Crystal Blue and Liquid Dumaguete trip report April-May 2015

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D2Diver

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Pompano Beach Florida
This is long overdue. In late April til early May I went to the Philippines & my first location was in Anilao . I stayed at Crystal Blue Resort for 10 days. My trip was organized by BlueWater travel and it was wonderful. Yes as people have remarked there are steps-lots of them. Many of the resorts are on the hillside & after day one I organized my walks back to my room and it didn't bother me so much especially as I looked at it as a way to get me fit to walk the Great Wall as I was stopping in Beijing on my way home. We did 4 dives a day. Two in the morning with surface interval on the beach near where we were. Sometimes there would be villages that we explored. One dive after lunch & then a dusk/night dive before dinner. Our boat had 4 divers, the dive master, a crewman & captain. It was decent with a canopy to keep the sun off of us. The diving was mainly muck diving & great for macro. We did go to one of the islands off the resort where the corals were beautiful and WA could be used. There wasn't any shore diving but the reef just off the resort was a great one. The food was very good even great. It was buffet style with 3-4 entrees at both lunch & dinner. I didn't pay much attention to what was served at breakfast as I had a made to order omelet every morning. As a Starbucks medium roast addict I was pleased to say I found their coffee enjoyable even though not what I am used to drinking. I thought visibility was very good but Mike said more algae in water than usual and recommended using our 60mm lens although I did use the 105 a couple of days. I think it rained once at night & misted once in the morning and on our departure day. I really enjoyed my stay and my only complaint was getting wifi. It seemed I only succeeded if I got up very early in the morning & not always then. A few of the others had better luck-sometimes. It takes about 2hrs,depending on traffic, to get to the resort from Manila & I stayed at the Remington on both arrival & departure days. Like CB wifi was hard to get. None in the room only in certain parts of the lobby. At the entrance was a ?bomb sniffing dog or maybe drugs but I a thinking the former as the Marriott had mirrors under our van. The room included a free breakfast across the street at the casino which was just okay. The hotel is fine for a stopover.


From Anilao I went back to Manila to catch a flight to Dumaguete where I stayed at Liquid. This is a lower key place to stay but nothing in their service was low key. This hotel is located down a narrow long & winding dirt road. The facade isn't exciting from the parking lot but you will forget this as you are greeted warmly by the staff besides the resort is on the other side of the building from the parking area. The grounds have some pretty flowering trees and the architecture is nice.The bungalows do block the view of the ocean if you are at the pool or ground floor at main building but the area is still nice. I was in one of the bungalows down by the water with a great view from my porch. It did not have AC but was cooled by the ocean breeze & a strong overhead fan. I was very comfortable & I read that they are installing AC in some of the bungalows. The WIFI was excellent everywhere & I enjoyed catching up while sitting on my porch or in the bar or restaurant area. Food was great but I never had time for lunch which had more choices than dinner. Besides I fell in love with their bagels & that was my lunch almost daily. The food isn't included in your room bill so you pay for what you order but it will not set you back much. Diving was off bigger boats so there would be a lot of us but very roomy. Four divers to a dive guide & I was lucky to be solo most of the time or had one other diver sharing the guide. The sites here were just as amazing as Anilao. I fell in love with a couple of sites & the night dives were beyond awesome. I was able to dive at night even if it was only me which is a big plus. No shore diving from here but I think you can if you are careful and avoid the hot spring area. I loved everything about the resort. It has a big pool and a separate bar area. The dive shop has different sections classroom, gear storage and an area where they held the pre dive briefing. If I had to say a draw back it would be the small area for rinsing gear. As we walk thru sand to get from boat to resort the wells get dirty quickly. Also I had a camera & the separate area was too small. There was a larger one adjacent to that but sometimes people would dump their wetsuits in that. Not wanting sand & grass on my housing I wouldn't leave it long. And if an errant wetsuit landed in the area I would just rinse it off with the hose. Also the staff if they saw that would refill it with clean water.Back to the staff. I have been to many different locations in my diving life and have met some great people who worked at the resorts I have stayed at but this resort made me feel like an honored guest.They talked with us like friends sharing their experiences. Everyone called me by name from the moment I got there, remembered my preferences and always asked me how I was and did I need anything. Yes I need something. I need to go back.
 
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