Living in paradise

From now on I will write in English, so all my friends can read the stories too.

It's been a while since my last story but that's because my backpack with my laptop was stolen in when I went back to Bali end of November. It's not easy to write stories on my mobile phone. And besides, nothing really interesting was going on.
But this is what my life looked like the past month.

After 10 days chilling and diving in Malapascua I decide I want to stay here and try to find work on the island. I've made a couple of friends already and love this place. But unfortunately I've left half of my stuff behind in Sanur and have to pick that up first.
The 25th of November I leave the island and travel to Cebu. I'm lucky, when I arrive in Maya a few people are taking a V-hire (van) to Cebu instead of the bus. It's a bit more expensive (but still only €5) but it's the fastest way, 3 hours instead of 4,5-6 hours. I meet another Dutch guy and we plan to hang out in Cebu together.
Unfortunately things are not always go as you plan, due to a confused taxi driver I lose my backpack when I arrive at my hotel. I won't get into details, but I lose my laptop, e-reader, Ipod, dive logbook and everything else that's in the bag. Luckily I still have my camera bag and wallet and passport. But it still sucks. So instead of shopping and having dinner with me new friend I have to locate the taxi driver to try to get my bag back.
Long story short: It got stolen somewhere.

Next day I go to the police station to report my bag got stolen and give them all the details. But I also have a flight to catch so I have to make it fast. The police officers promise to investigate the case and I am back December 1st anyway.
My flight to Bali goes relatively smoothly and when I arrive at Denpasar airport a friend waits for me at the airport and takes me 'home'. I stay at the same place as I did before and the people are awesome. It's past midnight so I go to sleep.
The next couple of days I hang out with my friends in Sanur. I'm happy I flew back to say proper goodbye to them. I really am going to miss them, that's the downside of travelling, old friends make place for new friends. Luckily there's Facebook and easy ways to stay in touch.

I take a flight to Kuala Lumpur the 1st of December and stay overnight. I have a really nice hotel near the airport. Next day I fly to Cebu and stay there for a night. Early in the morning I go to the police station but unfortunately no sign of my bag. They give me a police report for the insurance company and I can finally go back to paradise island Malapascua. I arrive quite late but luckily the ferry is still going.
I haven't arranged a place to stay for the night so I don't know where to go. I chat with a local girl and she says she is going to help me find a nice place to stay long term. I'm really happy with that and when we arrive at the island we check out 3 places. Two of them are full already but the 3rd is her uncle's place who has 3 apartments and 1 is available. Perfect!And only 7000 pesos (€130) a month! I'm welcome to stay there from the next day, they have to clean it first.
I go to Malapascua Garden Resort, the place where I stayed before and luckily they have a room available and everything is arranged smoothly.

The next day I move in to my room and it's really nice. I have my own bathroom and small kitchen (no fridge or a stove, but food is cheap here anyway). The only downside is I have no warm water (almost nobody has that here) and no Wifi. But I love it and it feels like home. The family is amazing, they have adopted me already :)

The next couple of days is just relaxing and talking to the managers of the shops to find work. Season is still slow, so there's not a lot of work at the moment. And besides there are a couple really experienced instructors on the island as well. Not easy for a fresh instructor.

Of course the 5th of December it's Sinterklaas! I have a Skype meeting the 6th with Meike, René en Marco to celebrate. We all bought gifts and play a game. It's so much fun and really nice to talk to them. Awesome idea!

The 12th December I hear there's a typhoon coming the next couple days. Luckily it's hitting more Manila region and here it's more like a tropical storm. Which means rain and wind. All the dives are cancelled the 13th, but I'm invited to watch movies with popcorn at Devocean. Movie, popcorn and friends inside, stormy weather outside, what else do you want :)

The 15th I travel to Cebu, Marco is finally arriving! Luckily the typhoon hasn't delayed his flights. We haven't seen each other in 2 months so I really look forward to finally see him again. Of course traffic in Cebu is horrible and I arrive later at the airport than I wanted and Marco has to wait for me. But apart from that it's really nice to see him again. We book a nice hotel in the city and decide to stay there 2 nights so we can enjoy our company and Marco can rest a little after travelling for 2 days.
I have to go to immigration to extend my visa, but that's no problem at all, as long as you pay they don't care how long you stay. We explore the city a bit, go shopping and having nice dinners. And the hotel is really amazing. We get an upgrade to the executive suite, awesome! I'm so happy with Marco, warm water and wifi! And he brought a laptop and Kindle too! And chocolate! It's almost too much for me.

We go to Malapascua the 17th. On the boat I meet Daniella (Dani) a German girl and found my first customer! She's really nice and I take her to Devocean that night. After that I show Marco around the island, my favorite beach, bars and meeting my friends.
After two days we realize our lifes are too different. He has his routines back home and I live a free life on a tropical island. It's also hard to maintain a good relationship when you're that far apart and I don't know when I go back home. So we make a hard decision but it's better to separate. He has 3 weeks of holiday left and leaves the island to go to Bohol and travel around the Philippines.

But the good thing is, I met two Swedish girls (Moa and Anna) and an Israeli an guy (Ravid) and brought them to Devocean. Ravid is a fun diver and the 2 girls are doing 2 Discover Scuba Diver dives with me! Finally some work! They are really good in the water and much fun. They stay only 3 days, so no time for a course.

24th of December, Christmas eve! Ravid wants to do a night dive with me and it was a really awesome dive! We were diving for 69 minutes and come up to the boat at 18.45. Oops, I have Christmas dinner reservations at 19.00! No time for shower so just wrap a sarong in a dress like way and put on a Christmas hat. Ben, my good friend and neighbor arranged the reservations, a 6 course dinner. Dani joins us as well and the dinner is amazing. We have huge prawns wrapped in bacon, salad with feta, stuffed chicken, fresh made tomato soup with herbs (not in that order) and for dessert grilled banana with chocolate, a pancake and vanilla sauce. I actually wanted to marry the chef, it was so good!
After dinner I went home for a shower and then disco of course! Best disco ever (I go there every Saturday)! I met really great people and everyone was having fun.