Not a city boy after all

Well, this feels a bit strange to be writing two postings within a few days of each other. Can you tell I'm a bit bored? I left Malapascua on Friday morning and since then all I seem to have done is hang around waiting for flights. 2 days in Cebu, which was terrible and then 2 days here in Puerto Princesa, which isn't quite so bad but is still rather limited on the entertainment front. Still, has given me a chance to get loads of the reading for my divemaster done, and have watched a good amount of crap cable tv - enough to keep me topped up for the next 2 months anyway.

Has also made me finally realise that cities just aren't for me. How I survived 8 years in London I don't know. All the way through this trip I've been far happier in the smaller places, but here in the Philippines this has become even more evident. It's not that the people are unfriendly in the cities, it's more that they're not particularly friendly. Tourists are hardly 2 a penny round here (in fact I haven't seen another westerner since Malapascua) and in other South East Asian countries the sight of a lone tourist wandering around the streets would draw a certain amount of attention. Here it's like I don't exist. I'm not expecting people to rush out and invite me into their houses or to sit down for a beer with them, and it's actually quite nice to walk around and not be hassled, but it's a bit unsettling when I'm completely ignored in shops, restaurants or any sort of queue.

There's no doubt about it, the Philipino's are very different to other South East Asians. It's probably down to the fact that for most of the last 500 years they've been colonised by various empires, so have struggled to preserve their own identity and culture. The Spanish and American influence is huge and has left a country that is a confusing mixture of east and west. This is so much more obvious in the cities, though, where traditional markets compete for space with shopping malls, fast food outlets, mobile phone shops and internet cafes. In the smaller towns and on the smaller islands where the west hasn't had such a profound effect, I've found the people much more open to tourists. On Malapascua I don't feel uncomfortable walking around the village, stopping for a drink in a local bar (even banging out a karaoke tune or 2), but here, and in Cebu I haven't felt I could do that. Or if I did, I just don't feel I'd be accepted in the way I would outside a city.

So this got me thinking about cities in general. What I loved about London was it's anonimity. If you didn't want to talk to someone you didn't have to. But this seems wrong to me now (sorry to my upstairs neighbour in Brixton who I didn't speak to for 18 months). I want to talk to people, and interact with them, and when I'm in a place that that's hard to do it feels strange. Perhaps my Devon roots are coming through here or perhaps I'm just becoming middle-aged, but i definitely feel happier and more comfortable in smaller places, which is something I would have scoffed at a few months ago.

Cities are for travelling through, everywhere else is for staying. Maybe this is obvious to most people, but to me it's a whole new feeling, but I like it.

The best thing about travelling...

is the fact that you can change your plans as often as you like. May19th: " It's looking unlikely that I'll stay here for the 3 months I intended...I need to do (my divemaster) somewhere a bit more lively so will probably head down to Malaysia, or even Indonesia in mid-June to settle on a beach somewhere for 2 months". On May 22nd I signed up to do my Divemaster on an island in the Philippines, 3 hours from the nearest bank, with no internet connection and only one late night bar (that has since closed). Hardly lively. Love it.

Malapascua is heaven. It's primarily famous for being home to Thresher sharks, and is the only place in the world where they are known to appear every day. Although that's why I went there originally, within a day of being on the island I knew I'd found the place I could stay for a few a months. I won't even attempt to describe what made me feel like that, as I'm not really sure I even know, but it just felt right. The island, the diving, the diveschool, the people. All of them.

I'm actually in Cebu at the moment as the couple who run the diveshop are on holiday for 2 weeks so I'm using the time to fly to Palawan to get some serious wreck diving in. It's meant to be the best in the world as the sea is littered with relics from WW2, Japanese and American. Then it's back to Malapascua for 6-8 weeks, so don't expect to hear too much out of me.

I love diving. I've been doing 2 or 3 dives every day for the last 3 weeks and I still think it's so exciting putting on that wetsuit, checking the equipment, getting in the water, giving the signal and descending down into a totally different world. There aren't many things in the world that would get me up at 5.30 every morning but the chance to see Thresher sharks is one of them. But it's not just the sharks. Coming back from the dive as the sun is just warming up, the light is perfect and the island is just waking up is almost as amazing as diving itself. If you've dived you might know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, why not?

So my plans for Malaysia and Indonesia are on hold for now, but hey, they'll still be there another time. It feels great to have made a decision about the divemaster, and I'm really looking forward to staying in one place for more than a week or so. There may be no internet or any nightlife to speak of on Malapascua but there is rather bizarrely a fantastic Crazy Golf course so when not diving I'll be improving my putting skills over a cold beer or 2.

There're some photos to go on but haven't got the right bits and bobs here now so check in a day or two if you're interested.

Funny how i've ended up doing exactly the thing I intended to do when I left England, having spent the last few months constantly thinking I'll do something else. But that's the best thing about travelling...