The day (Thursday 15 February) has finally arrived - CNY Eve - I’ve been hanging out for this for ages. Yes I know I’ve just come back from a trip but this is going to be an actual holiday.......and in the warmth.
I go to Kowloon airport express check-in before work. The agent mumbled something about premiere economy being full. Ooh no please don’t downgrade me, that’s occurred once recently. What followed very quickly was something about business class and having a single seat by the window. It all happened so quickly when she gave me my boarding pass I said “Ooh you are making me fly business class”. Yes was the reply. “Ooh that’s excellent, thanks very much”. What a great way to start a trip.
I called Kat (who I’m flying with) to inform her of the great news for me; a few minutes later she calls me to advise her and Sean have been upgraded and we’re all sitting on the same row. Woo hoo!!!
Just after 1pm I decide enough is enough, time to leave the office. I have a couple of minutes waiting for the train then we are off.
The lines at security at on my side, I think it’s the fastest trip ever. Now to find the lounge where Kat and Sean are.
We have a good hour and a half at the lounge before heading to the gate. We all over estimated the walk from the lounge to the gate and within minutes are at the gate.
The flight isn’t boarding yet so we join the line for when it does. So lovely traveling with other people.
Getting on the plane we are like 5 year olds in a sweet shop - it’s like we have never travelled business class before. 
We depart HK 25 minutes late. Cebu here we come! Kat and I make good use of business class, to be honest I’m not sure why you wouldn’t.
We land 15 minutes late into Cebu. Can’t wait for the heat.
There is a long line at immigration; we walk around it to the diplomatic line and are straight through with the APEC card.
While Kat and Sean wait for their bags I head through to find an ATM. I decide to wait for them before exiting into the big wide world of Cebu airport.
On exiting I spy our name card; now to find Lauren.
7.40pm we depart Cebu airport - pretty good considering we landed 30 minutes ago.
Traffic is bumper to bumper after we leave the airport grounds. I’m praying it won’t be like this the whole way! Our driver joins the other drivers with tooting for absolutely everything.
I’m amazed at the number of people and animals (mainly dogs) that are on the road / side of the road for the majority of our journey. Definitely dicey.
We finally pull into the port at 10.56pm, the hotel was right with the estimated 3-3.5 hour drive. Now to get on a boat across to Malapascua Island. The boat staff carry our bags. It’s beyond dark which makes walking into the beach fun. Added to the mix is the waves are crashing onto the shore, the sea is far from calm; I lose a jandel as I’m stepping onto the boat. Thankfully Sean is behind me so picks it up.
Once we finally leave the port it’s smooth sailing, well that’s until Sean sees a boat in front of us. Eeks alive! Now I’m sure it seems further away that what we think but its big and moving fast. It seems like we have no lights on so perhaps we need to slow down a bit?!! The captain seems to not have a concern in the world so I’ll go back to star gazing. The stars are surrounding us and are super bright - helping guide our way.
It’s a quick trip across in calm waters.
On arrival the staff carry our bags to the hotel. There are still lots of people out - a lot sitting in what looks like bean bags on the beach. Aah we have arrived.
There is no formal check-in given the time; someone carry’s our bags to the room. The stairs up are crazy tall (even for a tall person)!!
I finally get into bed just after midnight - definitely been a journey to get here. Sleep is needed.
New Year’s Day, the year of the dog, (Friday 16 February) I wake at 6.37am - far too early! It’s been an interesting (short!) night. Lauren and I have our first dive at 10am so no need to be rushing out the door.
Kat and Sean have clearly been up for a while as she comes to our room to advise we have paperwork to do. Lauren and I look at each other, not excited about this part!
We met Romana, who will be Lauren and my dive instructor for our advanced course, then join Kat and Sean for breakfast on the beach.
Time for reading reading reading! We completed 3 of the 5 courses. This is definitely not how I expected to start our holiday.
Finally it’s time for the four of us to go on a dive. Woo hoo!
The sea was roughish when we went to get on the boat, interesting time getting onto the boat. After dropping off other groups it’s our turn.
Thankfully the first dive was an easy transition after not diving for a few months. Loved diving with my new dive watch. We saw clown fish; sea horse; pufferfish; razor fish; school of fish among other things.
On return to the hotel Lauren and I spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach reading the last chapters. Finally it’s all done!!
For our second dive we had elected to do a night dive. Thankfully we go to the boat when it’s still light. Cruising out to the dive site we watch day turn into night. WOW the sun set is amazing. Neither of us brought our phones – in some ways good as it means we really do just focus on the beautiful setting we are in.
As soon as the boat starts to slow down my freaking out increases! Bloody hell what I am doing??!! Lauren wasn’t that keen on doing this dive in the first place so I try to keep my freaking out to myself.
On getting into the water I couldn’t my torch. Shit! Torch located I’m good to go! I had issues with my left ear yet again so took a while going down. Finally popped. Once down it actually wasn’t as bad as I had expected.
We saw a few different crabs, one about the length of an A4 piece of paper while others could fit in the palm of your hand size; big squid; cow fish; cat fish; govy; 2 x sea slug; star fish among others.
Cruising back to Malapascua Island the stars are out in force. WOW.
Kat and Sean are sitting at the same table we left them – dinner ordered then it will be shower and bed.
I hope into bed at 9.40pm, alarm is set for 4.20am.......bloody hell!! Lauren and I have to have a briefing at 4.30am then it’s onto the boat with 10 others to go and see the thrasher sharks. The main reason for coming to Malapascua Island.
Saturday 17 February I wake before my alarm. Man it’s early!!! Romana was waiting for us as I walked down the super step stairs at 4.30am. Seanie is sorting his gear out which seems to calm me a bit. Kat and Sean are diving with another group for this group which I feel pleased about given this will be Laur and my first ever deep dive and add the sharks to the mix….. We are all on the same boat though.
When we finally get going we jump onto a little boat before transferring onto one of the dive boats. We are fortunate to see night turn into day. Man alive we are definitely not the only boat going out to see the sharks.
Laur and I the last ones to get into the water. Ears a bit off but got them sorted. Sharks here we come!
Romana puts us behind a rope to wait for the thresher sharks – it’s like waiting for a parade to come by. Everyone was far too close for my likening. I felt like the person next to me was going to pull out my regulator. Romana had us look at each other’s depth and write down. Even though we were all at the same place our depths varied slightly. We also had to look at the colours on the colour chart which changed being so deep. The one that stood out the most was the red was no longer red. Waiting waiting waiting but no sharks so off we went.
As we headed off to the boat there were people everywhere! Definitely not my idea of fun diving. So many weren’t paying attention on where they were going.
No sharks for us but we completed our deep dive - woo Hoo. We are over 50% complete for our course.
On arrival at the hotel we enjoyed a relaxing breakfast on the beach. Laur and I have a couple of hours before our next dive.
Dive 4 is peak performance buoyancy. Romana gave us a briefing and explained what we were going to be doing. Knocking down a weight with your regulator; swimming through a hula hoop and a fin pivot. Hmmm this will be interesting! We were delayed leaving due to tanks being filled up. Unfortunately while we were waiting the rain started :(
Finally time to leave, it's cold and wet.
I struggled with the fin pivot, this is when you have the tips of your fins on the (sandy) bottom and need to pivot up and down with your breathing.
Next was knocking down a weight with our regulator - sounds easy but let me assure you it’s not. Well part of it was but then getting “up” after knocking it proved difficult.
The last exercise was swimming through a hula hoop - when Romana told us about this I was worried. Managed to nail it first time; soooo please. Drills all done so we just mucked around skimming through the hula hoop different ways.
We head back to the hotel for lunch. While Laur is napping I chill in the sun which has decided to return.
5th and final advanced open water dive is navigation. I’m not the best on land so this will be interesting. Although I did better than expected at the open water course. Romana has us practice on land first which was great!
When we finally get down I’m the first to go. The visibility isn’t the best which I’m hoping it will actually help with the navigation. First up was a square, I mucked up the first leg so aborted that and started again. Thankfully that was much better. Next up was the triangle which worked as well.
WOO HOO we have completed the advanced open water course. Super stoked!!
After washing all our gear it’s time to shower. My hair is screaming out for a good clean!!
We had dinner on the beach listening to a live band. I managed to last to 9pm before dragging myself up to the stairs to bed. It’s been a full on last couple of days.
Sunday 18 February I woke just before 7am but did stay put. It’s so lovely not having to rush. Laur and I went for a walk - me shorter than her as it was too hot and I was in leggings.
We have a relaxing breakfast on the beach again then get ready for our day trip (diving) to Gato Island.
It’s about a 45 minute journey out to Gato Island – lovely to just sit back and watch the world go by.
The 4 of us are diving again, although with Thomas our dive master for the day. We do one dive before lunch; it was definitely crowded!! We saw a couple of white top sharks sleeping under a ledge. They can stay there!!!
After lunch we went for our second dive. Laur decided not to join us. First thing on entering the cave we saw a white tip shark circling - eeks alive!! I was sooo close to doing my “get me out of here right now” action but knew I would be ignored. The shark did a few circles then was off. We then proceeded into the cave. Dark at times so had to use the torch. My confidence has definitely increased – diving with sharks in a dark cave. Never would have thought this would have happened.
We arrive back to the island around 4.30pm. As lunch hadn’t been that great snacks were ordered and we watched sunset on the beach. We did talk about going elsewhere for dinner but ended up staying here before heading to the room to shower then bed. 
Finally getting all the knots out of my hair I’m ready for bed and it’s only 9pm. Super early for a holiday night but required when the alarm is going at 4.20am - we are off to see the thresher sharks again, this time hoping we see some.
Monday 19 February my alarm woke me at 4.20am. Crazy since I was awake at 3.51am. I really really wanted to go back to sleep but today is the last opportunity on this trip to see the Thresher sharks.
Thomas was diving with the 4 of us again as our dive master. After having our dive briefing we wait for what seems like forever before it’s our turn to go out on the boat. Frustrating but we are on island time!
Like the other morning there are so many other boats cruising in the same direction as us. We watch night turn into day.
I had worked out a new symbol if I needed to be going up immediately – this is really just if I see sharks….
Thomas decided we’ll dive along with rock ledge until we get to the place the sharks usually come to then go down – this way we save on air and our bottom time. I had problems with my ear which was annoying!!
No sharks around 
On arrival back at the hotel Laur, Kat and I had the day chilling out. It was sunny in the morning – I went between the beach and under the shade. This is the life! 
The rain started slowly about the same time we started to chat about food. We decide to branch out to the restaurant next door for a change of scenario.
The afternoon is spent much the same as the morning except the rain was heavy at times so there was more movement between the outside dives, bar area and the dive tables.
When Sean and Thomas return we hang out with them and some of the other dive masters / instructors.
At 6.30pm the heavens absolutely open!! We had booked an Italian restaurant for dinner tonight and with no umbrellas we wait for a break in the rain before heading off. The light on my phone manages to keep me out of the big puddles!
Dinner was delicious! A lovely end to an amazing few days. The heavens opened as we were going to leave so sat for longer. At the next break in the weather we high tailed it out of here.
Tuesday 20 February I woke at 4.40am and seriously considered getting up and going to see if I could have with the sharks again. It would have meant I wouldn’t be able to fly home tonight.....something I have no issue with at all!!
I did manage to go back to sleep for a couple of hours thank goodness.
I was down at the beach at 8am. Great way to start the sun! I’m in no rush over the last breakfast. Man it’s very hot just sitting here!
We spend the morning on the beach just hanging out before going to the room to pack up and check out. I’m totally not ready to return to normal life. Thank goodness it’s a short week.
We enjoy the last meal (lunch) on the boat before saying our goodbyes and taking the boat back to Cebu Island.
On arrival we are pounced on by locals trying to make some money by taking our bags. Whatever.
The ride to Cebu airport is long and at times slow. Unfortunately I start to feel unwell – after switching seats with Laur it kind of helps. As we get closer to the airport we come to a standstill. Now I understand why people always say give yourselves more time than you need.
By the time we get to the airport my head is pounding
I try to take Laur through the APEC line but that doesn’t work, so she joins a very slow immigration line.
We have some time in the lounge before going off to board. Keith (Cathay staff) came in and asked for my boarding pass. I was thinking for what? He swaps my boarding pass with a business class seat on. Woo Hoo business class upgrade! Lovely end to a great holiday. Now to plan our next dive trip.
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