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Published: December 29th 2007
Once we landed at Kuala Lumpur, we transferred straight to the main terminal building to ask about flights as we had some choices to make. Our first choice was Japan, and after a few enquiries, we found out it’s the same price to get a return flight to Japan from here as it is from London, so we scratched that off the list. Our next choice was the Philippines, which would require a trip back to the LCCT (low cost carrier terminal) as that’s where all the budget airlines fly from. Instead we decided to spend a day or so in the city, and check for the best prices online. It didn’t take long before we had flights booked into Cebu (via Manila) and a return back to Bangkok for a couple of weeks later.
Cebu/Moalboal We decided to fly into Cebu as we had only one agenda while we were in the country, to dive as much as possible (as much as our budget would allow anyway) and this seemed the best base to explore the immediate surrounds. Once we landed in Cebu City we passed straight through to the bus station and caught a public bus
down the west coast to Moalboal. From here it was a really short tricycle ride to Panagsama beach, which is a complete misnomer as there’s no beach there at all. This didn’t bother us at all though, as we were more interested in what was in the water. There are several dive sites located nearby and it has a whole host of dive shops/resorts to choose from. At this time the Philippines was being threatened by three Typhoons, one in the north, one in the south and one which had already passed was returning from the west, the edge of this one was causing some high winds, and terriblr weather so on our first day we spent our time looking at all the shops trying to make a choice based on price and quality, hoping the storm would pass soon, so we could get in the water.
Thankfully it did and we spent the next 3 days completing 7 dives with
Savedra Dive centre, two at Pescador Island, a short boat ride away and the rest on the drop off 30m from shore at various points along the coast. Although the current was quite strong at times, Pescador proved to be
my favourite as the visibility was always excellent, and there was a good selection of hard and soft corals. All the dives were good though and we saw sea turtles on every dive, which is always great.
Bohol/Panglao Island We spent an entire day changing islands, which entailed a long bus ride back to the city, then a ferry to Tagbilaran on Bohol, the neighbouring island. We then took a taxi to our destination, Alona Beach… which actually does have a beach!
As I was suffering from a cold, we’d thought we’d give the diving a miss for a day, hired a scooter and went to see Bohol’s other great attractions. First we went to the Tarsier sanctuary to see the endangered primates endemic to this part of the country. They’re a small animal that looks like a cross between Mogwai and Yoda, and they’ve even got pictures of the green Jedi at the sanctuary for comparisons. We were taken by a ranger to a breeding area out back which houses 10 mature tarsiers. It didn’t take much effort for the ranger to point them out as we walked through the area, and they didn’t seem to
mind if we got close to them at all. One, we were sure was stuffed until it finally moved its head a fraction. After the sanctuary it was a short drive into the centre of Bohol to see the Chocolate Hills, a large group of mounds which turn brown in the dry season. Although they were green this time of year, they were pretty much what you’d expect… hills; though they are quite photogenic and reminded me of Teletubby land
The next day I was feeling a lot better and less congested so we continued the diving. We also decided to complete our Advanced Open Water certification, as it only entailed completing another 3 adventure dives. Although we had an excellent instructor (from Belgium) it seemed more like it was just a way for PADI to make more money rather than extra training. We learned a few more tricks, but we’re gaining far more experience and knowledge just from diving a lot, still it puts us further up the PADI ladder, which is where we want to go, hopefully one day making divemaster, or even Instructor. We completed 7 dives from Alona beach, with
Alona Divers , one at Pamilacan Island,
one at Snake Island, a night dive on the house reef and the rest at Balicasag Island. All the dives were excellent, but Balicasag take the grand prize, it was incredible. The diversity of hard and soft corals and abundance of fish life was incredible; the visibility was excellent too, which always makes for enjoyable diving. It was on these dives I found a real love for photographing the small things, especially Nuidibranchs (sea slugs), they come in such an amazing variety of colours and sizes, and as they really don’t move very fast (if at all) they make excellent subjects under the lens.
Malapascua Island We had a really good time at Alona but we had to move on, as we had other islands and other dive sites to explore so another day of travelling back to Cebu, but up to the northern tip where a small island lays, Malapascua.
Malapascua isn’t a particularly large island, but it’s gaining more and more popularity as divers flock to one dive site (Monad Shoal) in particular to spot Thresher Sharks. Non- divers come to the island to relax and generally soak up the amazing tranquillity, as it doesn’t
even have 24hr electricity or fresh water, and it’s quite possibly the most beautiful island I’ve ever seen. The sand was powdery white and the water was warm, calm and incredibly clear, it really was stunning.
We stayed at
Exotic Dive Resort which has the most incredibly friendly and informative staff. The island is one of the very few places in the world where it’s possible to spot
Thresher Sharks, but as they don’t really interest us, we thought we wouldn’t bother, but after a day or so, we thought we may as well try, especially as we may never see them anywhere else. We did one dive really early in the morning (5.30) which literally just entailed dropping 18-25m down to the shoal, and waiting to see if any turn up. We had high hopes as the morning before the group had spotted a few Threshers and a Manta, so we knelt on the sea bed and waited. And waited. Sadly no luck… after 50 mins or so we ascended back to the surface having seen absolutely nothing. It was no surprise really as we never have much luck with these things and the visibility was really poor, if you struggle to
see your buddy, you’re certainly going to have problems spotting sharks which may be swimming 15m or so away.
We did a couple of dives at Gato island, which although again the visibility was poor it was particularly good for the small things as it has amazing soft corals, and many types of Nudibranchs. Every time someone pointed something out making the hand signal for a Nudibranch my heart skipped a beat, it sounds really crazy but finding a species or colour that we’ve never seen before is like finding gold. When we were back at the dive shop we even fished out their huge book of Nudibranchs to try and identify the names, but there is so many different types, and different colour variations of the same type that we soon gave up.
We also did a dive on the house reef, an artificial reef created by the resort by sinking various large objects such as
Jeepneys and boats. It was a really interesting dive as many young fish use the objects to hide and stay safe. We also did a sunset dive near the lighthouse aiming to spot the elusive Mandarin fish as they come out
at dusk to mate. These fish are one of the most colourful fish on the reef and luckily they weren’t shy at all and continued on as though we weren’t there, performing their mating dance then spraying eggs into the water.
After Malapascua we headed straight to the airport where we would leave the country and continue our journey, it really was a beautiful island with some great dive sites even though the visibility was really disappointing. Still, I wouldn’t hesitate to go back because it really was paradise, the type displayed on all good postcards.
Enjoy the photos... two pages, mostly of slugs... 😊
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Jenni
Jennifer Baldacci
Yay for Sea slugs
Just wanted to say that it's great to hear more about your adventures. It sounds like it's been great. I'm in Amsterdam - first getaway in ages. Keep having fun and I'll keep reading about it and daydreaming while in the classroom...