Apo Island Round Two and a Boiled Egg Foetus

The day before my birthday I was able to grab a spot on the boat trip to Apo Island for the second time. We went to three different spots to last time, including the most magnificent wall dive where I completed my Deep Diver speciality. 

I used these nitrox babies during my deep dives, now that I'm nitrox certified. It's enriched air, usually containing 32% - 36% oxygen. Normal air has 21% oxygen, therefore when diving with nitrox, it means that you can dive for longer, as well as going deeper for longer.

The resort I'm staying at has a few hot spring spots on the beach, and when the tide goes out, the rocks and sand steam, creating a real eery atmosphere.

And last but not least, I went to a local mini festival at midnight a few nights ago. There, I tried this fugly-looking thing:

Here's the anticipated boiled egg foetus... it's a Philippine thing called Bulat. It's basically a chicken abortion - but a delicious one. I won't be having it again though... 

PADI Advanced, Nitrox and Deep Diver Specialities

At long last, I finally have some underwater photos. My lovely Chinese friend Nicole took these two epics at Siquijor Island during the fantastic wall dive we made. Superman-ing underwater really is harder than it looks. 

 And zat is moi on the left, thinking I'm some sort of ballerina gymnast

 It was also at Siquijor Island where I accomplished my first jellyfish sting. Great stuff. My sausage fingers and club hand were extremely sore and itchy for a couple of days. On top of that, add a couple of mosquito bites into the mix and you have yourself one juicy, raw, red, itchy and sore paw. 

And now for the grand finale. This, my friends, is what science calls 'bio-luminescence'. It occurs when friction is created in the water, and if there are any tiny plankton present, a chemical reaction takes place which makes them glow a green-ish blue colour. I completed my first night dive as part of my PADI Advanced Open Water course, and this is where I experienced this out-of-this-world, yet completely natural phenomenon. During the dive after I finished the skill tests, we turned off our dive lights, so that it was pitch black under the water. We then waved our hands and legs to create friction, and the tiny little plankton gave us a spectacular light show. Imagine floating in dark space, and being surrounded by nothing but fluorescent green/blue shooting stars. This is what it looked like. It was absolutely stunning.

This morning was such a hard day at the beach. NAAAHT. It's been a gorgeous day - real sunburn weather, even though it's rainy season here. But the good news is that I passed my PADI Advanced Open Water course with flying colours. I chose the Night Dive, Peak Performance Buoyancy Dive, Underwater Navigator Dive, Deep Dive and Drift Dive adventure dives, which made up the five modules of the course. I also passed the Nitrox (or Enriched Air) speciality course, so I'm now Nitrox certified, woo hoo. I'm going to be completing my Deep Diver speciality tomorrow, going on three dives using nitrox tanks at Apo Island. An all day boat trip to a tropical island is basically my exam. It's a hard knock life.

Tan Lines & Randy Geckos

So I'm sitting here sweating my ass off in this sweltering humidity and heat. But I'm starting to get a tan so my happy levels are cancelling out my fed up-ness at my sudden becoming of a giant frizz ball afro witch head. The humidity is a real killer here. However, having access to copius amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables makes me happy dance. Everything is extremely healthy here, and what's best? It's ridiculously cheap. Almost criminally cheap. Try like, what, 6p for a kilo of mangos. 

 It's not all play time either. The study is real. It's really weird being a student again. Giant geckos are just as odd. This fat fella surely hasn't gone short of a meal or two. These guys are everywhere at night, and they make this incredibly hilarious noise. I can only describe it as a muscular man burping and squeaking at the same time as holding back a sneeze, or a fart. I guess it's their version of chattering to one another, or perhaps it's a mating call - albeit a very unsexy one.

Finally, a couple of nights ago I went out for dinner with my new Chinese and Malaysian friends in the middle of nowhere here in the Philippines. We ended up in a German bar where we happened to meet a guy from, no kidding; Sheffield. He bought us a bottle of white wine and we all got very very merry.

Apo Island and Filipino Birthday Parties

What a hard life huh? I had an absolutely amazing day trip to Apo Island last Wednesday. I completed three dives altogether. I was lucky enough to spot some rarities such as the Humphead Parrot Fish, and numerous sea turtles. I came face to face with a resting turtle, that was chilling on the bottom amongst the coral. Normally they swim away when you approach them, but this particular dude was just like "Duude, I'm beautiful, so I'm gonna flake out here and let you stare and revel in my awesomeness..." - which I totally did. I hovered for about three minutes in front of him, just staring into his massive turtley eyes, no more than two metres from his gorgeous face. Unfortunately I don't have any underwater photos as of yet, but my lovely new Chinese friends took many photos of the day, including underwater. I just have to wait until they send me them.

After a wonderful day diving at Apo Island, the divemaster Jonathan, and instructor Berlinda, joined me for a dip in the pool back at the resort. By this time we were ready for dinner and bed, but ended up stuffing our faces and over indulging on cocktails during happy hour. It was a very merry end to a very merry day - the best day I've had yet. Hopefully there'll be many more to come.

Finally, I was extremely lucky to be invited to a Filipino village birthday party. Filipinos definitely know how to throw a good birthday bash. I was expecting to take a bottle of something and turn up to a small event. When I arrived, it was huge. Food all set out along the street, cakes, free drinks and people, people everywhere. It was fantastic to mingle with the locals in such a traditional way. I stuffed my face that night. Everyone simply helped themselves to all the food. On top of everything, it was proper restaurant quality and very well prepared. I met so many new friends in one night too. I don't have any photos of this event (my camera battery is now dead, and my charger is in my suitcase... which still hasn't arrived yet, muaha...) However, I do have an amusing video on my iPad of me being serenaded by a singing, ukulele playing dude. I'll upload it once I've figured out how to work the blasted thing.

Updates of the Last Few Days

I've got to say, I'm really enjoying calling this place home. As hot, stick and humid as it is, and my sudden becoming of a sweaty frizz ball, it really is a beautiful place to be living. The beach is directly opposite the resort, so eating breakfast overlooking the sea, and going to sleep hearing the waves crashing  at night is absolute bliss.

Here is the gorgeous view from the bar and restaurant balcony, overlooking the pool, cottages and ocean

 Also, it was here in Dauin that my motorbike virginity was taken. It was only a ten minute ride, but it was pretty sweet. I seemed to be the only one in the city wearing a helmet. It's insane here. Nobody wears a helmet, and everyone drives like four year olds high on some kind of cocktail concoction f LSD and blue smarties.

Aside from motorbike rides, I've made some lovely new friends here too. Because it's a pretty busy dive resort, there are always new guests coming and going, so the influx of new amigos never seems to come to a hault.

 

A couple of nights ago I went with my new friends to an Italian restaurant. It was rather expensive, but totally worth it. After a day of diving non-stop, my body was ready for such epic pizza.

Everyone here at Liquid are taking such good care of me. Here are three of the fabulous bar and restaurant staff. They're all one big happy family and I get to be a part of it. Every day so far has been such a scream with them. Of all the corners of the Earth I've been lucky enough to visit, I genuinely believe that Filipinos are the kindest, happiest, generous and most welcoming of all humans.

My First Week Here

Welcome to the Philippines

Here it begins, with my first glimpse of the Philippines. By this time I'd already travelled from Manchester to Munich, and Munich to Singapore, so exhausted, hot and bothered was sort of an understatement. And I still had another three transfers to go until my final destination - Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. On top of this, I had no suitcase, and still don't have it with me. I almost missed my flight from the UK due to a traffic accident on the M62, which held me up for almost three hours. Thus when I arrived at check in, it was too late for my suitcase to go through. Luckily my awesome parents have sent it via a courier service to me here, but it's certainly taking its damned time. I'm getting slightly fed up of wearing children's knickers that I had to buy at a local sweaty market due to having arrived with literally nothing except my hand luggage. Oh well, c'est la vie!

In Singapore airport there was this gorgeous indoor Japanese style pond, I just had to snap it. It was pretty cool, and the karp seemed to enjoy my left over toast crusts.

 Oh how much life changes in one week. I do believe this is my last photo of myself in western civilisation, baha.

Right now I'm sipping a cup of hot coffee on a bamboo balcony overlooking the pool and beach, waiting for my scrambled egg and rice breakfast before a three dive day trip to Siquijor Island.