PADI and island hopping

16 april 2017 - Alona Beach, Filipijnen

Hi All,

I's time for an update! Please note that this blog is being written with a MASSIVE hangover, so it might not be the best one;)

On Sunday we take the boat from Mactan to Bohol, which is about a 2 hour journey, we spot some dolphins on the way, always nice! We arrive in paradise, well not exactly, but it sure feels like it after Mactan. We take a tricycle to our first ever booked hostel, a tricycle is basically a scooter with a man made weirdass side cabin, built for Filipinos, so it becomes quite a long 30 min journey. We arrive at Lennon backpackers place, where we booked two beds in the dorm, after being greeted by the Canadian owner and his Filipino wife, we swiftly get bumped up to the only private room left, winning! The rest of the day we lay at Alona beach, read some, eat some, sleep some. A good day!

We wake up really early on Tuesday for our first small adventure, dolphin spotting and Island hopping, we venture about on hour out onto the open sea, and magically around 20-25 dolphins appear, pretty cool. On to Balicasag supposedly one of the best island to dive/snorkel, and they are absolutely correct! We see massive turtles, purple fish, and a complete underwater world. Next up is Virgin island, basically a strip of sand in the middle of the ocean, 50 meters long and 5 meters wide, inhabited by street vendors and little man made shops, after this we head back. We chill out on the beach some more for lunch and get ready for tomorrow, when we'll begin our PADI Open water course.

Diving...strange, scary, but freaking awesome, enter Karim, our instructor, born in Spain, lived over pretty much the whole world, and now dives in Pangloa, kinda a cool cat. We begin with some mindnumbing theory about how not to die underwater, which sets the mood, Nadine gazes over to me a couple of times, and then utters the words "I never agreed to this, why are we here" LOL. We go to the pool to breath underwater for the first time, what a surreal feeling, but we're definitely liking this! The following day it's time for our first real dive, we suit up and step in the boat, this is actually really intense. We dive to about 9 meters, and head back up. 2nd dive we go to about 12, and realize the underwater world is spectacular. After diving we're knackered and get to bed quite early. Time for the final day of the course and the final 2 dives. At 9:00 we're in the water and we go to 18 meters, do some mandatory stuff on how not too die, and go back up. Karim is pleased, we should be able to pass after the last dive, here we go the last one... all is well in underwater world still. Nadine has a little brain fart, and freaks out whilst taking off the mask for a minute underwater. Karim is okay, but slightly worried. Nadine will do the mask on Monday in a 5th dive, and then get her PADI! As we head back to the dive shop, Karim shakes my hand and says, congrats!! PADI IN DA POCKET. 

Hostel life is cool, we're meeting so many new people everyday, strangely everyday there are some new Dutch people coming...guess we're still taking over the world;) We did a massive BBQ yesterday with around 30 of us, and head in to town, get annihilated on the local rum, and feel like I'm dead this morning. Tomorrow Nadine's PADI, Tuesday chocolate hills, and Wednesday we take the boat to Siquijor.

We've added some new photos in the album, have a look:)

Hope everyone is well!!

Speak soon, Bas and Nadine

2 Reacties

  1. Mireille:
    16 april 2017
    Cool! Ik heb padi ook. Is hele nieuwe wereld!
  2. Brenda:
    17 april 2017
    waoo PADI!! nice guys! it looks so cool!! thanks for sharing!