Wednesday 26 December 2012

London - Christmas

We are spending Christmas this year with Paul's family. This means eating the yummiest food, drinking and endless amount of alcohol and opening presents on the 25th morning instead of 24th evening as we do in Hungary which I find a real torture. Paul had great fun laughing at my frustration. Instead we went to a Midnight Mass that was a first for me in England. We got to bed around 1.30am and I had to wake up at 3.00am to take the stockings to their allocated doors. It was hard, but I managed it!

It was all worth it in the end as we got all the presents we wanted from Santa. Most importantly the waterproof camera case as this means that we can finally take photos of the things we see under water. I can't wait to have our own photos from the dives. Once in Thailand we saw a group of black tip reef sharks circling around the stones we were diving around. It was an amazing sight but it only lives in our memories. I think that was the moment when we decided that we need to take photos under water.
 I got a cool mask from Paul so I don't need to worry about water getting into my mask as it usually happens when you hire one. We also got a waterproof bag that we were eyeing up in Thailand but never got around to get. Last year I got a reef guide book from Paul's mum so that is coming with us, too.

It's Wednesday today. Tomorrow we go back to Clapham to do our final packing then on Friday at 10.50am we take off. Not long now.:-)

Monday 17 December 2012

London - It's all happening!

We finally got all the last minute stuff from our travel agent, including our flight tickets, detailed itinerary and other useful information. We have checked and ok-ed everything and suddenly the whole dream feels a bit more real.

Paul has started to read about food in the Philippines. I've started to write a list of things to take (it's already 2 pages long!) and we both started to think about what clothes we want to take. Paul said he's only gonna take a pair of shorts and 2 T-shirts as on our last diving holiday we spent more time in a wetsuit than in normal clothes. I agree that this is a very sensible approach to 'pack light' however I see things differently. I want to take all my pretty summer clothes, all the lovely dresses and skirts and tops I own but never get to wear in this country. Why, you might ask? Remember, we live in England. So. What was your question again?

We have the travel insurance sorted and we got the recommended jabs. We are ready to go. Only 12 sleeps and we are off!

Tuesday 11 December 2012

London - Getting ready

In a few weeks time we will start our trip of a lifetime!

It was almost a year ago when we started thinking about our honeymoon. The prospect of it excited us more than the wedding itself. It was not easy, however, to choose a destination.

We got the map out and looked at it. Then we realized that we haven't actually decided what we want to do! We toyed with the idea of a Safari in Africa, then the beaches of Zanzibar to do some diving, then we looked at each other and knew. It HAS to be a diving holiday!

This luckily shrunk our choice of destinations as I am only willing to dive in warm tropical water. I know this sounds really bad but spending almost an hour in freezing water is not fun! Not to mention that there are more variety of fish in warm water than in cold. This of course greatly limited our chances to dive previously considering the financial aspects this attracted but hey, this is our honeymoon, we can finally enjoy diving to its fullest. Now. Where shall we go?

I straight away said the Seychelle Islands, as I consider that part of the world pure heaven, above and under water as well. Unfortunately the weather was not good at that time of the year we wanted to go. We looked at South East Asia as our usual diving spot but as we have already been there a few times we wanted something different for our honeymoon. We also looked at the Maldives as a usual honeymoon destination but again, the weather was not very good. Finally we agreed on the Caribbean Islands. There came a question again: which one?

We read and read about all the islands and even started to draw an itinerary but somehow the whole thing was not right. Then Paul suggested to watch some videos about what we can find under water to help to make the decision. This is when we realized that the seas around the Caribbean Islands are empty! This is of course is an exaggeration but it is true that most of the fish have been fished out to put on restaurants' menus. We decided that we needed a new destination.

After going on a dive show at the beginning of the year and looking at and comparing great dive spots around the world we have finally found our place. The Philippines.