Much to my own surprise, I did some more diving today. This time it wasn’t wrecks but reefs instead. Not too bad for a change. Tomorrow I’m leaving on a five day cruise with Tao Philippines. Just had the briefing and it seems to be an interesting group of 14 people on the boat. No updates for the next days, where I go they don’t have reception.

If, from reading this blog, you got the idea that I do little more than diving and eating, then that is not too far from the truth. The occasional hour is spent at a massage or with walking around of course. Other than that it is reading philosophy books and thinking about how simply by chance I ended up being born in a western country and not a dodgy neighborhood in SEA.

Waking up to the sound of Whitney Houston and the smell of frying garlic - could life get any better? My accommodation is located smack in the middle of a Philippino neighborhood. And I mean RIGHT in the middle. When the guy next door farts, I will know about it. Being on vacation and not on a long travel, I could afford to go some place more fancy but this is what I am used to and I also like the intensity of the experience.

Another first! This time it was wreck diving, something I had had on my list for quite a while. As already mentioned, Coron is a great place for this as the surrounding waters feature more than a dozen wrecks, most of them 100+ meter long ships in good condition. Today it took us more than an hour to get to the first dive site. With the sun shining and marvelous scenery around, not really an issue.

It’s been three years, way too long to go without something as amazing as diving. Coron offers some of the best diving in the area, partially due to the fact that half a sunken Japanese fleet provides an abundance of wrecks waiting to be explored. I had checked some of the operators in town and decided to go with Corto Divers, a French run dive shop. Call me racist but when it comes to dive safety I rather trust equipment that is being maintained by westerners.