Philippines North

Spiritual rituals at Philippines

The days of a retreat, in addition to water activities, humanitarian activities, kriyayoga relax and wonderful interesting conversations.
Here you can find the best landscape pictures (even of divings :) ) of this Journey

The northern part of the Philippines is very characteristic, although very different from the southern one, where the sea takes a paradisiac appearance and where you can find hundreds of unhabitated islands.
I suggest you to visit both Northern and Southern part of this country.

 

Departure from Venice to Paris, then from Paris to Manila

For the first time I could try one of the most renowned airlines, Air France.
I bought the ticket online, and a great thing is to be able to check in safely presenting only the passport and the credit card.

The plane from Paris to Manila was an airbus 340, very large and fast. The seats were quite comfortable and the food was good. The hostesses (French) have been really friendly and nice and the flight was a real fun, because I found very friendly companions of travel to which I introduced almost immediately.

Arrival in Manila in the late afternoon

The flight from Paris to Bangkok (for the stopover) was pretty hard, about 12 hours, and then from Bangkok to Manila I suffered other 3 hours of flight.

Moved the clock 8 hours ahead, as arrived in Manila, I immediately felt better and ready for other 6/8 hours of bus to arrive in the north of the country. Fortunately I found a good SHORT TIME hotel, which means little terms (you can pay for every 6 hours spent inside) and excellent levels of cordiality.

The hotel was in Cubao, a beach town just outside of Manila, that I reached to find a PARTAS bus station (the more popular lines, with more departures to the larger cities of the Philippines).

I stayed about an hour in the waiting room, looking for a bus directed northwards... I remind you that buses both night and day are really cold, with air conditioning at full opening (Philippines typical habit). With a shriveled T-shirt I wore, I really suffered cold.

Once arrived in the legendary BALI HAI BEACH RESORT, everything to me became very familiar as people there remembered me (I have been there two years ago, also).

Then I met my beloved Gurudeva (spiritual teacher - see http://www.kriyayoga.com) and, after having greeted all the friends it was time for a dip in the placid ocean. With temperatures that reach 35 °C in the beaches, the water was literally a broth.

See you soon!

Apnea immersion

I like the deep water, and today I did some apnea immersions with digital camera at hand.
A boat took me a little off from land, at about 1 mile from the coast, the depth was about 8-10 meters and there such nice creatures can be seen.
In the Northern Philippines where we were, depths are very different from south, where anyone can easily find hundreds of fish species and nature in the bottom is varied and colorful.
In any case I found a beautiful scorpion fish that I have managed to photograph and film, as you can see here below.
p.s. In apnea, without weights, is somewhat difficult to focus, because body tends to rise to the surface.

See you soon, with new photos..

San Huan

At north, not far from St. Martin, there is the location of San Huan where surfers can find much desirable waves. The San Huan bay in the right conditions can provide recreation and entertainment to those who practice surf as their religion. According to experts the waves are right both for rookies and veterans, even if for the experts is better focusing on Australian beaches ones.

Time to go home

The last few days have literallly flown, and to come back was really hard!

The return travel was very fast. Caught the bus at 7:00, I arrived in Manila at about 14:00.
I stopped in a Megamall in Manila (makati district - really huge) and I ate a great pizza in an Italian fast food named "BARRO".
From there I took the road to the airport and started to greet once again the beloved Philippines.
I slept the whole 13 hours return flight!!!!!
Arrived in Paris and then in Venice, fog and cold once again welcomed me in countries where summer lasts only a few months each year.

See you soon with a new trip, Goodbye!