Bali and Gili Islands, Indoneisa 2012
Egypt, Soma Bay
I worked 8 months south of the red sea, in Soma Bay for Orca Dive Club. Orca is a very busy dive center deserving 5 hotels in the bay. The Sheraton, the Kempinski, the Robinson, The Breakers and The Cascades and Golf Resort. Soma Bay have been developed for tourism. Kite surfing is also very popular in the bay due to the constant wind. The bay is located 30 minutes north from Safaga, a town were all the staff were living. I was living in a little apartment not very expensive. It was nothing fancy but I had my internet, Air Con, Hot Water, and even a TV with cable. Internet in Egypt works with USB Sticks, the best if you are in Cairo or North is Mobinil, then more you go south, Etisalat or Vodafone. Mobinil still works pretty good but for the fastest connection go with the 2 others for south. I was downloading one to 2 movies per day with Mobinil, not so bad for the desert.
Check out my nice video from The Red Sea !!
Diving in Soma Bay was a very nice experience for me, the dive center was well equip with a Rebreather facility and high speed underwater scooters that can go 200 meters deep. The corals are amazing, so many colors everywhere. When the visibility is good, it is amazing the numbers of small creatures you can find and also big stuff, pods of dolphins, Oceanic White Tip sharks and hammerheads. I have done my best underwater pictures there. We had a very nice house reef of the jetty, we had to travel the 1 km jetty in a golf cart before jumping in the water. Easy as this. But of course the day trips were possible. I suggest if you go in this area : Abbu Keffan, Panorama, Salem Express and Ras Abu soma.
What I really liked in Soma Bay was the golf course 5 minutes walk from the dive center. Because I was working in the bay, I had the games for half price. On my free time, I could play golf, either at the driving range or on the court. One day, I went to play with a guy from France doing is Open Water Course with me. His wife was doing Thalasso Therapy and he had nobody to play, so we played together a nine holes before the dive in the afternoon. We took longer than planned to finish the game, the wind was so strong and against us most of the time. My score was not very good but we had a lot of fun.
Apart from Working and sometimes golfing, there was not really much to do in the town. Most of the time I was running along the coast listening my music and then going back home to prepare dinner and finish the day with a little movie. Egypt is a really hot country, it never rains there, I think in 8 months it rained one time for 30 seconds only. At the end my hairs became completely blond, no effect only the sun and the salt water transformed them. I loved diving around Soma Bay, I miss the dolphins and the sharks and also the incredible house reef where you never know what can appear from the blue.
Check out my underwater pictures from Egypt !
MALDIVES, ADDU ATTOL
Nice Diving Around Addu Atoll. Addu is the last Atoll south of the Maldives. Located near the equator, sometimes diving south or north from the equator, I was very lucky to could have dive there. The Shangri-La Hotel is a Fantastic hotel, perhaps it cost 1200 $ for a night and breakfast. Diving was beautiful, every dive something nice appeared or only the coral reef was stunning. In the middle of the Atoll we find at 25 meters a cleaning station where the Mantas are coming to get clean by the cleaning fish. The pull up a line and just wait the little fish goes under them. Nice one to see. Sometimes though, we had a lot of current, but no problems, once there we’ve hooked us on the reef and just without doing anything admiring the spectacle in front of us.
Check out a video I have made of the diving there !!
Diving was amazing down south. We also dove on a old British Oil Tanker, torpedoed at the end of the world war 2. The wreck was 150 meters long and 35 meters deep. You can also dive trough the big hole the torpedo created by sinking this ship.
Wreck Diving Video !!
I like the Maldives a lot, the water is so warm all the time. Good chances to spot something nice on every dive, Whale sharks, Manta Rays, White and Black tip Shark, Dolphins, turtles. The Maldives are islands made of coral so on this side you will be serve.
This video has been made in 2009 since then never went back. I hope one day I will. Here is some pictures of the hotel but also where i lived. I was sleeping on another side of the atoll so every morning I had to take the little boat to bring me at the job. That was my moment in the traffic. The wind was slowing us down but nothing else bothered me. Those mornings going to work where awesome, perfect to start the day with.
Shangri-La is a very nice resort, very expensive, there was the presidential suite, with everything in it and cost 20 000 $ a night, I mean this is crazy, paying 20 000 just for one night with nothing included. Food was also very special, guests were making their food order for their vacations and the resort was shopping all around the world to get the right food regarding the need of the customers. They even downloaded the music of the guests so on their arrival they could just turn the music on the Ipod of the room. How could people spend that much money in just a week, this is insane. Sometimes with all included plus the 10.6 % Service Charge, Cost of the Food + Alcohol + Activities for 2 people could go up to 25 000 $ !! I will never spend this amount of money in a week to stay drinking alcohol in a jaccuzi. I can go around the world easily with this amount of money in like 10 months.
