A leisurely start. No 4.00am alarm call for us! Ibo collecting us at 9.45 for a 2.30 flight from Gatwick. I wonder how much stick Ibo will give Richard today…

Tony sorted us 40kg baggage each, so no stress about weight restrictions. Camera equipment safely stowed in the peli case (thank you Barry) and too large dive bags, although probably not as large as that one Keith brings on the rib!

Trip to the airport was uneventful, although possibly to much talk of nurses to be wholly appropriate…

We deliberated on the subject, to lounge or not to lounge. We opted for not. Unusual for us but we decided that the increased cost, now £20.00 each, was a step to far. We would struggle to eat £40.00 worth of food in an airport restaurant.

A very nice lunch in Wetherspoons. Any one tried the Wetherspoons app? Brilliant! Sit at your table, order your drinks, oh, here they are, already. Order your food, moments later a dairy free steak pie and chips and a fish pie appears. Yes, very nice indeed.

First flight done. Watched a number of films, Tag, Hatton Garden, Transformers, amongst others.

Following on from our last trip, four flights, four dairy free meals, four pieces of tasteless rubber chicken with rice, I took a great deal of care in choosing something different this time. On this first flight I chose vegan (oh no not vegan, I hear you say). Yes indeed and very nice the hot part was, a mild creamy bean and vegetable curry with rice. The starter was very uninspiring lettuce leaves, four pieces of cucumber and two cherry tomatoes. Nothing wrong with that if it had been covered in mayo! The pudding? Fruit salad! Way too many uncooked veg and fruit. Having seen Bake Off this week, I feel that they could have done so much more.

The second flight, Dubai to Manila, not sure where that went. We both slept for about five hours. I had chosen well in the breakfast department opting for the Jain meal. Jain being an vegan eastern religion. Wow, food was excellent. Breakfast was very spicy chickpeas with couscous and flat bread, followed by more fruit. Poor Richard! The omelette option was not available so he had to have congee with shrimps on top. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Congee is the white stuff they eat in The Matrix.

So flights are done, easy transition through passport control and baggage reclaim. Met our taxi driver for the two and a half hours bus trip to Buceo Dive Resort, followed by a five minute boat trip in the dark to get to the resort. Arriving by boat is arriving in style! Oh, no Richard, what’s that? Left your phone and glasses in the taxi!? Hmmm. Not so easy to get when the taxi can’t drive to the resort. Heaven and earth was moved and within 20 minutes the missing phone and glasses appeared. Excellent service, rather embarrassed that we had no money for a tip. 🙄🙄

As expected, we in the the top room, by top I mean the highest. I shall be counting the steps at some point. Hope my knees can cope (that makes me sound ancient!).

So we decide to get the dive kit ready and the cameras before tea and then up to the room after that.

Food is great here. We had a spring roll, sweet and sour chicken, chop suey and fried rice. Excellent!

The room is lovely. Two double beds and a single. Huge bathroom. Sleep time now. Zzzzzzzzzz