Author archive
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 […]
15 May 2008
We had bad start to our journey from Kuching to Cebu via Kota Kinabalu flying Malaysia Airlines, on two separate bookings. Our first flight was delayed by two hours making for a very touch-n-go connection in Kota Kinabalu. Fortunately we made it … but our luggage didn’t … something we realised upon arrival in Cebu.Malaysia […]
15 May 2008
Sylvester finally graduates. Here’s a video of his final examination … he nearly didn’t make the grade as there was a little hesitation in his performance.
15 May 2008
Shaking hands was a bit tricky. I don’t think cats like their paws being touched but we managed to achieve this by gently shaking his paws before each meal.
15 May 2008
The second lesson was actually easier. Standing was achieved by holding a treat above him. You just had to remind him “no hands” as he would try grab the food with his paw. Ouch!
11 May 2008
I had some banking to do today … we walked past the Lembaga Tabung Haji (Pilgrims’ Savings Fund) office. I couldn’t help noticing a very familiar boxy cubicle which had a note stuck on the outside saying it was an sample of an aircraft toilet. Cute! Seriously, some pilgrims save for most of their lives […]