A.O.W
I was welcomed to the Philippines by Wilson, my lovely taxi driver, and his love of 90s pop music. The 3.5 hour drive to Maya was soundtracked by Aqua, the Vengaboys and who ever it was who sang hey macarina! (You can dance that dance to any song FYI). The views were spectacular, the ocean was visible for the majority of the ride and when it wasn't leafy green forest areas were. The car had air-con which was lovely as it's a very humid heat, staying steady at 28 degrees most days and only dropping a few degrees when the sun goes down. Makes for a very sweaty Hemy.
After a short boat ride I arrived to the beautiful island Malapascua, just in time for the interns meeting at 5. I was almost late at I could not get the padlock off my door, luckily one of the crew was with me and after struggling with it for a good 5 minutes I was in! I also got a bit lost on the way back as the island has lots of narrow passageways and I wasn't sure of what turns to make as I'd gotten a lift with my rucksack on the back of a motorbike, everyone is friendly and speaks English so getting directions was easy enough. After the meeting (where we find out what we're doing the following day) I had dinner and headed back to my room to relax and try settle into my new environment... Only I couldn't open my door, the key just would not work, so after returning to the dive shop for help, it was opened using a credit card, luckily I could still lock it from the inside. Following a restless night, being woken by chickens, motorbikes, the heat and the sun rising, my entire door handle/lock system was replaced. Easing my mind, knowing my belonging were secure while I was out.
That afternoon I started my advanced open water course with a buoyancy dive to refresh my skills. It was great being in the water again after 7 years (while being able to breathe). There is a lot of great marine life to see here; pufferfish, lionfish, damselfish, scorpionfish, pipefish, butterflyfish, fusiliers, sea snakes...I could go on and on. After a few other dives (navigation, deep and fun) and days, I went on my first night dive! In short it was a disaster, it was me, the instructor and two other divers doing their A.O.W. We kept bumping into each other, my torch barely worked and then I pretty much surfaced because my weight belt was up at my ribs (should be on my hips) and as I was trying to fix it I lost control of my buoyancy. That dive ended early. The following morning (at 5am) I went on my first shark dive and was lucky enough to see a thresher shark pretty much as soon as we reached the bottom, it's tail was almost the same length of its body, it had huge eyes in a cute wee face. I fell in love (just a wee bit) and now have a new favourite shark (the leopard shark has been bumped to second). We also saw a white tip reef shark just chilling out on the bottom and more threshers circling in the distance, visibility wasn't the best so it was more glimpses of them in the murkiness. This dive happened to be my final one for the A.O.W, yay!
Fun dives ensued, did a double dive at Gato island, the second one involved swimming into a cave (first cave dive) that opens up at the other side, before exiting it we sat and enjoyed the view, at the end of the tunnel there were 4 white tip reef sharks circling, framed by the cave walls and backlit by the blue sea and sunshine filtering through, simply stunning and not a view I'll be forgetting anytime soon. There was a 5th shark that swam past us, it was so close I could of probably touched it if I wanted to (I did but it would of just stressed or annoyed the shark and I know better).
Following all this time in the water, there was a night of celebration as 3 guys finished their dive master training. I got my first shark bite shot (three layers, silver on top for the thresher sharks, blue for the ocean and red for the blood that hopefully is never spilled) for completing the A.O.W. The guys were subjected to the snorkel test, basically demonstrating the correct way to drink certain drinks i.e tequila shots followed by alcohol poured down a snorkel. 4 of us moved the party to Malditos, a restaurant on the beach, where three of us ended up in handcuffs because we were unsuccessful in smashing our shot glasses against the smash wall. It was all fun and games until they couldn't unlock me, took them way longer than it should, the others found it hilarious while I was trying to suppress my panic at the thought of being chained to a beam for an unforseeable amount of time.
The following day was a dry day so I took the opportunity to go with Kim (a fellow dive master trainee) to Maya (mainland) to get my medical completed. The morning was spent riding around on a motorbike, losing feeling in various body parts, feeling too much in others (think I slightly bruised my tailbone) and trying not to think about my imminent death. The medical went smoothly, felt a bit like a giant in the waiting room as the benches were low and most Filipinos are small. This was followed by a long ride to the nearest ATM machine (it wasn't near) followed by returning to the dock in Maya to return to Malapascua.
Then the hard work really began...
After a short boat ride I arrived to the beautiful island Malapascua, just in time for the interns meeting at 5. I was almost late at I could not get the padlock off my door, luckily one of the crew was with me and after struggling with it for a good 5 minutes I was in! I also got a bit lost on the way back as the island has lots of narrow passageways and I wasn't sure of what turns to make as I'd gotten a lift with my rucksack on the back of a motorbike, everyone is friendly and speaks English so getting directions was easy enough. After the meeting (where we find out what we're doing the following day) I had dinner and headed back to my room to relax and try settle into my new environment... Only I couldn't open my door, the key just would not work, so after returning to the dive shop for help, it was opened using a credit card, luckily I could still lock it from the inside. Following a restless night, being woken by chickens, motorbikes, the heat and the sun rising, my entire door handle/lock system was replaced. Easing my mind, knowing my belonging were secure while I was out.
That afternoon I started my advanced open water course with a buoyancy dive to refresh my skills. It was great being in the water again after 7 years (while being able to breathe). There is a lot of great marine life to see here; pufferfish, lionfish, damselfish, scorpionfish, pipefish, butterflyfish, fusiliers, sea snakes...I could go on and on. After a few other dives (navigation, deep and fun) and days, I went on my first night dive! In short it was a disaster, it was me, the instructor and two other divers doing their A.O.W. We kept bumping into each other, my torch barely worked and then I pretty much surfaced because my weight belt was up at my ribs (should be on my hips) and as I was trying to fix it I lost control of my buoyancy. That dive ended early. The following morning (at 5am) I went on my first shark dive and was lucky enough to see a thresher shark pretty much as soon as we reached the bottom, it's tail was almost the same length of its body, it had huge eyes in a cute wee face. I fell in love (just a wee bit) and now have a new favourite shark (the leopard shark has been bumped to second). We also saw a white tip reef shark just chilling out on the bottom and more threshers circling in the distance, visibility wasn't the best so it was more glimpses of them in the murkiness. This dive happened to be my final one for the A.O.W, yay!
Fun dives ensued, did a double dive at Gato island, the second one involved swimming into a cave (first cave dive) that opens up at the other side, before exiting it we sat and enjoyed the view, at the end of the tunnel there were 4 white tip reef sharks circling, framed by the cave walls and backlit by the blue sea and sunshine filtering through, simply stunning and not a view I'll be forgetting anytime soon. There was a 5th shark that swam past us, it was so close I could of probably touched it if I wanted to (I did but it would of just stressed or annoyed the shark and I know better).
Following all this time in the water, there was a night of celebration as 3 guys finished their dive master training. I got my first shark bite shot (three layers, silver on top for the thresher sharks, blue for the ocean and red for the blood that hopefully is never spilled) for completing the A.O.W. The guys were subjected to the snorkel test, basically demonstrating the correct way to drink certain drinks i.e tequila shots followed by alcohol poured down a snorkel. 4 of us moved the party to Malditos, a restaurant on the beach, where three of us ended up in handcuffs because we were unsuccessful in smashing our shot glasses against the smash wall. It was all fun and games until they couldn't unlock me, took them way longer than it should, the others found it hilarious while I was trying to suppress my panic at the thought of being chained to a beam for an unforseeable amount of time.
The following day was a dry day so I took the opportunity to go with Kim (a fellow dive master trainee) to Maya (mainland) to get my medical completed. The morning was spent riding around on a motorbike, losing feeling in various body parts, feeling too much in others (think I slightly bruised my tailbone) and trying not to think about my imminent death. The medical went smoothly, felt a bit like a giant in the waiting room as the benches were low and most Filipinos are small. This was followed by a long ride to the nearest ATM machine (it wasn't near) followed by returning to the dock in Maya to return to Malapascua.
Then the hard work really began...
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