Malapascua Trip Report

[Bill22]

I didn't talk much about how I spent my off time... mainly because there was so little of it. Bookwork took up a lot of my spare time. Doing three courses was probably a little optimistic on my part. I think I was glad when I finished them all

Most of the places along the beach like Hippocampus, Cocobana, Bluewater and Sunsplash were a little pricey for things like breakfast (although the view was nice). Breakfast would run 150-190 pesos. I could go to Ging-Gings which was on the main path that ran behind the resorts and dive shops on the beach and have breakfast for half that. You could also let them know what you wanted for dinner when you went in for breakfast and they would make sure to purchase fresh ingredients for your dinner that night. More than once I ran a tab there, because they were often short of change. This was not really uncommon. I bought a t-shirt from someone right next to Hippocampus. When I didn't have change they said it was okay, just bring it when I had it. I was diving a lot so it ended up being a few days before I saw them out again. The woman said she never worried about it. Her husband was a dive guide at Sea Explorers and her brother-in-law was one of my dive guides at Thresher Shark Divers. The bar above Thresher Shark Divers was open everynight after we came back from the last dive of the day. 2 for 1 during Happy Hour :-). Sometimes we'd have a beer there then go to Ging-Gings for dinner. By then it was time to go to bed since we had to get up early for the morning shark dive. There was an internet place at the Japanese restaraunt. Internet could be unreliable (one night I gave up after about 10 minutes) and it was always slow. I only used the internet three times in the nine days I was there.

I had wanted to go and see the cockfights while I was there having never seen them before. Mal who is a vegetarian told Steve that she was all in favor of cockfights now after having to listen to the roosters crowing every morning (and half the night) :-)) Steve and I often joked about eating chicken since the more chicken we ate, theoretically the less roosters there would be crowing :-)) The chicken curry at Ging-Gings is very good by the way