The Magnetic Mountain Points Home

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Among the tales that captured my imagination in childhood, the maritime adventures from the Arabian Nights stand out as among the most inspiring.  They fed my love of the sea and my eternal craving for sensawunda, and they still do til now.  The Sea Rovers of Syrene setting is inspired by this.

Among those tales, one of the most fascinating elements for me is the legend of the Magnetic Mountain, featured in the story of the Third Kalender Prince.  The Magnetic Mountain was a perilous landmark for sailors, for coming too near was said to draw out the iron nails from a ship causing its timbers to come apart.  Only when the Kalender Prince shot down an idol of a rider in brass with a bow of brass and lead arrows did the menace come to an end.

Now I’ve always known that many of the Arabian Nights voyages were to Southeast Asian waters, but little did I know how close to home this legend was to bring me.  When doing my research for Syrene I came to the conclusion that the Magnetic Mountain story was a fantastic justification for Indo-Arabian ship construction vs. Western and Chinese, the former having hulls ‘sewn’ together with rope while the latter used iron nails.  Ships of this ‘sewn’ construction were apparently better at surviving going aground or colliding with submerged reefs, always a danger in the shallow tropical seas where the Arab mariners traded. The flexible sewn timbers would bend and spring back, while rigidly nailed timbers would shatter.

This was the conclusion of James Taylor in his article for the British Yemeni Society:

According to al-Jahiz, in the last decade of the 7th century CE, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ath-Thaqafi, the iron handed Marwanid viceroy of Iraq, tried to introduce flat-bottomed, nailed ships like those of the Mediterranean to the waters of the Arabian Gulf. The experiment failed because experience had taught Arab seamen that the ships they were used to, in which the planks were fastened together with coir ropes and daubed with grease, were better equipped to withstand the frequent groundings and collisions with the sandbanks and submerged reefs that abound in the inshore waters of the Red Sea and the Gulf.

But what of the specific landmark, and the action of shooting at something to dispel the evil?  I found this blog post only yesterday, and it was an eye-opener.  Apparently there were indeed  seamounts in the Philippine archipelago where magnetic anomalies caused compasses to go wild, and rough water nearby spelled fatal danger for any ship that made a navigational error here.  As Spanish historian Pedro Chirino relates:

In the island of Mindanao between La Canela and the river, a great promontory projects from a rugged and steep coast; always at these points there is a heavy sea, making it both difficult and dangerous to double them. When passing by this headland, the natives, as it was so steep, offered their arrows, discharging them with such force that they penetrated the rock itself. This they did as a sacrifice, that a safe passage might be accorded them

Compare this to the Arabian Nights version:

On hearing this the pilot grew white, and, beating his breast, he cried, "Oh, sir, we are lost, lost!" till the ship's crew trembled at they knew not what. When he had recovered himself a little, and was able to explain the cause of his terror, he replied, in answer to my question, that we had drifted far out of our course, and that the following day about noon we should come near that mass of darkness, which, said he, is nothing but the famous Black Mountain. This mountain is composed of adamant, which attracts to itself all the iron and nails in your ship; and as we are helplessly drawn nearer, the force of attraction will become so great that the iron and nails will fall out of the ships and cling to the mountain, and the ships will sink to the bottom with all that are in them. This it is that causes the side of the mountain towards the sea to appear of such a dense blackness (Lang 1898, 102-3).

The prince then dreams that he must dig up a brass bow and arrows, and shoot down a brass horseman that is on top of the mountain.  If you account for the story becoming distorted in the telling, with the act of shooting at the mountain becoming an attack on its guardian instead of a propitiatory offering, this jives perfectly with Chirino’s account. 

A legend more than a thousand years old, that first came to me through the Arabian Nights, now revealed to come from practically just outside my door.  How’s that for inspiring a sense of wonder!

Note: the blog of Paul Manansala, a Filipino researcher, has many interesting articles on the ancient Philippines and its maritime links with the rest of Asia.  Very interesting reading!

Celebrate the Sea 2009

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The long weekend of June 12-14 was a blast (save for Saturday, which I spent sick dangit), as Cat and I got to attend Celebrate the Sea 2009 and meet one of my personal heroes in photography and exploration.  I’m talking about David Doubilet, whose photos in National Geo have been inspiring me since I was in high school. 

I’ve also gained some new inspirations: Michael AW, another celebrated underwater photographer and author of Heart of the Ocean, a book photographed entirely in Philippine waters; Peter Scoones, cinematographer of the ground-breaking Blue Planet BBC series; Lynn Funkhouser, whose beautiful shots reassured me Puerto Galera where I spent so many great summers is still as beautiful underwater as I remember it; Joe Moreira, the uber-cool managing editor of Ocean Geographic; and our own Undersecretary Cynthia Carrion, who’s very active in environmental preservation.

Cat and I got to view some really awesome films and presentations, and sit in on some thought-provoking forums on current environmental problems.  I missed one forum on Saturday, though, that I had really wanted to attend – a debate on whether oceanariums are beneficial for the environment or not.  Cat and I got to sit in though on a forum on ‘changing the face of terror,’ Michael AW’s advocacy to reform the image of the shark, which interestingly morphed into a discussion of the dynamics between environmentalism and deeply entrenched Asian cultures (specifically, the Chinese appetite for sharks’ fin soup). 

The presentation I enjoyed the most was Doubilet’s talk on his evolution as a National Geographic underwater photographer, where he kinda let us into his head and showed how he learned to see as an underwater image-maker.  Very fittingly, Doubilet noted that light is still the first and most important ingredient to his vision, and talked about how he learned to shoot underwater using available light and monochrome film.  Now B/W and underwater don’t often get associated together, because most underwater shots nowadays are all about the psychedelic colors of reef life; but Doubilet’s shots really illustrated how you can get stunning visuals from shafts of light and the way water refracts and diffuses light.  (I think I’m gonna end up grabbing that second hand Nikonos I saw downtown next payday …)

Why a Bearcat?

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Well, why not? The idea for this blog came into being while I was editing my shots from my Davao trip.  As I picked shots that would go into my existing blog, The Madman’s Cave, I realized that blog was out of focus: too many disparate topics mashed together.

So I made up my mind to start a new blog. Where does the bearcat come in?  Simple – out of the pics I got in Davao, this portrait of a sleepy binturong was one of my favorites.  And I’m very much into the sea – I’m addicted to snorkeling, and I’m starting to learn scuba diving.  So oceanbearcat seemed both appropriate and an odd enough juxtaposition to be memorable.

From now on, this blog will receive my thoughts and comments on travel, photography, cooking, and dining out, which are at least pretty much related to each other.  Yeah, even the photography, because I’m mostly doing food photography these days.

My gaming and writing will be continued in Madman’s Cave.

From Batangas to Davao and Back

This May has been one of the most hectic, fun, and adventure-packed months I’ve ever had.  I can hardly believe it – in the span of a mere thirty days Cat and I have gone to some great places in Davao, then to Iba, Zambales, and ended the month with a bang, or should I say a splash, in Anilao, Batangas.  Whee! 

We started the month with an overnight trip to Batangas city to give a workshop for the Batangas City Camera Club, which they sponsored to recruit new members.  Cat and I had great fun with that group, and just a few days ago I received a YM from their president Bhoyet that all the participants from the workshop ended up joining the club. 

Even better, one of my students from the club told me she got my lecture, and found it better than the class offered by another photography center here.  That was really heart-warming for me, as it validated the course Cat and I designed and my decision to switch the normal sequence of teaching photography.  Most photo instructors teach the camera first, but I decided I’d give my students a ‘softer’ entry by teaching light and composition first, then teach them how to use their cameras only after they had an idea what they were trying to achieve.

Mere days later, we were flying off to visit Cat’s parents in Davao, a visit made even more fun by the presence of Cat’s sisters, Jerrie with her family and Arlene, with her boyfriend, Leo.  Cat’s mom really rolled out the red carpet for us, or should I say, the red tablecloth – there seems to be no word for ‘meal’ in Davao, as every time we sat at her table there was a feast! 

We missed the durian harvest from the family farm (darn!), and it seems global warming has altered the weather in Davao from the usual sunny mornings and rainy afternoons to all-day rain for days at a time, but we still got to check out some good places.  Cat and I did a ‘bridal shoot’ with a white peacock in Eden Park; I got to shoot an injured but very dignified looking Brahmin Kite at the Philippine Eagle Sanctuary; and the day after we did the 380 meter long zipline at Camp Sabros. 

The night after doing the zipline we had a great lechon dinner with Cat’s cousin, Nena, and the Palma Gils – a very large clan indeed! – but had to eat and run so we could interview Rhonson Ng for a DPP article.  Rhon gave us compli tickets to a concert by The Dawn at Matina Town Square, but as the night was running late and the opening acts were not quite to our taste (Viva Hot Babes singing – not hot, and no good singing either) we wandered off and found this nice reggae band doing their thing in another part of the mall.  I really liked the expressions of their lead singer, and he didn’t have a bad voice either.  ISO 3200 on my Nikon, and damn the noise we’re going monochrome!

There was a fortunate break in the weather when we visited Chema’s resort on Samal Island, where Cat’s cousin-in-law, Quincho, treated us to his Kapampangan cuisine and a virtual river of beer.  The weather was less kind when we visited Samal Island again a few days later to shoot Hagimit Falls and the Monfort Bat Caves, with intermittent cloudbursts throughout the day – but I’m now convinced the gods like photographers, for every time we took out our cameras the rain would stop! 

We were joined on our Samal odyssey by Cat’s adventurer cousin, Raymond, his sister Josie who was our guide around the island, and very very luckily by another cousin, Chubby, who manages the Sonriza resort.  Had Chubby not volunteered to drive us to the falls and caves in his van, we’d never have gotten there – Cat’s old Mazda would not have been up to the steep dirt roads to the falls.  We ended the day with a feast of grilled fish at Sonriza – nice, simple, Filipino fare, eaten with a tasty dip of soy sauce, native lemon and chilies.  (I say ‘native’ lemon to differentiate it from the yellow American lemon, but what we had was more like the Indonesian jeruk nipis than the dayap.)

We capped our stay in Davao with a visit to the Crocodile Farm, where again Cat and I shot some wildlife – I got a nice one of a sleepy binturong, a very Jurassic Park-ish portrait of a Philippine Sailfin Lizard, and two crocs having a territorial tussle.  My only quibble with the croc experience was the failure of the damn things to jump when baited – seems it was mating season, and they had their minds on other things.  I also had a huge surprise when I ran into Ron Rocero, who I shot about to do something unspeakable to a poor innocent yellow python.  I also got a shot of Cat holding a Burmese Python some four Cathys long and almost one Cathy wide.  We capped our visit to the farm with a lunch of spicy Crocodile Sisig.  Yep, croc sisig! Crunchy, spicy, sizzling hot – and yes, it kinda tastes like chicken. 

I was actually reluctant to return from Davao, but Cat had already committed to go with her choirmates to Zambales, and there was work to be done for the magazine (DPP).  So back to Manila, two days’ rest, and then we’re off to Iba, Zambales via the new SCTEX highway.   Cut through the hills of Zambales only last year, the highway goes through some very scenic country – Cat and I are now planning to go there again by ourselves, stopping to shoot landscapes wherever we find a good spot.  The place we stayed at in Iba, Tammy’s, was a letdown however – the resort’s owners were not taking care of their beach at all, and the shore was littered with plastic debris – a lot of it from careless guests.  I’ll not record my rant here about the masa losing their rights to the sea in my eyes, but suffice to say I was mad.  Would we take better care of our environment had we remained animist instead of converting to Christianity? I wonder. 

The morning after we arrived in Iba, however, we hired a boat to take us to a snorkeling spot farther south, and here at least I got to see some living things (there were none by the shore of Tammy’s).  In fact, we got to see a beautiful reef in very shallow water, but I also saw a sight that filled me with foreboding: there were hordes of crown of thorns starfish crawling over the corals.  We also noted that the reef contained no large fish – in fact I saw nothing more than a foot long.  All the fish seemed to be juveniles, even those of species I could identify being smaller than what I usually see in Batangas.  Is there a correlation between the scarcity of mature fish and the proliferation of the crown of thorns starfish? Again, I wonder. 

On the road to Iba, I found that Cat’s choirmates John and Jong were about to complete their scuba course (I think I got Jong hooked on the sea after introducing him to snorkeling last year), and they invited us to go with them to the Outrigger resort in Anilao for their checkout dive.  Could I refuse?  Turns out I could, but not Cat.  Before I knew it Cat was tempting Arlene with the prospect of a dive, and the lure of the sea being what it is, Saturday morning found us all driving down the Star tollway again, this time to Anilao. 

It had rained dire wolves and sabertooth kittycats Friday night, but breaks in the clouds had led us to hope the skies would clear in time for our dip.  No such luck!  A squall caught us just as our boat was approaching the designated dive site. I was soaked before I’d even seen a single fish!  The only remedy to the situation, of course, was to jump overboard.  Oh glory!  There beneath the rain-stippled water was a paradise of soft and hard corals and hordes of varicolored fish.  Schools of sergeant-majors, apparently used to being fed by divers, rose to greet us, and all around grazing on the corals were several kinds of parrotfish, triggerfish, Moorish idols, and  surgeonfish.  I also spotted some javelin-slim cornetfish, several cleaning stations with their cunning wrasse attendants, and some electric blue bird wrasses. 

(Photos of fish below not mine – follow the links to the source sites; species shown also not necessarily the same as what you find in Anilao)

The sight just brought me back to my childhood days learning to snorkel in the rich waters off Puerto Galera, and I was in bliss.  I was actually following John, Jong and Arlene as they descended, and if it would’ve been all right to bum some air off them I think I would’ve followed them down all the way to the deepest spot they reached, some 40 or so feet down.  Hi there! See the friendly drunken dugong?  Or is it the Philippine Giant Albino Puffer?  Alas, though, I had to stay near the surface with my snorkel. Now I’m really determined to get certified as a diver!

Our snorkeling however was cut short as the waves began to pick up, and we were called back to the boat before conditions got even worse.  We were riding a substantial chop on our way back to Outrigger, and I just had to ask Cat how many Hail Marys the water would rate from her mom (she’s been known to take to her rosary when the water gets a little rough).  Getting off the boat however was an ordeal, as the rising surf made the light craft bob and weave like a Pacquiao.  I eventually opted to jump into the water than chance the wildly weaving ladder, but badly miscalculated my ascent to shore.  A wave took me by surprise and my knee slammed into a rock with force enough to break the skin – but fortunately, not the bone.  So there I was with my knee running with blood, stinging with the seawater wash I’d given it and ringing like a gong, but … I wasn’t even cussing as I normally would.  That’s how happy I was.  Damn, I love the sea.

And that is how I’m ending the month of May.  Not bad, eh?

14th Hot Air Balloon Festival

Monday, February 16, 2009

Spent a great couple of days in Clark Airfield, Pampanga, watching the 14th Hot Air Balloon Festival and airshow – and having a third honeymoon on the side.  As seems usual with our travels, Cat and I don’t have a single picture together.  Again.  But we did get great weather and some very nice and colorful subjects, thanks to DPP and Caltex.  (And thanks to TechTrends for my new memory cards).

 

 

Getting passes for Feb 12, the first day of the festival, proved to be a mixed blessing – though in hindsight, much more on the positive than otherwise.  On the downside, glitches led to the delay of the morning inflation and liftoff of the balloons, so I wasn’t able to get a lot of the dramatic fire shots I wanted.  On the upside, it seems we got the best weather of the four days of the festival.  Bright and clear – and hot! If it weren’t for my lactose intolerance I’m sure I could’ve eaten my way through half a gallon of ice cream by myself.  From shots posted by later photogs, the weekends looked badly overcast.

This was my first time to see hot air balloons firsthand, and they were impressive.  You don’t realize how big they are until you get close to one. And they look so serene lifting off, reminding me of luminous deep sea jellyfish – but in the sky.  Also reminiscent of sea life were the many advanced kites dancing above the field the whole day, their bright colors against the blue making them like reef fish in the sea.  The commonest design also made me think of a stingray that got too friendly with an angelfish, and the consequences thereof:

 

The almost uniform blue of the sky also revealed something irritating: I have dust on my sensor.  Grm!

 

There were also skydiving exhibitions at intervals throughout the day, and in the late afternoon the powergliders went up for a jaunt.  The `chutes look great when backlighted, so it was a matter of chasing around the field to get a good angle with the sun shining through the fabric.

With our passes for Thursday morning, and knowing we had to be at the site by 4am, Cat and I opted to leave Manila Wednesday morning and spend the afternoon and evening lazing around, rather than do an evening trip and arrive exhausted.  As it turned out, this was exactly the right thing to do as we shot the whole day.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn, inside the Mimosa Country Club.  The room was nice and comfy, and the food at the Mequeni Restaurant was really good – specially after a session of ping pong and swimming.  I of course had to order Sisig, just to taste it the way it was cooked in its home province, while Cat went for a Seafood Risotto that turned out just right.  My only beef with the hotel: apparently they’d just installed new carpeting, and for some strange reason the drying glue had the smell of old socks.  Or as Cat says, kachichas!  (New word for me!)

Also intriguing, though we didn’t get to try it, was the new SCTEX highway and its quick access to Subic.  Specially after all those kites made me think of reef fish and diving.  Wish we’d had the time do do a Subic side trip for another day or two.  And for a visit to Aling Lucing’s for her legendary sisig …

New Bombay Restaurant, Again

Sunday, February 15, 2009

To paraphrase the Broadway title, A funny thing happened on the way to Nirvana …

And next time I get an Indian food craving, I’ll make sure I have cash.  It was the last day of Photoworld 2009, and after a day shooting at Casa Manila with a huge pack of fellow camera buffs (thanks Lito and Mrs Huang!) Cat and I arrived in Makati hungry.  After taking a few last shots at the Canon booth and saying hi to the Kodak people, I told Cat I needed food.  And I was craving Indian. 

Now there’s a back story to this – and it ties with the Balloon Festival and my apparently acidic butt.  For the past few months I’d been intending to have my credit and ATM cards replaced, as both had acquired cracks and nicks in their magnetic strips over years of use (and being kept all day beside an acidic butt).  Anticipating much use of the credit card on our trip to Clark, I decided I had to go and get it done. So the day before this, I  visit my bank and request the replacements – conveniently forgetting that the existing cards are cancelled once the request is filed. 

So here we are in the New Bombay, and to my great delight the food is exactly the same great quality as before.  We ordered the buttery Vegetable Korma again, plus a plate of Samosas and the Murgh Tikka Resmi.  The samosas were crisp and very flavorful, and to my surprise contained some whole peanuts which added a very satisfying crunch that contrasted with the mashed vegetable filling.  It was the first time I tasted samosas with peanuts.

The Murgh Tikka Resmi was also fantastic, chunks of chicken marinated in yogurt, spices, and cashew nut paste then cooked in a tandoor.  I could’ve finished two or three orders on my own, it was that good (mind you, New Bombay’s servings are on the generous side).  Cat was at first reluctant to order it because it was described as chicken breast, a cut that all too often gets served dry and tough, but the yogurt marinade made the tikka really tender.

Now comes the funny part.  Remember, I’ve neither a working ATM nor credit card.  And the other card I have is one that has frustratingly low acceptance.  Big embarrassment when I call for the check.  So Cat and I wait for the manager, Mihir Khanchandani, and talk to him.  Again, he was very genial and understanding, and allowed us to pay the day after. 

Wonder if he knew I liked the food so much I would’ve been glad to wash dishes for it?  Or do kitchen work.  Then again, I don’t think I can be trusted in an Indian restaurant’s kitchen …