Blogs from Malapascua Island, Philippines, Asia - page 3

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Asia » Philippines » Malapascua Island June 7th 2009

Sorry we've been slow to put up a new post... our guesthouse is a few steps off a white sand beach, the weather is about 80 degrees all day and the water is perfect, we haven't been able to get the motivation to find a computer until now. Here's whats been going on the past few days: In the hours following our last post we walked out of the main backpackers area to find a place to eat. We ran into an off duty cop who informed us it was a national holiday and that the king was in Bangkok. This meant gas was free, taxis were essentially free, and most tourist sites were open and free. We flagged down a tuk tuk (a motorbike taxi) with our driver Noi and saw the Standing Buddha, Lucky ... read more
Tuk Tuk Ride
Bangkok Dangerous?
Standing Buddha

Asia » Philippines » Malapascua Island December 9th 2008

No cocktails or dolphins, but the boat trip to Malapascua Island was great! It definitely was worth the little extra money, for the comfort of leaving right from your front door / beach to the next beach. It took us about three and a half hours. Upon arrival I found the guys of the dive shops a little pesky, so decided against all the accomodation they were trying to get me in. Too expensive and not my thing either to stay in one of them airconditioned concrete bunkers (brightly coloured of course) on the beach. After a little walk, not far into the interior, maybe 25 meters off the beach we found Be Be's, a collection of dirt cheap bungalows. We got one for 400 pesos, which was a bargain really. And for some reason, the ... read more
Malapascua
Malapascua
Malapascua

Asia » Philippines » Malapascua Island October 18th 2008

Was das Boot von S.Isidro anging lag die Touristeninformation bei einer Auskunft richtig, das Boot fuhr erst um halb 9 ab, als es voll genug war, die andere Auskunft, dass das Boot direkt nach Malapascua fahren würde, war leider falsch. Es fuhr in der Tat nach Maya, wie wir erwartet hatten. Es war eine schöne, zweistündige Überfahrt (180 P) in einer großen Banca, einem jener sehr fotogenen, typisch philippinischen Barken, die von der Form her an Katamarane erinnern. In Maya angekommen war ich angenehm überrascht, dass die Boote nach Malapascua (kleinere Bancas), ob voll oder nicht, pünktlich halbstündlich, nach Fahrplan, ablegten. Die kurze halbstündige Überfahrt kostet 50 Pesos, wenn man am Schalter sein Ticket kauft, mehr direkt auf dem Boot. Malapascua, eine winzige Insel, 1 km breit, gut 2 km lang, an der Nordspitze Cebus wird ... read more
Malapascua
Malapascua
San Isidro

Asia » Philippines » Malapascua Island September 27th 2008

Leaving Palawan For a while we were wondering whether we were going to make it off Cacnipa Island. With the threat of a typhoon coming through, we'd had to make peace with the fact that we may not get back to Puerto Princesa in time to catch our flight to Cebu. There are worse place to get stuck... As it turns out the wind calmed down enough for us to escape paradise, and at 6am we were on the banca surfing the waves back to Palawan. The bus schedule from the port town of Saint Vincent does not run according to time, but instead had simply a list of the order in which the minivans would be leaving. They just wait around until the van is full and then leave. We arrived pretty early, and settled ... read more
Barnca ride back to Palawan
View from the bus to Maya
Lionfish

Asia » Philippines » Malapascua Island September 10th 2008

As travellers, it always seems like a good idea to go back to places where you had a good experience. For the second time in 6 months we have been very disappointed by places we have revisited. We should have known things would not go smoothly when stupid Cebu Pacific wouldn’t allow us to book flights online, it’s website has an inability to accept foreign bank issued credit cards. When we finally managed to book our flights to Cebu, a week before leaving we had the flight times first changed (both going and returning) then the return flight was cancelled and then the return flight was re-instated only 3 days later than originally scheduled! So arriving into Cebu went a little more smoothly and surprisingly the hotel we had booked in Cebu city had kept our ... read more
island path
palm trees on the beach
beach shot

Asia » Philippines » Malapascua Island June 25th 2008

Malapascua Island was purportedly an idyllic tropical paradise, an unknown little island tucked away just north of the big island of Cebu. Until thresher sharks were discovered on the nearby shoals, Malapascua was simply an island of villages. Since then, a diving boom has created a string of resorts and dive shops along the white sand beach, traditional thatch huts and a tiki bar with a thatch and bamboo roof, and views over the tropical turquoise sea. Simon and Lauren called ahead to confirm that the threshers were around, and upon the dive shop confirming that they were spotted about 80% of the time they decided to go for it (at least they would get out of Manila!). From Cebu they took a bus to the town of Maya and then a ferry to Malapascua. After ... read more
Excited for Threshers
Palms and Sugarcane
Sunrise

Asia » Philippines » Malapascua Island May 27th 2008

Apart from my closing comments for the trip (the very last entry) , this will be the last blog entry of the trip in terms of describing our activities - and as a result will probably be one of the longest as we crammed in a LOT in just 2 weeks ! (Skip this section if you don't want to hear about our Diving courses and adventures!).... OPEN WATER 4 day PADI COURSE: Despite the Box Jelly Fish Saga in Borneo and our two 'interviews' with instructors in Bali - both nobs - we finally got to meet our '3rd time lucky' instructor called Mike based at 'Thresher Shark Divers' a 5 star padi accredited dive centre. He was a typical Yorkshireman - blunt, down to earth equipped with a good sense of humour. DAY 1, ... read more
Island fiesta
Luxury transport to our dive boat
Our dive sites

Asia » Philippines » Malapascua Island April 17th 2008

We have just finished visiting our 13th and final island in the Philippines. There are a total of 7,107 islands, so we have just 7,094 left to visit on another trip! Wow, I thought we had covered quite a lot in our 5 or so weeks here, but we certainly have a lot left for next time!... Since I last published a blog, we have been to three different places, all famous for diving. Consequently, we have done lots of diving recently, and let's just say I had some new and scary experiences underwater! The first was at Moalboal resort on Cebu. We signed up for a dive at the most famous site in the area with a local dive centre. As is typical with local dive shops, they are great at finding things to see ... read more
One of Malapscua's postcard beaches
Boats in Bounty Beach, Malapascua
Malapascua's floating bar seen from Bounty Beach

Asia » Philippines » Malapascua Island March 23rd 2008

Tropical Crystal White Sunny Paradise Quiet Coconuts Happy Perfect... read more
sand girl
Photo 21
Photo 15

Asia » Philippines » Malapascua Island March 21st 2008

Oh, the Philippines. It has got to be my favorite countriy in all of Asia along with Indonesia. Filipinos are friendly, the country relatively light on tourists still, and the diving viz and coral life is amazing. Did I mention that the beaches, from Boracay to Palawan to Malapascua and Cebu, are all blinding white and make heavy use of those palms that take you straight to Tropical Paradise. AND the roasted chicken is something made of legends. Maybe the ONLY thing I would improve on the Phils is the surf doesn't compare to Indo. What is surprising about the Phils (and parts of Myanmar still) is that you can actually hear the dynamite fishing going on underwater sometimes, a little sad yes but surprisingly the places I've dove, I actually can't see the difference in ... read more
Photo 33
Photo 27
Mr. Thresher Shark




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