The last day of our stay was a busy day for me especially. Mrs.I chickened out on our diving trip and I was lucky to the only one on the dive excursion with the Geko dive centre team. I was picked up at 7.30am from the lobby and it was a one hour drive to Tulamben where the USS Liberty ship wreck was located. When we arrived around 8.30-ish, I saw that some dive groups were already done their dives for the day – talk about early birds. All cars had to park in a parking lot and the gear was given to locals who stacked the tanks, bcd’s etc on the tanks of the bikes and drove down to the beach to drop them off. As the tanks were taken off the bikes, they were just dropped on the ground. The beach was not your typical sandy beach but was full of small, smooth pebbles and stones. Everytime a tank was dropped on the ground, you would hear a clang of metal hitting rock – safety of the gear was obviously the #1 priority. 😐

This was my first time doing a shore dive and it was interesting walking into the water, putting your flippers on and then diving in – always good to experience things for the first time. The wreck came into view a couple minutes after going under. Despite the rainy weather, the visibility conditions were really good.

The view right after you go under.

The wreck came into view.

The gun.

Staring down the barrel.

In the bowels.

A wheel.

Ladder … or staircase.

Nemo’s cousin.

Me.

Human intruders.

After the dives were done, lunch and drinks were provided. Wolfed down the food before I realized that I had to take a pic. I did capture this tasty drink however.

View of the rice fields on the way back to the resort.

Relaxed for the rest of the day because we were going out for dinner in the evening. Mrs.I thought we were going to dinner in town at a local restaurant called Vincents. Little did she know that I made plans for a private dinner at the beach. Unfortunately, due to the bad weather, the dinner setting was moved poolside which was just as amazing. At 7.30pm, we made our way to the front lobby where we were hopped in the buggy. It took us down the winding road to the beach to which Mrs.I asked why we were taking this road to go to the restaurant. I mumbled something about the driver taking us a different way. When we got to the bottom, a staff member was waiting and welcomed us when we got out. The jig was up and Mrs.I figured out that we were not going to town but was very happy at having dinner by the pool area.

Infinite brownie points achievement unlocked.

Coming down the stairs to our seating area.

We were escorted to our table.

Mrs.I ordered some sort of pina colada and I went with the same.

We were presented with the menus. I met with the head chef on the previous day to set the menu and this is what we came up with. I could have ordered more but the food provided was more than enough for us. We were left alone when we were not being served and but were discreetly in the area whenever we needed assistance.

First course – the soup. WOW OMG, I would have been happy just having multiple bowls of this for the night.

Once the soup was done, the mains were brought out all at once. Due to poor lighting, I enlisted Mrs.I to shine the phone flashlight on the food for better shots lol.

Placed directly on the banana leafs were the grilled fish and prawns. In the bowls were the chicken curry and fern tips respectively. Everything was made to perfection and by the end, we could not move.

But then, the dessert came out and space magically appeared in our stomachs. Kudos to the chef team for making the ice bowls that kept the sherbet formed the entire time despite the ambient heat.

After dinner was done, we thanked the staff for the wonderful food and service and walked around for some more pictures.

We were driven back from the base area to the front lobby where the main staff greeted us and asked us how dinner was. Mrs.I was over the moon and told them it was a great evening. We retired to our room to pack as we would be checking out in the morning and heading back to Singapore.

Next up – Flight to Singapore + the Westin Singapore.