Thursday February 18, 2010 8:30 a.m.

San Vicente, Palawan

You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a wide tropical beach covered in thousands of giant red jellyfish.

Wednesday was something of a special day in San Vicente. When I went across the street to the covered market for lunch, I found the place very busy. My regular canteen was filled to bursting. Every table was occupied and a crowd of people stood at the corner ordering food. There was, in fact, little food left. I asked a couple of people why it was so busy, but I didn’t get a clear answer. Someone said that the president of this part of Palawan was in town on an election campaign and was giving away money. Others said that it was the day that people got some kind of welfare payment from the government and they had money to spend.

I still managed to order some food. There was a tray of some meat-based dish almost untouched and I ordered that. It turned out to be big chunks of chicken liver, which is probably why no one had ordered it. I took an empty seat at a table and had my lunch. To my surprise, the fat man who guided me to the waterfalls turned up and called out my name. I guess he had come in one of the many boats that had anchored off the dock. This was more evidence that you really had to be careful in your behavior in a place like this. You can’t behave badly in one place and then expect to stay anonymous. Everyone is related to everyone else. Everyone is someone’s aunt, cousin, uncle, or brother. And if they aren’t related, they are certainly friends or acquaintances. And even though I met this fat man on a remote island at a waterfall, here he was in San Vicente on market day.

I talked to Jason about his experiences on the bread delivery trip, and he remembered the fat man well. Jason had had almost the exact same experience I had. The difference was that Jason was hungover and he only got as far as the waterfall registration book and donation box. He felt that he was being hustled for a donation, and he dug in his heels and said he didn’t want to see the waterfalls. He pleaded his hangover. Jason’s experience was different in that Beck Beck went along that day. She speaks some English and so she could explain to Jason exactly where they were going and what they were doing. He understood a lot more of the business than I did. He told me that the processing center with the security shack that I saw was a pearl farm. That made a lot of sense. Out in the water around this place there were hundreds of large buoys in the water arranged in long sweeping lines. I had wondered about those, but couldn’t ask about them. Jason told me they were strings of oyster beds.

I didn’t have any big plans for Wednesday. I spent most of the morning writing about my trip on the pumpboat. Then I had lunch at the market. I planned to drop in on Jason after lunch. I understood that Craig had gone to Puerto Princesa with Beck Beck and that Jason would be alone with Eli. I knew he’d appreciate the company, and I wanted to talk to him and compare notes about our days on the baked goods pumpboat.

It was about 1:30 or 2:00 when I pulled up at the side of the road near Jason’s place. Both his motorcycles were there, so I figured someone had to be home. It turned out that Craig hadn’t gone to PP. Beck Beck wanted to leave at 3 in the morning, and that was too early for him. It seems that he and Jason are making arrangements to have money wired here and one of them needed to go to town and get it. Craig had come with money but Jason has spent it all pretty quickly on the boat and then on the trip to Hong Kong. He’d told me before that he’d gone to Taiwan and spent only one night there. However, he’d actually gone to Hong Kong. A friend of his was making a deal to sell some knock-off iPhones, and Jason went to Hong Kong to buy them and then ship them. In the end, the deal fell through.

Jason was in the middle of making lunch when I showed up. Unlike me, they shop every day and buy real food and then prepare it. I guess you get in the habit of doing that when you have a family. Your day revolves around the three meals. For lunch, he had some big sausages that he was frying. He’d also made some Mexican-style hot cheese sauce which they were eating as dip for potato chips.

It’s fascinating to watch the interaction between Jason and his two sons. They are extremely friendly and open with each other. Their relationship is nothing like the ones that I’m used to between fathers and sons. They act much more like friends than father and son, though it’s clear that Jason is still the boss.

I stayed for a couple of hours just talking, and then I got on my motorcycle to check out Long Beach again. That is when I saw the dead jellyfish washed up on the shore. There were thousands of them stretched from one end of Long Beach to the other. It made me very nervous about going into the water. If there were that many jellyfish on the shore, how many more were in the water?

Driving along the beach was every bit as much fun as it was the first time. Now it had the added twist of having to dodge the jellyfish. They were about the size of dinner plates or platters. They were also surprisingly solid. In the water, they look insubstantial, but in reality they are quite solid and heavy. I ran over one on purpose and it nearly twisted the motorcycle out from under me and dumped me. I didn’t do that again.

Where I get onto Long Beach is pretty much right in the middle. This time I turned south and drove as far as I could go in that direction. I made it almost to the end of the beach, stopped only by a fairly wide river. I took a bunch of pictures of the jellyfish and a few of me in the typical “Look at me. I’m on holiday!” style. When I drove back to the center of the beach, Jason and Craig showed up on a motorcycle. It’s trivial, but in a way that is a good indication of how their relationship differs. They have two motorcycles, but they opted to ride on one motorcycle together – Jason driving and Craig on the back holding on. They might have done it that way because Craig was holding on to a wakeboard. While on the beach, they threw sand balls at each other. And Craig, when he went into the water the first time, ran at his father and tried to tackle him and pull him down. I’d never have done that with my father. Then again, my father would never have been on a beach in the Philippines.

We swam for a while, bodysurfing in the waves, and I was pleased that I didn’t see a single jellyfish out there. I don’t know if these big red ones were particularly painful to touch, but I didn’t want to find out.

After our swim, Jason and Craig went back to their place. I got on my motorcycle and started driving in the opposite direction – to the north. I wanted to follow the beach right to the end. It was too cool for words, really. I guess lots of people have driven motorcycles on beaches, but it was a new experience for me. In fact, the beach itself was a new experience. As I said, the beach is supposed to be 14 kilometers long. I can’t swear to that, not having a working odometer on the motorcycle, but it is definitely many kilometers long. And once Jason and Craig left, I was literally the only person on the entire beach from end to end. This wide, long sandy paradise, and the only person on it was me on my motorcycle. Jason said he has been on lots of beaches like that, but I never had before.

Local people seem to have high hopes for tourism and this beach. Jason heard that the president of the area was behind it all. She had personally purchased lots of land on this beach. Beck Beck said that two years ago the land was selling for 150 pesos a square meter. It was now selling for 3,500 pesos a square meter. The president is also spearheading the new airport in San Vicente. Local people say it is going to be an international airport, though I find that hard to believe. Finally, the rumor is that the president is going to close the road to Port Barton, which will force everyone to come to San Vicente first and then take a boat to Port Barton. I find that hard to believe, but you never know. It could be true.

After my trip down the beach, I went back to the hotel and had a shower and dinner. Just before dusk, I picked up a six-pack of cold beer from the store and drove back out to Jason’s place. He’d invited me out for a drink. We ended up sitting outside until about 10:30 drinking beer. I drank way too much (five bottles) and I’m a bit worse for wear this morning. I have a headache and I feel groggy and tired. It’s too bad. I shouldn’t have had that much to drink, but Jason is a big drinker and I didn’t want to put a damper on his spirits.

I learned a lot more about Jason. He got his money from the family business, which was building nursing homes. He also bought and sold timber and did some real estate development. He continues to be larger than life. He currently owns eight houses. His own house is sitting in Texas somewhere, just sitting empty. The others are also empty, and with the market the way it is he hasn’t been able to sell them. I haven’t been able to connect the dots in terms of the years of his life – how long he lived where and how long he was (has been) married. He certainly has been to a lot of places. He lived in Tunisia for two years. He’s been to Turkey and Egypt and many others. I found out that he is very religious – in a deep south kind of way. I wasn’t too pleased to learn that, but he’s cool with it. He doesn’t have that annoying cool superiority that, for example, Mormons have. His Christianity is of the wild and crazy kind – very emotional and strong and right out front. It’s a lot easier to deal with than the quiet kind.

One of the great things about Jason is his ability to tell a story. He really can tell a funny story. And he laughs so hard that you can’t help but laugh yourself. I’m sure I’ll see him again today. He invited me over for brunch actually. I plan to ask him for some details about his travels. He seems to have had an odd life. He has traveled a lot for example, but neither he nor his son had ever heard of Angkor Wat. He also seems totally out of touch when it comes to popular culture. He hasn’t recognized a single movie, book, or author that I’ve brought up in conversation.

My mood has been extraordinarily good – better than it has been in years. I feel like I’ve been here for months, not just days. I’ve talked before about short trips hardly seeming worth it. But they really are. This short trip has been great and well worth it. I can’t imagine having stayed in Taiwan now. How horrible that would have been. And right now, the thought of going back strikes me as horrible. I can’t stomach the thought of the desk that is waiting for me and that pointless stupid work. I wish I had the imagination to do something else. I mean, it’s a no-brainer that I’d rather stay in the Philippines than go back to Taiwan. But I also need to make money. Jason has lots of money, so he doesn’t have to worry about working. It’s different for me, obviously. In the short term, however, it wouldn’t be a problem. Jason keeps encouraging me to stay and move into one of the bungalows that he is renting. There are three bungalows on the property. He is staying in the main two-room bungalow with the outdoor kitchen. Craig is staying in the next one over. And just to keep other people out, Jason rented the third bungalow. It costs only $50 a month. Jason said I could move in and just stay as long as I wanted. $50 a month seems very attractive at this point. I feel so much better here than I did in Taipei. I haven’t had anything good to say about my life in Taipei, and Jason has picked up on that.

 

 

 

Tags: Beck Beck, Hong Kong, Long Beach, Palawan Motorbike Trip, San Vicente