Roads, from heaven to hell

Razel and I went for a tour around the island again today. Just the two of us, on the Yamaha 125cc scooter. Some of the roads in the mountains are amazing. Absolutely spectacular road construction standards, just a bit smaller than you'd expect. Knock-your-socks-off beautiful.

The construction zones were less pleasant. Imagine a football field of soggy, sticky mud... ...on a scooter! I had to wash my shoes when we got back.

Shortwave radio works

BBC World Service only broadcasts towards SE Asia from 6PM to 10PM. This morning I was listening to All India Radio and got some beauty advice from an actual guru, followed by a guitar/sitar recital. The Tecsun R-909 ($23) works well:

Rainy Monday

Quiet day today. Yesterday we circled the island and visited each town. We ended with supper in a local BBQ shop. The power failure made little difference to the cooking-with-wood-fire kitchen. If the weather improves, we will take a day-trip to Apo Island.

View of Negros Island from breakfast table

Cang-Inte feast a success

There must have been 250 guests. Tons of food. The Bation Mobile Disco brought speaker towers that reached almost ten feet high. They strung some disco lights across the basket ball area and the party went until daybreak (some of us left a bit early).

Feast day in Cang-Inte

Let us take a moment to mark the passing of a couple of fat pigs and who knows how many chickens. I may be a vegetarian tonight.

What's going on...?

Razel & I went outside the resort one evening for a lovely dinner date. BBQ pork kabobs and chicken and rice and drinks. Four of us went out for a one hour tour of the reef in the glass bottom boat. It was quite nice, but the photographs couldn't capture it (poor colour saturation due the water). There's a feast in the mountain on Saturday, and in Sunday we will orbit the entire island on a day tour. Middle of next week, we'll take a day trip to Apo Island, a smaller island on the southern horizon. Everything is fine, except Devon has a cold or flu. Not serious. Hopefully cleared up shortly.

Other Sunday activities

Three of us (me, Devon and Deric) drove CCW around to Lazi town and port. We looked around, had a Coke, and headed back to catch up with the others up the mountain. Lazi church:

The road up the mountain is quite steep. The engine had no problem bringing three of us up, but the brakes felt pain on the return trip down. Most of the main roads are great. There's a stretch from Siquijor town to San Juan where you could probably make the national news.

Sunday pics

Plantation:

Uncle (age 56) up a coconut tree:

Uncle's house with our rented scooter parked out front:

Sunday Report

On Sunday we rented a little Yamaha 125cc scooter and two helmets. Razel and I drove up to Cante-Inte in the mountains to visit Uncle, Auntie and kids. We also stopped by the coconut plantation.

CoCo Villa I

View from Sunset Restaurant

Ocean waves reaching under the deck. Coconuts falling on our heads - not coconuts but medium sized seeds.

Deric in pool with swimming gear gifted by Joy and family

Deric spent about an hour and a half learning how to use the gear. "...mat!"

Lobby of the Villa

My new friend

Wifi Hutspot

Our villa

Beach view

Arrived CoCo Grove

Flight from HK to Cebu. Crazy van ride thru Cebu. Two ferries. Crazy van ride to resort. It's 11PM and it feels like it.

Noodle shop for supper, or was that breakfast?

Things you'd never see in Canada

It's midnight here... Roof gnomes have magically appeared.

If it's Friday, then HK to Cebu to Siquijor via some randomly selected islands

Civilized 09:40 flight from HK to Cebu. Then some ferries.

Safe and sound in Hong Kong

A bit of looping on the way into Hong Kong.

Flights were perfect, other than being up for several days straight, and being on the move for about 24 hours straight.

87° 35' 24" N and The North Pole

87° 35' 24" North 16° 18' 35" East 31,918 feet 2013 July 17 20:11 UTC The entire 15 hour flight was in daylight. Window blinds closed almost the entire way, not much to see due to the huge wing and consistently thick clouds. But I did take some pictures of The North Pole. It was perfectly positioned out my window. But nothing to actually see but a concept.

87°N ?? That'll do.

Updated of course, but still 87.0° or 87.5°N. That'll do. TONNY2 TONNY YEE J556 YYB 5500N 07700W 6000N 07700W 6500N 07700W 7000N 07400W 7500N 07000W 8000N 06000W 8600N 04000W 8700N 02000W ABERI G489 THN G490 PTG G490 LAMIR G490 SERNA A310 POLHO G218 TMR B458 WXI A461 LIG R473 NNX R473 WYN W18 NLG W23 ZUH R473 SIERA

Big metal bird, C-FIVK

Air Canada fin number 704, C-FIVK. 2008 GE90 engines

North Pole route, or just a tease?

AC15 route still showing North Pole routing. TONNY2 TONNY YEE 5000N 07900W 5500N 07630W 6000N 07400W 6500N 07300W 7000N 07200W 7500N 07300W 8000N 07400W 8500N 08000W >>> DEVID [89°N] <<< B480 BADRO B480 PETAG B934 LUMIG B155 TUNIR A45 USONA G490 SERNA A310 POLHO G218 TMR B458 WXI A461 LIG R473 NNX R473 WYN W18 NLG W23 ZUH R473 SIERA This will probably change to an Alaska routing before we leave.

Toronto

Journey started with a 3:30am pair of taxi, then a 5:40am flight to Toronto. Arrived at Toronto before 7am. Now we're resting at the gate with plenty of time to spare.

Travelling plans outbound

We will take an early morning Air Canada flight to Toronto, then AC15 over the Arctic to Hong Kong. How close will we get to the North Pole this time? Last time (2007) we were within 378 miles of the North Pole at 84.5°N. After a long stopover at Hong Kong airport (perhaps we will get a hotel room), we fly on Cebu Pacific airline to Cebu. From there we'll take a couple of Philippine ferry boats to eventually reach Siquijor.