Now this is what travelling dreams are made of...

---

As the title of the blog suggests, Malapascua is a place that we both fell in love with – However up until about an hour before we left, we almost cut-it from our itinerary completely due to all the bad weather forecasts we were reading online and the fact that to get there we would have to contend with a fairly long journey from Cebu. We decided to go with our gut instincts and try it out and if the weather was that bad, we could always move on. We first needed to make our way early to the northern bus terminal on the outskirts of town and board a yellow Ceres bus heading to Maya. This journey took around 4 hours but passed some spectacular scenery along the way, we then had to negotiate getting a small banka boat for the 45 minute crossing from the mainland to the tiny island of Malapascua, so small in fact it measures just 2.5km by 0.75km at its widest point and there are no cars or proper roads.

We arrived after a fairly bumpy ride and were immediately pointed in the direction of the small village which sat between the port and the beach near where we wanted to base ourselves, Bounty Beach. After a quick, unsuccessful scout around for accommodation, I sat down in the only local restaurant on the island, Ging Ging’s, whilst Vic’s went on the hunt for a room. As we hadn’t eaten all day, I decided to order some food (local fish in a sweet and sour sauce) predicting that Vic’s would be back before it arrived. I started to worry when she hadn’t returned, 30 minutes after I had finished, but luckily she had bumped into a local who had kindly helped her find a room in a local family house, as apart from the few pricey resorts which scatter the beach front, nothing really has a name. The task was made fairly difficult as choice was limited anyway, and most of the places didn’t have electricity- most of the rooms she had viewed only had a bucket of cold water for the shower too which doubled up as the toilet flusher! Our room was great, very clean yet basic with a proper shower and toilet downstairs which we shared with 4 other rooms but it was all we needed and very cheap so we were happy.



After settling in, we immediately went down to the beach front and were speechless from the fine, pure white sand and crystal clear blue waters. Most importantly it seemed to be sunny which was a relief as the weather reports hadn’t looked too promising. We walked along the front enquiring in several dive shops as to the cost of diving with thresher sharks, which this island is famous for. Some of the more reputable establishments refused to take an open water diver, insisting you needed the proper advanced qualification, whilst others were more than willing to take you without even asking for proof. After much thought and the fact that with the Advanced PADI Open Water I would be able to dive to most depths/difficulties for the remainder of the trip, I decided to sign up for the 5 dive/2.5 day advanced course, with Sea Explorers. Whilst there were definitely cheaper organisations on the island, you can’t put a price on safety and out of all the dive shops we visited, I got the best feel for this one – plus as part of the course, 2 of the dives would be to Monad Shoal, where the thresher sharks are normally located.

We had heard rumours all day from people on the island about a party taking place that evening in the village, and had tried to get more information and had presumed there was a club somewhere called ‘The Village’ or a nightclub located in the actual village itself, but no, the party was in fact held on an open air basketball court in the centre of the village with a huge sound system which would put most clubs in London to shame! It was made even more bizarre due to the whole village turning out so had a ‘school disco’ feel to it. You had 6 year old children, dancing next to 80 year old ladies to Jay Z and Kanye and local songs but the atmosphere was fun. Before going, we stopped at Ging Ging’s again for dinner; Vic’s had Pork Caldereta, whilst I had Chicken Adobo (the Filipino national dish) and Calamari. It was all delicious and was such a great surprise as we had heard so many negative comments about the food and so far it’s all been great. We then headed to the village party stopping briefly to by a bottle of coconut rum from one of the local’s houses for the grand sum of £2?!



As it was still fairly early the party wasn’t quite in full swing so we sat outside (the basketball court) drinking with a few locals and watching a local gambling game. Now Vegas this wasn’t and the croupier was a 12 year old child, watched on by her gran who took it very seriously. The basic principles of the game were; there was 8 numbers listed on a wooden board, you had to choose a number and put a 1 peso coin (about 3p) on it, the croupier would then role 3 dice and if your number came in you won and if didn’t you lost. After watching for a while, we decided to give it a go and had a lot of fun, but the real enjoyment was giving a few coins each to a few of the local children who got really excited and couldn’t stop thanking us – for the rest of the night we had an army of kids following us about, so cute. We had a few more drinks with a couple of Swiss guys we met whilst swapping travelling stories and then headed onto the court to throw a few shapes with the kids/grandparents before calling it a night. We loved the island and its vibe already!



When we woke up the next morning we held our breath as we looked out the window, expecting to see clouds and maybe rain, but the weather gods must have been looking down on us as there was bright sunshine and blue skies! We got ready and went down to the beach where we enjoyed a relaxing morning working on our tans before going for a spot of lunch. In the afternoon we decided to go out on a local fishing boat for some snorkelling around the island at a bargain price of £10 for both of us, including the snorkel sets and the marine fees. The sun was still out and we went to three different sites – the first was fabulous and the coral was colourful with lots of fish to be seen in the clear waters, the second was also quite good as there was a Japanese wreck which could be seen underwater, but the third wasn’t very nice as visibility was poor and you couldn’t really see much at all. Still we had a nice few hours at sea and always enjoy a boat trip so it was definitely worthwhile, although the water on the way back to shore was a bit choppy. When we got back happy hour was starting at one of the beach front resorts, and as it was the one which I had signed up with to do his diving we enjoyed a couple of cocktails and watched the sun go down after our first taste of a Filipino beach – if any of the others we are going to see are like this we will be more than happy. We had dinner again at Ging Ging’s that evening and then went back to the room as I had to do some ‘homework’ for the first of my dives tomorrow so we got an early night.



As I would be on the dive boat for most of the day, Vic’s stayed on the beach and worked on her tan as once again the sun was shining, and after a quick breakfast I was off.

My first 2 dives were to take place at a location called Gato Island, a marine sanctuary, famed for its white tip sharks located in a small cavern and a swim through tunnel/cave about 22m under water. Located an hour from Malpascua, these dives were skilled dives practicing buoyancy control and underwater navigation. Jumping into the water for the first time since Vietnam, I was initially pretty nervous and had a bit of a flap due to the strong currents and not being able to decend. However, as soon as I was ‘down’ I really began to enjoy it and it was easily the best 2 dives I had ever done. Amongst other things, I saw, white tip sharks (pretty scary when they are only a few feet away), lion fish, cuttlefish, sea snakes, seahorses, plenty of clownfish (nemos) and some beautiful coral. On the journey back, I discussed with my instructor what my next three dives would be, he was slightly concerned about doing a night dive that evening followed by an early morning deep dive the next day due to my residual nitrogen levels, but after consulting the dive tables it turned out OK and I was booked onto a dive that evening.



When we got back, I caught up with Vic’s who was unsurprisingly in the same spot that I had left her in 5 hours ago and explained that I would be doing a night dive that evening. This was the dive which I was most worried/nervous about and she agreed to come on the small boat with me when it left. Until it was time to leave, we just chilled on the beach and at sunset I was called to be ‘kitted-up’ and given a couple of underwater torches. As we sailed out I was beginning to get more and more nervous and by the time we reached the location it was pretty much last light. Entering the water, we had to backwards role as we were only on a small paddle boat and before long I was given the signal to descend. Without the torch switched on, you literally couldn’t see in-front of your mask and the only area illuminated was whatever was caught in the lights beam. It’s quite a scary feeling to think that any think could be lurking right beside you and you wouldn’t have any idea. However once over that initial fear I began to enjoy the dive and was fortunate enough to see mating mandarin fish which are particularly rare. As the dive takes place at night, there are many nocturnal species to be viewed which are not usually seen in the day – I suppose a bit similar to land really. Shrimps, crabs, lobsters and octopus were some of the active creatures spotted. During the ascend, we levelled off at 5m to let some of the nitrogen escape from our systems, during this time I was instructed to turn off my light and wave around my hands, at first I was a little sceptical but as soon as I done it, the sea started lighting up like a bright, starry sky due to the plankton glowing in the water around us, it really was an amazing site and to top it off, once we surfaced we had the clearest night sky and you could see the whole milky way.

After getting back to shore, we quickly freshened up and decided to treat ourselves to a beach front meal as we were both starving and had had a fairly cheap few days. The food was incredible (stuffed chicken breast on ratatouille and sliced potatoes for me, whilst Vic’s had, pork in creamy mushroom sauce with hand-cut french fries) and nothing beats eating whilst sitting on the beach with the sand between your toes. As I had to be up at 4.15am for my deep dive, we called it a night at this point and went to bed royally stuffed.

Up early with the many roosters on the island (who don’t seem to actually sleep at all), I was buzzing with excitement as today I would hopefully get to see thresher sharks at their cleaning station about 30m below sea level at a dive site called ‘Monad Shoal’ located a bumpy 45 mins off shore. As I stumbled out of our room half a sleep, I noticed half of my washing had been blown of our balcony and was now either strewn across the floor or missing in action, but I was too asleep/excited/lazy to bother doing anything about it at that time in the morning and headed to the dive store followed by a bunch of stray dogs. After a short briefing and waiting for everyone to arrive, we boarded a big banka boat and headed out to the divesite. We soon jumped in and began our decent to 30m which would take us along a underwater wall covered with amazing coral, before a sheer drop off and settling on the sea bed just outside the thresher sharks cleaning station (they are picked clean by smaller fish in a two way relationship where the thresher sharks act as protectors in return for the smaller fish cleaning them). It wasn’t long before I got my first sighting of the long waving tail slightly in the distance, and then slowly out of the corner of my eye I saw 2 huge sharks swimming toward me, they must have passed about 4ft in front and it was one of the most incredible things I had ever seen. I was very fortunate on this dive to see a total of 9 sharks and different distances, the best of which was during the ascent when one passed right over the top of me. I got back to shore at around 8am and managed to get a copy of a few videos and pictures from today and the previous days dives from our dive instructor and the Swiss guys who both had underwater cameras. For the remainder of the day we chilled on the beach, slowly cooking a little bit more and had another great dinner that evening with a few cocktails on the beach at OceanVida.



I again had to be up early the next morning for a multi-level dive with the sharks and they were once again very impressive. I was lucky enough to spot some hermit crabs, eels, a Spanish dancer and a rare devil fish at different depths. All in all it was an incredible few days, I am glad to say I now have my Advanced Open Water and the travel motivation as well as my health is back to 100%! (MISSING)We got back to shore at 8am and Vic’s met me for a very quick breakfast, we couldn’t hang around however as we were moving on to our next destination . . . .



S&V's Travel Info & Tips:

General Info: Approx 65 Peso's to £1.

Transportation: A local Ceres yellow bus from the Northern bus station to Maya took 4 hours and cost 140 Peso's (air con bus 165 Peso's). From Maya there are Banka boats waiting to take you 45 mins over to Malapascua island - these cost 80 Peso's per person. It takes 5-10 minutes to walk from where the boats drop you to Bounty Beach - the island is tiny!

Food: Ging Ging's had the cheapest food on the island (mainly local cuisine but also some decent pasta's) with each dish costing between 60-80 Peso's. On the beach food was more expensive but we ate at Ocean Vida twice for a treat and it was great - expect to pay 300 Peso's a dish though. Happy Hour is between 4-6pm here and the cocktails were delicious - two for 150 Peso's. Breakfast at Ocean Vida was also nice - eggs and bread cost just 55 Peso's each - a good deal compared to the 200 Peso+ breakfasts elsewhere along the front.

Accomodation: We got lucky and had a nice little room at a family house just next to Hitley's Hideout Guesthouse. It only cost us 400 Peso's a night (normally 500) and had clean shared bathrooms and a fan. It was a 2 minute walk to the beach from here.

Other observations:

x) Nowhere on the island ever seemed to have change, even when paying with a small note - we tried to buy a bottle of water (35 Peso's) with a 100 Peso note (about £1.50) and it was a struggle to get change! Even the resorts hardly ever had change, so try and have small notes with you when not spending much.

xx) Take a torch with you for night-time as there are no lights anywhere off the beach and it gets pitch black - we tripped over numerous times!

---