SE Asia 2013

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Asia 2013



Hi! I am thick in the middle of planning for this year’s dive/travel adventure. Nepal has been on my tongue for weeks now so I have decided to start there. I haven’t researched what I might do but I am thinking I will make it a “vacation”: sleep, eat, walk, meditate, and take some land photos.



I tell people that my SE Asia sojourn (five months) last year was not a vacation. Traveling is a way of living. The focus of the trip was diving some of the exotic places I have read and heard about in the thirty years I have been diving. However, during those five months decisions had to be made…where to stay, what to eat, what to see, what to wear? That is not a vacation.



My friend Debbie and I started our dive travels in Puerto Galera, Philippines. The diving is spectacular and it is a touristy place with a castle (hotel) and shopping, restaurants, and a really good camera shop. Due to extenuating circumstances we spent two months in the Philippines, diving Romblon Island, Cabanbanan, Moalboal and Anilao. We went to Dumaguette but both of us succumbed to ear infections so we couldn’t dive. Then Debbie had to go home and I continued on to snorkel with the whale sharks in Oslob, Cebu, Philippines.



I then flew to Kota Kinabalu, Borneo and climbed Mt. Kinabalu. I dove in the beautiful blue waters off Kota Kinabalu, Semporna and the famous Sipidan. Then I traveled to the Gili Islands off the coast of Bali for more diving and to join a friend I had met in Moalboal. We went to Jakarta, Indonesia for a few days. Then I proceeded to Raja Ampat, New Guinea. This was such a unique experience I was stumped about where to go next, so I flew to Sri Lanka to do the tourist thing with my new friend.



Afterward I went to Phuket, Thailand for more diving and some wonderful tourist activities, including a 29 platform zip line and a spectacular theater extravaganza. Then I flew back to Manila and dove Dumaguette and Apo Island, Balacasag, Oslob (with the whale sharks) and Malapascua to see the thresher sharks. I returned to Seattle September 4 with a few souvenirs, lots of travel tales, and even more photos, mostly taken underwater.



Highlighting my trip were the many wonderful, kind, interesting, helpful people I met. It is impossible to say which dive site was my favorite, and equally impossible to say what was my favorite place to visit. I loved them all and as I plan this year’s trip I am tempted to return and try to recapture the good times I had at various places. But you can’t rewind, so I am rejecting the pull of familiar places and planning some new destinations.



I wasn’t adventurous about food. I ate a lot of French fries, comfort food that isn’t even on my menu here in the States. I stuck pretty much to American food in the Philippines. In Raja Ampat there were no fast food places, no grocery stores, and consequently no sugary snacks. I ate fish, rice and greens three times a day. I loved the greens. The fish sometimes looked and tasted like beef…then I would find a fish bone. I made a couple of small rice balls dipped in sugar for dessert. As the trip continued I ate more of the local fare.



I learned so much last year and my traveling friends are inspiring. I carried far too much and I will take less this time. I have been introduced to One Drive so I can keep better records of the expenses and the history of the trip. I know I might have stayed home this year if I knew exactly how much I spent last year, but I am going, and I am going to relax, learn, and have fun.

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