Floating House in Calatagan, Batangas (January 17, 2026)
This. This is my favorite part about traveling the world. When Sarah Medilo reached out and offered to host me in a floating house in her home town of Calatagan, Batangas, I was a HELL YES! Never before had I spent the night on a floating house. This is not a boat per se. This is a house constructed on a floating platform that is tugged to various parts of the Philippines Sea. She also invited Apa Alviar, a fellow Strength’s Finder coach so that we could all deeply connect.
Sarah Medilo, Bill, Apa Alviar, and Sarah’s son, Dakila
Wow this was fun on every level. It combined all the things I truly love: coaching, adventure travel, net new experiences, connecting with the families of fellow coaches, ocean, sun rises, sun sets, and home cooked meals with food grown and caught locally. Seriously, it was everything I could imagine and much, much more.
There’s no way for me to accurately capture the essence of today, but I will give it a shot. It started at 4:30am when I got up to check out of my hotel by 5am which is when Sarah and her family would pick me up and drive me to Calatagan, Batangas. I totally get it. The traffic in Manila gets busy by about 6:30am, so leaving at 5am means beating the traffic and hauling ass two to three hours south.
At about 7am, we stopped for breakfast overlooking a valley and mountain region. It was picturesque and I had the opportunity to try some new Filipino cuisine. Sarah recommended a dish that included a fried egg, beef, rice and beef broth. I don’t recall exactly what it was called, but it tasted delicious; almost as amazing as the views.
Then we stopped at the local market to pick up provisions that would be cooked later that afternoon. Talk about FRESH!
After we picked up the food provisions, we completed our roadtrip and were ready to pack onto the house boat. Just one problem. Low tide.
Normally, it’s a "ferry” system. We would load all our bags, food and provisions onto one boat that would take us to the house boat. No matter. This time we walk through the mud until we catch up with the edge of the Philippine Sea. We all worked together and got our stuff to the houseboat. The adventure was calling and I was excited to venture out and start our first day at sea together.
Meeting A Fellow Martial Artist: Slavan from Croatia
New friend, Slavan Nadhir from Croatia (35) Muay Thai coach
I loved my time in Croatia, thanks to Nikola Maras (see related post). So I was thrilled to discover a Croatian native here visiting the Philippines — and a martial artist, no less. Slavan Nadhir was a champion Muay Thai fighter, turned coach. He’s doing what I’m doing — traveling the world meeting fascinating people who are all living their life to the fullest. We immediately bonded and spent some quality time together sharing stories of our martial art and travels.
Sarah and Bill posing at the corner of our house boat
Having never been on a house boat before, it’s really quite amazing. There’s a propane-powered kitchen, bathroom, living room with couches, dining room table, and bedrooms. Since the weather is beautiful, you don’t really need heating or cooling as the sun takes care of that part, so you just enjoy. These house boats don’t need engines either as they are pulled by the owners with their power boats and taken to the best places to view the sunrises and sunsets.
The also come fully equipped with kayaks and you can ask the owners to take you longer distances to nearby sandbars and coral reefs. Which is what we did once we were settled.
We played in a sand bar and then did some snorkeling around a coral reef. I spotted a puffer fish. What happened next was WILD. One of the guides used his HAND to pick up the puffer fish. What?!? He gently brought it back to the boat so we could examine the puffer fish up close before releasing him back into the sea. The puffer fish was unharmed (albeit disorientated by being picked up and showed around). I wouldn’t have believed this if I hadn’t witnessed it myself.
Seeing a puffer fish up front, close and personal
As soon as we put the puffer fish back into the sea, it floated for a moment, reorientated and swam off. I’m a big fan of “take only pictures, leave only footprints” and yet this was as close to a puffer fish as I’ve ever gotten (and that’s talking as an Advanced Open Water scuba diver with 124 dives completed to date.
Sarah’s zen is cooking, and so we had some incredible meals together. Shrimp, green beans, grilled pork belly, mixed vegetables, and lots of rice available at each meal. And as the sun began to set, we had a solid hour of taking in a breathtaking sunset. I know pictures will never do any of this justice, but it’s really fun trying to capture this moment (impossible as it may be).
And just when you think you can’t possibly “cram” more fun into a single day, one of Sarah’s coach friends joins us for the party.
Sarah Medilo with close friend Apa Alviar
I love Apa Alviar. He and I hit it off immediately. We both have a background in marketing-turned executive coach. Apa was the head of marketing for Philippine Airlines. When I was sharing what I’ve been doing with my AI platform, AskBill, he immediately coined a tagline, “BILLding Your Coaching Business & Financial Freedom.” My ego won’t let me adopt that one, but it gave me a good laugh and I immediately appreciated his creativity and cleverness. Appreciating his connection to the commercial airline industry, I shared the story of how the name Dreamliner was created because of a global promotion that I ran on behalf of Boeing at my first marketing agency, Seismicom.
After a bit of chatting, I also shared the importance of getting a good night’s rest and excused myself so that I could complete my evening bedtime routine and honor my targeted 10pm “lights out” plan so that I can continue to generate at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night. It was a truly fabulous day and I knew more would continue tomorrow.
