Halong Bay, Vietnam

There were so many bad reviews of Halong Bay cruises, I was somewhat nervous about the one we ended up booking. I didn’t get the most expensive cruise but it certainly wasn’t the cheapest either. The reviews of Dragon’s Pearl seemed okay so I hoped for the best.

Pick up at our hotel went smoothly with one stop on route. As was typical of late, the day was dull, dreary and cold. I was freezing and sat shivering in the van my thin sarong wrapped around me. Little did I know it would only colder! After a 2 ½ hour drive, the van unloaded us at the Indochina building at the bay and we waited in a holding area for our guide. There were so many boats out on the water, it was quite unbelievable.

Eventually Ahn, our tour guide, greeted us with smiles, a punky haircut, and fairly decent English. There were 19 of us on a boat with 10 cabins. He led us out onto the dock to a smaller boat for the transfer and off we went to the Dragon’s Pearl.

Ahn explained that the Vietnamese government wants all tour boats painted white – which doesn’t suit the traditional look and tour companies hope the government will change their minds. It’s apparently some form of control – they can easily recognize a tour boat if painted white.

Our cabin was small, barely big enough for the bed, which was solid – about as hard as the floor. The bathroom was nice with a decent sized shower that had plenty of hot water. There was an a/c unit above the bed on heat and I was very glad we had that!

We met in the dining room and Ahn went over the itinerary with us. Going on the 2 night cruise meant we could travel to places less frequented by other boats so I was happy about that. An 8 course lunch was served and was delicious. Our fellow passengers were great – we met another Wendy and Ian from Canada (what are the chances of that!) – living in Australia, a lovely Irish couple on their honeymoon (a nurse and a carpenter – again, what a coincidence!), a Holland couple living in Brunei etc.

The boat headed out and though the day was dull, the scenery was spectacular. I wanted to snap photo after photo.

There are nearly 2 thousand limestone outcrops jutting up and out of the emerald water, many with caves and sharp ridges.

We stood freezing on deck taking it all in. I kept adding layers of clothing until I had 5 tops on and my sarong as a scarf. I was glad I had kept my gloves from our bike trip. For awhile, I stood in our warm cabin and watched from the windows. Eventually we came to a stop for some kayaking and most went even though it meant wet bums.

 Ahn led us around one of the limestone islands – it is easy to see how someone could get lost. Afterwards some brave souls went for a swim –

 Ian said he’d never been swimming in such cold water, even in northern Ontario. Crazy guy.

 Hot showers and tea followed and soon it was dinner – another huge spread of food, all delicious. We sat and chatted for awhile with the other guests and then headed to bed. I woke up with a headache – I’m sure it’s because the bed AND pillows were so hard. I had that headache for two days.

The sun never came out but honestly, we couldn’t get too discouraged, the scenery remained spectacular. Our next stop was a floating fishing village. Young women rowed over in their boats to collect us and off we went.

 We each got traditional hats to wear on the journey over – a good thing because it was drizzling out.

Everyone was in great spirits despite the weather. The village was small with brightly coloured homes connected by docks.

The boats deposited us on a floating covered dock where we met the village chief. He served us tea and welcomed us to the village. Indochina, the company who owns Dragon’s Pearl, works together with the village to keep the bay clean. We were shown a typical home – very tiny – and the small school. Children attend elementary school only as secondary school is in the city and as Ahn explained, no one in the village thought it was important enough to send their children to. Swimming and rowing however were essential and taught before reading and writing.

 It was an eye opening experience for all of us. The people there lived so simply with little luxuries – a TV was it. During bad monsoons the village would be evacuated leaving only the chief to watch over things.

We made our way back to the boat and were on our way to a cave. Kayaking was in order and Ian went – it was too cold for me.

Afterwards we napped in our warm cabin before getting ready for dinner in a CAVE!

The crew worked very hard setting this up – they had to carry all the food and plates etc. up the stairs and into the cave itself. The entire way was lit with candles and it was all very romantic. When we entered the cave we were met with stalactites and stalagmites – and more candles.

A long table was set with a linen table cloth, cutlery, dishes and candles, and everything looked stunning. Each meal required a new centre piece – a stork carved from radish, a dragon from pumpkin, a replica of our boat, etc. It was impressive. We had such a glorious time! After dinner we all met back in the dining room on the boat for some further conversation before retiring to bed.

The next day, Ian wasn’t feeling so well – flu bug? So he took it easy. I watched the scenery from the warmth of the cabin with the occasional trip outside for some photos.

We had an early light lunch on the boat before heading into the bay where we loaded onto the smaller boat for our transfer to shore. Ahn was missing so we had to turn around to get him and then we all realized another couple were missing so again, back we went. It was all good fun.

Everyone loved the trip and the people we got to know were just super. It was definitely a highlight!

Hanoi, Vietnam

We landed in Hanoi Feb. 6^th and it was chilly; a welcome relief from the heat of the south and the Philippines. We were staying at the Hanoi Elite, a hotel that was rated #1 on Tripadvisor with over 100 excellent ratings. I had never seen such a high rating before – and for 50 dollars a night – I booked it.

The manager had warned us of the many taxi scams at the airport a fact I already knew from my extensive readings. Taxi drivers will say your hotel is booked, or burned down, or moved, and will recommend somewhere else; somewhere that isn’t as nice but one that benefits them financially. As a result of this scams, we decided to use the hotel taxi and were told that the driver would not only have a sign with our names on it, but also, a CODE that would match the one they gave us. Such security!

The hour drive into town wasn’t overly impressive, it was a dully dreary day and we looked out onto fields dotted with farmers and clusters of tall grey buildings. The city skyline was equally unappealing. We turned north and followed a road lined with a long mosaic wall dividing the road from the homes and stores behind.

Eventually we turned into the Old Quarter down narrow roads crammed with scooters and street vendors then stopped perpendicular to a tiny side street. In the old quarter, stopping your vehicle generally means stopping traffic as there’s nowhere to pull over. This picture is one of the wider streets.

A hotel employee greeted us with smiles and grabbed our bags. We followed him down the tiny road (big enough for scooters but not cars) to the hotel where the two ladies standing behind the desk smiled and greeted me as Mrs Wendie (I was always greeted in this manner, Ian was Mr Ian). The ladies urged us to take a seat while they got the paperwork ready. The lobby is super small with only three tables, a large bench and 6 chairs and the reception desk. A small kitchen was off to the side. I worried that we’d never get a seat at breakfast but that was never a problem.

The receptionist came with our paperwork and a map and went over areas of interest. She was most thorough. Our room was up two flights of stairs and the boy followed with our bags. There isn’t a lift and the staircase in very narrow, two rooms on each floor. We were thrilled with the room – a bit on the small side but modern and clean. King sized bed, flat screen TV, plenty of closet space, safe, a/c, desk, separate shower, kettle, fridge, WIFI and a LAPTOP!!! The hot water was always HOT and there were two shower heads (one a rain head). The beds were so comfy and we had two huge soft pillows each. Oh, and the TV had a file with free HD movies. What else could we want for??? All for 50 dollars!!

We were so happy we decided to book our Halong Bay cruise through them and return to the hotel for a further 5 nights. Since it was a 3.5 hour drive to Halong Bay, we decided to do the 2N/3D cruise with Dragon’s Pearl. The hotel looked after everything for us.

Breakfast was yummy – Ian had pho ga (pronounced PHA GAAH), chicken noodle soup most mornings and I usually had cereal and a small baguette with fruit. Our very first day we went to see Ho Chi Minh (or as Ian and I call him, Uncle Ho). We dressed appropriately and left our cameras and water at the front. The line up was long but went quickly. We walked to the huge Mausoleum and entered through the front –

Security was plentiful, 4 guards stood at attention next to the body and several guards watched as we filed by them – looking for cameras or phones I imagine. The room was dark and you could walk around three sides to see Ho Chi Minh lying serenely behind glass. I thought I would find the entire thing weird but instead, I was awed. Lying before me, looking very good I must say, was the deceased President, a leader of great inspiration to the Vietnamese people.

Ian and I exited the side and wandered over to see the Presidential Palace and Ho Chi Minh’s simple accommodation. A stilt house with an office and bedroom sparsely furnished.

Entrance to the palace is forbidden so we simply admired that from outside. Next up was the Ho Chi Minh Museum and that was odd. I found it incredibly strange. It was full of symbolic art installations celebrating his life. One example was the piece representing the cave where strategic planning for the war took place – it was done up like a brain - the brain power of Ho Chi Minh. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to really appreciate that kind of symbolism so I raced through and waited for Ian at the end of it all. I watched him meander through with a large smile on his face. You couldn’t help but grin….

Coffee was in order so we found a tiny spot with relatively few smokers and had a couple of cappuccinos. We then walked to the Fine Arts Museum but decided to do lunch first so off we went to KOTO. Koto is a restaurant designed to help kids in need. There was a lovely write up on the menu that spoke of training the kids in both the service and cooking industry. One year, the entire graduating class was hired by a big named hotel (Hilton?).

There are four floors and we sat on the third. Lunch was great. I do not eat beef and rarely eat pork (occasionally I’ll eat bacon or ham) but I decided to order the Bun Ca which is similar to the meal I eat at the Pho place down from my school at home (only it comes with chicken). I received small pieces of carmelized pork and small pork patties (Ian ate the patties), a bowl of vermicelli noodles, lettuce and the sauce you pour into the entire mixture (what is that sauce??? It’s so good!). The meal was scrumptious.

After lunch we headed to the Art Museum which was incredibly propagandist with the majority of its works celebrating its soldiers, their relationships with the local people, and their fight against the “American aggressors.” Unlike the museum in Saigon, here we were not allowed to take photos.

The next day we walked around Hoan Kiem Lake where we visited the Den Ngoc Son temple, founded in the 14^th Century. 

We crossed the red bridge to the tiny island housing the temple.  There was a pagoda where two older men sat playing a game (checkers?) and a small temple.

Many wedding couples posed for their photos around the lake – more so on Valentine’s Day. We made our way around the water and over to St. Joseph’s Cathedral, a neo-gothic building from the 1880s.

It was great walking around Hanoi, well, except for the constant fear of getting one’s elbow knocked by a passing scooter. The roads are so narrow that bikes have to park on the sidewalks causing pedestrians to walk in the roads. Shops are tiny selling beautiful wares like brightly coloured purses and bags, lovely silk and woollen scarves, embroidered or oil paintings, woven baskets, jackets, shoes, etc. Food stalls would set up shop with tiny child-like stools and customers would sit on the sidewalks sometimes spilling out into the street. On the corner of our street, dozens of teens would sit and eat something that looked like BBQ bird embryos….

The next day was our Halong Bay cruise with a pick up time of 8am so we packed our bags in readiness.

Finishing up in the Philippines

We got up early and ate breakfast upstairs overlooking the beach and ocean. Breakfast has been mostly good with buffet style and made to order eggs. They have baguettes and fresh fruit so I’m happy.

The boat was ready for 6:30 am and our gear was loaded up. The water was calm the skies gorgeous.

We watched Negros disappear and settled in for our 2 hour boat ride to our first dive stop. Ian sat out front and listened to music while I read. It was brilliant watching the sky change colours.

Our dives were amazing. Saw more turtles –

- and trumpet fish (long thin fish with trumpet like snouts), frog fish, clown fish, lots of grouper, etc., but the best thing we saw was a giant school of Jacks. It was AMAZING. Jayboy pointed to two turtles quite close to each other and I watched as one swam away and the other larger one lifted its head to watch it go –  as we looked up to follow its path, a massive dark cloud appeared in the distance. We watched in awe as the cloud took shape becoming 1000s of large silver Jacks swirling around in a tightly packed mass. Jacks ranged in length from 1 to 2.5 feet and their large eyes stared at us as they swam outside the mass before disappearing within. We hovered within a couple feet of the eerie looking fish but I didn’t want to get too close – it felt like one could get sucked into the mass disappearing forever.  It was an absolutely huge school hovering a few metres from the ocean floor just beneath the water’s surface – it had to be 4 metres high.

The large turtle sat watching the school as if it too were mesmerized. A soft clicking sound emanated from the group of fish and we watched it for about 10 minutes until it slowly moved on. Next to the school of barracuda that swam around me, this was right up there as a diving highlight. WOW!

Immediately upon our ascent we had to leave our Dumaguette crew for a new boat. It was an odd transfer. The boat was full of German speaking tourists from our next resort and they all stared at us blandly. Ian and I were so high from seeing the Jacks that we were positively bouncing with energy and enthusiasm. I engaged a few people in conversation but they seemed somewhat reluctant to speak to us; eventually over the three days as we spent more time together, they became friendlier.

I asked one woman what the resort was like and she sort of shrugged and said, it’s okay. The beach is – well, there isn’t a beach. So I couldn’t help but wonder what I’d find. We had to sit on the boat and wait as the group did two dives so that was pretty boring. We couldn’t dive with them since our gear was rented from Pura Vida. I was glad we had brought sandwiches with us from the resort as it was a long long day – 10 hours till we got to Cabilao – but that dive with those Jacks made it all worth while.

As we rounded the bend of Cabilao and drew close to the shore, I was absolutely shocked when the boat dropped anchor and lowered the ladder. We were a good 75 feet from shore and the water was very rough. I looked at the crew and said – you’ve got to be kidding.  But sadly, they were  not – I now understood why the divers had left their suits and booties on. One crew member looked at my feet and said – you don’t have booties?

Great.

At least we had our bathing suits on.

I worried that Ian’s bag would get wet – it had the computer and camera in it – and wondered how our heavy backpacks would get to shore.  Ian, who is always cool in these situations, started down the ladder his bag held high over his head. I also started down and the water reached my chin but I trudged to shore, bag held high and dry. The water closer to shore was thick with floating sea grass so our legs and feet were covered in long pieces of green grass as we stepped out of the water. The beach was disgusting – thick piles of slimy sea grass with tiny bugs jumping about as we gingerly stepped along.

When I got to the shore, I looked at the woman I had spoken to earlier and told her she really downplayed the state of the beach. It was the worst boat exit and entrance to a resort I’d ever experienced. At least our bags arrived dry, carried overhead by strong crew members. We met the manager and he reassured me that we’d use the pier to leave so I wouldn’t have to worry about getting wet….

Our bungalow was on the beach and directly next to the dive shop. 

The beds were unfortunately ROCK hard but it was a solidly built room with screens and no mosquitoes. There was a super breeze coming through the windows which was a nice change. Food was served up on the cliff towering over our bungalows so three times a day we climbed several stairs – great exercise.

Our dives were not far from the resort, maybe 5 to 10 minute boat trips and we did three dives a day returning for lunch at the resort. We saw the usual fish but also some new ones – the pretty coral hawkfish and pipefish, some of which look like sticks of coral. There were different types of scorpion fish and the tiniest pygmy seahorse. Here’s a scorpion fish (they are quite poisonous) -

Ian and I thoroughly enjoyed our diving but after 30 dives, we were ready to get dry and relax. The Radisson in Cebu proved to be a fantastic way to relax. What a super hotel at a decent price.

Our trip to the Philippines is done but I suspect we’ll return on our next year off to dive some more. I leave you with a few more pictures -

Our diving adventures continue in the Philippines

Diving in Turtle Bay meant coastal dives with two in the morning and one in the afternoon. The boat was tiny requiring roll back entries and only had a crew of two, our dive master and the captain.  We’d go about 10 minutes down the coast, anchor, and dive along a coral encrusted wall that ran very deep. Other guests seemed to be mostly European many living in Hong Kong. Andy was snorkelling and took some photos so you can finally see us suited up:

Here’s me preparing for my rollback – right hand holding mask, left at the weight belt, fins crossed –

I’m not a fan of wall diving because I prefer hovering to diving vertically but we did see some new marine life: orang-utan crab, razor fish (they hang vertically), some different kinds of butterfly and angel fish and we were lucky to spot some turtles. As always, we saw anemone fish of all colours:

That night we went out on a night dive – entering from shore. We swam out backwards to a buoy, turned on our torches, and down we went.

Unfortunately for me, the dive was horrible. My mask fogged up the entire dive and that combined with the dark and my poor eye sight made for a pretty difficult dive. Every time the dive master wanted to show me something, I had to put a bit of water into my mask to clear it but it would soon fog up and I’d have to repeat the procedure over and over again.  We did see two turtles sleeping and another frog fish. I think I have commented on frog fish before – they are quite large, perhaps the size of a large cat or small dog, they have legs like frogs and faces like old men. They often blend into the scenery, either green like leaf coral, brown, black, or white. We also saw a crab with a huge piece of coral growing on it.

The next morning we headed out very early – 5am – for a 2.5 hour van ride to Oslob to see the whale sharks. Whale sharks are slow moving filter feeders with huge mouths and can grow up to 41 feet. The resort was charging us an arm and a leg for the dive and out of principle, I didn’t want to go. They were driving us by van for a shore entry dive so their only expense was the gas for the van and with 9 of us going, they were making a killing financially…but we were guaranteed to see whale sharks and some divers waited decades to see one, so we went.

The shore entry was most challenging – the ocean floor was uneven and the waves high so I kept getting knocked off my feet and unable to get up due to the weight of my gear. Putting on the fins was no fun.  Out on the water there were several boats of Asian tourists and it turns out, fishermen who were feeding the whale sharks shrimp. We were pretty disappointed to see this – but were committed, so off we went. The dive was interesting. The surge of the waves and current would pull us away from the whale sharks so we’d see them briefly, get pulled out along by the current then swim back. We repeated this many times. The whale sharks themselves remained on the surface as large dark shadows swimming overhead.

Fighting the current we tried to stay still, looking up as they swam above us. Visibility wasn’t great. Finally, when I saw one coming, I’d float close to the surface and about an arm’s length away from the shark and then it got interesting. The shark was truly an awesome sight to see.

Poor Ian had a horrendous time with his mask continually leaking. Every time I looked at him, his mask was 3/4 ‘s full of water. There were many other divers around and one of them kicked Ian in the face. It was quite a circus with the divers, the boats, the snorkelers and the surge. We ended up losing one of our divers but when he couldn’t find us, he just went into shore.

We were all pretty miserable afterwards. It was such a challenging dive and not fun. I just kept reminding myself that I had gotten within an arm’s length of a giant whale shark. I mean, how cool is that?

The next day we were off to Pura Vida resort, Dumaguette, on Negros. The transfer was by van, public ferry and van again. The resort was nice but when I entered our hut, I was most worried.

There were huge gaps between the doors, the windows, and the a/c. I imagined myself bug bitten each night. When I was on Malapascua, one morning I woke up with over 20 mosquito bites on my right arm. After diving they became very red and inflamed and weeks later, I still have a weird rash there (I am starting to wonder if it’s ever going to go away).

Ian and I established a bug bite preventative routine: every night Ian thoroughly sprayed me front and back with bug spray and both mosquito nettings. Ian slept without spray or netting and I think he got one tiny bite.

The sand here at Dumaguette was black from the volcano. Our first three dives were coastal with a lot of sand and coral. At one point I decided to rent a camera for the day. I’ve included photos throughout our trip to the Philippines to illustrate some of the marine life and coral that we see but I took them all in one day. Taking photos underwater is harder than I thought. For one, the flash shows up all the particles in the water and the stunning colour visible to us when diving gets washed out. And fish are fast! Many times, I only ended up with the tail end of the fish in my photo.

Our guide, Jayboy, spent a lot of time looking in the sand for small marine life which got boring at times. However, we did end up seeing some new life like Pegasus and a flamboyant cuttlefish. This is a fascinating tiny creature. It walks on the ocean floor and is brown in colour, when disturbed it changes colour to black, dark brown and white with red to ward off attackers. It was like watching something magical as it rapidly changed colour right before our eyes.

Nudibranches are also frequently seen in the Philippines. It is funny to us how divers get so excited when they come across one because for Ian and I as we have rarely been on a dive without seeing one. They can be quite colourful and different in form and are carnivorous eating sponge coral, sea slugs and their eggs, and in some cases, are cannibals. Here’s a photo of one without a shell – it’s not the greatest example in terms of colour but it’s the only one I took:

We also saw turtles and a few times, I was able to get quite close. Seeing turtles always make Ian and I smile. They are such magnificent creatures.

Our day trip was to Apo Island and one of our best trips. The sun came out and lit up the coral well and we saw many varieties of fish. It was an absolutely brilliant day.

This is a puffer that to Ian and I, looks like a seal. It’s one of our favourite fish. 

Jayboy took us to one area where streams of tiny bubbles came out of the ocean floor. It was really interesting.

I discovered that tube worms when touched disappear quickly into their tubes and Bat fish are very friendly, often following us around on dives. Jayboy pointed out a blue ribbon eel with its head sticking out of the ground and we watched a large cuttlefish change from brown to blue before our very eyes. It’s hard to believe that the two photos below are the very same fish – 

When we returned to the resort, Ian and I noticed our names on the board for two dives leaving at 6:30am the next day which was our check out day. Jayboy explained that we would travel by boat to Cabilao stopping at Balicavag for two dives. I actually thought he was joking since one, I didn’t expect to leave at 6:30am and two, had no idea we’d be diving. But Pay, the manager, confirmed it so there you have it, we were doing two more dives on route to our next island.

Since we ended up doing so many dives, Ian added to our dive package. The more you do, the cheaper they are – the only thing is you need to purchase them in advance and hope the weather and your health cooperate.

So far my ears were fine clearing without problem. I did grab a feather star by accident – it was on a rope that we were holding while Jayboy showed us something. Usually when there’s a rope, you hold onto delicately with the very tips of your fingers. However, I reached up to grab the rope without looking (probably to get out of someone’s way) and full on grabbed a feather star that was latched onto the rope. Luckily they are not poisonous but I keep waking up with puffy fingers and the red bumpy rash is very itchy. Ian is doing okay; a bit congested though so I worry a cold is brewing.

Eight more dives to go!

Diving in the Philippines

When we planned our trip to Southeast Asia, we had no intention of going to the Philippines but its proximity and the diving possibilities it offered were too hard to resist. Ian graciously offered to look after booking the trip; a daunting task with its 7000+ islands and 100s of dive sites and dive shops.

Our trip was planned for Vietnamese Tet so we could avoid the travel rush and things being shut down. As Vietnam is fairly close to the Philippines, we thought we could get a decent priced flight but surprisingly they were quite expensive. It proved cheaper to fly Air Asia to Bangkok and then take a Philippines flight from there.

Our first day was very long – the flight to Bangkok was maybe an hour and 20 minutes, then we caught our flight to Manila where we had a few hours to wait till our flight to Cebu. The airport in Manila was crazy. We landed international and had to wait FOREVER to get through immigration. Line ups were huge but the holding area was tiny so lines started going up the stairs. We had to claim our bags and have our flight tags checked before they were transferred to our next flight. Then we had to make our way to the domestic airport which was next door but involved leaving the international airport, going outside onto the sidewalk and trying to find the entrance to the domestic airport (they were not clearly marked).  It was dinnertime but the airport didn’t have any restaurants so we went without dinner.

The plane landed in Cebu around 11pm and we took a taxi to Pier Cuatro Hotel. The hotel was something else let me tell you. First of all, it seemed like it was in the middle of deserted buildings next to the docks but a very large, busy disco club sat across the street. Our driver commented on the disco being ‘popular’ and one couldn’t help but guess why a disco was located in such an isolated area….

The hotel was hopping despite being past 11pm. We were shown to our room and on route passed an obese man sitting shirtless in his boxer shorts smoking a cigarette underneath a no-smoking sign. NICE. Our room was sparse and mattresses thin and rock hard. To top it all off, someone was having a party in their room making a lot of noise so sleep was impossible. . The place got amazing reviews on tripadvisor which is why we had booked it. Unbelievable.

Other than our accommodation in Cebu, everything else was arranged with Sea Explorers (S.E.) a dive company that Ian had discovered in his research. We were doing an island hopping dive package with them and all transfers were looked after.  Considering we were going to 4 islands that would involve both boat and car transfers, so the fact that S.E. was looking after things, made it easier for us.

Over the last 10 days, we did about 30 dives, including our advanced dive course, bringing our dive experience up to 50 dives in total. Our first island stop was a very flat island called Malaspacua and the resort Ocean Vida.

We loved the resort. Sven the owner was friendly, our room was great, and the food excellent. Sitting on the beach watching the sunset was a favourite.

The dive shop was incredibly well organized with write ups on all the dive sites. Some sites required the diver to have their advanced certification which is why we decided to do our advanced diving.  Day trips involved lunch and three dives, or there were single dives, sunset dives and early morning dives. Boats were large with lots of sitting, a toilet, and non-skid floors. Entry was giant stride off the back.

The day trip was off a tiny island where we had a BBQ lunch. It was a gorgeous setting.  

While on the island, I kept an anxious eye on the approaching storm -

But we were lucky and it passed us by.

Ting was our dive master for many of our dives.

After our first few dives, we grilled him on all the fish and tiny marine life he had shown us. When he realized how interested we were, he started taking a slate to write things down so he wouldn’t forget at the end of our dives. He also lent me his magnifying glass to see things better – this was most helpful. The coral was beautiful: feather, barrel, sponges, leaf, and anemone. 

We saw the usual anemone fish, batfish, scorpion, grouper, lion, squirrel, fusilier, Moorish idol, etc.  Despite not being certified to dive deep, we ended up going about 27 metres.  The next day, we started our dive course with Tata.

Our first dive was to be the deep dive to see the Thresher sharks. Thresher sharks have a curved tail as long as their bodies. Here’s a tattoo of one (this is Ting):

It was an early morning dive leaving at 5am, diving around 5:45am and was quite a circus. As we suited up to enter the water, approximately 11 other boats showed up.  The area was known as a cleaning station for the Thresher sharks; it had something to do with the sharks coming to get cleaned by cleaner shrimps (I think).

Tata, our course instructor, discussed narcosis with us – this is a condition that can happen when you stay in the deep for too long. It’s a euphoric state where you feel completely confident and in control. Tata was taking a slate along with a simple math equation on it and we would fill it out underwater.  We moved to our deep dive location and Tata handed me the equation – I merely glanced at it, jotted down the answer and thought to myself how simple it was.  

We then planted ourselves to watch for the Thresher sharks. Tata pointed to some dark shadows swimming about but without my glasses, the details were invisible to me. At one point however, a Thresher shark did swim by us close enough for me to see it but it went by fairly quickly so it was a bit disappointing to be honest. There were divers everywhere – all just sitting, waiting and watching, and to be honest, I found it a bit boring. I think we saw 5 sharks but for me, only one really stood out.

Back at the boat, Tata came up to me and handed me the slate saying – look at your answer Wendie. A glance showed me how completely wrong the answer was and I looked at him in dismay. Tata just smiled and said – that’s narcosis. It was so clearly wrong yet underwater, it felt completely right. I remembered my thought process behind the answer and knew, back on the boat, how wrong it was. It was an eye opening experience for both Ian and I.

Our next lessons were navigation, buoyancy, natural environment and night dive. The navigation was easy but the buoyancy course was a bit tough. We had to hover for one minute but no matter what I did, I kept flipping over backwards so I was hovering upside down. Tata finally figured out that it was the placement of my weights and after a slight adjustment, I was able to hover. We spent another dive working on buoyancy and it really did help. I began calling Tata a Ninja diver as we had never seen someone hold so still for so long without resting on any surface. Many divers use their muck sticks or place the tip of their fins on the ocean floor to help them maintain a position. Tata could hover vertically for over a minute. He was a great mentor.

The sunset dive was brilliant. We entered the water just as it was getting dark and underwater, it grew black. I was quite nervous about a night dive but it proved to be a fantastic experience. We each had a torch so it was incredibly easy to find each other and see marine life. I was thrilled with the amount of life that we spotted: colourful mandarin fish; different crabs – bright orange or red, others scuttling along under shells, some very tiny; cleaner shrimp with their long tentacles; seahorse and squid. I had such a super time.

We did quite a few dives off Malaspacua seeing so many fish. We swam with a black frog fish, saw many seahorse and mandarin fish mating on another night dive, Ting and I spotted a fairly large barracuda, and Ian saw a school of cuttlefish. Ian did another thresher shark dive (I bowed out of that one b/c of my poor eye sight) and Ian said a few sharks came up close. It was a super great time, we met some lovely people from England, from Switzerland and a couple from B.C. who say the diving on the west coast of Canada is brilliant. Who would have thought?

Ting and Tata were great guides and Ocean Vida was a great place to stay.

We moved onto our next stop, Moalboal and Turtle Bay with a stop in Cebu to buy a dive computer. It might seem a luxury to buy a dive computer but it is necessity when diving so much. The computer is worn on your wrist and Tata kindly used his instructor’s discount to get us 30% off.

The computer keeps track of how deep you dive, tells you how long you can stay underwater and how long your decompression stop should be. This prevents decompression sickness (the bends). Without a computer, we’d have to use the tables and they are VERY conservative, too conservative. We’d hardly have any time underwater. I felt more comfortable having the computer especially since we were diving a fair bit.

Turtle Bay resort was located on the southern west coast of Cebu Island which surprised Ian and I as we had thought we were headed to an island. All of our accommodations were about 55 dollars a night – at this resort, we stayed in a lovely bungalow –

We arrived late so we met Rubin, our dive master, got our gear ready for the next day, and settled in for the night.