Next we headed to Manta Point. They spotted mantas from the boat, so we hopped in. It was very cool. We weren't in very deep water, so we could have brought the camera, but we didn't know that before going in. Oh well. We saw around 6 manta rays. Two were almost completely black. It turned out to be a great last dive.
The rest of the day was mostly spent relaxing. We had yummy pizza at a restaurant near our place. It was cracker thin crust. They even had popcorn as an appetizer. :D Right before our pizza came out the power went out. We got to eat in the dark, well, to candle light. Very fun.
Today we head to Kuta, which is near the airport so we can fly to Bangkok tomorrow.
-Miranda
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We decided to head to the Gili Islands to check them out. Sandra had heard a lot of good things about them. There are three. The 'main' one is Gili Trawangan. We took the boat over in the afternoon and found a place to stay at Bubble Dive. There are no cars or motor vehicles here. Transport is by walking, bicycle or covered pony carts. While here, Joe and I decided to get our Advanced Water certification. It just consists of doing 5 dives, so pretty easy.
The day after we arrived, Joe and I did our first deep dive down to 30 meters. It was also a drift dive, meaning the dive is in a strong current. It was pretty nuts. I was busy watching Joe since he takes a bit longer to get down (especially on his first dive), then I looked at the bottom and realize I was zipping along! I had to watch where I was going or possibly run into some coral.
The first dive went well. To complete it in two days, we decided to do a night dive. A few of the things you are supposed to avoid during a night dive is strong currents, high surge and surf and diving in an area that has things you can get entangled in. This area had both strong current (not as strong as the afternoon dive, but still a significant current) and we were dodging boat anchor lines... It was super creepy. I would be watching for Joe to come down, then look over and see a rope coming at me that I had to dodge. Once we were down, it wasn't too bad. There were also cages that were built down there that have a current running through them in order to help the coral grow faster. We had to dodge those as well, but the really neat fish were under those. We even saw an octopus! We watched it hunting. I think we both could enjoy night dives, but that one was pretty freaky.
The next morning we dove off the shore. On our way back in, the jellyfish were everywhere. They just feel like pinpricks. They're not dangerous, just annoying. The next dive was at Shark Point. We went down to 30m, saw some turtles and 4 White Tipped Reef Sharks. The last dive was a pretty easy one. We were pretty tired after two days of diving.
Sandra met up with a friend of hers from Switzerland while we were diving. She had enjoyed being able to take a break from speaking English all the time. She and her friend even rented bikes and went around the island. One cute thing is they have a turtle sanctuary. It's basically three large tanks with a bunch of baby turtles in them. They keep the turtles for a year, allowing them to get bigger, before releasing them to help up their chances of survival.
Saturday we went on a snorkel trip around the three Gili Islands. It was neat and fun, though the small boat was a bit crowded. We felt a bit naked in the water after doing all that diving.
The internet hasn't been great, hence the lack of updates. Hopefully it will get better later.
-Miranda
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One of the goals, since Joe found out he could SCUBA dive, was for me to get certified. Bali is apparently an amazing place for diving, so we researched dive centers here and chose one.
The class consists of 5 chapters or theory from a book (4 quizzes and 1 final exam), confined water skills (typically done in a pool) and 4 open water dives. This normally takes 4 days, but some often do it in 3. The guy that I ended up doing the course with, needed to complete it in 2 days. He only had the weekend. So, the first day we did all five chapters spread throughout the day, the 4 quizzes (really short and easy), the confined water dive skills for chapter one and our first open water dive.
For the second day, we went out and did the rest of our confined water dive skills, then headed out for our second open water dive, which was at a small boat wreck. We saw a Frog Fish! So crazy! I highly recommend looking these things up. They are nuts. I never would have spotted it if my instructor, Darta, hadn't pointed it out. We also saw a decent sized cuddle fish, some lion fish, a scorpion fish and quite a few blue spotted rays. Very neat area. After lunch, we went out on the boat and did two more dives. They were also very fun and interesting. Once we got back, we took the final. I got only one wrong. :D So, I am now certified! Woohoo!
Today, Sandra, Joe and I went for a dive trip to Tulamben (http://www.aquamarinediving.com/sites_tulamben.html). It was very cool. It's an old WWII wreck. There were fish everywhere. A huge school was right by the wreck when we were approaching it. There were also some large tuna not far off. We did one dive around the wreck before coming up for lunch. After about 50 minutes, we went back in and this time went inside some areas. We saw Humphead Parrotfish, which was really big.
The diving has been amazing. So much fun stuff to see.
-Miranda
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Sandra wanted to go scuba diving, but would have to rent a boat and guide herself, so I decided to give scuba diving one more try (I had many problems clearing my ears, and losing vision while surfacing.. so was scared).
After about 5 minutes I managed to get my ears to properly clear, not by forcing it, but by just waiting for it to "happen". It was great. We went on 3 separate dives, one down to 55ft and saw some great coral, lionfish!! and some crazy fast swimming sea star. So now we will have to get Miranda certified in Malaysia in a week or so, so we can dive together in future. woo hoo! Thanks Sandra!!
-Joe
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After the whale shark adventure we decided to make our way to Legaspi (also spelled Legazpi) in a jeepney (a common way to get around here, though our butts hurt a lot after the hour plus ride) and stay there the night before heading farther north. The place we stayed was relatively cheap, but for a reason... Joe killed a cockroach running across the floor and there were ants everywhere... Oh well.
The next day we figured out how to get to Batanges, a place Sandra researched and found out there was some good diving there. We caught a 6:45pm bus. We had to get off in one town at around 4am, then catch a different bus. By this time, I was feeling terrible. My stomach was cramping and I had a headache. We caught the next bus and were only on it for about 45 minutes before people mentioned in was Batanges City, so we got off. Unfortunately, there was really nothing around. There was really nothing around, so we hopped into a jeepney and got down the road a bit farther. We jumped out again then tried to find our way to Anilao, which is more technically where the places we wanted to stay were. We found another jeepney that took us to another small town where we hopped out. By this time it was raining (which it had been on and off for the last couple days) but we found an open internet cafe (it was 8am by this point). Eventually we decided to splurge and stay at a dive resort. A bit pricier than normal for us, but after the cockroaches and mice of the last few places, plus the overnight buses, we decided we deserved it.
So, we took a tricycle (motorcycle with a sidecar) to the resort where we had to walk down an incredibly steep and relatively long driveway. Our room is very nice. The food is buffet style, so we do have a few options, fortunately. Before dinner Joe and Sandra had gone out snorkeling and said it was awesome. I didn't go though because by this time I was feeling pretty awful. I couldn't eat much, my stomach felt awful and my head hurt. I napped most of the day. It poured all evening and all night. The wind started to kick up in the evening also. For dinner they had sheets up to block the rain from coming in and right after we left, one of the sections blew off. The people there mentioned that a typhoon was coming in. We ended up just going back to the room and sleeping.
This morning I felt much better. So, it appears the lack of sleep and the super bumpy bus were the culprits and not some bug. Yay! Joe's got a bit of a sniffly nose now though. :p Hopefully that passes soon. He was hoping to try diving again with Sandra. She was willing to help him with clearing his ears, etc. They could do a dive right off the shore. While snorkeling he's been working on trying to clear his ears and was having some success. Unfortunately, now that he's stuffy, he's really having problems with it.
The snorkeling today was fun. We went out twice and saw lots of neat fish and the coral here is very different. All the photos posted below were taken by Sandra. We also compiled video clips that both of us took. We're planning on staying here another two nights.
-Miranda
Snorkeling in the Philippines (click for video)
The jeepney from Donsol to almost Legaspi.
Our room at the resort.
Neat coral or something.
Christmas trees. They disappear when you swish water over them (see video).
More fun feathery stuff.
Possibly a Crown of Thorns. I believe it's a type of sea star.
Star fish!
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