South Pacific and The Philippines

Hi there all,

Here are some impressions of my boring life in Aloba Beach: diving, partying, sleeping and watching sleeping. I still like it a lot. And since a few weeks, I added leading dive safaris to my resume. See the next update!

After my trip to PNG, I returned to New Zeeland, with a four days stopover in North East Australia. Initially I wanted to stay longer in Australia, but after all the stories I heared about Solomons and PNG and my love for less developed places, I decided to stay longer there. And indeed, the development and huge Tourism near Brisbane were pretty disappointing. But the nature, a little bit away from the tourist centers, was pretty good. Espec. seeing Kangaroos every day was a highlight. Next time maybe to Western Autralia, not so developed.

Then I went to New Zealand for about a month, visiting Katja and skiing. Skiing was cool, but after two weeks I wanted to be back into paradise. Aussies and Kiwis are so annoyingly into rules, procedures and regulations. They destroy all own initiative and creativity. They even had somebody to make the lines at the skilift and tell who's turn it is to go on the lift.....ggrrrrr

So, now I am back in paradise; beiing a beachbum and playing dive instructor. I like it very much. I am renting a nice pink house (I am afraid of unexpected visitors that mistake my house for something else).

And I play tennis almost everyday with a Italian ex-soccer pro (C-league), turned restaurant-owner. Also the people at Genesis (www.genesisdivers.com), the dive center, are incredible nice and like a small family.

Every Thursday a divemaster organizes a BBQ and ever Saturday there is a beach disco. The town (highlights Mac Donnalds and Cinema) is only 20 minutes, so that is also pretty convenient. I am annoyingly busy and already gave five Open Water courses and a Resue Course. Working is really hard. I will stay her for a little or longer while now...

IMPORTANT and CHRISTMAS OFFER: I have a spare bedroom and can offer dive courses for 50% off (Open Water for $200). So, do not hesitate and come by!!!!

cold cold

Beautiful nature, but too much development, too many tourists and too many rules, prcedures and regulations. Probably the west is better: next time

To start with, I will give you my complimentary in-depth expert analysis of PNG: PNG could be an incredible wealthy country, with major natural resources including gold, oil, natural recources and tourism potential.

However, screwing up everything in a major way does not really help the country forward. Politicans work very hard, but mostly at election time to promote themselves and primarily to fill their pockets. Here is a Politican campaigning in a boat, visiting small islands (see picture).

Too bad that the country is a bit of a mess. Infrastructure and everything is more or less there; It just does not work most of the time (like in the Solomons). Howeve, all people I met were incredibly helpful. At the airport they even gathered money for me to buy a duty free bottle. However, PNG also has a nice collection "mountainpeople" and raskals (bandits). They specialize in physical communication, including chopping of limbs if they do not really agree with what you do or say. To meet these fine people, you have to look for them. I thought visiting obscure clubs in Port Moresby at about 03.00 with the national champion kick boxing should do the trick. It did! The girls were very nice to me, but the red teeth (beetlenut chewing) and their unlimited requests for drinks were a turn-off; Highlight was the gentleman trying to pickpocket me. He was “escorted” out by my personal boddyguard. His shirts und pants remained on the premises.

By the way, playing golf here is a pretty informal affair, involving hitting a provisional ball at people to chase them away

Then the unavoidable part on diving and snorkeling (sorry, I will keep it short): We went on a exploratory trip to some island, where nobody dived before. Sleeping in a small village where no tourists ever slept before was great. Of course the food was also very special, with corned beef as highlight. This is actually a delicacy and only offered to special guests. The diving was not so good on this trip.But back at the resort, the most amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing thing happened to me (again). After five minutes of diving on the housereef and at only 3 meters deep a dugong almost swam into me, giving us both the scare of our lives. Even the owner had never seen one before in 11 years!!! After Solomons, now again!! But now I know why: The fishies (and bigger fishies) want to be friends with me because I do not eat them!

And my last day in PNG finally got me close encounters with some wild, but domesticated, birdlife. Here are some pictures

As expected, the Solomons and PNG were the highlights of my Pacific trip: wild and beautiful!!!

Back into civilization now. Actually, when you are reading this, my short Australia trip is behind me already (most people do a few months Australia and a few days Pacific, I did it the other way around). Also, I had a week in New Zealand again, Skiing. Life is short. I want to do it all now...