My Very First Christmas Tree

Of course it isn't my first ever Christmas tree. It's just the first one that I ever actually purchased. The funny thing is, I already had a particular one in mind. I hadn't seen it yet, but I could imagine what it would look like already, down to it's height, the exact shade of green it would be, the material of its leaves and the thickness of the branches.

Fritz and I decided to go Christmas decor and general Christmas gift hunting yesterday (three cheers for Monday holidays!) at Bangkal in Makati. We absolutely love bargain hunting in this not so well known part of Makati because you never really know what you're going to end up finding. One time, Fritz was able to purchase this antique musical mini-bar there one time for like, Php800. On another occasion, I found a San Miguel Pale Pilsen bottle that looked like it had been stepped on and turned into an ashtray. I thought that was hilarious and was planning to give it to Fritz last year for Christmas, but I just couldn't keep it to myself for that long...

Bangkal is a bit like Portobello Street in London, in the sense that there are so many knick knacks and odds and ends lying about (yesterday there was this old jukebox player complete with old records and all, right beside a cage with two pit bull puppies). As we were going about, I suddenly saw, sitting nonchalantly on a side table, the Christmas tree of my dreams. It was absolutely perfect, just how I had imagined it. I did the usual bargain-hunter tactic and pretended to be only mildly interested when I asked how much it was. The shopkeeper did the usual seller tactic and quoted a price higher than what she would be actually willing to let it go for. After some good-natured haggling, we finally settled on the price of Php400.

Php 400 for my first Christmas tree!!! Well, I guess it's actually officially OUR Christmas tree. Whatever. It's beautiful and it's perfect :)

Angkor Wat, Here We Come!

Here's the travel itinerary for the Indochina trip that we will be making in December for anyone interested in joining us :)

Transportation set expenses:
Roundtrip ticket to Saigon = USD300
3-day pass for Angkor Wat temples = USD40
2-day tour of Mekong Delta = USD21
boat from Phnom Penh back to Saigon = USD6
bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (roundtrip) = USD12

Total set cost so far (for TRANSPORTATION) = USD379

I'm assuming a cost of USD30-40 per day for food, drinks and accommodation, so that's around USD400. So all in all, the trip would cost about USD779.

Dec 25 - arrive Saigon
Dec 26 - spend day in Saigon
Dec 27 - go on Mekkong Delta tour
Dec 28 - arrive Phnom Penh
Dec 29 - spend day in Phnom Penh
Dec 30 - travel to Siem Reap
Dec 31 - spend day in Siem Reap
Jan 1 - spend day in Siem Reap
Jan 2 - travel to Phnom Penh
Jan 3 - travel to Saigon
Jan 4 - fly back to Manila

This will be my first time to go to another Asian county besides the Philippines. Plus, it will also be the first time that I will be traveling internationally with someone other than a relative or co-worker. I cannot even begin to describe how excited I am!

Diving with the sharks

Right now, 2 things keep recurring in my mind: bamboo's new song "hallelujah" (i was able to download the mp3 in a matter of minutes thanks to BEARSHARE!) and the image of a thresher shark appearing 23m below sea level swimming towards me out of the blue. Not that the two have anything to do with each other except maybe the kind of effect that they have on the senses.

Anong balita, sa radyo at tv?
Ganun pa rin kumakapa sa dilim
Minsa'y naisip ko ng umalis na lang dito
Limutan ang lahat, lumipad, lumayo

The dive with the sharks was at 530 am and I was quite apprehensive before the dive. I was worried that I would panic once I saw a shark up close and personal and do something stupid like maybe bolt for the surface or thrash about trying to swim away. (Images of Jaws scenes flashing before me). I was worried about my BCD being too big for me and bobbing up and down behind me and knocking me out with the oxygen tank. (Hey, it could happen!) I was worried about not waking up in time for the dive and the weather being lousy and spending all that time and money and anxiety for nothing. (Dumb sharks don't have enough sense to come out at a decent hour like noon or something when it's bright and sunny and I've fully recovered from my hangover)

In effect, my entire evening before the dive was ruined because I was worried about everything and anything I could think of to be worried about. The rationale behind which was to exhaust myself with worrying about it now, rather than during the dive. I was finally exhausted enough by 11pm to fall asleep.

Bato bato sa langit,
tamaan wag magalit
alam naman natin sino ang tuso
sa bawa't sumpang umiiyak singil ko ay piso
sa bawa't lumuluhang dukha, alay ko'y dugo

Apparently not exhausted enough since I woke up at 2:45 am panicking that I hadn't set my alarm. I forced myself to go back to sleep and reserve my energy for the dive ahead. Two more precious hours of shut eye... Thankfully I was able to go back to sleep almost immediately.

Promptly at 5:01, my alarm sounded off and I gave myself a minute to wake up and then I promptly rolled out of bed and donned my pink brazilian bikini. (Courtesy of Eileen Sison of Guarana) I made my bleary-eyed way towards the end of the beach to ty and find the dive shop that my divemaster friend recommended. I had no idea who my dive buddy would be, all I knew was that he had done this dive before already and it would be just the two of us on the dive. Thank god. Last thing I wanted was to be paired off with an equally anxious newbie.

Turns out my dive buddy was an old pro who had been diving for 46 years already. He was a Swiss-German who learned to dive in Switzerland when he was only 16 years old. I was like, "where on earth do you dive in Switzerland?" and he said that they would dive beneath the ice during New Year's with a bottle of red wine. (more confused thoughts in my mind: how do you drink red wine under the ice??) Apparently what they would do was sneak up on the fish that were hibernating and pour the wine into the mouths of the fish and watch it come out of the gills. I was cracking up laughing and thanking the stars that I was born in a beautiful tropical country abundant with colorful tropical fish.

We had a lot of time to exchange stories and get to know each other better becuase we started the dive later than expected because the boat we were supposed to use was beached due to the low dive. Apparently the captain had too much fun the previous night and was not able to wake up early enough to move the boat. By the time we were ready to ship off at 8AM, I was more confident with the dive. I was assigned to a divemaster who works for the Search and Rescue division of the Philippine airforce, and then the two others on the dive was Guido, the Swiss-German and Danny, the resident divemaster of Divelink. I figured if worse came to worst, they could just knock me out and drag me to the surface!

May pag-asa ka kapatid! Kaibigan!
Hangga't ako'y humihinga, may pag-asa pa!
Hallelujah!
Sinong sawa, sinong galit?
Sumigaw ngayong gabi
Hallelujah!


After 30 minutes of tanning myself on the prow of the boat, watching the flying fish jump out of our way and admiring the amazingly clear sparkling emerald water below me (2 worries out of the way: it was a BEAUTIFUL sunny day and I woke up on time), it was time to gear up for the dive.

The only reason why I have enough patience to deal with all the tugging and pulling required to don a 3cm full length body suit is because I know that it's better than shivering throughout the dive at 25m below. All in all it took me another 10 minutes. (1 more worry out of the way: the BCD was a snug comfy fit)

Edison, my Search and Rescue dive buddy, gave me a few more pointers (to inflate you bcd, press here, to deflate press here) and then we were off. I was the last one in the water and for a minute or so I was panicking about not being able to descend. Finally, a strong arm reached out and hauled me towards the line. (good old Edison!) I couldn't see anything below me at all except for Edison's shadwy form, so I just concentrated on following him trying my best to block out the theme song from "Jaws" from playing in my head.

After what seemed like an eternity, we had finally reached the bottom. No walls here, thankfully. Edison signalled for me to follow the rest of the group who were already in place, crouching as low as possible to the surface, making as little movement as possible. I tried to follow suit but I was having trouble controlling my buoyancy. I must have looked like an idiot bobbing up and down there. I was beginning to have the sinking feeling that if we didn't get to see any sharks on this dive, my dive buddies would all blame the greenhorn diver who couldn't even manage to do the simplest task: float.

My worst fears were confirmed when Danny signalled after minutes of staring at nothing to move to the next shark watching spot. Once again, I tried looking at least half as professional as the group I was with, to no avail. Good old Edison had to once again reach out and haul me along like a sick puppy. At this point, all my worries about seeing a shark and panicking were thrown out the window. I was more worried about NOT seeing a shark and having to sit in a boatful of frustrated divers who were all bound to blame me for the 30 minute ride back home.

I dredged up all the tips and strategies that Ralph, my Dive Master taught me during my certification and concentrated on controlling my breathing and my buoyancy until I was finally able to maintain a fairly stable floating position hovering near the bottom of the underwater coral bed. Now I could focus on keeping a lookout for those sharks. Or pretend to at least. I was still concentrating on maintaining my buoyancy level.

The suspense was starting to kill me when Guido finally turned towards me and made the "shark" motion with his hand. I scanned the area he was pointing at, but couldn't see anything for a while, and then suddenly, just like in a movie, there it was, appearing out of the blue as it's silhouette gained definition the closer it came to us. And it was coming straight towards us too. But I forgot all about being afraid, as I was just caught in awestruck wonder watching it swim towards me. Around 10 meters away from me, it turned and circled back to wherever it came from. I will never forget that moment when the shark fist appeared and it was facing me directly! Spellbound was a word invented for moments like those...



Blinded by the light
I could barely see the faces in front of me
Asking me where do we begin
Well for starters from within
I'm ashamed of what I've become in the mirror
The face of my one true enemy
Hallelujah it's a new day


Everything was pretty much anticlimactic after that. After the dive, Guido showed me the pictures he had taken and I made him all but sign a written oath that he would email me the pictures. He promised that he would but that it might take a couple of weeks. Hell, I don't care, better late than never!

The best thing about traveling, aside from having new experiences is meeting new people!

Cheers to that :)

(Photos above courtesy of Guido Brander, my Swiss-German dive buddy, who remembered to email me the photos! Danke schon!)