kaum verbringt gerhard ein paar tage in einer stadt, passieren schreckliche dinge. das haben wir schon immer vermutet, jetzt gibt es mal wieder (leider) eine bestätigung:

Wieder Fährunglück auf Philippinen

Manila (dpa) – Auf den Philippinen ist innerhalb von drei Tagen die zweite Fähre gesunken. Südlich von Manila wurden vier Leichen geborgen, mindestens 20 Menschen werden noch vermisst. Das berichtet die Küstenwache. 62 Passagiere und Besatzungsmitglieder konnten gerettet werden. Nach ersten Erkenntnissen war Wasser aufs Autodeck der Fähre geschwappt. Heiligabend war ebenfalls südlich von Manila eine Fähre mit einem Fischerboot zusammengestoßen und gesunken. Vier Menschen kamen dabei ums Leben, 24 werden noch vermisst.
via zeit.de

habe aber schon mit unserem mr. magic gesprochen: bei ihnen ist alles ok!

We arrived in Palau around 2, or 3 am. Firstly, we had to wait for the other guests who got the hotel transfer through fish ‘n’ fins. After crawling in one of the 3 or 4 cars, our bags were in an other one, which made my father kind of nervous, the big drop off party began. I stopped at around 10 hotels. One smaller than the other and all located in the twon/village. Of course, we were the last ones. The drive from the last drop off o our hotel took around 10 minutes and we started to wondering if we might get kidnapped. No, just kidding.

When we arrived at the hotel we were totally overhelmed. There was a long road to the lobby, accompanied by plants on the right and left side, torches as well as many little golden lights in form of candels on a christmas tree. The car stopped directly in front of the lobby, where immediatly for helping hands for the luggage came. After signing the check-in papers and getting the key we went to our room. Garden view, groundfloor, one extra bed. My parents, who were planning to go diving that morning already – by the way it was now something like 5 am or later, started to unpack. I, on the other hand, didn’t want to go diving 3 hours later already, fell into the bed and checked out the tv. I just love american tv-channels. Especially Animax.

In the morning, my parents overslept (of course) and skipped diving for that day, we went to the breakfast buffet. It was huge. They had my favorite dumplings again. Ain’t I a lucky girl? So we stuffed ourselves with tonnes of breakfast. There was so much to try that we had no time for the traditional eggs and so on. After finishing the tasty food (except for the juices – well, my parents liked them. I didn’t. The apple juice was the only drinkable on – only my opinion) we called at fish ‘n’ fins who sent us a ride, so we can sign the papers and so on.

After less than an hour our equipment was in its baskets, the papers were sign and we went back to the hotel, where we went back to bed. For me the tv was waiting and for my parents a good deep sleep. We were even to exhausted to explore the whole hotel, which seemed to be huge.

Dinner was also included in our package, so we went to the Coconut terrace again. Today was american bbq. D_E_L_I_C_I_O_U_S! Richi, the chef – we adore him by the way – offered us a fantastic roast beef medium rare. Of course we had to try ewverthing of the buffet, so you can imagine how stuffed we were when we went out of the restaurant. We graped some towels at the pool and actually wanted to go to bed, but than I changed my mind and went in the sea. I love a good night swim. However, there was low tide, so it wasn’t much swimming. Out of the sea and in the pool. Daddy got to beer and also went in the pool, well I was already out again. So we were drinking beer and sitting, or swimming in the pool and mum was sleeping.

I got really very lazy with writing. Acuatlly I wanted to write an entry about each single day, however, days have passed by with no single word been written….I wonder if that was a correct sentence….

Anyhow, let’s start with my impressions about the capital city of the philippines. Mostly, it’s crowded. Around 19 million people are living there, more than the half of them is poor. They live in houses, which look like they are self-made. For us unliving conditions.

In the heart of the town are heaps of malls and hotels. We stayed, as you know from the entries before, in the shang ri la. I felt like paris hilton. Honeslty. I think that explains the look of th room and the other facilities the best. Unfortunately, they served shark fin soup in one of the restaurants. It’s such a shame. We had our christmas dinner at the redrestaurant. The only bad thing I can think about is that it was freezing! We felt like in a frige and the waiters even offerd scarves. I#m wondering why they don’t turn the air conditioning a bit higher. What is the sense behind giving the guests scarves in the size of plankets? Nevertheless, the food was incredibly. And so much. My stomach and my appetite had a hard and cruel battle. In the end the appetite won, which made my stomach really angry at night, so it didn’t let me sleep.

And now to the girls-heaven: when you left the hotel shopping malls in each direction. The closest one was maybe 10 steps away. We crossed some during the search for tabes for our camera, which was already more broken than working. But the only one where we spent some time was greenbelt. This was huge. You could live in the mall for a week and still don’t know every place. Incredible. There was greenbelt 1-9, I think. The numbers discribed differnent houses. The houses again had maybe 5 levels. And so great shops. Mümü and I felt like in a wonderland. After wandering around for hours, without buying anything….big mistake….huge mistake….we went back to our palast. Daddy totally exhausted, Mum was already home- mean jetlag, and I was still amazed and angry about the sudden wonderland-ending.

The last day in Manila we did a city tour. 60 bucks per person, absolutely too expensive. We learned a bit about the history, esspecially about the national hero, who got executed- unfortunately, I forgot the name already. We spent the time wandering in parks, the museums were all closet. The strange thing was, our guide explained that the tour costs that much, because it includes all the entries, she made a discout of 5 dollar because of ONE museum that was closed, so why did we have to pay for the other ones, of which she also knew that they would be closed? Do you get me? That’s kind of weird, isn’t it?

At the end of the trip we went to the red light district, where my father had lived for a couple of days when he was here the first time, 1979. His eyes had the momories-of-the-good-old-time glance when we went to the hobbit house. It’s a nice place with saids-so good live music.When we were there, it was actually closed. However, our luck was that the driver was an expert in negotiating. So, we got beers and coke and daddy a suitable place for his memories.

After finishing the drinks, changing some dollar to pesos and buying a hobbit house t-shirt and, of course, making some pictures, we headed to the airport.

There I got my diving-bracelet for the right food. (Each country, where I was diving- one bracelet) We had some wierd palauan style burger with sweet bread- the taste is indiscribable (place for memories again)

After 4 checkings (bags as well as shoes and body) we were allowed to take a seat at the gate

I got really very lazy with writing. Acuatlly I wanted to write an entry about each single day, however, days have passed by with no single word been written….I wonder if that was a correct sentence….

Anyhow, let’s start with my impressions about the capital city of the philippines. Mostly, it’s crowded. Around 19 million people are living there, more than the half of them is poor. They live in houses, which look like they are self-made. For us unliving conditions.

In the heart of the town are heaps of malls and hotels. We stayed, as you know from the entries before, in the shang ri la. I felt like paris hilton. Honeslty. I think that explains the look of th room and the other facilities the best. Unfortunately, they served shark fin soup in one of the restaurants. It’s such a shame. We had our christmas dinner at the redrestaurant. The only bad thing I can think about is that it was freezing! We felt like in a frige and the waiters even offerd scarves. I#m wondering why they don’t turn the air conditioning a bit higher. What is the sense behind giving the guests scarves in the size of plankets? Nevertheless, the food was incredibly. And so much. My stomach and my appetite had a hard and cruel battle. In the end the appetite won, which made my stomach really angry

Hallo Sarah!
Wir – der Rest – der Divingfamily – möchten uns für die Gestaltung unserer Homepage DANKE sagen.

Frohe Weihnachten aus Manila.