Blogs from Malapascua Island, Philippines, Asia - page 2

Hello all, Hope this finds you well... Over the past couple of weeks we've done a fair bit of travelling since leaving Dumaguette. First destination was Bohol which involved us taking a 3 hour boat which was absolutley fine this time round, no episodes of us being sick hand in hand in the toilet! In Bohol we visited the famous Chocolate Hills via buses and Jeepneys. There are at least 1,260 hills but there may be as much as 1,776 hills spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres (20 sq mi). They are covered in green grass that turns brown during the dry season, hence the name. Thanks Wikipedia... Sarah and I really enjoyed viewing the hills although it probably would have been a lot prettier had the sun been shining. The best ... read more

I'm starting to forget how we arrive at places to be honest. I'm in the Philippines so definitely a boat... Probably some form of spine jarring bus journey as well I'd imagine...! Anyway here we are on the beautiful island of Malapascua! Our trip here was a bit of a last minute decision based on a recommendation from some divers we met in a bar. Situated at the northern tip of Cebu, Malapascua is home to only a handful of resorts. People come here to dive not party or sunbathe, so the beaches are deserted in the day apart from a few village children and the occasional snorkeler (not that there's much coral due to dynamite fishing). One of the main reasons to come to Malapascua is to see the Thresher sharks. I'd never heard of ... read more

We"ve been on the island 5 days or so. Loving the very laid back life style. Local people are extremely warm and engaging. No Americans here, but we"ve met people from Australia, England, Scottland, Germany, and elsewhere. Meals are good, but it is best not to have expectations on what any particular dish might taste like. The rum is less expensive than the cokes are. San Miguel is the beer of choice. Meals are generally very reasonable, $4 to $8 on average. We've been diving one or two tmes a day, and will receive our open water Padi certification. The corals are gorgeous and colorful. The fish are brilliant, although relatively small as the waters have been fished out, and they do "dynamite" fishing which obviously decimates the fish population. Our instructor Angus, is a great ... read more

So spent a couple of days relaxing (on a budget) and started off the diving again. All the hype about seeing the sharks etc left a little too much to the imagination. Obviously your not expecting tens of them swimming by but it was pretty lame all the same. First dive, up at 5am(best time for shark spotting) went down to the cleaning station, just sat at 22 meters waiting for something to happen, odd bat fish maybe, but spent the rest of the time trying to find large shapes in the blue. Came up no sharks the better! So next day, again a very early morning, same result! To be fair we did see some devil rays (huge) and a silhouette of something moving (shark) in the blue! But wasn't exactly a sighting. The next ... read more

The effects of traveling finally caught up with us and after our last post Colin got hit with a 24 hour bug that put him in bed for 36 straight hours (he's fully recovered now... and 24 hour bugs somehow last 36 hours here). We posponed diving for the day and James and Matt went into the middle of the island to find a game of basketball. We found a well maintained court a couple minutes outside the resort and after wandering around aimlessly in the village for a few minutes someone threw a basketball out of their house for us to use. After about 30 minutes of one on one we had a crowd of about 15 people watching and we tried to challenge two of the locals to a game. They waited another 30 ... read more