Southeast Asian Adventures

New plans

Tom — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 05:24:27 +0000

Ahum, probably this was the longest break in between two posts. I admit, I have been lazy with this blog, way too lazy.
What have I been doing? Euhm…scubadiving, freediving, mountain-biking, 8ball pool, working, some roadtrips, from which Southern Leyte, Padre Burgos was a highlight. Freediving with whalesharks is something you can’t forget.

Anyway, time for a break. I need to hit the road again, like I used to do. No fix plans, only vague directions.

I’m gonna head to Laos and Cambodia in may and june.
Java is also again on the list for end of june/july. Would love to do Krakatau.
After that I head back to Moalboal.

Too all my friends and family: lots of greets. I didn’t forget you, I forgot about my blog though.

Tour de Negros

Tom — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:37:39 +0000

The 11th of october we started a mini adventure. We took our motorbike and drove ourselves to Dumaguete. There we met Jeremy, a nice French companion we met earlier here in Moalboal, and from there we started our 14 day motorbike adventure: Tour de Negros. Negros is about the size of Belgium, but green (and rainy), rich of volcanoes and dramatic coastlines. We did roughly 700km. Add 200km to get us from and back to Moalboal.

Highlights were the road from Hinoba-an over Sipalay to Kabankalan, Masskara festival in Bacolod, and the road through the mountains (Bacolod to San Carlos). Definitely worth doing again, where I would put more emphasize on the Sipalay area. Here you can find dramatic cliffs, beautiful bays, hidden white sand beaches and awesome diving spots. Imagine mini-Palawan scenerie.

I didn’t take that much pictures, mainly because of driving a lot and having too much fun to even think about shooting pics. Masskara I enjoyed without a camera…see my post previous year for impressions of the Festival.

Anyway, here are a few impressions from our roadtrip:

What’s been going on?

Tom — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:27:16 +0000

Yeah, I know…I’ve been pretty lame with my blog the last 6 months or more.

Most friends are able to follow me on FB and actually it’s a bit more fun there, because of the interaction. Then, to do everything twice isn’t really entertaining.

Anyway, for those who wonder, what have I been doing lately?

Apart from enjoying stressless & slow life here in Moalboal:

* few motorbike daytrips in the nearby mountains
* few motorbike visatrips to Dumaguete and back. Visited the twin lake national park on the way.
* been caught up in Manila…sure you heard of the typhoons torturing this metropole. We were there…but don’t worry…safe.
* Lots of freediving and sharing underwater time with the hawksbill turtles!

I managed to break a few personal underwater records:

I went down to 32,2meter deep with one single breath.
I managed to stay 2min 06secs underwater at a depth of 14m.
I’m still alive.

Upcoming:

* tomorrow we leave for a 10 day motorbike tour around Negros island. On the way we will enjoy the Masskara Festival in Bacolod.
Estimated travel: 700km+ along beautiful coastlines and cross west to east through volcano landscapes.

* a visit from my parents for about a month
* Palawan (I write it here so I would finally do it…been to long on my wishlist)
* …Palau maybe? Donations are welcome. hehe.

As long as the government leaves me alone, no trip to Belgium planned.

But…always eager to hear something from the Belgian side!
What’s up?

Cheers

Tom

We moved to Moalboal!

Tom — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 06:48:34 +0000

After our almost 1 month lasting Davao adventures we flew back to Cebu and immediately moved out Cebu city. I couldn’t deal with the city anymore, wanted a place where we could walk to the sea and preferably had some mountains more inland…so we found!
Have a small looksee at our new place, Moalboal & the near vistas.
We plan to stay here for at least a year! Give us a visit!

Our open air kitchen

front view…we live on top of the garage

front garden view

view from our kitchen balcony…our bay and the mountains

view from our front balcony. In the distance you see island Negros

inside our studio…just one room, but spacy enough and all what we need is there

fresh coconuts at our kitchen balcony

the very near & tiny island Pescador…a (free)diver’s heaven

frogfish

huge school of sardines

jellyfish and it’s lightsignals

eel

thunderstorm behind the mountains, view from our kitchen balcony

our bay, about 100m walking

view from a higher point…very nice motorbike trail towards this viewpoint

how we do it…Shayne & Wolfgang

the building you see is a school…imagine!

view of the other side of southern Cebu island, Alcoy village.

macro from a few insects I found during a hike through one of the last forests in Cebu…pretty close to our place

So…What’s next? Aside of just enjoying life here, I’m planning a motorbike tour around island Negros. That will be quite a tour, around 10 days & hundreds of km’s cruising, trying to find some nice secluded areas and have a stopover in Bacolod during it’s famous Masskara Festival (see last year october).
Do I miss Belgium? Hell no! haha.

Davao Del Sur – Kapatagan – Padada

Tom — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 05:27:16 +0000

Wow, finally an update again…
Last 2/3 months (june-aug) there’s been happening quite a lot and I honestly forgot a bit about this blog. Anyway…
After my diving course in Davao we headed to Padada, a small town 2 hours away from Davao, where my good friend Czaldy lives.
On the way we stopped at several places, like Mount Davao (highest peak in Mindanao province), an arthouse of Kublai (famous artist in Mindanao), a pottery, a wildwaterriver where we tried out watertubing, etc…

Watertubing…Take a tube of a trucktire and just ride it down the river…mad fun, but painful for the butt…not for everyone I guess.

some work of Kublai

Batcave in Samal island

waterfalls in Samal island

on the road…

horseriding mount Davao area

cabelslide…fun!

coconut-oil farm

house around coconut farm…they brew the famous tuba there (coconut wine)

gunshooting with the mayor of Padada

pottery

surroundings

arthouse Kublai

my soar eye…believe me, you don’t want this…

Davao underwater: Samal island & Talikud island

Tom — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:40:48 +0000

The 8th of june we arrived in Davao, in Mindanao. Many governments (especially the US) still list this area in the Philippines as to be avoided and unsafe.

Not really true. To be honest, I felt even safer in Davao then in Cebu…The deadsquat from the local mayor is something to discuss about, but it’s definitely effective. Zero tolerancy. You fuck up, you get erased. Further, this city is clean as I never saw it before in the Philippines. And you can drink tapwater! Wow for that. People are softspoken, honest and hospital. A city to keep in mind for living a while.

The more dangerous areas are actually located towards Zamboanga and the islands behind, in the Sulu sea. Better be careful there & know who you know, where you go and what you do.

Now, the real reason I went to Davao was diving & visit my friend Czaldy! I wanted to get certified as a Scuba Open Water diver, so I could spent more time underwater compared to freediving. I love freediving, but I love even more to study a creature and photograph it.
Well, I have my certification. I scored a smooth 92% on my exam (with a heavily infected eye).

Let my pictures speak to you…

Next is Padada & Kapatagan in Davao del Sur. Give me some time.

Balicasag island

Tom — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:08:13 +0000

Here you see Balicasag island. Tiny, very tiny. I swim around it in about 3 hours.

View Larger Map

It has the best freediving I experienced so far in the Philippines.

Have you ever been inside a school of 500+ fishes, circling all around you?

I’ve edited a small movie of one of my freedives, to give you a taster of such an awesome experience. Enjoy!

[See post to watch Flash video]

Furthermore, there are just tons of fish flirting with you. Dolphins, turtles,… I saw even a Napoleon, a really big fish, protected and seldom to witness.

Here are some pictures for you:

Our boatmen

Dolphins…dozens of them

in the middle of a school of jackfish

Shayne

The dropoff

corals at 15m depth…you see colors are starting to fade and it becomes darkblue

Behind the jackfish along the dropoff

more corals along the dropoff

getting near the ‘black forest’…bottem changes

quick snapshot from our bangka

rowing towards the black forrest…

there we are…

notice the black corals?

second day with ninja Ron

going deep again…

fancorals

under the jackfish

time for a small break…

and woohoo…what do we see here?

My best shot of a turtle so far. It was quite hard to follow her with the strong current…When you swim along with this elegant creature, you forget everything…you’re only left with one big smile underwater.

another fancoral

the feared crown of thorns

pufferfish…puffish…it’s like fish blown up. Very cute.

nemo time

the anemones where clownfish (cfr nemo) stay…you wouldn’t want to touch them…

Here I waved to the scuba divers, they a bit amazed by seeing a guy with no tanks deeper then them…hehe

on the way back we stopped at a virgin island, only 10mins needed to walk around. We encountered some fishermen hunting for huge shelves…containing once pearls…and delicious food

we found other purposes for it…

waiting for the rain to pass by, sitting in the water…no better cover for rain then the sea…Darn, I love this country.

kisses to you all.

Badian & Kawasan

Tom — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:25:35 +0000

Here are some pics from our last trip out of town…Freediving, beachbumming, ‘canyoning’, partying, etc…Life can be a bitch, no?

A fragment of daily life.

Tom — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 09:13:28 +0000

Â I’m filled with contentment on such moments. My two treasures, both naughty & adorable.

Sunday Snaps.

Tom — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 11:53:57 +0000

Some pics of a sundaytrip. While returning from nearby Olango island, we passed by Lapu-Lapu where Magellan was killed by King (hold your breath) Lapu-Lapu. It’s situated in Mactan island, 30 mins driving from our home. The underwaterpics didn’t turn out that great as the water was a bit dusty due to pretty strong current.