Tuesday 16 February Malapascua

Famed for being the place to come and dive with thresher sharks Malapascua is dive shops, hotels, dive shops, restaurants, dive shops and a range of visitors from flashpacker to backpacker.

boat building

sales ladies visit us at restaurant

diving with God

It's another 'holiday' island for us. It's small enough to be able to walk around in three hours though only the south end, with it's white beach, is developed. On the north of the island there's a village which be must benefiting from tourists. Just over a year ago typhoon Yolanda slammed into the island causing much damage. I had a massage on the beach from a lady who told me her husband's fishing boat was lost in the storm and they are saving to buy wood to build a new one. One of the government (or a charity?) schemes post typhoon was to train twenty ladies from the village to be masseurs. Two teachers came from Cebu city for the initial selection and training and then the ladies travelled to Cebu to finish their studies at a College of Reflexology. Helping people to help themselves. Massages are a fixed price, p300 (about £4.50 / $7) for one hour full body. There are clean sarongs, towels for your head to rest on and the ladies have a daily changing uniform. On Mondays it's a blue top and trousers, Tuesdays white t shirt and black trousers, etc and they work seven days a week from late morning until 8pm. It long hours by western standards but on the flipside, they haven't had to go overseas for jobs and they all seem very happy with the work.

scenes behind the beach front hotels

The economics of Philippines has other strange quirks. In a bar we went to a single rum and coke cost more than a double and a double more than a triple??? Seems very odd until you take a sip of your triple rum and reflect on the cost of the components. The local Tanday rum costs less than Coca Cola. Happy hour really is happy hour here.