Moalboal, Central Visayas, PhilippinesJust before Danko and Sarka left for India ‘I’ decided that Elenka and I should stay at Cora’s Palm Court, by the sea.
We visited the place, saw our room to be, and paid Cora in advance.
While I loved the place with its beautiful sea breeze and spectacular location, Elenka was sceptical. She went on a Palm Court Google quest. I was a little peeved with Elenka and her women’s intuition thing. Then the Google reports started surfacing, many saying that Cora is a wonderful woman before you move in, but that she shows her true colours once you’ve settled in. Much like Jonathan Harker’s experience after unpacking his suitcase at Dracula’s Castle.
On move-in day, Cora wasn’t there. Another woman greeted us and told us that our room by the sea had already been rented out. As an alternative she offered us a noisy, oven-like room by the street with A/C thrown in free. Two hours later the A/C stopped working. I checked the outlet; it was the only one in the room that wasn’t working. My guess was that Cora had been told of what happened and had instructed the other woman to surreptitiously shut down the cool air. Elenka went ballistic, more at my carefree attitude than at Cora’s deception.
By evening, Cora had arrived home, and I was tired of being yelled at. I confronted Cora. And that is when the vampire in Countess Cora showed its single fang. She was the second woman of the day to go ballistic on me. She told me that the A/C had been shut down because we weren’t paying for it. I told her that the other woman had offered free A/C because our bought-and-paid-for-room had been rented to someone else, and the consequence of that was our oven-room by the noisy street. She said the other woman’s English wasn’t very good and that she didn’t understand. I said the other woman’s English was better than Cora’s. It went on and on and on.
Cora wouldn’t budge. There wasn’t anywhere else we could go that late at night so I turned and went into our room. Minutes later, Cora barged in without knocking, looked at my bare arse, waved her arms around like an orangutan, and said the A/C was back on. Just after midnight we were awakened by male/female screaming, followed by slaps and punches. It was time to cut and run.
Today, we move to a place of Elenka’s choosing.
***
Our new residence, Love’s Beach and Dive Resort is a far quieter spot just a 10 minute walk along a bumpy road. So serene is Love’s that already I’ve managed to conjure happy thoughts, Countess Corazon barely a memory.
***
Elenka and I were lunching at a beach shack the other day when a Russian who’d befriended us gave me some “fresh from the sea” sea urchin. He snickered, saying “It is good for man power.” I didn’t notice anything new in that department, but I did have an urgent need to make toilet shortly thereafter.
Speaking of which, my amigo Peter from Wales wrote a while back, saying that 100 million sharks are murdered each year, their fins cut off and fed to odd humans for amongst other medicinal purposes, their “man power” qualities. The 100 million number sounded crazy so I googled it - sure enough, it’s 100M per year more-or-less. I don’t always believe what humans tell me, but Google is never wrong. This National Geographic is worth a read:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/07/shark-fin-soup-campaign-illegal/
Stephz
2019-02-23
Switch and bait is a common scam. Thanks Elenka for the photos. The water looks fantastic! Enjoy the rest of your excursion.
dpbaril
2019-02-23
Elenka ballistic? ¡No es posible!
dorothy legeay
2019-02-23
I would probably go ballistic too!
Harold
2019-02-23
Love Love's , looks nice and simple , so I am wondering is Moalboal built up with lots of Hotels and Bars , because 24 yrs ago there wasn,t much there ?
Peter
2019-02-23
Good choice Elenka.
Margo
2019-02-23
Hey, it's good to be alive and survive the "B" for ballistic! I assume Elenka approves your commentary, otherwise "you ain't seen nothing yet". Have fun kids!
Cate
2019-02-25
See what happens when you change the script..........has Ellen ever let you down............. Enjoy!!