It’s raining here in California and I’m still jetlagged, so I thought I’d write about our trip to Bohol two years ago. A group of us stayed in the Bee Farm, a very nice hotel in Bohol, right along the sea, although the seashore is rocky and full of corals. Nonetheless the view of the sea was spectacular, and the rooms in the Bee Farm were nicely done with bamboo furniture and there were plenty of windows, making the space look bright and airy.
There were nine of us: 4 high school classmates – Tillic, Mila, Darn, and Tessa; plus husband Lauren, and American friends Doug, Elizabeth and John.
Two memories crowd my mind right now. First was the whale watching boat trip that the “girls” and Lauren took at dawn. Off they went on an outrigger boat to see whales and dolphins. It must have been around 4:30 a.m. when they left. At 7 I got up and looked out the window and saw their boat in the distance. I thought they’d get back in thirty minutes and so I slowly pulled myself together. After half an hour, I looked out the window again and saw that their boat was still far from shore. I think I crawled back into bed and dozed off. When I awoke and went downstairs, I was surprised that they hadn't arrived. Just when I was about to try and find out what had happened to them, the group straggled in, soaking wet, feet and legs bleeding.
What had happened was that the tide was low when they returned and the boat couldn’t come close to shore. The boatman didn’t think to dock them someplace else. The girls, counting on Lauren, gave him their cameras, cellphones, and other valuables, carefully and trustingly hanging these around his neck. He jumped in, and to the surprise of the girls, the water reached his neck. What this meant was that someone like Mila, who couldn’t swim, could… well… drown. In any case, the four girls did jump into the water, and all five of waded through the corals and urchin-laded rocky shore until they made it ashore. They had urchin spines embedded in the soles of their feet, cuts everywhere, and yes, their cell phones and cameras got wet. But their spirits were high and they were all laughing at their adventure. Instead of urine for the urchin spine – the usual cure – they used vinegar as suggested by a dentist who was also staying in the Bee Farm.
So that was one incident, the other one is not quite so dramatic. Tillic had talked about the wonderful massage she got at the Bee Farm, so Elizabeth and I decided to try it. We made an appointment at sunset, and the massage place was an enclosed area overlooking the sea. We got to wear the native wraparound tapis, as we lay on bamboo cots, and we looked out at the sea where a gorgeous sunset was taking place. It was like a South Pacific movie set. The masseuse had some nice-smelling aromatic oil or something smoldering nearby and so everything seemed perfect. The only problem was that both our masseuses had heavy hands, and we were dumb enough to keep quiet and just take all that painful kneading. By the time we limped back to the hotel Elizabeth and I confessed to each other that we had been in pain most of the time. The next day we had quite a lot of bruises.
Moral of this entry: Do not be afraid to tell your boatman to dock you somewhere shallow and safe; do not be afraid to tell your masseuse to go light!
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Photo above shows Doug, Elizabeth, John, and me
Next photo shows Cecilia, Tess, Tillic, Darn, Mila
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