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Published: February 20th 2016
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Oslob 14th - 15th
We travelled to Oslob by taxi, original plan was the bus but there as an hours wait and a connecting bus which meant a journey would become half a day! We met some locals at the bus stop and had a good old chat and managed to get them to barter with a taxi from 2000 pesos to 1200, they were so lovely! This meant we could arrive in 90 minutes and explore Oslob to determine whether we would move on the next day. We arrived at our hostel and they had overbooked the room so already upgraded us to a suite (not suites that we are used to back home). The girls that worked there were very friendly. We booked with them to go to swim with the whale sharks the following morning and had to be up @ 05:30, we decided to have a chilled evening and make sure there were no additional anxiety caused by alcohol before swimming with 8ft sharks? Around 10 o clock in the evening we were all hungry so went for a walk to see whether we could find a restaurant of street food, but alls we found were
dark streets, locals and a little hut with a few snacks in. The guy was so friendly and his cross selling skills were amazing with chocolates, noodles and a tin of beans and sausage in hand we walked back yo the hostel and asked the girls to warm up for us. Then arrived some very drunken people staying in the hostel, a guy from LA, one English guy and a French guy, they sat with us, barely making sense and asked if they could join us to swim with the Sharks! Polite as ever we agreed and they were quite humourous, they said under the condition you can wake us in the morning @ 05:30 he repeated his bungalow 4 times "room D, please don't forget". Morning came far too quickly we got ready and I went to room D and banged on the door, no-one answered so banged a little louder and a blonde tall man answered the door, in that second I knew they were fucking with me!We got into the mini van and headed to the ocean and we were all a little subdued (aka scared shitless). They gave us a 5 minute tutorial which consisted of
*no sunscreen to be warn it harms the whale sharks*no flash photography*4 metres distance from them*if they come towards you do not panic just try and swim away calmly*dont touch them as you leave fingerprints With this in mind we put on our life jackets and were taken in a boat as little as 300 metres. We were advised to remove life jackets and get in the water, I got in first preying there wasn't one by my feet and waited for the girls to get in. Within 5 seconds we were within 10 metres of these giant whale sharks, it was so exhilarating and intense at first. We only had 30 minutes with them so had to make the most of it, we tried to get as close as possible to take pictures but there were at least another 30 people in the ocean with us. I cannot advise you strongly enough this is something you have to do if given the opportunity. I was trying to get a picture of Bec in front of one when the man on the boat threw food in and it came towards us with its mouth wide open, we both turned away
and swam gently without looking back. Once the 30 minutes were up we were at the side of the boat waiting to get back on where 2 Argentinian men had already been waiting in the boat and they started to point directly underneath us and the biggest whale shark swam straight underneath no further then 1 metre away! Later that day we had arranged with one of the girls that worked at the hostel to get us a ferry direct to Bohol (although everybody had advised us this couldn't happen and we would have to go back to Cebu to get a ferry from there) this didn't make sense as it was the next island so were so pleased that we had asked. The girl that arranged it was very secretive and told us not to tell the owner and she would arrange a trike to the ferry and she would get the fare. It was all very hush, hush. She asked us to meet her outside at 10:00 we got our bags and waited, we were approached by the owner of the hostel and we asked "can we get a ferry to Bohol direct from here?" He said "yes
I'll take you" we said no thanks we have already arranged. The 2 girls we had arranged with then lied to the owner and told him we were going to Palawan!The situation started to get very sketchy, she walked us passed the port and made us sit and wait in the middle of nowhere and then things started to feel wrong. We picked up our bags and started to walk back to the hostel. Luckily we had past the port and now there were at least 12 people waiting to go to Bohol so we waited with them knowing everything was OK. The ferry (very small boat) was unable to dock so we had to wait for all the baggage to be carried on board and then small boats fitting 5 people at a time to walk us out to the ferry, let's just say the Philippinos are the most laid back people in the world!We set off 3 hours later than expected. The ferry ride was very bumpy and started to rain, we spoke to a guy from Germany named Thomas who was very handsome and lovely and enjoyed the bumpy crossing, having to fix the boat at times
as parts were coming unattached. We were soaking upon arrival to Bohol. But managed to recruit Thomas and two Slovakian guys and get in a truck loaded with water to take us to Alona beach. If a situation doesn't feel right, then no matter what get out of it!
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