way.

Unsecured way
1. CP Ask for card number
2. CP Send a transaction to VISA/MC

Secured way
1. CP Ask for card number
2. CP check with VISA/MC what URL to use for verification
3. CP redirect you to this URL (i.e. your internet banks 3-D Secure verification
site)
4. Your bank ask for verification. How this is implemented depends on your bank.
Could be to simply enter a password, or a token from a random number token
generator, or a chip and pin verification using a chip card box, etc.
5. Your bank redirect you back to CP with a Success or Failure response
6. CP sends a transaction to VISA/MC only if 3-5 was successful

So, don't blame CP, who is in fact doing the right thing. Blame your bank for
being lazy or yourself for not activating it ;-)

/D

--
Need a vacation? Come visit us, we're finally open http://eden.ph/
Dennis M Pettersson Phone: +47 9452 1570
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Clemens gone pro
Further more I remember that you once said my diving moalboal video is the most
advertising about moalboal, so if you still want to advertise my videos I'm very
happy to let you know that I'm now filming professional in HD and have an own
channel in youtube. SO check it out and if you think it's worth publishing in
your newsletter I would be very grateful.
http://www.youtube.com/user/klemensgann
Let me know what you think and hope to see you back here soon,
Best regards,
Klemens
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FOR SALE:

If you have something for sale, just E-mail me and I will add it onto
the mail.

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

Other Moalboal Web sites
Kalles blog: http://living-and-diving-in-moalboal.blogspot.com
http://www.moalboal-online.de
http://moalboal.gov.ph
Moalboal town now have their own web site: http://moalboal.gov.ph

This is the first YOUTUBE videos I have found (please let me know if
you know any other videos worth watching) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEEegDMEi2I , commercial about
barefoot resort, White beach.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLHxVbW8nsk , dive video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-pWX2Y6hXE , dive video

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: http://www.oasishongkong.com
Air Asia X: UK to Malaysia, starting July

Copyright (c) Lars Starner 2009. All rights reserved

Below is websites for different Dive Shops and places to stay. If they want they
can tell me to add their websites and even better tell me if there's any good
bargin deals.

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Nelsons dive shop:
http://www.ibara.ne.jp/~bitoon/index.htm
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http://www.magellantravel.de
info@...

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If you're interested in a budget live-aboard dive safari, check out:
http://www.kasaivillage.com/liveaboard-safari.php
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Jespers dive shop
Jesper blog: http://diving-in-moalboal-and-santander.blogspot.com/
Jesper foto: http://diving-in-moalboal-and-santander.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeA97FEU5hY, commercial about neptune
diving adventure, Moalboal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_5IpKADAhc, whale shark diving in
Moalboal with neptune diving adventure.

http://www.neptunediving.com/neptune/general/gallery.jsp, same gallery as above
but on our web page.
NEPTUNE DIVING ADVENTURE
INSTRUCTOR LEVEL PROGRAMS FOR 2009

September Program (2009)
Assistant Instructor Course: Sep 24-26
OWSI Program: Sep 9 - Oct 2
IDC Staff Instructor Course: Sep 24 - Oct 2
EFRI Sep 27-28
EMERGENCY OXYGEN PROVIDER Sep 27-28
PADI IE: Puerto Galera Oct 6-7, Dumaguete City Oct 9-10

November Program (2009)
Assistant Instructor Course: Nov 12-14
OWSI Program: Nov 17-20
IDC Staff Instructor Course: Nov 12-20
EFRI Nov 15-16
EMERGENCY OXYGEN PROVIDER Nov 15-16
PADI IE: Cebu City Nov 22-23, Boracay 25-26
Puerto Galera Dec 1-2

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Marcosas
The website about Panagsama Beach
http://www.infomoalboal.com
and the website about diving in Moalboal
http://www.dive-moalboal.com/

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