Alli is back from the DRT show in Shanghai. It was wonderful to meet up with our past students, and divers and we’re looking forward to seeing you and your friends here. A very special Thank you to Qun Qun and Frani for all the help at the show. We look forward to seeing many divers from China in our resort soon.
A huge congratulations goes out to Charmaine Chow and Stanley Chow who just got married in the best conditions possible ‘Underwater’. Yes that’s right we conducted a mock under water wedding with a priest, the groom and the bride all on scuba. It was a fantastic day with expert under water videographer Rob Jacobs and professional under water photographer Maziar Momtazi. Now you have these underwater memories saved forever, not only on video and photo but also in your hearts. All the staff here at Asia Divers whish you the best of life together and hope you continue to make those under water adventures as the best buddy team there can be.
The Dubai American Academy has spent the past week here with kids doing diving courses or learning sailing. Along with that they also got to experience many other wonderful aspects of the Philippines. Five kids and one teacher completed their PADI Open Water course, six kids and one teacher did their PADI Advanced course and 23 learned to sail. A big thank you to all the teachers; Hardy Fichardt, Teresa Cantu, Ryan Erickson, Jibola Ajayi, and Ruby Bergonia who made things run so smooth for us. We look forward to our tenth anniversary with you next year! 
Here are the proud DAA Sailors showing off their certificates. The kids learned to sail through the Puerto Galera Yacht Club thanks to Bob Johnson, Daryl Calbert along with their whole team. They also enjoyed a day of sightseeing around the area by jeepney.
DAA visited a school at Verde Island as part of their community service activity. They had a great day with the kids! We had Frank Devriese our paraplegic diver joining us with a lot of interaction with the kids (Frank is a reading teacher back in Belgium) and with a lot of help from the boatman and the kids, we managed to get him up the stairs and over walls to get him around the island. It was also interesting with a little help from the Perth Subiaco Rotary Club, we managed to donate a generator for the school. The old generator they had was on its last legs, it was in fact broken for months, they did get it going but it struggled to keep running, so when we arrived with a generator they were very excited. Not only that, we managed to simply plug the new generator in and turn the key and away it went. The DAA donated a lot of school supplies and clothing, all well received by the school. The kids then broke into groups of six and went off to different grade rooms and played games with the different classes. It was very good to see the way the kids interacted with one another. Finally it was time to leave, so all kids came out of the classrooms and started playing games outside, then it was a big farewell with a group photo and off we went, Frank and all, to the shelters on the beach where we had a wonderful BBQ, games on the beach, lots of fun before leaving to head back to El Galleon.
This month’s cover photo by Malcom Hammer who was one of the winners of the HUGYCUP 2014/2015. The HUGYCUP photo competition was held from Feb to April 2015. You can really see Puerto Galera’s amazing marine biodiversity looking through these winning photos. See more of Malcoms’ photos on the HUGYCUP website: http://2014.hugycup.com/ If you don’t already receive our weekly newsletter and would like to be put on the mailing list please use this link: http://www.asiadivers.com/asiadivers/subscribe.php
Another option for coming to Puerto Galera is by sea plane. See http://www.airjuan.com/book-now.php
One person with 20 kg = P4,500 plus 10kg @ 100 = P5,500
One person with 30 kg = P4,500 plus 20 kg @ 100 = P6,500
One person with 40 kg = P4,500 plus 30 kg @ 100 = P7,500
One person to fly with 40 kg is about the same price as taking the private transfer. The only difference is that it’s a scheduled plane and it only takes 25 to 30 min to get here.
If I am two people without excess its P9,000 (20 kg each it’s P11,000) so I could take private transfer and be cheaper, so it does not work with two or more people with the exception its faster, more fun.
Charter one way is $1,350 or with 9 pax its $150 a head or P7,050. It does not work that well for groups.
The Dubai American Academy has arrived and are well into a fun week of diving, sailing and adventures. There are 6 doing their Open Water course, seven on the Advanced course and 26 kids are learning to sail with the Puerto Galera Yacht Club. We’re thrilled to have the school back with us for the ninth year in a row! We’ll have more photos in next week’s newsletter.
After your diving day is done, it’s time to get pampered! Our resort spa has been very busy lately thanks to our wonderful staff there who offer amazing services. Hazel Pine is our Spa Manager/Masseuse and Norilyn Garma is a Spa Therapist. Both ladies have over 5 years working experience and want you to enjoy the services that they offer. You can book appointments at the front desk.
Check this article out in the Active Times article “5 Must-Visit Dive Resorts”. We’re in it!
http://www.theactivetimes.com/w…/n/5-must-visit-dive-resorts
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Some great news from Philippine Airlines this week. London to Manila route is now daily with a whopping 46kg luggage allowance!!!
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/…/PAL_daily_service_Summer_20…
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11th World Congress of The Most Beautiful Bays in The World
11th World Congress of The Most Beautiful Bays in The World was held in Puerto Galera, Mindoro Or., Philippines, Feb 1 to 6, 2016
Please click the link below a really nice video coverage of the World Congress with some fantastic views of Puerto Galera.
Allan decided sometime ago to do what many of us would not, go snorkeling in northern Norway in January, why?! At one of the DEMA shows in Vegas he visited the Waterproof wetsuit stand and met up with long time friend Goran Ehlme who is a wild life photographer and does work for National Geographic, Swedish and other TV companies on wild life in the arctic and Antarctic. Goran (one of the owners of Waterproof) mentioned that Waterproof had a separate company called Waterproof Expeditions and was offering expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic regions to snorkel and dive with Orca, Leopard seals, visiting penguin colonies, ice mountains and more. So of course this was a challenge that seemed to good to miss! Allan booked the Orca trip to Norway and on January 23 Allan was onboard the live-aboard for a week of fun (cold) with what was an amazing experience, a part of the world like no other he had visited with beautiful snow cover mountains sailing through the fiords of Norway, northern lights and Orca and humpback whales every day, some snorkeling and other times spent cruising the fiords looking at humpbacks and orca traveling and feeding. One exceptional experience was when being out on the zodiac following a pod of about seven humpback when one decided to breach completely out of the water, but not once, 34 to 37 (depending on who you ask) times one after the other. And what a camera opportunity this was, except Allan’s camera was stuck and not one photo to show for it! You can see lots of photos (not Allan’s) on Facebook about this amazing adventure. If you should be interested, go to waterproof-expeditions.com. Allan has booked the Antarctic for February 2017 to dive with the Leopard seals, should you be interested, contact Allan at allan@asiadivers.com
Allan and Alli have returned from the Moscow Dive show, meeting some old friends and new friends. The Crocodile Dive Club which is one of the largest dive Clubs in Moscow celebrated their 20th anniversary and if you look very closely in the photo you see that Alli, Allan and Slava (who has been here several times) were there too. Many thanks to Alexey Stoyda who showed us around and to Alexandra Zamanaeva from the Crocodile Club for making sure we had a great time that night at the party.