Philippines

So here is the last part of my trip diary for the Philippines. Since I slept well last night I feel like a human being again today. Was a little bit next to myself yesterday so I didn’t write anything. Initially I had booked a city tour for sunday morning but since I was the only one to book it they didn’t do it. Therefore I went to explore the city by myself which was not really a problem since the major ‚tourist‘-sites were close to my hotel anyway and I could walk over. First of all I want to make a general remark: colleaguesRead More →

Guys, I think I am getting paranoid… last night when I just was about to doze off the guy in the room next to me started to sing opera arias. He was whistleing first so I put my ear plugs back in but when he started to sing that was too much again. I went out and shouted that I would like to sleep. In his favour I have to say that he apologized and stopped. This morning I woke up rather early (which is what I always did while being there I just never got up that early) and took a few pics onRead More →

I spent my last day here on Bohol recovering from last night. I’ve never experienced anything like this. Since the manager had told me the party would be over at 11 PM I stayed at the bar till a quarter past 10 and then thought I could stand the noise for another 45 minutes. When I came back to my room (which is one of the closest to the party-area) I found a letter from the Management telling me there would be a party with a live-band from 6 PM to midnight and they would apologize for the loud noise. Well, thanks for telling meRead More →

Since I made that prior entry a couple of things have happened: when going back to my room I ordered a Mai-Tai just to have something NICE for a change. I sat outside my room working on a couple of more overwater-pics to upload since I had been asked for that while the Philipp Morris-guys had some team-games going on. That was not too bad but as soon as this was over, the crazy guys got their little cars back out and it was like a formula 1 race. I was getting more desperate any minute since I had booked a QUIET vacation (at leastRead More →

Well, the weather I have here is not quite good (but it was worse last week in Dumaguete). When we came back from diving we could already see the dark grey clouds from the distance. And in fact it started to rain before we got back to our beach. Once back in my room I heard ’soundcheck, soundcheck‘ and this sounded like another sleepless night for me. These guys from the Philipp Morris-group are driving me crazy. They are soooo loud. I was sitting in my room working on the pics to publish today when three of them started to play with mini-cars. That noiseRead More →

Well, when I left the business center earlier today they told me that the WiFi connection works even after their business hours and it is free… so I worked on some more pics for your. First of all my favourite. That cutie pygmy seahorse… please remember that it is only as big as the nail of your thumb. As I wrote earlier, there are different seastars here. They come in all different brown and white colours… Another lionfish. Before I came to the Philippines I had never seen them move so I thought they would just lie there all the time and wait for theirRead More →

Yeah, I know… no entries for a couple of days. And no pics for now. Maybe tomorrow or on friday if I can connect with my laptop here at the business center. You know, the business center is open only from 8 to 5 which is not the time I am usually free to surf the net. In Dumaguete I did that in the evenings after the days work… 😉 But to let you know… I have arrived save and sound in Tagbilaran on Bohol Island. My transport was not there but on the Philippines they just take care of you and before I knewRead More →

It is not really believable how fast the 5 days here have gone by. I wanted to finish my vacation here with a dive on the pier (which is famous for frogfish) and the mandarin-fish dive. All started well this morning with the sun finally being out again. But then I heard that an international ship had moored at the pier and for the next 3 days diving is not allowed… 🙁 So we went to the same car wreck dive like yesterday again. It was not nearly as exciting thogh as we had two groups before us which probably shooed the seahorses away. AndRead More →

Well, after dinner I made some hammock time since it was rather nice outside. Not raining, the waves hitting on the beach… just peaceful. Didn’t wanna fall asleep with this though so I came in. Dinner was buffet today and we had fun. I didn’t realize it yet but Jay had noticed the philippinian way of talking. It’s like ‚Good morning Miss Andreaaaaaaaaa.‘ When you listen closely this is really how they talk. And I forgot to tell you that today I got hit by a clown-fish. It was during the second dive when I wanted to take pics of shrimp on an anemone. ClownfishRead More →

When I got up this morning I had hoped for my sunrise at the beach but due to no sun showing up this was cancelled again… Fortunately the weather is not as bad a yesterday but still you can’t really do much (except diving) and even for diving it is not so good since the visibility could be much better. I will not complain though since during my 3 dives today I have seen things I had never know they existed. After the two dives this morning I know as well though that I will not go into the water at a sandy beach withoutRead More →

Weather is still not great this morning, but at least better than yesterday. We will go on a deep dive this morning and I have about half an hour left before I have to get ready. Couldn’t reach the blog yesterday which is why I was not able to upload pics. Will start doing it now…. Baby lionfish A ghostpipe fish Killer conch A lizard fish (well, yeah, the eyes of it… 😉 ) Unfortunately it is not very sharp since in the water I didn’t really see which one was the seahorse. It is a pigmy pipe seahorse. Another pipefish (the red thing inRead More →

When I woke up this morning it was still raining with no signs of any change to that. So I was glad I slept in and skipped the first dive. My hand was itching like crazy from where I’ve been stung yesterday by that jellyfish stuff. At my left hand you can see where a long file has touched… At 10:30 I went on the boat with the others (I think 3 americans and 2 russians) and we went to a dive-site along the beach. Since the water is rather rough I didn’t expect a great dive but I was surprised that again we hadRead More →

First let me show you several different species of my favourite fish – the anemone fish: I have no clue what this is but it definitely looked funny… This small fish was hard to see (and hard to photograph as well…) He did hide well. More starfish… More stonefish… That one was really hanging like this… 🙂 And here are a couple of the nudibranches we saw today. They are a fascinating species.. It is funny because when we dove and Wenny (our guide) pointed in this direction I thought he pointed at this black and white thing in the middle of the pic. OnlyRead More →

Well, this morning I had to get up rather early since departure for Apo Island was at 8 AM. Had breakfast with Jay and Jordan (the two americans) and then we went off to Apo Island. This is an about 40 minutes crossing of the open sea which this morning was easy. We did 3 dives on Apo Island, two in the morning and the third in the afternoo. I can just say: this was just GREAT!!!! Although during the morning dives we got stung by parts of jellyfish which were swimming in the water. Didn’t see any jellyfish but the hurting files were stillRead More →

Well, since my head started throbbing again I didn’t make it to the frogfish presentation. 🙁 Went to dinner early since I hadn’t had lunch. It was nice to be close to the waves hitting on the beach (the restaurant of the ressort is at the beach). They do have an interesting menue here. With an italian touch but still interesting. Tonight I had a minestrone soup (vegetable) with one slice of baguette bread which had small slices of parmesan cheese in it. Afterwards I had two pieces of pork on a crepe filled with pumpkin. Interesting combination (and good!). While having dinner I watchedRead More →

Well, the day started bad since last night I had one of my worst nights ever. I couldn’t sleep and I had a headache which was killing me. So this morning I was not really sure if I should go diving or not. When I talked to my divemaster for today it turned out that on the first dive I was alone so we agreed on doing a shallow dive and going up if my head would explode even more under water. But it went okay and although my head still hurt it was not soo bad that we had to go up. First thingRead More →

Well, actually I am more in Dauin which is about 17 km from Dumaguete. Here are a few more things I forgot to tell you earlier today: security at the National Terminal in Manila today was very strict. You are not able to enter the Terminal without ticket and the luggage is screened before you can get in ( ALL of it). Inside they are very strict too in making you pay for excess baggage. I had been told by my travel agency that excess baggage is cheap but I didn’t expect it to be THAT cheap. For 10 kg (24 lbs) excess for myRead More →

Well, got to Dumaguete today. My driver was there on time this morning and at the airport I met Dino again. We had already found out that we would fly at the same time (not to the same destination though). Flight was uneventful but I had a closer look at the Philippine Islands from above. Unfortunately it was cloudy so I caught only glimpses. Now I am at a dive ressort and while I type I am sitting on my baclony with hammock, view to the sea and it is all very peaceful (well, if that english lady down there stops laughing… 😀 ). IfRead More →

Well, learned a thing or two last night: first of all: don’t be surprised if you are in Manila, nobody knows you here but your phone keeps ringing during the night. Might even be the reception desk night to ask whether you were the one who just ordered a taxi to the airport for today (looks like she called all rooms since other ones got woken up as well). Next thing is that when you get told that your pick-up is at 8:30 (that was the call which woke me at 10 PM just to confirm I knew the time) you better be ready oneRead More →

Yeah, I am here! After about 21 hours of travelling I arrived at the Bayview Park Hotel in Manila. Trip was LOOOONNNGGGG… I had to go the first part by train and hated it. Looks like a surprise that there area actually travellers who have suitcases when taking the train… 🙁 Flight from Frankfurt to Bangkok was uneventful and I got some sleep (but not much). In Bangkok I had to wait 3 hours and since I had to cross the new airport anyway for the nxt gate I could look around. It is VERY Thai and memories of my Thailand-trip two years ago cameRead More →