Busy, diplomatic, spend-crazy week

It's been such a trip this week. I started it off real mellow then on Tuesday, my favorite dive shop called up and said they had my watch available. Oh joy, oh joy! My new dive watch! Then it was off to dinner with some friends from the embassy at the Shangri-la for a most scrumptious buffet.

I arrived a tad earlier than expected (in this town, you have to overcompensate for fear of traffic going bad) so I decided to walk around Glorietta and ended up at Rustans. Long story short, I managed to spend my money with much gusto on a new pair of Kenneth Coles and an I-cartrip for my ipod (there goes my Christmas money).

Dinner was fabulous but the week was only starting.

The day after, I was invited to go to a Thanksgiving dinner being held by a nice couple from the U.S. embassy. The invitation was for 3:00pm. 3:00pm? Who has dinner at 3:00pm? Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find an assortment of food, wine, and a really nice selection of beer and other alcoholic beverages (which I made a beeline for shortly after arriving) spread out on the table (the turkey was still slowly cooking at this point but the smell was intoxicating).

By the time the turkey came out of the oven, it was indeed evening and we had chatted, drank and ate the appetizers with the passing of time. And after the turkey, the cranberry sauce (I know it's hard to get cranberry sauce here but what they got was absolutely delicious) and the stuffing, it was time for dessert.

And boy, what a dessert! We had apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, suman (sticky rice with sugar and coconut), mango pie, ummm I can't remember the rest cause there were just too many. Suffice to say, it was a very delectable evening.

The next night we went to this quaint little place called Enoteca in Mandaluyong to have dinner . Now if you live in Metro Manila, you'll think where in Mandaluyong? Are there any good restaurants there? That was the same thing I thought when we passed by roads and went through dark alleys that looked like they had muggers waiting in every corner.

It was surprising to find this small Italian wine cellar cum restaurant tucked away in a little corner of the road. Needless to say, people have to know of this place to go there because you won't see much foot traffic in that area. It was packed inside. If you didn't have a reservation, you wouldn't have much chance of getting a table.

Once inside, you will immediately be assaulted by the sights and scents of the place, it's like being transported to some Italian villa in Tuscany complete with a huge piece of cheese that looked like a wheel and several dried meat. And it being a wine cellar, wine was flowing from everywhere. The best part of it was it was an inexpensive place (say around the price range of $10 usd per person) for almost unlimited wine and antipasti (we actually just stood up and got bottles from the wall and poured ourselves the wine).

After dinner, our friend had made reservations for us at this place called the Club Mwah which was near the restaurant. Now, if you've ever seen the shows in Las Vegas and combine it with the shows in Bangkok, then you probably have an idea of what I'm talking about.

I was skeptical at first, I thought "oh not another gay show." (I'm talking about the comedy clubs that have popped up in Metro Manila with gay hosts that sing and make lewd jokes, most of which are really not at all entertaining).

I must say I wasn't blown away so to speak but it was quite refreshing to see that it really was a genuine attempt to make the guests feel entertained. It was like watching a mini-Broadway show. I never knew men (who are now transformed into a more feminine form) could be that flexible until I saw this show. And the comic relief was doing much better than most of what I've seen in so-called comedy bars.

All in all, it was a most fullfilling week for me and I'm looking forward to just sleeping over the long weekend that is coming up and diving the next weekend. I can't wait.

Wanderings

I was browsing through pictures of our Malapascua trip and I was just dumbstruck by this photo my friend took. It's so surreal. I wish I had a lifetime of sunset moments like this one. I'll be a happy man if I could retire in a place like this.

Of fear and paranoia

Lately, the world has been spiraling down into a cesspool of fear and terrorism. It makes people feel vulnerable and feeling vulnerable, people tend to act rashly. Take for example the incident in London a few months back and the more recent incident in France. Fear. It is the great divider.

Back here, there was another incident that sparked fear into the already paranoia-driven society we call the Metro. An incident involving the deaths of young men in the hands of law-enforcers. Young men who belonged to rich, prominent families.

These young men were suspected carnappers or carjackers if you prefer that term. The police report basically stated that law-enforcers got a tip that this group of men were planning a carnapping on that night and they followed through with it.

Upon identifying the suspects, they moved to apprehend the vehicle they were in only to be shot at (as per the police report). So the police returned fire, killing and incapacitating the suspects. Later on, a video footage showed the same policemen closing up on the suspects' vehicle and opening fire at point-blank range. Execution? Maybe. Some people would like to believe it at least.

This is the dilemma of a third-world country that deals so much with politics and a corrupted system that views the informal exchange of money as commonplace. It has more flaws than could be seen as a genuine attempt at justice.

All of the reports bear incident to what happened, who were involved and the where and when it happened. But the question comes to mind; of all the speculation and the finger-pointing happening out there, did anyone really bother to trace the events in chronological order? What about post-mortem autopsy on the deceased? At the least, they should have had them tested for gunpowder discharge for both sides. It is after all a standard operating procedure in these instances right?

I'm not saying any party is guilty. That is up for the courts to decide. But when you throw away the facts and focus instead on looking pretty, all you have left are just thugs with guns and badges. It is not hard to ascertain if the deceased suspects were in fact innocent or guilty. Gunpowder discharge would have left a trace if they indeed have fired the weapons in question. As to if they were under the influence or not, a quick autopsy should reveal all that. It is also a part of the investigation I believe to determine which law-enforcer fired how many shots to which target. Execution or not.

Although it may be true (at least to their thinking) that the policemen were only doing their jobs. Mind you, I don't envy them because they're always on the spot whether or not they catch the bad guys. They have a bigger obligation to instill confidence that they can do their job better. It was never a matter of people trusting policemen. It was always a matter of policemen instilling fear into the people they were sworn to protect. Fear. And when people fear something, they act rashly.

Hopefully, this incident will enable other people to realize the system is so flawed that it's pointless to have it. Because what good is a system in place if no one ever follows it? What good is having a law if even the ones tasked to enforce it break it? I have no love lost for the deceased suspects, even less if they were proven guilty. But that doesn't make what the law-enforcers did any less wrong. Sure, they can say they acted only in response and the adrenaline that went with it. But if that's the case, then any crook can also say the same thing. The only difference is one wears a badge and the other doesn't.

Fear. It is something that an already tarnished law-enforcement image can do without. You instill fear in the lawbreakers, not the ones you are sworn to protect. It's not easy but it is a part of the job.

Contemplations

What is it about death that makes us feel unsure of what to say or do? It is a puzzling thought that we don't even know anything about. We often see death as a sad event. Feelings well up inside of us when we learn of the death of someone we knew or that involves someone we know.

I have two funerals to go to this week. Same cause of death, different people. One is a relative, the other is someone I knew only in name and through my dear friend.

I go to both funerals to pay my respect not only to the deceased, but also to those who knew them better. Yet, there is a difference in the way I feel about each death. As profound as it may sound, I feel less regret for the death of my relative than that of the person I never met.

Maybe because I know that not many people will shed tears or feel loss for the death of my relative, including me. Maybe because the person I never met was just so young and vital still. Maybe because it makes me think about how my own death might be like.

Death makes us think about our life and how we lived it. We choose our own path and death will be the ultimate test of our character. Life in death.

An ode to life

Has it been always like this?
Have I always been the person I am today?

Change is an altogether wonderful and terrible thing
It is the inevitability of it that is its appeal

How one spoken word; one minute detail, one grave action
Can change our destiny forever

Life is full of what-ifs and whys
It is a set of rules spoken and unspoken

What draws the line between good and evil?
What constitutes tact and the blatant disregard of it?

Without good, there would be no evil;
Without light, there would be no dark

We are all opposites and the same
We are hatred and yet love

To some, fortune is a lifestyle;
To most, it is a dream

Is it truly better to keep silent?
Why must we live in pretense?

The truth is never really the truth;
The truth is, we believe what we want to believe

Hope. Hope. Hope.
Hope but never expect

Dreams become reality only with conditions
Nothing in life is for free.

Live. Laugh. Love
It is what makes us human

It is what gives us hope
It is life.

Malapascua and then some

So we had a very long weekend because of the confusing state of affairs we call holidays in this country. It was only prudent that I take a long vacation which involved me diving in some remote island. In this case, it was called Malapascua island.

It started out as a one-hour plane ride followed by a four-hour drive to the pier then another hour of a boat ride to cross to the island. By the time we got there, we were hungry, wet and tired (not necessarily in that order) but we had one dive to do because well, we wanted to.

We had planned it as a dusk dive but one delay led to another and we ended up doing a night dive instead. Well, great way to start the vacation I suppose. After that, it was drinks and waiting for our dinner which took an hour per order. Wait, let me back up a bit here.

Ok, so when we arrived at the island it was around 2:00 pm and we proceeded to have lunch at the resort. We were all very hungry at this point and I don't think any one of us would have cared if they served us instant noodles. To my surprise, they did serve us instant noodles and we did care, very much indeed thank you.

Ah well back to my talk about dinner. It was in one of the local restaurant/bar which only had one cook and one burner on the stove. So it took an hour to prepare for an order of whatever except maybe the drinks which meant we were all tipsy by the time the food came over.

I had ordered a fish fillet with butter and lemon sauce. Surprisingly enough, the one-hour wait is worth it (that is if you're not starving and pissy about drinking first) because the servings were generous and the food was, to my humble critique, five-star class.

After dinner we had a couple more drinks and off we went to bed to get some rest for our 4:00 am dive run to watch sharks clean their teeth.

4:00 am came and went and we were all up (hungry and grouchy for lack of coffee in a most ungodly hour) and ready to board the boat. We had commissioned two boats to take us out to the thresher shark area (which is mostly open water and about 70 - 80 feet below is a huge plateau with a 1000 foot drop) but our boat had to transfer all our stuff from the night before to another boat. Suffice it to say, we had been delayed for an hour and by the time we got to the dive site, the sun was already shining and the sharks were long gone (them being sensitive to light).

We went to a couple more dive sites but one in particular was one I liked very much (next to the thresher shark area) because it was a 15 meter long cavern underwater at about 60 - 70 feet and it was magnificent. We didn't actually see much but the locals say that it is usually housed with white-tipped reef sharks, sea snakes and other similar underwater cavern creatures. We did sea a white-banded sea snake on our way to the surface though and a few of us saw a white-tipped reef shark hidden under a coral formation.

After we headed back to the beach for a little relaxation, I decided to try out a most unusual but enticing sight, a floating bar (which I like to call a water bar because it's on water). And that's where I saw what was probably the most beautiful sunset I have ever laid eyes on. It was picturesque, an absolute thing of beauty. One that would most certainly guarantee a marriage proposal had there been anyone to marry at that moment.

So it was that I had thrown down a couple of vodkas and off I went to dinner with my compatriots. It was a most serene night and suffice to say, I was very drunk so off I went to get a massage and then fall asleep.

We woke up again in the wee hours of the morning in hopes that we would get a glimpse of the main attraction again, which were the thresher sharks. It wasn't so bad this time but the dive operator fucked up again so there was a bit of a delay. It was all forgotten when we hit the water because we saw the most amazing sight (two of them, in fact), thresher sharks. Big, fat long-tailed and quite shy of humans, they would come up out of their underwater refuge to have themselves cleaned by smaller fish.

After that, we had to call off other dive plans because it started raining, the wind was strong and the calm waters became small swells that made some of our crew sick. We had a few hours to kill before heading back to Cebu city in preparation for our flight back to Manila the next day.

I had some friends in Cebu city and after arriving they took me out for a drunken spree and paint the town red (or whatever color I paint it with). But that's a story for another day I'm afraid.

I would definitely go back to Malapascua for diving or for just plain beach-bumming, getting drunk and relaxing. It reminded me of how Boracay used to be. I didn't mind the fact that there were no fresh water showers, or that we had to either settle for fast crappy food or slow gourmet meals. It was a beautiful experience and one I would enjoy going back to.