Tagged with "Diving"

Travel lovers have undoubtedly heard of or even visited Bali at some point. Beautiful scenery, divine beaches, dramatic volcanoes, temples, and genuine people…there’s much to appreciate. In recent years however, over-commercialization, large crowds, and pollution have begun to detract from Bali’s reputation as a tropical paradise.

Picturing beach resorts in Southeast Asia, Thailand’s Phuket, Indonesia’s Bali, and Philippines' Boracay probably come to mind. With tourists flocking to those locations, however, people who seek less populated shores must look elsewhere. White sand beaches, diving hotspots, fresh-from-the-ocean seafood, and a rapidly growing casino scene make Cambodia’s premier beach town of Sihanoukville a worthwhile destination.

For many, nature exists as a curiosity, as somewhere to visit or occasionally recreate. There are those rare places, however, where one finds harmony in nature. Places time seems to have forgotten. Places where ancient creatures roam, and where the landscape seems conjured from the imagination. Komodo National Park is such a place.

As lumbering land mammals, we humans can but imagine the freedom experienced by creatures who call the oceans home. Some 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. The oceans remain the last great frontier of Earthly adventure. With new species to discover and countless unexplored regions, let’s take a journey beneath the waves. As mere visitors to the underwater realms, diving affords us a modicum of understanding this part of our great blue planet. Here we will consider some of the world’s best diving locations. For the vast majority of people, diving is both easiest and most enjoyable in the rich tropical waters circling the globe at the equator. Vast coral reefs shelter mesmerizing life forms, ones whose colors and numbers astound. These are the world’s best diving locations.

In the western Philippines, there is an island archipelago with unique geology and majestic scenery. Known locally as “Heaven on Earth,” travelers who venture there cannot help but to agree. El Nido sits on the northern tip of Palawan Island, roughly 420 kilometers south-west of Manila. Owing to its location as part of the Sunda tectonic plate, the geology on El Nido is unlike anywhere else in the Philippines.