Frances Leung
Where am I?” Alice in her wonderland? Thumbelina in her world of miniatures? Or Micky Mouse in Fantasia?
A CHRISTMAS TREE
“Lito, where we go night dive tonight?” “Twin Rocks.”
“Romeo, where to go night dive tonight?” “Twin Rocks”
“Celcil, where go night dive?” “Twin Rocks”
No matter at which resort, or from which dive master, I would receive the same answer. In the Batanga channel, there are many magnificent coral reefs, but none of them are suitable for night expedition; too much current, too far away, or too deep, too dodgy for recreational divers.
Twin Rocks, my guess, was initially a cone-shaped rock, broken apart in the prehistoric years. It is a habitat for many indiscernible living creatures. The rocks stand side by side, their bases at twenty metres below the water. It is no more than fifty metres away from the shore, from the resort. The two of them wear thick moss, glistening in many glitters, like the colossal Christmas trees in the movie A Christmas Carol (2009). Swam closer, I saw that every glistening glitter was breathing life. There were anemones of all forms – sunflowers, squirts, grapes … fishes big and small, and crawlers of all sorts. Of all, I was most intrigued by the forearm-long big sea worms, like big rubber erasers, in delicious colours of lemon yellow, bright orange. They inched leglessly at invisible pace. There, everything has a life; even a dust sprouted from the anemones seemed to be an amoebae, which might spring to full life of something later. It is a site one can appreciate indescribable colours, unintelligible shapes, and infinite forms of being. “Where am I?” Alice in her wonderland? Thumbelina in her world of miniatures? Or Micky Mouse in Fantasia?
The Twin Rocks in Anilao
SUNDAY CHURCH
“Lito, where go today?”
“The Cathedral.”
Upon this reply, I was thinking of a dive site near the church on the Anilao main shore about half a kilometre away. Just when we were about to start the engine for the catamaran, a maid servant tucked in a wet suite jumped onto the boat, with a plastic grocery bag in her hand. “A diver maid?” Not long after, we arrived at the spot. “Pluton, pluton”, we rolled into the water one after another. It was a very shallow site, less than 5 metres deep. Lito passed me some bread crumbs. No sooner had I opened my palm, than a sky of locust-like fishes swarmed in. Those palm size small black fishes must have been starved for years. They even bit into my gloves and wet suit. Through the commotion of these famished fish, I faintly saw a diver just a stone’s throw away. It was the maid, who was on her knees, with a stone crucifix in front of her. “What is she saying to her God?”
ANILAO, PUERTO GALERA
I never dive enough in this Batanga Channel. Friends have said, “I can’t see a thing here. Just corals.” Actually, if you are regulars in that area, the dive masters would take you to see, really, almost, nothing; so mini, so nano, creatures like thread-thin shrimps, nail-rim big nudibranch, and invisible sea-horses.
THE FILIPINO HOSPITALITY
These two renowned diving shores are loved by local and international divers, and yet, have remained primitive and nomadic. No international hotel chains exist. Fresh water supply is on an as-needed basis. When I first visited these two places in the 1990s, hot showers were not a given. Huts were lit with fluorescent light tubes. Until the present, both shores are still highly guarded from the invasion of modern comfort. Establishments are owned by locals. Boats transfers are by open catamarans, run by seafaring families, with the grandfather perching by the tiller, smoking and watching, the father on the steering wheel, the son holding the oar. Mornings and afternoons, kids nestle by the beach. Small kids look after baby kids, feed each other with snacks and amuse each other in the water.
Getting there from Hong Kong, where I live, is easy. It is just an hour flight to the Manila Aquino International Airport. There, I was picked up by a car sent from the resort, directly to the Anilao shore, or to Puerto Galera, followed by another one-hour boat ride.
When I first visited Puerto Galera in 1999, I stayed in the La Laguna resort on the main shore. Over time, I took refuge in the Coco Beach Resort, which was massive, but less noisy. My visit to Anilao began with Resort Arthur. During these few years, I have stayed in the Solana Resort, owned and managed by three sisters, providing much womanly comfort.
