Hello my steaming little minions,
I am
BACK from Boracay! Thassright, in case some of you were curious as to where the drawings went for the past week (you can't gripe, I drew you and colored for you a partially-naked Jaris, so you should be happy, ungrateful little munchkins) I've been burning myself in the sunny Philippines. My family and I spent Christmas there, so the presents under the tree are all wrapped up still and will remain so until the 31st of December, when we'll be having our Christmas-New Years mixover family dinner or somesuch (however that works with two divorcing parents). And for those of you curious as to what I've been doing ... well, that's what this journal is for.
We arrived on the first day at 8pm so we didn't get much done then, aside from checking into our room (which was a bungalow-type thing made from wood with a thatched roof made from banana leaves - freaking
SWEET!) and flop onto the beds and fall alseep. We had to sleep under mosquito nets and trust me, did we ever need them! I must have more than 10 bites from the buggers on my right leg alone, and on my big motorcycle bruise no less, the b*stards, and they're itching like crazy 'round about now.
The restaurants and hotels and shops are located only a few meters from the beach on Boracay. A bit of a pity, as you're starting to see increased sand erosion as a result, and in a few years the beach may well almost entirely disappear, but it's damn beautiful. The second and third day were quite literally spent entirely diving, for my sister, dad, and I. We were lured into completing a PADI Certified Advanced Diver's Course by the thought of swimming to a wreck that was (purposefully) sunk off the coast of the island, and spent the first day doing underwater navigation exercises for an hour, then a depth dive off the coast of "Crocodile" Island. Don't worry, there were no crocs, and it's only called as such because of the shape of the island's profile, but the water was so choppy that day my sister got seasick and threw up all over the side of the little motorboat after the dive, and I swallowed my weight in seawater trying to climb back onto the damn thing. I also had trouble equalizing my ears on the way down so that dive went kind of pear shaped ...
The second day was ALL SORTS of
PURE, UNDULATING AWESOME. We began with a drift dive around some very pretty chunks of coral and saw so many fish swimming around the reefs and in shoals, including a lionfish and clownfish. We would have seen some manta rays, but the current was too strong that morning, and for reltively inexperienced divers like my sister and I our instructor thought it best we avoid it for the time being. This was followed a few hours later by the
WRECK DIVE. HELL YEAH. That alone was worth doing difficult math underwater and drinking salt water just to see that wreck. We didn't get to go inside it (you need another, more advanced course for wreck penetration) but even though it was a tiny, Japanese fishing boat, there was SO MUCH to see. There were schools of fish darting around near the surface, and even *shudders* jellyfish ... and we saw batfish, more lionfish, trumpetfish, pufferfish, nudiebranchs, ghost pipefish, angelfish, starfish, groupers ... and even a SCORPIONFISH and a TITAN TRIGGERFISH. F**k I loved that dive so much!
This was followed by a "Christmas Eve" Night Dive! We saw quite a few shrimp and hermit crabs, more lionfish, one of which I almost sat on ... that was more than scary .... and while photographing a snake eel that was peering out of the sand (that I thought was a spotted morey eel, because it looked like one) my dad and I got separated from my sister and the instructor underwater. That was a memorable experience ... looking around and seeing only black. We turned off our lamps and managed to see a faint glow in the distance, and followed it to find (not an anglerfish) but our lost group, which saved me some oxygen, since I didn't have to hyperventilate underwater anymore, WHEE!!
Oh yeah, and even though I was in a wetsuit I managed to get sunburned, ahahaha.
Christmas day was ... uneventful. I slept through it and felt sick, the day after my sister and I spent some time in the beach
without oxygen tanks strapped to our backs, and later got henna done. I think we looks rather spiffeh, and I'll be uploading photos when time allows. I'll also be uploading the few sketches I did draw - weird creatures inspired by scuba diving, and a short story inspired by the wreck dive - whenever I can get around to it.
My floor is covered in sand now.
SO YES! That was Boracay in a nutshell. Oh, and I gots me some beach shorts, like the dork I am. OH OH OH!! And I ate tahooooooo again, this awesome Filipino breakfast-snack thing consisting of silken tofu, syrup of some sort, and tapioca balls mixed up in a glass that you SSSLLLLURP up (damn it's good, I want more now)
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND ... I GOT TIPSY!!
Thassraight, I've roleplayed Jaris drinking cocktails, then I went and tried some myself. Lemme just say alcohol is damn foul, but give me vodka mixed with lemonade, or dark rum with mixed-fruit syrup on an empty stomach, and the world starts spinning.
That was fun.
ANYWAY.
So, I'm back now, although I'll be running off for university soon. I hope you all had a great Christmas and have a Happy New Year! As always thanks for your support guys, and -
HOLY MOTHER SH*T! 71,000 pageviews? You guys don't skimp, before I know it I'll have 100,000 and will have to think of something really special for you all!
Until then!
--Sak, outPS: CHECK THIS OUT!!
[link] <--

made me some GREAT fanart that makes me sh*t myself laughing every time I see it!!