Brrr it's cold leaving the apartment (7.30am), thank goodness I'm heading to the heat! This time to Batangas in the Philippines, about a 3 hour drive south on Manila.
I decide to try the check-in counters at IFC but on seeing the lines decide no thanks; time to head to the train to Kowloon. Check-in takes no more than 3 minutes, I do love this! For now it's time to work I go.
Lauren and I finally leave work at 2.20pm.....she's not as time, hmm what's the word, crazy as me! This is going to be interesting for me. Patience patience patience is required from me!! We are on the train, breathing out :)
We are through security and immigration within minutes - amazing given so many travel for CNY. Now to the lounge closest to our gate. Woo hoo that's the Qantas one, off we go. The lady at the bar recognizes me on arrival.....whoops! Drinks ordered.
I keep checking the monitors to see if our flight is boarding, no not yet (even though it's passed the time we are supposed to board). In the end I go to the reception to find out what's going on - final call. WTF final call.....Lauren time to run run run.
Thankfully the gate was close to the lounge but with the back door being closed it meant a longer run. Bloody hell.....
On boarding the plane I'm hit by the heat - thinking it's just me because of the run I discover no it's not. Boy this is crazy, turn the a/c on asap please. 4 minutes past our supposed to be departure time the pilot comes on to advise we are delayed due to traffic control because of CNY so we have 30 minutes to wait at the gate before departure. What was the point of running for the flight I ask??!! Got to love traveling by air.
It's a quick flight to Manila, which thankfully goes smoothly after we finally take off. The sun set is amazing, shame I'm not sitting closer to the window as the photo I took doesn't do it justice!!
Exiting the terminal we are greeted with a name sign - nice and easy. Our bags are taken off us and we just follow. Traffic is crazy leaving the airport!! Not exactly surprising given it's basically 8pm on a Friday night. Thankfully it's not too long before we are on the highway and speeding along. Mart informs us it will be a 3-4 hour ride.....let's hope it's closer to 3 hours!!
We pull over at a highway stop to get something to eat - majority of the places are fried food which we opt against. Chicken sandwich collected and off we go.
I lose track of the number of toll booths we go through - never experienced soooo many before in my life!!
At 10.53pm we finally arrive at the resort. On entering the property we head down the hill, I'm thinking this will be good for me to run up....that's until we continue to go down and down and down. Perhaps not!
From our balcony I hear the waves - this really is the life! For now sleep is needed.
Saturday 28 January (Chinese New Year's Day) I manage to sleep in a bit....high five to me! I let Lauren sleep and decided I'd wake her at 9.15, which is 15 minutes prior to breakfast ending. She manages to wake before 9am and announces that breakfast ends at 9am. Right with that we are up, clothes thrown over our pj's we head to breakfast where we sit overlooking the water. Great way to start the day!!
Once we got back down to the road we decided to walk back to the hotel - especially as it's not exactly far; walking on normal road is a pleasant change!
Lunch finishes at 2pm so we head straight there (I'm not remotely interested that from my calves down I'm covered In mud, thankfully the rain clouds have disappeared but the sun is still MIA). It's so lovely just sitting here watching the ocean go by while chatting about our 2017 holidays. Still lots to plan.
Kat, Sean and Jasmine arrive late afternoon. We spend the afternoon and evening sitting chilling out and chatting. Great way to pass any day!
Sunday, 29 January I'm woken by someone outside sweeping....not the nicest way to wake up (especially when it's 6am!!)! Today we are off diving :)
We all meet for breakfast then head down to the dive shop. I'm beyond nervous! Fingers crossed once I'm in the water it will all coming rushing back to me.
It's a James Bond entrance (roll backwards into the water) which I've never done before. The heart rate is racing!! It's actually very cool and easier than I thought.
On surfacing from our first dive I have one word - WOW!!! Sooooo different to diving in HK where the visibility was next to nothing. This was amazing. And the fish we saw. Out of this world! Unfortunately there were lots of little jellyfish in the water, one got me on my middle finger :(
Once we are all onboard we cruise off to a "beach" to wait for out our surface internal time - time for a coffee.
Dive 2 is in a different location, putting on my gear I notice the sea is crystal clear and an amazing colour. So exited! James Bond entrance into the water I go. More WOW's when I exit. This is soooo cool.
Back at the hotel we have a chilled afternoon /evening chatting, eating and drinking.
Monday 30 January I'm woken yet again by someone sweeping....its 6am for goodness sake - why on earth do you need to sweep so early??! It's day 2 of diving :) After breakfast we head down to the dive shop to collect our wetsuits and booties. I'm feeling quite calm today, a pleasant change from yesterday's nerves.
James Bond entrance then within seconds we'll off - bye bye above ground world we'll off to see the underground sea-world. On surfacing I had two works - absolutely amazing!! I felt like I had been in aquarium, had no idea where to look the whole time!! The fish and coral we saw was out of this world.
Back on board we leave the small island and pull into a beach-ish area for a hot drink. While the water is super clear, its jelly fish central. Yeah no thanks, not for us! Sean spoke to Kim (our dive master) and within minutes we are on our way to another dive site.
Dive 2 was at Koala Point; on entering the water it was freezing!! All I kept thinking was how long I'll last here....too cold for my likening, and if I’m like this Kat and Lauren will really be freezing! Once I’m under water my brain focuses on the amazing sea life.
We enjoy lunch back at the hotel in the warmth!
Mid-afternoon Sean and I went for a shore dive. No James Bond entrance here. On entering the water I had issues with my mask, then quickly discovered I'd been given the wrong one. No thanks I need the one I've been using the other dives. Correct mask on then we'll off.
I seemed to run out of air sooo quickly! Sean was awesome and told Kim it's time to head up. I started to worry then thought why bother when I'm with them both, they can be concerned for me :) Sean made it very clear where his second regulator was in case it was needed. Eeks alive! On surfacing I'm on 10 bars left, phew that is cutting it very close.
On return to the hotel I jumped in the cold pool! Nice to have a change from sea water. The view from the infinity pool is amazing, if only I could spend days / months here!!!
Lauren, Kat and Sean went off for a massage.....me and massages aren't the greatest of friends so I decided to do some research for future holidays but the internet was soooo slow I didn't really get very far!
Tuesday 31 January, our last day :( Yet again I'm woken by the sweeper - thankfully today he had a little sleep in as its 6.30am rather than 6am!
It's so nice not rushing at breakfast. Ye ha the sun is out, time to hit the pool. After putting one toe in I realise the water temperature is nothing like the air temperature and seems colder than the sea. Yeah no thanks, I need to warm up first.
I manage to jump in and out (literally) a couple of times before it's time to do the final packing then lunch.
At 2pm we leave the hotel to head back to Manila. The 4 day trip seems has seemed like it's been so much longer which is always lovely.
The journey to Manila is slow and painful; traffic is terrible which isn't helped by the fact that the motorway is closed in certain parts. I'm soooo thankfully we did this journey late at night as it didn't seem anywhere near as bad as this.
We finally arrive at Manila airport 3 and a half hours after leaving the hotel, really not too bad in the grand scheme of things!
Checking in, clearing customs and security all goes smoothly. The lounge is a step, hop and a jump from security and even closer from the gate - no need to be running through the airport like we did on Friday :)
First order of business is drinks ordered, following swiftly by where to for our next holiday! Kat, Sean and Kat arrive a few minutes later - we are all set. Our travel agent (aka Kat) starts to tell us of places to visit, hello google!
As we board the plane I let Lauren go first, hoping she gets an upgrade to premium economy so we can sit together. No not this time. My time to hand over my boarding pass.....Lauren informs me she'll hate me forever if I get an upgrade to business class. I think surely not, especially as I'm not a Cathay miles collector - within seconds my boarding pass peeps, my first thought is surely not, there must be a mistake. Then I hear the magically words - Miss Jordan there has been a seat change to business class. Woo hoo! What a great way to end an awesome trip!! 
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