Manila

We added AirAsia to the list of customer friendly airlines we use. As usual they leave at ungodly times and use airports that are not in the same post code as the destination. Ah well, we have time.... Felt very proud as well – managed to dodge payment for extra weight. Guys are still not on the RyanAir level – we just took extra weight on board. We are the pros after touring Europe with RyanAir after all.

And then Manila. Again – fourth time in eight years. You would think we like the city. DEFINITELY not the case. But diving on Philippines is just amazing. And Manila is a port of entry. This time visit is a bit different. We are staying with friends we met on our last dive trip in Philippines. They kindly offered us to stay at their place and we snatched at the offer – real flat with kitchen and satellite TV. Yes, baby!

They also took us to their usual diving spot 3 hrs outside of Manila – Anilao. And Philippines did it again. Clear waters, abundance of sea life. Just amazing. Only thing water is not that worm as in Thailand – it even dropped to 26 deg Celsius on one dive site! Officially, we have become wimps. It is going to be an interesting sailing season back in Ireland next year...

We also did a tour of Manila that our friends organized. Really, really good. The guide was hilarious!

Next stop, Cebu. And some awesome diving!

More pictures here.

Kuala Lumpur (again)

Back in KL. This time with the purpose. Well, several... To get visa for Philippines, see all the latest movies and gorge on western food and sushi while we can... Did it all. Got visa on Thursday afternoon (flight was Friday morning) – plenty of time. Saw 4 movies (more that in the last year in Ireland). Had enough good food to last us through Philippine cuisine (yum!). And did a bit of sightseeing as well. So we are proper tourists after all.

We stayed in China Town. Only place with cheap hotels this time. We were in the middle of bustle and hustle. It was, well... interesting. Best thing was a direct metro line to Suria shopping center and cinemas. Guess what, Christmas has also arrived to Muslim dominant Malaysia - at least in shopping centres!

Time just flew buy... Next stop, Philippines.

Langkawi

And we are back in Malaysia. This time in style – on a speed-boat from Ko Lipe to Langkawi. After 3 months travel we completely lost track of the fact which day of the week it is. So we landed on Langkawi on Saturday. And Malaysia not being your regular 3rd world country everything was packed with DOMESTIC tourists. Not something we counted on at all. After 3 hour zigzag through the town we finally landed a hotel room. Last one. And boy we upgraded. I’m not talking only concrete building here, but proper sheets (yes, baby!) and - yes, believe it or not – tiled bathroom, with warm water. And not only that, we had the best sea view from our balcony. Add fridge in the room and fact Langkawi is a duty free zone and you can guess how we spend all those warm nights...

As for the island, not the best place for water sports – no diving or snorkeling and swimming turned out to be this game of how to avoid jelly fish. In 5cm visibility. Not to add the sea lice (for ones who are not acquainted with these delightful creatures they are like mini jelly fish you can’t see but can definitely feel). Almost like an adrenalin sport... Beaches are nice, but we are not really beach people (saying that we managed to stay on the beach for two and a half hours one day; must be a record). So we did the other stuff, and there is lots of it on Langkawi. Island is big, so there is plenty to see on a rented scooter. Inland is still very traditional and Malaysian, really nice. Not to mention a cable car to one of the highest peaks, really good aquarium (spent almost a full day there) and go-kart. Yes, we tried it all...

More pictures here.

Ko Lipe

With only days left on our Thai visa (you always need that extra week somehow...) it was time to head south towards Malaysia. We found Ko Lipe while browsing the guide book and looked perfect: in a deep south-west of Thailand, only 45min boat ride away from Malaysia.

They call it "Maldives of Thailand" - no surprise with regards to island's "walk around in 30min" size, beautiful white sandy beaches and pristine coral reefs around it.

As always we just couldn't resist doing some diving here. This time we where well rewarded. 8 mile reef (unique name for this reef that is about 8 miles away from island) was a fantastic dive - devil rays (mobilas), sharks, huge school of jacks.

Lipe is not a place for extra luxury hotels - yet! On our part, think that we redefined the basic accommodation here (check out the pictures). Slept with one eye open as the island is packed with insects, frogs, snakes and scorpions - and yeah we had some in the room (not snakes thankfully or Nives would be back in Europe by now). Hot water is always the luxury, but bathroom sinks started to be one as well.

We felt sad leaving Thailand, but prospect of some good naan bread and duty free booze in Malaysia's Langkawi island kept our spirits high when we left on our last visa day.

Some more pictures here.

Similan islands liveaboard

We joined Khao Lak scuba adventure with some friends we met at Ko Tao expecting 4 days of usual: dive / eat / sleep liveaboard action. What we didn't expect was to meet (unplanned) six Slovenians from Maribor and even same scuba club we used to go to. These guys have been here before and just after couple of dives it was easy to see why.

Feeding turtles, chasing sharks and finding exotic fish became the daily routine. We had a dive guide for ourselves and enjoyed it a lot. The chef was also cooking lots of western food - still have an extra pound (or two) to testify that we missed food from back home big time.

4 days passed like 4 hours and we are on the road again...

Some more pictures here.

Bond, James Bond

Bond, James Bond. Well, we didn't have any caviar or bollinger champagne, hell the person on the picture is also not the Bond, but we did visit the island where they filmed one of 007 movies (island's Thai name sadly eludes us).

After many days just relaxing and diving on Lanta it was time to head north toward Phuket and Similan islands. On the way we stopped for a day trip to visit some of Thailand's postcard scenery. We took a day trip to Ao Phang-Nga national park - hundreds of little islands. We visited one where James Bond movie was filmed as well (a bit to touristy, but...). For extra measure we also traveled through some mangrove swamps on a longtail boat, did some kayaking and some cave explorations (and almost got lost in the process).


To round up this day of action we decided to stay overnight in Muslim Village built on stilts on the remote island. Very idyllic indeed. Being Muslim village there was of course no beer anywhere (even not allowed) and we settled for a dry night. But then we joined our neighbours next door for dinner. They where here before and came prepared. Out of the depths of the bags they produced a bottle of Thai whiskey (well, it was an emergency!), so we joined them in crime and had a few. We all felt like kids again, hiding the bottle under the table. All in all, a lovely way to spend a day...


Some more pictures here.


Now its time for some serious diving in Similans and we can' wait!!!