Malapascua Day 1 & 2
It was an early start to our journey. Tim, our realtor, good friend, and dive
travel companion was nice enough to pick us up at the house at around 3:30 a.m.
and transport us to the airport.
It is nice getting to the airport that early in the morning,
there are very few people around then.
We had a nice quiet flight to LA.
The plane was far from being full.
We had about a five-hour layover in LA, which was nice
because we didn’t have to rush to get to our flight, especially since we had to
change terminals and go back through security again. The Bradley terminal at LAX is quite a nice
terminal now. They have obviously done a
lot of updating and modernizing. We hung
out in the Star Alliance Lounge until it
was time to board our flight to Seoul.
Our trip to Seoul was aboard Asiana Airlines A-380 (upper
level) in business class. We sat down in
our seats and shortly thereafter a lady with about a 1-year-old sat down next
to Eric. However, there were enough
empty seats that Eric was able to move to a seat on the opposite side of the
plane just behind me. By the time we
took off, there was an empty seat in every direction surrounding the lady with the
kid—having a young child on a plane is like having the plague, especially when
you are stuck there for 13 hours…
After we took off, the meal service started in. We settled in for our time-consuming
six-course meal. We placed our order
ahead of time for the vegetarian meal options.
When we first got started, Eric was wondering if we had made the right
decision or not. The salad consisted of
sliced up vegetables (yellow squash, zucchini, mushrooms) with dressing. By the time we got to the main course,
risotto with grilled vegetables, he was happy with the decision. Everything was delicious—much better than all
the beef and seafood choices on the regular menu.
It was actually quite a bumpy trip from LA to Seoul. Much of the trip was made with the seatbelt
sign on due to turbulence. Unlike on the
US carriers, the stewardesses continue food service, though. As we were eating our meal, our water and
other beverages were sloshing about in the glass.
We got lucky and the little kid sitting across from us was
actually quite good for most of the flight.
He started fussing a bit when we started our descent into Seoul, but my
ears were hurting too, so I can understand the fussiness.
We landed in Seoul and had about a 2-1/2-hour layover before
our flight to Cebu. We went up to the
lounge, which was packed, and managed to find a couple seats to hang out in
until our flight.
We boarded our flight to Cebu and ended up sitting at the
gate for quite a while, apparently due to heavy traffic at the airport. Once we took off, I think I slept most of the
5-hour flight. Eric got quite a bit of
sleep as well. By the time we got into
Cebu, it was after midnight.
A car picked us up at the airport and took us to our hotel
which was just across the street from the airport. After checking in, we made or way to our room
and crawled into bed. We set the alarm
clock to get up around 8 a.m.
Breakfast at the hotel was from 7-10 and our driver was to
pick us up at 10 a.m. to take us to the northernmost end of Cebu to catch the boat to
Malapascua. We made our way down to
breakfast around 9 a.m. and then came back to the room to get our stuff ready
to go.
Our driver picked us up around 9:45 and we headed out on the
approximately 3-hour drive. The northern
end of Cebu was quite different from the last time we were here, which was 2
weeks after typhoon Haiyan. Even thought
it is dry season here now, things are a lot greener than before and most
structures have been rebuilt. You
probably wouldn’t even know the strongest typhoon on record had gone through
here two years ago.
We made it to Maya (the northernmost end of Cebu) and
boarded the boat to take us to Evolution dive resort on Malapascua. Right after we got on the boat, the rain
moved in, which was actually quite nice.
It has apparently been very hot here.
We had a nice crossing to Malapascua and upon arrival were
greeted by the staff who welcomed us back.
We were thinking we might like to do a dive after we arrived, but the
boat had already gone out, so we decided to just hang out and relax. We got a bite to eat at the Craic House (the
resort’s restaurant and pub) and hung out in the furniture in the shade on the
beach, enjoying the wonderful ocean breeze.
It is nice to be able to sit around and not do a single thing—I have to
admit it feels strange, though.
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