Photos: Terry Booth & Charlene Kwan
What
better way to spend a long weekend than by taking a short trip to the
Philippines which includes outstanding food, great diving, drinks a plenty, and
of course a volcano!
Flying
in Friday evening, we were off the plane, through immigration with bags
collected in less than 25 minutes and swiftly met by our driver. A quick drive to Casa Del Booth-Kwan, we
caught up over a drink and turned in early due to a 5am start the following
day.
Early
the next morning, rubbing the sleep out
of our eyes, we pile into the Bongo van as we head off for our 2 hour drive to
the Southern Peninsula dive haven – Anilao.
On
arrival, we gear up and head across the bay to a rocky outcrop where we roll
out of the boat into the crystal, warm water, which reveals a number of
pinnacles that reach just below the surface of the water. We descend to around 24 meters and start to
explore this amazing underwater wonderland!
A
great example of the Philippines’ aquatic conservation policies allowed loads
of lionfish, moray eels, and a peculiar infestation of small neon yellow sea
cucumbers to thrive, giving Charlene a good shot of photographing each one of
them.
The
afternoon muck dive was a great surprise.
I was expecting poor visibility, and little of interest to see. But visibility was still around 8 to 10
meters, and we came across a school of bumpheads, tonnes of soft corals and a
sleeping octopus.
I
decided to sit out the third dive, in favour of beer, so chilling on the banana
lounge was my idea of an afternoon. Some either did a shore dive, where super
large giant clams were the highlight, whilst others took a boat to a site
further afield. By all accounts dive
number three was also spectacular.
After
we cleaned up, packed up and had a few more drinks, we were ready for the
return trip to Manila where local fare was on the menu, washed down with the
coldest beer in Manila.
Sunday
was a not so early start, but found Terry and myself preparing breakfast for
the kids, before jumping into the Bongo van and heading for the day’s
adventure.
Essentially
the goal was to view an island in a crater lake, in a crater, in a crater lake,
in a crater. Follow? No? See picture below.
Anyway
we caught a boat across Taal Lake to climb Taal Volcano. All I can say about
this trek was it was hot! Damn Hot! But the views were spectacular.
After
this extremely sweaty event, it was time to pile back into the van, which would
take us for a 6 star lunch at Antonio’s! Picture Raffles, then turn up the
level of service, the quality of food, whilst simultaneously turning down the
prices. A great 5 hour lunch with lots of laughs thus concluded the great
Manila weekend!
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