Author archive
29 August 2008
Getting shown around Macau I arrived in Macau by ferry and took a free shuttle to a nearby casino where I met Claudio, my host for my brief nightstop. Claudio is a fellow Couchsurfer … someone who hosts others and/or gets hosted through the www.couchsurfing.com website. He is from Portugal and has been in Macau […]
28 August 2008
I arrived into Hong Kong at 0645 in very good shape … the dryness of the aircraft cabin must be good for the sinuses … no more jaw-ache. By late morning, I was feeling pretty miserable again … I could hardly open my mouth due to the pain in my upper jaw. This has to […]
27 August 2008
About six months ago AirAsia had a big sale with ridiculously low prices. At those prices one doesn’t need a reason to travel! I joined up the places which I’ve longed to visit, the family obligations and the impulse decisions. In the space of an afternoon, I had bought seven tickets around Asia for NZD350 […]
25 May 2008
Sylvester was named after the cartoon character … he was nearly called Pingu, aftger the penguin cartoon character but not many people knew that one. He loves to butt heads with people. We realised his high IQ early in the piece and started to teach him a few tricks, beginning with sitting on command.
23 May 2008
We landed back in Auckland after an overnight flight. I consider the trip a success as I had successfully obtained my PADI Open Water dive certification. However, I’m still far from confident with diving. Only practice will help me improve. I already have plans in my head to make that happen.
21 May 2008
We had been booked to fly from Cebu to Hong Kong non-stop today on Cebu Pacific Air, a three hour flight. Unfortunately the flight was cancelled … but fortunately I had by chance stumbled on the cancellation just before we left Auckland and managed to rebook on connecting flights through Manila at no charge, but […]
19 May 2008
Finally, we had some time today to explore Cebu’s historic centre. The most important part of the area was Santo Niño Basilica. Housed within a chapel of the basilica was the cross planted by Magellan when he landed in Cebu in 1521. Some historians dispute that and suggest that the cross is a replica planted […]
18 May 2008
Out to sea by boat today for three dives as part of our certification. We had a dodgy start … we were ferried to the boat in a rectangular box towed by a man walking along the shallow sea floor. It was already heavily laden with 20 compressed air tanks. It sat low in the […]
17 May 2008
We got picked up from our hotel to go to Vista Mar Hotel for our first day of hands-on training. We started off in the pool with basic skills for about one hour then walked down to the beach for my first ever dive in the sea. Everything was a new experience, including the basics […]
16 May 2008
Day 1 of our PADI Open Water Course consisted of 5 hours at our Scuba instructor’s home for the theory part of the course. We were doing this course in 2.5 days when most courses take about 4 days. Fingers crossed we’ll be fine! The theory course consisted of getting exam questions and taking a […]