First stop in Costa Rica, Playa del Coco in Guanacaste for a 3 days diving & fiesta adventure Costa Rican style! Actually the fun started when I took my first Sansa flight (local 10 passengers’ plane) from San Jose to Liberia! The bird view of the inland with his volcanoes, rain forest and mountains was absolutely breathtaking, and so were the frequent “drop” as our tiny plane encounters colder air…a nice yoyo exercise to start this trip & add some adrenaline to it! Was greeted on arrival by Leigh the owner of the bed and breakfast I was staying at in Coco, with who I would have lovely conversations during my entire stay. She made me feel at home the moment we headed to Coco, telling me more about the area and Coco and sharing with ... read more

Shanghai - San Francisco… across the ocean one more time, ready for my first true American Christmas & discovery of the Yosemite National Park and California coast line. And what an amazing trip! Thanks so much Stephen for those few days spent together and see you on the 9th! Christmas celebrations Absolutely love the time difference between China and the West coast, left early on the 24th and arrive even earlier on the same day, ready for a three hours drive to Fresno with Stephen to spend Christmas in his family. So…for “breakfast”, well, lobster! :-) Followed by the Christmas church service (American style…culturally interesting) & Christmas dinner at his cousin house. Lots of family member there and a whole new experience for me with paper candles lined up in the street, Christmas decoration absolutely taking ... read more

Not exactly getting lazy…let’s just say it is been quite busy recently! So, here is part two of our trekking adventure in Xishuangbanna… more pictures and more fun! After nearly got our backpack leaving without us, getting lost in the jungle, meeting our new traveling companion (Yako the dog) and spending the night at Ms Shu house, we were ready for more adventures! A few tips about traveling in remote area of China ... Trip duration Whichever the number of times, you would ask how long it would take from point A to B, you would actually never get the same answer... The "walk" from Yako to Bulangshan was a prime example! We were told 5 hours by Ms Shu when Orchid from Mei Mei cafe was saying 7 to 8 hours and an other local ... read more

Life is full of experiences...and diving well...has a lot to offer! Diving in Sipadan is truly magical, colorful and full of life but for the more adventurous minds it has as well something else to offer: cave diving! Welcome to a pitch black underworld where one’s life holds to a tiny lifeline...Ready for some high adrenaline sensations? Guess it took me half a second to make my mind...the very moment I saw on the diving board that cave diving was available I was technically harassing our dive master to meet the tech dive instructor and immediately put my name down. The next day, one of our new Australian friends, Marissa, tells me that she feels like giving it a try too, so two cave divers we will be!! We met the following day with David, THE ... read more

Back in Kota Kinabalu after a week diving in Sipadan/Mabul/Kapalai.... This destination had been on my wish list for a while...hard not to...the area has everything to offer from macro diving to some of the best shore dives in the world. Hard to resist any longer...so Sipadan here we come! One more flight (from KK) and a long and chaotic boat transfer (45mn) and we finally reached the Mabul Sipadan Resort. Had spent quite a while looking at the different options (no liveaboards in this area) and this seemed to be the best option...and indeed, we were not disappointed! The resort has been entirely thought of keeping in mind that 90% of the guests are divers, and every details has been taken care of...from the dive planning (I truly pity the manager in charge of dealing ... read more