June 18- Landing in Sabang and my first crack at diving
So we landed and were surprised to find out that we only had about I minute of walking to reach the cabin we rented. There were actually 3 areas to land on in Puerto Galera and we chose the exact one we needed to- the luck continues. The cabin… the good….right on the beach, 50 ft from the water, fantastic view of everything, 100 yards from pubs and entertainment and a double bed with a fan, but no a/c, which was our choice. Come on, it’s in the low 30’s with 450% humidity so why would you need it! The bad….nothing really… sure, we were on the main strip for the peddlers, the hookers and the wild dogs and cats but everyone was so friendly and welcoming it could be overlooked. Anyway, the saying about Sabang is that there are two main things to do with one being diving and drinking the other. Being as how diving didn’t start until next day we went to a great Pub on water called Eddies and drank beers and wine for a few hours. Went to bed early as diving started first thing in the morning and I was a “little” nervous.
My teacher was John and he’s an Aussie and was fantastic and more than a little patient. I had done the theory part of the course on line and was just here for the practical which “by the book” means diving in a pool until you get the skills mastered and then progressing to the open water (means the ocean for you non diving landlubbers). Well, after 15 minutes chatting with John, looking at the scuba gear and him explaining how you put it on I quickly myself in water over my head in the ocean doing skills- I assume this was because I was catching on so quickly. This included things such as taking a regulator out of your mouth underwater, learning how to empty water out of your mask if you fill it up while underwater, getting water out of the regulator if it fills up, buoyancy breathing (inhale and your lungs swell up and you rise towards surface, exhale and you sink.. do it wrong and you float like a beached whale to the surface or sink quickly to the bottom- both of these I excelled at on the first day). Shortly thereafter I followed John and another Aussie out to a deeper area and soon found myself 30 feet below the surface breathing through something I had only just seen pictures of up to an hour ago. Now I could kid you and say I was totally relaxed but to be blunt I was biting so hard on the mouthpiece I thought I was going to swallow it! I wanted to poke John and say something like “excuse me, but the theory part says I don’t do this until Lesson 4” but I couldn’t catch him so I did something people few people have ever experienced when in my company… I kept quiet (apparently buying me a regulator and sticking it in my mouth 30 ft underwater is the cure). I kept looking at the air level on my gauges constantly and was waiting to die when I realized I was actually surrounded by an unbelievable amount of fish of every shape and size. They were a little curious but very calm just swimming along with me in the middle of them and it was so awesome! The colors of the rocks, plants and coral were fantastic and it was an unbelievable feeling. My focus started to shift away from what I was “hoping to learn” as I realized that I was already doing it, what a freaking buzz! I was so pumped when we finished the dive and was already looking forward to the next one later that day. During the second one we did more skills and went diving at another location and it was even a better experience than the first time. The reality is that swimming around in a pool and doing the drills is one thing but jumping into the ocean, actually diving and using what you learned is so much better and a much quicker way to learn. I won’t say anymore about the diving except to say it was one of, if not the best, experiences I’ve ever had and would encourage everyone to do it…enough said.
Just got to Baguio last night after an hour boat ride, a 2-1/2 hour bus ride and a 6 hour bus ride. My butt was sore but today was great. Kirsten reported on that above.
The weekly recap…. TOKYO- 1) landed in Tokyo, got lost and rode train to “somewhere” before we eventually jumped off and spent 30 minutes trying to get out of the train station and underground mall we found ourselves in, 2) accidentally found a great bar with a seating capacity of 20, this included 18 non-English speaking Japanese and 2 non-Japanese speaking Canadians, managed to order food which included a non meatless pepperoni for Kirsten, beers and- after credit cards didn’t work- we were able to pay w/o working in the kitchen, 3) somehow found the train station again that got us close to our hotel, found a 7-11 that dispensed what I thought was $30 of Japanese Yen- it was actually $300, tracked down a cab and using only our fantastic communication skills (knees on ground and hands in praying position in front of face) found our hotel, gave the driver $100 for the ride (I thought it was $10) but because the Japanese are so honest he stopped me from jumping out and gave me the $92 back that I tipped him, 4) got to hotel, found out father and Daughter had a double bed between them in a room the size of a closet, using only our raw reasoning skills found out after 15 minutes how to turn on the lights (put room card in a well hidden slot in the wall), turned on a/c unit that blew anything but cold air and finally- after 11 hours of flying, a 16 hour time change and 28 hours without sleep crashed for 5 hours of sweaty sleep.
SABANG- the bucket list is shrinking after this few days….1) rode on our first (and 2nd) banka and did not puke- check! 2) shared my room with a gigantic cockroach (will upload picture later) and developed a relationship (he could run on walls but not hang out on curtain over my head when I was awake)…I called him Rocky…check! 3) was stared down and had my first proposal from a lady of the evening…check! 4) had my first proposal from a transgendered person “with a price” that she was open to negotiation on (I blame this on Kirsten as she left our deck to get chicken for the ferrel cats which left me open to this offer) 5) had my first dive and survived!…check…got my open water certification….check!! 6) met and partied with fantastic people from Amsterdam….check! 7) loaded three fruit baskets back on the heads of 70 year old women who sold me fruit..check! 8) drank so much Sam Miguel beer I am now allowed to call it SMB like the locals do…check! and 9) watched some of the most beautiful sunsets any parent could ever ask to experience with his daughter (no tears you mothers)..check!!! Looking forward to this weeks adventures.
