TigerMan

At the City Hall Subway Station, an elderly man was selling hand painted tigers in special cloth. The tiger prints in different poses of attack were quite impressive and I decided to buy one. But I don’t have enough Korean money so I showed him my ten dollars. Quite clearly, he showed me the equivalent in Korean money, and I got the impression that the tiger prints cost thirty dollars apiece but I pretended to be confused whether my ten dollars is less or more than his asking price.

The old man painfully explained his situation in Korean and I pretended to be more confused.  Apparently, we were both enjoying the confusion and we laughed at our mumblings and body language. Finally he gave in in frustration; took my ten dollars; rolled the tiger print; put it in a paper bag, and hand it over to me. I took a deep breath smiling broadly saying kamsahamnida (Korean Thank You). He shook his head and waved his hand at me. He mumbled something in Korean. I guess I know what he meant: “Forget the thank you wise guy, you can have the tiger at a bargain price."  I felt triumphant when I walked away and the old man was still shaking his head.

Now, the tiger print proudly hangs in my office wall in the Philippines. Every time I see it, I am reminded of the Tiger Man at the subway in Seoul, Korea. It never fails to bring a smile to my lips.

White Tip Shark

After our early lunch, we headed for Gato, a big black coral rock island jutting out of the water topped with green lush vegetation with steep walls fit for rappelling.  At the bottom were several caves and crevasses carved by surf and sea action. Flocks of birds frolic above while others hovered the sea’s surface in search for tasty fish meal. I looked around just in time to see one bird dropped its shit! Then we prepared our gear, ready for some shark action. 

We went down and moved past soft corals growing on flat sea beds and rolling hills. I swam sideways veering away from a leaning rock mountain base then turned left to be in position.  We were 12 divers all lined up in two buddy system formation headed towards a big gap between huge underwater boulders.  Inside the gap, we turned right to enter a narrow opening.  But crawling past it was a bigger space shaped like a dome.  It was a bit dark but water visibility was fine.  Like a school of fish, we huddled together. And all of a sudden, the space felt small as excitement swelled within us.

To the left and overhead, was sunlight penetrating the rocks and to the right where it’s darker was THE CAVE, with twin narrow openings festooned with overhanging soft corals - THE HOME OF A WHITE TIP SHARK!  The drumbeats began to pound.  There, within the confines of the cave, the unmistakable White Tip circled: back and forth, back and forth. For a better view, I moved closer to a ledge near the left opening while holding on to a hard coral.  The shark kept going by the same pattern.  The white tips on its tail and dorsal fins gleamed in the darkness.  For a moment, I was mesmerized by this overly feared and greatly misunderstood creature.  Then the shark got wary of us and changed swimming pattern, and faster!  It headed for the left opening where I was!  The drumbeats got louder and I gulped more air.  But the shark steadied and stayed in the cave. 

Time whizzed by and I let out a sigh of relief, but also of longing.  I would have wanted to stay longer, keep the shark company.  But this is the White Tip’s turf, it is the predator, I am the prey, and low in air!  As we swam out, I turned to get a last glimpse of the shark, generally branded as the most vicious and bloodthirsty predator on earth, and driven to kill by an insatiable lust for flesh and blood.  But that isn’t so, I know better.

Fishing and Shrimping

The video below shows fish jumping out of the water but what I have experienced is shrimps jumping in the river.  When I was young, my father and his friends fish on weekends, but one time we went shrimping. The shrimp didn’t exactly jump in the boat as in the video, but you trap it with a fish net as it arches off the water.  I never knew shrimping could be that easy. 

Cat

I was watching bloopers on youtube.  There was a little kid with a cat in his arms and he was walking towards the pool.  I think I knew what he had in mind, but what the kid didn’t realize is that, the cat knew too!  At the edge, he threw the cat with all his might, but it turned around and jumped backwards, its hind legs pushed the kid’s legs and the naughty boy ends up the one splashing in the pool!  This video reminds me of my own shenanigans with a cat, here goes:

When I was a little kid myself, I was carrying a cat in our old wooden house.  It was just a one storey house but the kind that’s raised high to give room for chickens and stuff below that we can see through the slits between the bamboo flooring.  This naughty cat just ate my breakfast.  It was a rainy morning and there was a pool of brown water near a canal directly below the kitchen and I am going to throw the cat in the water.  But I didn’t want the cat to know, so I gave it all my love as I was walking towards the kitchen area by the window. Then I threw him out!  But the cat, whose senses are stronger than mine, extended its claws and slid through my arm, clang to my hand and clawed its way back from my fingers all the way to my shoulder.  And I end up with very-loooooong-cat-claw-bruises stitched across my left arm!  I looked across the room and there was the cat, licking itself in the middle of the wooden dining table all warm and comfy and perhaps thinking of somebody else’s breakfast to eat!

Dive Honeymoon!

Today we did 3 dives. Once in Tingo for invisible thresher sharks, and twice in Talima with its gargantuan sweetlips that Doods call thicklips, Mommy fatlips, and which I call bee-stung-lips just to be different. But the highlight of these dives didn’t happen underwater, it was a bellyaching laughing time back at the dive shop. And the topic? Honeymoon…

Tingo: At the proposed Tingo Marine Sanctuary, we shooed away hooka divers. These are illegal fishermen using compressor and cyanide for easy fish kill. Another dive boat Malambing was there with a bunch of spear fishing divers! For both concerns mommy called Junie Baring, chairman of Lapu-Lapu City FARMC to inform Junie of the situation. After that we dove for Threshers, finding none, we diverted our excitement in throwing off panggals in the drop-off. Panggals are fish traps with a big opening that tapers inward to a narrow hole, making easy entrance but impossible to exit.

For our second and third dives we went to Talima. At the wreck site, current was strong as always. In a show of superb buoyancy control (let me brag a bit), I made my way between narrow passages underneath the ship’s bow and on the bow itself, while looking down at huge sweetlips under gaps in the wooden planking. You will not believe seeing these mammoth residents after only two years of being declared a sanctuary. At that time, the area was a vast underwater sand and rubble! Now it’s teeming with marine life with elusive garden eels and a rare white gorgonian sea fan.

Back at the dive shop we talked about many things. And of all topics to be discussed, our talk was riveted on marriage, but the conversation sidestepped on a relevant but lighter subject - honeymoon…

Mommy finds it romantic and modern to be honeymooning in Europe but will settle for posh Shangrila in Mactan for budget constraints. Doods, apparently proud being a diver, wants to spend it at a dive spot like Nalusuan or Malapascua. And I know why: He wants diving all the time, be it a hundred feet underwater, or just in between two feet (between two legs!). Either way can be done at a dive resort. Nice choice!

But I found their choices boring. I want honeymooning with nature – and hike up the mountains with my bride, and make love under the stars and moonlight naked, on grass! I said we can play hide and seek, and catch me if you can, in the woods. The laughing started here and for some reason we can’t stop. Mommy said If I was the bride, I will divorce you right away!

Doods added that after the wedding (his bride wearing just a bikini!) they will dive with the threshers. And if his life is threatened, he will stab his wife and swim away. Then the wife will divorce him right away, if she’s still alive!

Mommy said that if she knew that was the groom’s idea, instead of the bridal car going to Capitol Parish for the wedding, she will make a stopover at the Hall of Justice… Doods asked Why, to have a civil wedding instead of church wedding? Mommy said No, to file for divorce right away! I said But you are still bleeding from thresher shark bites, you should drive directly to a hospital for treatment (although this sequence is illogical)!

With that comment we exploded in a laughing frenzy that made my stomach ache and my jaws stiffen! I can’t contain my laughter without stomping my feet and slapping my thighs! And the bridal car? The dive shop’s dependable MULTICAB! How romantic!!!

If nothing else, this crazy discourse on honeymoon is better than seeing a thresher shark on a dive!