Delightful Dives

Do you like to go diving and snorkeling? I do! If you haven’t done it yet and want to, there are a few cheap places to get certified. You can go to Koh Tao, Thailand. I believe as well that Roatan, Honduras, is cheaper than most. Once you get certified, the world is, literally your oyster, and your puffer fish and your loggerhead turtle. Below are some of my favorite places to dive, in order of preference.

- Sipidan, Malaysian Borneo - This was the perfect dive site. The water was clear, you could see for miles, the coral was brightly colored and there were huge schools of fish, turtles and sharks. This was a divers paradise.

- Dahab, Egypt, Red Sea - The Red Sea looks like a swimming pool. It is gorgeous. It is also warm. The area here was very clear and there was tons of great coral. The fish were plentiful and I even saw two octopus!

- Padangbai, Bali, Indonesia - We just recently went here, and although we got overcharged by the dive company, the dive was great. Again, you could see for “miles” and there were tons of schools of really colorful fish as well as plentiful coral.

- Cairnes, Australia, Great Barrier Reef - Of course this had to make the list, but surprisingly, it wasn’t my number one. The coral here was not as nice as the above mentioned sites, although there were tons of reef sharks and many fish.

- Koh Tao, Thailand - I learned here and it was a great place to learn, as the water is nice and warm and the seas are not too rough. Also the wildlife is plentiful and the water is usually clear. We did have a few days where the visibility was not as good, but all in all I count this a great place to learn or to dive.

So, now you are ready to go! Strap on your tank and let’s get diving!

Have you been diving before? If so, where? Did you like it?

This is part of the A-Z Blogfest. D is for Delightful. You can find my other “letters” HERE.

City vs. Sea, Earth vs. Water

Cairo leaves a dirty taste in my mouth. Literally. There are cars and people and dust and fumes and smoke and smog and dirt. You can't breathe. You can't see. I have wanted to see the pyramids for ever but the rest of the city is pretty much null in my book. According to our first taxi driver, there are 18 million people in the city; according to the next, there are 25 million. Either way, that is a LOT of people. Most of them are poor; they live in dirt (kind of like adobe) apartment complexes and wash in the Nile (yes, I actually saw this). They look at me like a piece of meat, ripe for the taking. They hiss and leer and make kissy noises. You know they are ripping you off but can't really do much about it. I am all for letting the "journey not the destination" be the fun part, and it is, but sometimes you just groan and say, "enough".

Needless to say, after seeing the Pyramids and the Egyptian Museum, we got out of there fast. We headed to the Red Sea for some diving and relaxing. The Red Sea dive was fantastic. The water is so clear, the coral is multicolored, there are tons of fish, and I even saw an OCTOPUS. Two of them to be exact! That was cool. I have never seen an octopus before.

The last couple days have been very relaxing. We went to Nuweiba, which is a small town where you just relax on the beach and snorkle. We are now in Dahab, which is a bit bigger (Nuweiba didn't even have electricity or Internet or anything, just beach). We have been relaxing, enjoying the area, looking at many camels (they don't charge you to take picture of them here!) diving, swimming and snorkeling. It has been great.

Tomorrow we move on. The next stop is Athens and after that...the world! Egypt has been great but we have so many more journeys and destinations to experience!