Fast Boat to Sweet Home Bohol

Summer in the Philippines is from March thru May. So by July, school is in full swing, which means car traffic gets heavier, and sea traffic is, well, almost boring. The only thing saving sea journeys from complete boredom is unannounced CANCELED sailings.

We arrived at Cebu Pier "Uno" (1) with 30 minutes to spare before the next sailing of the Bohol StarCraft fast boat.

Tita M doesn't come home much, so she still clings to the old practice of guarding your baggage with every shred of faith that it will get stolen if you take your eyes off them.

And so we waited for the StarCraft.

Notice, the absence of any other passengers besides our group.

I think I inherited my passion for photograpy from my aunt, Mama Tiny.

The StarCraft arrived, but the departure gates remained shut...

Until this fellow in a seaman's uniform over a blue t-shirt and orange arm covers gave us the following announcement, with such meekness and embarrassment:

I am so sorry to inform you that we are having engine troubles with this boat. It ran on one engine on the way here from Bohol, which made us shut down air conditioning to half of the cabin. The boat at this moment is deemed unseaworthy, thus we are cancelling the 10:30am sailing until the problem has been fixed.

As the next sailing of a different shipping line was on a slow boat, and we would have to fuss with the hassle of transferring to Pier "Tres" (3), we opted to wait for the 12:30pm sailing.

"I feel we ought to be compensated for this unacceptable misfortune," I joked.

Oh, of course ma'am! You shall be upgraded to Mabuhay Class (that's 1st class accommodation, so to speak) on the next boat, sailing at 12:30pm.

"That's lunch time, and I'm getting hungry already!" I added, still jokingly.

And much to my surprise, the captain - if that's what he was - replied and we shall provide you with refreshments during this most regretful, and unexpected delay.

I have no idea what this sandwich was. But because of the captain's exuberant expression of regret, I ate it out of humility for him. He did go out of his way to put us up in Mabuhay Class, a whole P20.00 higher in fare, and provide us with mystery sandwiches worth P20.00 a piece.

I apologize, he added, that because of the engine problems on this boat, the refrigeration was shut off as well, so the softdrinks are rather warm. Please accept bottled water instead.

And so we ate, and we waited.

And waited.

And... [yaaaaaawn!]... waihhhhted...

And took naps.

And waited some more.

Until more passengers started to fill the terminal.

And all this time I watched the crew from the fast boat milling around the deck, hiking up their t-shirts to cool off, and wiping the sweat trickling down their faces. It for sure didn't look like they were scrambling to address the alleged engine problem. And I entertained the idea that was a million-to-one coincidence that their engine encountered problems when there happened to be only 7 passengers present to board.

In the meantime, Tita M called the house, and had Cousin Obet bring over some more cargo for us to take to Bohol. Since we were getting upgraded to Mabuhay Class we ought to be entitled to take more baggage on this voyage.

And then we waited some more.

And waited even more.

And finally, the second boat - the seaworthy vessel - arrived.

"Those jars better not break!" insisted Tita M. "Or else..."

This is us, the only passengers in Mabuhay Class. M-hm, it reaffirms my hypothesis of that coincidental, alleged engine failure.

And as the fast boat glided over the glass like water of the Strait of Bohol, I heard a familiar voice greeting me. "You're back!" he said. It was a crew memeber I met on my last voyages on the Bohol StarCraft last February.

And they were just as hospitable and rowdy as before.

'Cept this time, the First Mate had his own sunglasses, instead of borrowing mine.

[Bohol Star Craft 2, February 2010]

"So tell me," I said to the First Mate. "There's nothing wrong with the engines on the StarCraft 2, is there..."

No, there isn't.

"And the only reason they cancelled the sailing was because of the lack of passengers..." I continued.

Yes, that's true.

I don't blame the shipping line. P1,400.00 (7 passengers x P200.00 each) isn't enough to pay for 1/8 of the amount of fuel it took to cross the Strait of Bohol. And with the way fuel prices have gone through the roof, it would have been a great financial loss for the shipping line to ferry a mere 7 passengers, especially during off-peak sea travel season.

Nevertheless, the long wait only heightened my anticipation for Bohol, home sweet Bohol.

It's definitely Bohol when you can smell the mud of the rice fields as you ride along the highway.

Ahhhh, the sweet, clean smell of Bohol.

(Next event...)

Nagoya SNAFU

I booked an itinerary that would take me from Washington State to the Philippines via Nagoya Japan, with a 23 hour layover. I figured, I had a similar layover in Narita several years ago, and was given a Shore Pass for 3 days; and that this time would be the same, just in Nagoya. I was really looking forward to visiting the sites in the city, temples, eating the local food, saying "sumimasen", "arigato", "konichuwa", and all the single Japanese words I've picked up from Japanese acquaintances throughout the years.

Watashi-no namaewa Netty-des. That is, my name is Netty.

Well, the first person I told that to was the immigrations officer when I arrived last night. Unfortunately, I had no idea what he said. Only that he wasn't going to let me have my plan to gallavant around Nagoya, or Japan for that matter. He detained me for not having proper travel documents to visit Japan. I needed a visa.

He was just about to throw me into the detention facility at the airport when representatives from Delta Airlines came to my rescue. Now, I have to plug them because the service I received absolutely outstanding, even though my plan to visit Nagoya turned out to be a snafu.

The first agents that tried to help me were women. I'm guessing that because Japan is a patriarchal culture, they were totally blown off by the gruff immigrations officers. Then came M. Santo, the man who saved my night. He talked the immigrations officers into letting me stay the night at the airport hotel, under the strict condition that my passport be remanded by Delta, and that I be under constant surveillance from the time I leave the immigrations department to the time I check back into the departure lounge. To top it off, he was going to give me ¥1,000.00 for dinner - which of course I refused to accept without an exchange. (I gave him $20.00 for ¥2,000.00, which is worth more than the dollar.)

"You wir hab secret agent forrow you; secret agent wir sreep in hoterr wiz you... ah, in next room - not in sem room!" said M. Santo. I think he meant 'security' agent, not 'secret agent'.

So that night, Mr. Makoto stayed by my side at all times - except of course when I went into the bathroom, and at bedtime. I was in room 341, and he was in room 342. The Japanese take their jobs seriously, so I wouldn't be surprised if he stayed up all night with his ear cocked to the wall to make sure I didn't jump ship - well, in my case it would be 'jump plane - in the middle of the night. We had breakfast together. He is 33 years old, and learned English in New Zealand 10 years ago, where he worked for 2 years. You'd think we were a couple, what with him carrying my bag and opening doors for me, both of us laughing as we chatted about everything and nothing.

"I feel so special," I told him. "I've never had to be under guard for anything in my life until now."

"Yesss, I'm you're secret agent," he chuckled.

And so I thought about the last movie I saw with 5-Star. Ninja Assassin. A young ninja took it upon himself to protect a young American woman on a hit list for other ninja assassins.

Makoto-san might look like him - if he had longer hair, worked out 4 hours a day, and ate protein shakes for every meal. But what the heck, my plan to have a grand time in Nagoya was foiled because of a stupid stamp that was not in my passport. So I might as well make the best of my situation by conjuring the most fantastic of imaginations for this most boring of snafu.

Here's my room. Everything in it was low. As in short. That's probaby going to be (I say going to be because I have another 6 hours before I leave this place, and anything can happen later) the only picture of me in Nagoya, and I'm wearing a sleeping gown provided by the hotel.

Yes, instructions are provided with their state of the art pillow. Singular. They provide only one pillow per bed!

Thank goodness I brought my own pillow from home.

I was very surprised to see this when I got off the elevator in the lobby. I got to the hotel late, so I didn't know what was on the other side of the glass as I walked by it last night.

And of course this sign was teasing me as I checked out at the front desk. I could be out there, with the fresh sea air in my hair. But noooooo... I had to be "detained" with a secret agent.

Don't know what this is, you say?

This is the western verson of it. And notice the attached kid-size seat. Leave it to the Japanese to invent convenience.

Convenient sanitation.

Convenient baby holder so that the parent can go the the bathroom without trying to hold on to a toddler.

There are computers with free Internet access all over the airport. But alas, I have no idea what these characters mean.

So I sit, and look out the window...

And take out my own computer...

And even so, I have to be careful because the ISP is in Japanese...

And I wait some more...

Wait! Where's the pinwheel that H gave me? Oh no! I think I left it in the bathroom! Gotta go!

Ugh, Nagoya SNAFU!

(Next event...)

Dear Catey, Happy 4th of July!

Dear Catey,

Ah, 'twas a quiet 4th of July for us. It was the first time in 7 years that we didn't have a bbq with friends, followed by an exodus to the grassy knoll on the hillside to watch the fireworks over downtown below. This year everyone went their separate ways. Scotty and I now live right in town, and all we had to do to watch the fireworks was walk to the end of the street, and there was the field where the pyrotechnics were lit. It was actually nice. No hassle or bustle to get food and decorations ready for a party.

We started Independence day with an early morning walk through downtown. The streets were closed for the parade, so we strolled down the middle of the streets with no regard for traffic rules. Then Sonya threw a tissy fit when we met up with a Newfie dog. Ugh, it was embarassing! So we went home.

Then I ran back into town for a 5k race, which turned out to be another 1/2 mile out of town. Needless to say, I got a very loooong warm up before the race. I used to finish races amongst the 1st half; this time I was in the lagging end. Ugh!

Then I went home and took a salt water bath because my aching body felt like limp noodle when standing. And right afterwards, I was as good as new to go back to downtown and watch the parade.

I really must be getting old because sobs kept welling up my knotted chest at the sight of people holding up our flag with pride and happiness, and of veterans... I have to stop writing about this because now I'm crying again. Ugh!

There was plenty of time from when I got home from the parade and before the fireworks, so Scotty and I watched a movie. Scotty's been under the weather with his tummy, so he skipped the parade. But he was such a sport to take that early morning walk, and to watch the fireworks that night.

We used to take Preacher and Sonya to that grassy knoll with our friends to watch the fireworks over town. It never bothered them. But this time, since we were going to be directly below the pyros, we loaded them up with Benadryl, and packed leftover meatloaf to distract them incase the ear drum shattering booms of the fireworks scared them. They were quite startled by the first set of booms. But then settled down. Sonya even looked up to watch the lights in the sky. And when it was all quiet again, we all walked home in high spirits. I think the dogs actually enjoyed the fireworks!

We had friends come over on Saturday for the world champion title UFC fight. I don't know who brought it, but there is a "Happy 4th of July" cheesecake in the fridge that's calling out my name right now. I know, it's not going to help me with any 5k's in my future, but it will help my sweet tooth for the moment. It will also wash down the ibuprofen I'm going to take for my limp noodle legs. Oh my goodness, I'd forgotten what it felt like to have running muscles. Well, at least now I know they're still there. Which means there WILL BE 5k's in my future.

Come visit anytime!

Love,

Netty