I am now sitting in front of the beachside restaurant of Paradise Resort with my laptop and a cup of hot honey ginger lemon tea. The horizon is still visible at this hour as we are approaching full moon on a cloudless night. If I haven’t had a good 2 hour nap earlier, I’d have fallen asleep right here with the cool sea breeze. Just about more than a month ago, I was in this same spot. Not a bad spot to be in really:)

The trip had been rather nice so far. Sure, there were some screw ups here and there, but nothing mood dampening. There’s no internet, so I am forced to enjoy the cool sea breeze out there instead of facebooking in the hotel room. I’m not here with anyone else, so I am forced to talk to other people and found out interesting experiences that they went through. I was bored to tears on my long journeys to the dive sites so I managed to put in some thoughts on my photography. So far, the flip sides have been rather good, at least the way I see them.

On the 3 hour ride to Seraya, I spoke to Steve, an aussie who’s heading for Tulamben for a day dive.He used to be a dive instructor for quite a number of years around the world before moving on to something else. He shared the same enthusiasm as me about diving when we started. At that point, it wasn’t the fishes nor the colorful reefs that got us hooked. It was just the sensation of being weightless, freedom in another dimension. It’s an indescribable feeling to a non-diver. Alot of my diver friends would agree to that feeling. He gave up on expanding the career in the industry when his wife got pregnant. Same old story. The world revolves around the family, the Mafia knows best. I don’t need to remind myself how many times I heard “it’s a life changing experience”.

The dive at Seraya was good. Saw two Harlequin shrimps towards the end of the dive. It seems there are some people that kept moving them around and building “houses” for them. The dive guide would usually consult the locals who will tell them their “last location” (eg. Today it’s at 9m near the rope). According to my diveguide, some dive operators move them so they will have the exclusitivity of their locations. Can’t imagine moving houses every other day. Even moving between hotels is a pain, let alone a house.

2nd dive was at Coral garden at Tulamben. Nice little gem situated between the more famous sites (USS Liberty wreck and Drop Off). Saw a couple of ribbon eels, coral crabs, shrimps, the usual suspects.

Here are some images for the day.

Double #1: The ornamental Harlequin shrimps.

Double #2: Anemone shrimp with baby

Double #3: Nudibranchs

Moray eel living within a huge colony of shrimps.

Blue ribbon eel.

“stargazing”

“one voice”