More monkey business in India.
As I mentioned in the first chapter of this saga, I have heard it opined that if you haven’t sh*t your pants, you haven’t really experienced India.
The same may be true about taking a train in India, which although less traumatic than fecal incontinence, can be an unsettling experience, especially if you need to use the super grotty loos ;^)
It doesn’t matter who you are, the first time you put a regulator in your mouth and go under the water more than a snorkel length, every fibre of your being tells you that it is not a good thing.
Señor Sand Diver – Roatan, Honduras
As I beaver away on a new photo gallery and write up for Scubadiving Magazine about our recent trip to CoCo View Resort in Roatan, Honduras, I thought I’d continue to share a pic or two on the blog.
A view of the Taj Mahal, from the Red Fort
On the road again, this time for the long drive from Jaipur to Agra – the site of the splendiferous Taj Mahal.
This is the fourth chapter in this series. You will find the previous instalments here:
Chapter 1 – Just Say No to Delhi Belly
Chapter 2 – Delhi – Walking in Gandhi’s Footsteps
Chapter 3 – Colliding Worlds in Jaipur
By now, we are getting in the groove of the rhythm of this thing. Up early, repack suitcase (which does get a bit old as we stayed in many different places during the tour), leisurely breakfast at the hotel, then on the bus at the appointed hour (and remember – Indian Stretchable Time does not apply!)
A break from the India serial blogging.
After the amazing adventure in India in February with the ladies, Mr G and I were very fortunate to travel to Roatan in Honduras in March, to join in on a large ‘reunion’ dive trip.
We stayed and dove at CoCo View Resort – and it was generally pretty great. I hope to find some time in the future to write something about it. I will definitely be sharing some pictures from the trip in the coming months.
Here is a picture of a cute little damselfish (about 4 inches in length). These pretty little flitters are cousins of anemonefish, about which I previously have shared my obsession. These small fish (both damsels and anemonefish) can be frustrating to photograph, as they are constantly in motion. At times, usually when nesting, they can be quite aggressive, and have been known to nip divers.
So, basically, they are charming little b*stards ;^)
Rajasthani Greeter
So, we’ve left Delhi, and are now on the big bus for the long drive to Jaipur – the pink city.
If you missed the previous India blogs, they are here:
Part 1 – Just Say No to Delhi Belly
Part 2 – Walking in Gandhi’s Footsteps
Delhi to Jaipur was a long haul, with hours of peering out the side windows of the bus, watching India whizz by. I kept my camera at the ready, hoping to capture some of the scenery. As I mentioned earlier in this thing, shooting out of the side window of a fast moving bus is not very satisfactory, but I did manage to get a few decent pix to try to illustrate the experience. Continue reading
So, when I last left you dangling, we were all tucked into our beds in our very nice rooms at Le Meridien in central Delhi, sleeping off (with the help of some pharmaceuticals) the long and not very restful flight in the back of the bus on the Air India flight from JFK. Delhi is 11 1/2 hours ahead of Vancouver – so pretty much half way around the world. It doesn’t matter how much I travel (and I travel quite a bit), that kind of time change will seriously fook me up. So I usually take sleeping pills, for at least a few days, to try to turn things around.
The tour we were on really only offers one full day in Delhi, which is enough to take in some of the many attractions, and get a bit of a feel for this huge, sprawling, smoggy city, with a population estimated at over 16 million. I am not sure how accurate any kind of census could really be, as there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people living in the streets, and in the sprawling slums. Add to that the thousands and thousands of tourists, both Indian and international. and there are one heck of a lot of people banging into each other in this capital city of India.
So, a group of girls decide to take a trip to India. The group is three sisters and a friend, and the plan is to experience India as part of an organized tour, because, as anyone who has been to India will love to tell you, it is a gong show getting around this country of one billion (plus) people.
It’s been a busy whirl of travel over the past few months, and although I always have intentions to blog while I am enjoying these new experiences, somehow it never seems to happen. I did take a sh*tload of photos though, and I am now in the thick of processing them. So soon there should be some photos and thoughts about diving in Thailand and Honduras, as well as touring in northern India and Kathmandu, appearing on this neglected blog.
In the meantime, here is a link to my latest piece for Scuba Diving Magazine’s digital platform – it is all about quotidian happenings on the reef. Fish and other ocean animals need grooming, and this is how they do it…
You will find the story and image gallery here —-> Going To The Cleaners
Here is a link to December’s gallery and short write up about diving off the west coast of the big island of Hawaii.
You will find the article and image gallery here —-> Hawaii 2.0 – Images from the Big Island of Hawaii
Here is a link to my most recent contribution to the magazine – this one a photo gallery and description of the magical manta night dive in Kona, Hawaii.
You will find the article here —-> Black Magic Manta Diving
With the prospect of only 3 days to get our first taste of Ireland, we arrived in Dublin, picked up a rental car, plugged our Galway area hotel address into the handy dandy (do not attempt to drive in Ireland without one!) GPS, and pointed the car west.
Here is a link to a recent piece (and short video) that describes some wild and wooly current dives I’ve done, as well as some strategies for managing diving in big currents.
You’ll find the article and video here —–> Gone With The Wind – Diving in Big Currents
Where do the months go? I’ve recently returned from a dive trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, and have been bagging a few cold water shore dives closer to home, but have been neglecting the blog, bigtime.
One of these days, I’ll get back to making regular entries, but in the meantime, here is a link to my most recent piece for the magazine – all about Palau.
Click here to take you to the magazine gallery and write up.
And, if you really want to dig in, here is a write up I did on the blog, on my return from the trip, in March.
The months continue to gallop by and the blogging has taken a back seat to other more pressing concerns – like finishing building a house, moving into it, and selling the old house. It’s been a wild, busy, crazy ride, but finally we’re here. New home, new chapter…
Here is a link to June’s piece for Scuba Diving Magazine – all about naughty, thoughtless, careless divers.
And check out Scubadiving.com’s very much new and improved website!
I am still playing catch up with linking my most recent publications ;^). This link will bring me up to date, and I will endeavour to link recent work on a more timely basis. The topic of my next article to be published by Scubadiving Magazine later this month is a bit, er, controversial.
Last month’s gallery and article was all about diving at Wakatobi Resort, in Indonesia. It is a lovely place, with some extraordinarily healthy coral reefs nearby. I wrote a comprehensive trip report last year upon my return – you will find it here.
To view the gallery and shorter article recently published by Scuba Diving Magazine, follow this link.
I am woefully behind in linking my recent work for Scuba Diving Magazine.
So here is a link to March’s piece – all about underwater animals that are great at camouflage…
Back from Germany, and back at my laptop. I traveled to Germany with just an iPad (and iPhone for camera – data roaming is stupid expensive, so I kept it in airplane mode for the duration). The iPhone camera pretty much rocks (except in high contrast light). And I seriously love the pano function. But no can shoot manual settings with a point and shoot phone…
So here I find myself in Germany once again. Mr G has business here, and a couple of times a year, for board meeting weeks when other wives/spouses are included, I make the trek with him.
In past blogs I have written a bit about Berlin – a fascinating and handsome city which has a rich (and tragic) history. On this trip, for reasons not necessary to yarn on about, we are only spending a couple of days in Berlin. On the front end, we arrived in Frankfurt, where we picked up a rental car (diesel BMW sedan) and drove to Weimar – which is pretty much in the center of the country, and which also enjoys an interesting history.
A beautiful beach on Ulong Island – where Survivor Palau and Survivor Micronesia were filmed.
I returned last week from a 10 day trip to Palau. It was Mr G’s and my first visit to this diver mecca. We enjoyed three days on land at the beginning of the trip, diving two of those days with Sam’s Tours, and doing a land excursion on the other. We then met up with some of the usual suspects for a week aboard the Palau Tropic Dancer live aboard.
The island nation of Palau is located about 500 miles east of the Philippine Islands, at about the same latitude, and despite being close neighbours (geographically speaking) these islands are very different, in many ways. And whereas the Philippines were, for me, mostly about the wonderful macro life, Palau is more about big animals and interesting reef formations.
