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27 February 2013
Above: Manta on a poster. That’s the closest we got to any manta. I did a day’s diving with Bicol Dive Centre at Donsol, hoping to see mantas at Manta Bowl. Three Dives The dives were led by local dive masters who have better knowledge of the area. We did three dives as follows: One […]
17 February 2013
Above: Big spacious diving bangka. I did two dives in El Nido, with the Submariner Diving Centre. They were pleasure to deal from the very beginning, when we walked into the dive shop he evening before we wanted to go diving. They had done all their planning for boat and staff allocation. As we had a party […]
1 February 2013
Getting ready While waiting for my chicken thosai with curry for breakfast, I noticed the young waiter (about 15 years old) buying cigarettes from a younger boy (about 6 years old). Strange, considering he sells cigarettes at the café. I asked him about this. The café sells cigarettes at RM10 (USD3) per pack while the […]
31 January 2013
Getting ready Ryan and I met up for breakfast at a local café, a different one from yesterday. I opted for their version of vegetable murtabak with curry (much better) and kopi tarik again, then shared a fried rice. I introduced Ryan to thosai which he enjoyed very much. I’m proving to be a good […]
30 January 2013
Getting ready I grabbed a vegetable murtabak with curry for breakfast washed down with a kopi tarik. That wasn’t quite enough so I complemented it with toast and kaya (ordered specially without butter or margarine). The instructions from the dive centre was to standby at 0730 on one’s first day. They do really mean standby […]
20 October 2012
We dived with Aquasamoa while on Upolu, Samoa. At that time, they were the only dive operator on the island as the other ones which we had read about appeared to have gone west. As with any dive outfit, the experience depends on who your dive master is on the day. We were very lucky. We […]
29 August 2012
Above: With no underwater camera, all we can capture is a surface photo of the crystal-clear water. Diving in Vava’u was a bit of an afterthought after such an awesome day yesterday’s whale-swim where we got really close-up to three humpback whales. We toyed with the idea of doing more whale-swims. But no one could take […]
12 August 2012
On our second day diving at Perhentian Islands, we did two dives again, but this time with Arwana Perhentian Dive Centre. Initially we were booked with Alu Alu Divers. The morning began with dark clouds and white caps in the sea. We delayed our 0900 start till 1000 and pushed off then. After collecting extra […]
11 August 2012
We did two days of diving while staying on Perhentian Besar. The two days are the perfect illustration that one’s choice of dive operators and dive sites can make or break one’s experience of diving at a destination. Today, we did two dives with Alu Alu Divers: Our first dive at the Sugar Wreck had […]
18 July 2012
Why another dive? Despite yesterday’s disappointing dive, I chose to do another dive today. It was an easy way to kill lots of waiting time: Checkout is at 1000 and my ferry is at 1730 back to Mahe for a 2355 flight to Singapore (via Dubai and Colombo). It’s a little touch and go to […]