As most of my friends and my three blog readers know, I have been looking for a SCUBA diving vacation destination for 2012.<\/p>\n
I went to The SCUBA Show<\/a> specifically to find a vacation place, but ended up going off the beaten path.<\/p>\n I immediately eliminated Brazil as a destination, for personal reasons – mainly, I could not handle one crazy Brazilian woman, let alone a whole country full of them.<\/p>\n I also considered a few more things:<\/p>\n – It can’t be a tourist trap, especially a resort geared towards just taking tourists’ money.<\/p>\n – It can’t be too crowded.<\/p>\n – I want contact with locals; I don’t want to hang out with tourists (I eliminated North Korea on this).<\/p>\n – It has to be economically feasible as far as the cost of hotels and beer.<\/p>\n – I need to feel like an adventurer, not a tourist.<\/p>\n – I want people to look at me with that “WTF?” expression when I tell them where I’m going or where I’ve been.<\/p>\n I narrowed it down between going to Cuba or Albania…<\/p>\n And the winner is…<\/p>\n ALBANIA!<\/strong><\/p>\n Talk is cheap, and anything can come up between now and next year, but I am determined to go.<\/p>\n I have applied for a US passport as of today.<\/p>\n To get into Albania, a US citizen doesn’t need a Visa, just a passport that’s more than six months old.<\/p>\n So, taking that into consideration, along with the money, I should be able to book my trip in January or February with the intent on going after California lobster season – April or May of 2012.<\/p>\n Diving opportunities are rare in Albania, but I did find one place located in the town of Saranda that is run by a group of Poles:<\/p>\n Polish Diving Base – Albania<\/a><\/p>\n Here is their introduction video on Youtube:<\/p>\n