just one of many parallel worlds?

In Germany i was sure: if I'm going to be in the Philippines, I have to go diving. So I practiced already, remember? The South of Negros with Apo Island and Marine reserves is internationally known among divers.

When I came here, I was overwhelmed already while snorkeling along the shallow reefs in front of and around Tambobo Bay. So I hesitated if it was really worth it to spent such an amount of money.

But after having listened to other people telling fascinated about their dives [for some of them the main reason for coming here was only diving] I made my decision once again: I'm going to dive. Since the Kookoos Nest Dive Resort is just 15min dingi-rowing away, I decided to pass my Open Water Diver there. [if you ever come to Negros, just spent some time at Kookoos Nest, a simple, beautiful place with good food, nice beach, Nikki and Jamie who seem to have a fulfilled life by running their lovely resort...everytime I am there, I feel the strong wish to have my own beach resort here one day!]

The open water dive is a 4-days course where you gain all basic skills for scuba diving, you end up with a final written exam, 8 finished dives, a smile on your face and a certificate which allows you to dive up to a depth of 18m in all diving sites over the world.

Well, in fact this 4-days course took me all in all one month, because I only was able to dive on my days off, then Jamie my instructor had an ear problem, then there was a cyclone passing by......however, I finally finished successfully TODAY

I don't regret this decision, when I compare it to snorkeling, it's really different and definitely more impressiv. You see much more bigger, beautiful, colorful, interesting, strange-looking fish, coral rocks seem to become coral hills, mountains and valleys as you dive deeper. I saw Nemo, a moray, big shells, coral tables, some frog fish and so many others of which I don't even know the names. After "Never hold your breath." the most important rule in scuba diving is "Relax." which I think is a pretty easy one. For 30-60 minutes, you just hear the sound of your own breath and all your bubbles coming out of your regulator, sometimes maybe a strange, far sound from a boat engine somewhere, that's more or less it. You have time to watch everything around you, you are just hovering kind of weightless through the water.....It's like in another world, a completely different one without talking or noises,  without touching or smelling anything, without oxygen. But there is life, everywhere you look. We wouldn't know about the existance if this underwater world if there wasn't somebody inventing something to explore it. There is so much in this world, we maybe don't even know about because nobody invented the right something yet....?

Yes, I like diving :)

A man told me: "To learn how to dive in the Philippines is just stupid."

I asked him why and he answered:

"You will never find such a beautiful place again and be nothing but disappointed afterwards."

I guess he was right.