Blogs from Donsol, Philippines, Asia
Donsol - Soaked & Sad To Miss The Whale Sharks (Nick)
Published: April 24th 2012Asia » Philippines » Donsol
April 24th 2012
March 26 – 30 / 2012 We booked a flight to Donsol out of Manila for little more than the cost of the 13 hour bus ride, but upon arrival to the airport we started getting worried that the flight would be cancelled due to the weather. Luckily the storm stopped just long enough to get our plane off the ground and it held off until we collected our bags in Donsol, at which point the torrential downpour continued. We shared a van taxi into town with a few other travellers and checked in to Casa Bianca Hotel, a cool little place set on the beach with nice little bungalows 10 minutes outside of town. The staff was friendly and the property was beautiful but unfortunately the restaurant was overpriced and it was just too far ... read more
January 25th 2012
Just three weeks into the New Year and already another adventure lined up, go, go, go! Next stop: Donsol, Sorsogon! Donsol is most popularly known for the locals, no, not those from Sorsogon, but the whale sharks (butandings, as they are locally called)! Every year they come back to the waters of the Bicol Region by the dozens! The most exciting part is that you can actually swim with them! After visiting many aquariums around the world, seeing aquatic life from behind a glass, this excited my heart more than anything (and also scared it, to be honest!). It’s quite a trip away from Manila. It’s an hour plane ride to Legazpi, Albay then another hour by car to Sorsogon. I was half-asleep and disoriented for most of the trip, plus it didn’t help that the ... read more
June 9th 2011
Goodbye Malaysia (at least for now, no worries Yean Yean, KL is still on our "need to revisit" list) and hello Philippines. Arriving to Clark airport we had to take a 2 hour bus, to get us to our first destination in the Philippines - Manila. As we were leaving the suburbs and getting closer to the city itself, I thought to myself "great, a couple of more minutes, and I will be enjoyin my well deserved shower, put my feet up, get some food..." Yeah sure, Manila is big people, BIG. The population in the capital of Philippines is 16 million and according to wiki it's the most densely populated city in the world! So, instead of arriving shortly to our destination, it started to look like we were never going to get to our ... read more
May 24th 2011
Our trip to Donsol began with a 25 hour bus ride! We took another freezing cold night bus from Banaue to Manila (10hours) which arrived at 6am. We originally planned on spending the day in Manila and then taking another long bus ride to Legaspi (the main town near Donsol) the following day. However, because we were so tired from our first journey we didn't feel up to exploring the chaos of Manila and so decided to power through and take a local bus to Legaspi (13hours). The bus journey was great but VERY long, we left at 8am and got to Legaspi at 9.30pm so if you add that to our night bus we were traveling for over 25 hours! On the bus we were crammed into our seats (with 7 people squashed across one row), ... read more
April 24th 2011
Dave and I are actually getting quite good at this traveling around business, it's a shame it's right at the end of our trip! After a short flight from Cebu to Legazpi, we managed to navigate our way to the local bus terminal by thriftily sharing a tricycle with another traveler. As with most places in Asia, there is no real timetable, buses just leave when they're full... Usually very full! We therefore squeezed us and our backpacks onto a (supposedly) aircon mini bus for the one hour drive to Donsol. Our hotel provided an airport transfer for 2000PP (£28), but we managed to do it for 170PP (£2.50) for both of us. It was sweaty, it was erratic, but it was a bargain! Paul would be proud. Our home for the next three nights is ... read more
April 1st 2011
Took a taxi to Ermita from the airport, the driver asked for 250PHP claiming his meter is not calibrated yet, we have to go to the departure lounge to get a cheaper taxi, anyhoo I bargained for 200PHP and off we go being dropped off at Cagsawa bus office. We got the last 3 seats for the 7pm bus to Legazpi. It's only 3pm so we walked to Robinson's mall to chill while leaving our big bags at the bus company office. We left on time, heavy traffic out of Manila, Celine Dion live in Vegas is playing in the movie screen, painful to watch, a relief when they shut it. Like any buses in Asia it seems they only have 2 settings, off and on, and on means 18 celsius, so we donned our winter ... read more
February 28th 2011
It was time to leave Manila to head east to the small town of Donsol. Since booking the Philippines we’d heard amazing reviews about Donsol and how it’s the only place where you can swim with whale sharks. So we thought why not?!! Donsol is basically a small rural coastal town that survives mainly on tourists coming to experience the ‘experience of a lifetime’ swimming with the huge elephants of the sea! We both kept this pretty tight-lipped from our families back home just to save any unnecessary worrying!! So here’s how it works… we registered with the tourist company the day before and during this time we were shown a 10 minute observation video to prepare us for our 3 hours interaction – the do’s and don’t!! The do’s – listen and follow your instructors ... read more
April 11th 2010
von naga aus wollten wir mit dem öffentlichen mini-van nach legazpi fahren und dann weiter nach donsol, leider war es schon zu spät und deswegen mussten wir das angebot unserers taxifahrers annehmen und nochmal 30 euro bezahlen, so würden wir aber gleich bis nach donsol kommen. knappe 4h später waren wir auch im amor farm beach resort angekommen (http://www.travbuddy.com/Amor-Farm-Beach-Resort-v192605), mittlerweile war es schon spät und ich war nur mehr hundemüde - am nächsten tag mussten wir ja wieder früh raus, dass wir die haie sehen konnten. weckerklingeln, 6 uhr - tagwache! schnell anziehn, sachen zusammenpacken, unser frühstück holen und los gehts zum visitor center, wo man sich zuerst registrieren muss und natürlich wieder was zahlen, bevor man ein boot zugewiesen bekommt und um 7 uhr herum gehts auch schon los. wir hatten glück, normalerweise sind in ... read more
March 24th 2010
I am sitting in a bamboo style restaurant overlooking a moonlit sea at a resort called Coron. But let me back track a little… I am now in the Philippines… Oh that isn’t far enough is it; I left you the day before I was to dive Sipadan - it was amazing. I am not going to go on and on about it, but I will say it lives up to its reputation and I would recommend using Scuba Junkies if ever you want to dive over there… and definitely stay for a few days on Mabul, which, as it happened I liked just as much (or even more) than Sipadan. However I should mention that Sipadan has a massive Coral wall which drops to well 600 metres (!) and I felt so small and insignificant ... read more
March 15th 2010
Dès notre arrivé à Donsol, nous avons du chercher pour un hotel, ce qui s’est avéré être plus difficile que prévus... Après avoir visité 3 hotels, nous avons finalement terminer notre rechercher pour finalement être capable de s’allonger dans un lit après plus d’environ 30hrs sans sommeil... Mais après avoir bu plusieurs café en matinée et en plus l’excitation de visiter un nouvel endroit... nous étions incapable de dormir. Nous avons donc décidé d’aller manger un peu et visiter les environs. Nous en avons aussi profité pour s’inscrire à la visite des Whales Sharks pour le lendemain matin. Donc, après avoir mangé un peu, nous voilà de retour à la chambre... il est maintenant le temps pour un petit somme avant d’aller souper en soirée... il était environ 4hrs PM lorsque nous nous sommes allongés pour ... read more
