I am taking a year out to dive my way around the world! South Africa, Mozambique, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Micronesia and so on all the way to India for my last stop! Anyone fancy joining? Let me know!
This is a bit old now but it took me so long to sort all the photos! Here is Lembeh: On the morning of my transfer to Lembeh I woke up with a blooming ear infection - again!!! Very angry and upset but I started to take drops immediately and got some anti inflammatories in Manado on the way to Lembeh. Arriving at the resort I had to watch everyone else go off for dives and come back very excited...for a whole day and a half! I suppose it is not the worst place in the world to sit and take it easy though..surrounded by jungle, the sound of frogs (really loud and weird!) view over the sea and some Indonesian volcanoes, life could be worse! After a while I was good enough to dive and ... read more
Hong Kong! No Mumbai this time..the new route was via HK. Great opportunity to see the place at the same time as catching up with Alex that I met in Tofo. I stayed with her and her family in Discovery Bay on a boat! Very nice and cosy. We walked and walked, saw the typical streets, hustling and bustling asian big city, the fancy dress street(hilarious!), the cute little trams, the worlds longest escalator, the worlds biggest outdoor bronze buddha, lots of tacky shops, lots of nice shops, lots of british pub kind of places, great shopping malls, pret a manger!, lots of boats and ferries. We had some lovely food and we attended Alex's mum's pink fizz night to raise money for breast cancer. I was also very surprised to read on a menu in ... read more
Hong Kong! No Mumbai this time..the new route was via HK. Great opportunity to see the place at the same time as catching up with Alex that I met in Tofo. I stayed with her and her family in Discovery Bay on a boat! Very nice and cosy. We walked and walked, saw the typical streets, hustling and bustling asian big city, the fancy dress street(hilarious!), the cute little trams, the worlds longest escalator, the worlds biggest outdoor bronze buddha, lots of tacky shops, lots of nice shops, lots of british pub kind of places, great shopping malls, pret a manger!, lots of boats and ferries. We had some lovely food and we attended Alex's mum's pink fizz night to raise money for breast cancer. I was also very surprised to read on a menu in ... read more
Finally - after yearning for years to go to Bunaken and Lembeh - I got there!!!!!! After a delayed flight from Bali to Manado that was already scheduled late I had a very late night and not much sleep before I got picked up by two fish divers at 6.45 the next morning for my own private boat transfer to Bunaken Island. Lots of lovely lush islands around and volcanoes here and there on the way across. I arrived and checked in to my budget room..it is quite budget but at least my own! Got my dive briefing and had a nap before my first dive. It is just so nice to stay somewhere peaceful and beautiful as well as literally on the beach. The village is not at all as developed as I thought so ... read more
After Borneo I flew to Singapore and had a great relaxing 24 hours with book reading and fabulous Turkish food! Then I took a late flight and arrived in Denpasar at 21.30. After tons of paper work I got my visa and took a taxi to my 'home stay' as they call the small hotels. The next morning I got ready to see the Mola Mola/Sunfish at Nusa Penida. I was very lucky and saw two on the first dive!! It was such a cool creature, very surreal. Apart from that the diving was average and I had some reef wreckers on the boat...had to play reef police but they still kept on lying all over the reef.. Transferred to Tulamben which is a bit further up north and got an ear infection...arrrrrrghhh!!! After a couple ... read more
I made it to Semporna and slept for most of the day nursing my painful body feeling like a wimp.. Next morning though I got in the water and felt amazing again! Out of Semporna I dived the northern islands - Sibuan, Mantabuan, Sabangkat etc..and it was lovely! I also did a night dive at Semporna jetty. So much rubbish and scary stuff in the water but the creatures under the water there were amazing!!!! On my 4th day I went out to Mabul and stayed there for 5 nights and dived for 6 days. It was a lovely paradise island with superb diving. I went all round Mabul as well as Kapalai, Sipidan and my favourite - Siamil! I saw so many beautiful things! My first sea horse, and another 30 or so! Over 50 ... read more
So I left Cairns and flew via Darwin to Singapore. I ended up emailing an old colleague from Amsterdam to go out for a beer and he invited me to stay - so I was staying in fancy Robertson Quay for the night, very nice. We went out and had a stroll and ate some cheese and drank a lot of wine...slept for most of the next day and then had to go straight to the airport again! It was a great night though and fun having a chat about Amsterdam times! Being slightly hung over I was not in the best of states to fly to Kota Kinabalu to climb the Mt Kinabalu...but I had a night's sleep and felt much better. The transfer van came and picked me up at my shabby back packers ... read more
So I have made this like a little diary so I have written a little here and a little there: Day 2 - first day of diving: After a last minute panic run to the chemist to get some drug to clear my dodgy sinus and ears I made it to the airport to catch my flight. Very excited indeed I boarded and the views from the plane was great! The great barrier reef is pretty cool from the air! Made it to PNG in Port Moresby, the capital. As we entered the arrivals hall we were greeted by men in hawaii shirts (well i suppose they are not from hawaii but you know what i mean..) singing and playing cheesy pacific music, with flowers behind their ears, love it. Made it to the domestic terminal ... read more
Howdy! And then I went to Coral Bay! Soooooooo gorgeous it made the whole OZ thing so much more worthwhile! I arrived on a ridiculously expensive bus from Exmouth and arrived just in time to book in a dive for the next day and have a walk on the beach with a coffee in my hand for sunset. Truly beautiful. Just sitting on that beach watching the birds flying and the sun slowly setting, it was one of those moments when you get humbled by nature. Sounds soppy I know, but it was so lovely I wanted to move there and never leave! I went diving and it was really nice, the staff were great and the boat nice and there were much more life than in Exmouth. A spotter plane sorted us out with a ... read more
Hiya, how ya goin! Then I flew to Cairns. The weather was perfect, not too warm but really warm! Sandflies kinda suck but otherwise very nice. The town is very touristy but laid back and it has the most gorgeous setting. I clearly haven't done my research..had no idea Cairns was surrounded by rainforest and hills! Beautiful! That you cant swim in the sea due to all the crocs really does suck, instead you have to swim in the 'lagoon' - a big swimming pool in the town centre...not really the same. I was good and went running down by the water front quite a bit and got a fright every time I heard a noise...then the guy at the backpackers called Buddha (?) told me they arent actually around at the moment, this time of ... read more
