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All the best diving footage in less than 90 seconds!
Disclaimers...YOLO, do what makes you happy which could mean you stay at the same dive location for 3 weeks
Day 1, The GF and I land in Manila, fly to Dumaguete, we check in at the resort 71% Dive Resort at $65/night USD all in, order grab food delivery, hit the pool/hot tub until the food comes, and go to bed early as we were jetlagged. The hotel was great, the room was mixed; the room was 600 square feet but there was only AC in the bedroom. We couldn't take the heat so spent very little time in the living room/kitchen. It also has very tall ceilings so takes quite a while for the AC to bring down the temperature of the room if you lf it off for the day. They included free breakfast
Day 2, Dove Apo Island. Very cool, schools of large fish and turtles
Day 3, Dove Dauin. In the video, you can see the flamboyant cuttlefish, mimic octopus, and blue ring octopus. Checked out, took the 30-minute drive to the Cebu Island ferry port, took the 5 pm 20-minute ferry, and another 40-minute drive to the Oslob Ging Ging hotel for $33 USD all in for the single night, it included free breakfast which was served very early at 5 am. Wifi didn't work when we checked in or at all that night, asked the front desk who confirmed it was down with no eta; it was working in the morning. Both the AC and hot shower were great
Day 4, Dove in Oslob with the Whalesharks, drive 2 hours to Moalboal, dive with the Sardines, continue to drive to Maya which is where the Malapascua ferry is, and check into the D & N Lounge for $29 USD all in for the single night. The room was okay for the price, there wasn't any hot water or temperature control for the shower or sink, just cold water which wasn't mentioned in their description. I was told it'll take 8-10 hours to drive from Moalboal to Maya yet I was checking Google Maps weeks before at the same estimated day/time and it was quoted around 5 and a half hours. I mention this because we departed Moalboal at 1 pm Tuesday and arrived in Maya only 4h 45minutes later which included two short breaks. I would imagine on a weekend it's far worse yet using Google Maps on the day and time weeks before was very accurate. We could have made the ferry but I had already paid for the Maya room for the night and speedboat the next morning so there really wasn't a benefit in taking the ferry the evening before
Day 5, We walked 5 minutes to the Maya ferry port and boarded the pre-booked private speedboat for $35 USD which took 20-minute to get to Malapascua. I was told the Coast Guard won't let boats out until 5:30 am but turns out that if the conditions aren't rough they routinely allow boats to leave at 5 am. Booked the Thresher Shark Dive with Mabuhay Dive Center and had their guide/DM but was really a joiner for Thresher Shark Divers as they were one of the only boats to leave a little later at 6 am and if you tell them you're taking a private speedboat, they'll wait if you're a little late. Dove with the thresher sharks for 2 tanks and a 3rd tank for potential tiger sharks but there weren't any (was told tigers appear 20% of the time). Checked into our "villa" at AABANA resort for $50/night USD all in. Very mixed opinions about it. In hindsight wouldn't recommend the location (Evolution is next door), I would highly recommend the southwest as you'll be a lot closer to the downtown area, the ferry port, and can watch the sunset vs the sunrise. The room is a free-standing structure without shared walls, A/C and wifi worked great but the shower had two showerheads, one was only TOO hot and the other was cold. To shower we found double fisting it was the way to go (lol). Worse, there was a huge trashcan in the large shower, I opened it having no idea what I'd find and it was full of water and had a bucket. I asked the front desk about it and they said you can wash yourself and fill the toilet tank to flush it if the water stops running. I asked how often this happens and she said she doubted it would happen during our 3 night stay. Well, the water did stop on the very last morning which was the day we wanted to shower the most since we would be on a flight so did use the bucket of water which woke us right up (lol). Additionally, the electricity went out 5 times that we knew of, one time for six hours yet that was a scheduled outage. Other more expensive places have generators so if being without power is a concern of yours look into places with generators. One night the power went out just before dinner, we spoke to the front desk who said it was an island-wide outage, so we walked next door to Evolution's restaurant as they have a generator and even wifi. To my surprise, on certain days you could sign up for the 3-tank morning threshers/tiger and 2-tank afternoon Gato and even tack on the single-tank twilight Mandarin fish dive. If you really wanted to, you could do all 6 tanks of Malapascua's best in one single day. We later learned you can book a private boat to pick you up and drop you off at Maya and do 3 thresher/tiger dives and 2 gato, never stepping foot onto Malapascua for under $200 USD (boat and fuel) and you would save a little on your dives as DMs/guides are eager to do this kind of dive as I was told by two of them
Day 6, Dove Gato Island and the Mandarin Fish Twilight dive. I highly recommend both, they're not to be missed although just know with the Mandarin fish, they stay hidden and only come out for two seconds at a time before darting back into hiding. You have to keep all lights off until they come out. There were two that were mating, they popped out of hiding maybe every 90 seconds on average. Between Gato and the Mandarin Fish dive, we bumped into a person selling tours and that's when we found out we could rent a whole boat from 8 am-3 pm for $130 USD (boat and fuel only) and for $25 USD could add on 3 pm-6 pm which adds the Malapascua tour including the sunset, we booked it
Day 7, We paid $325 all in for two people, a private boat from 8 am-6 pm with resort pickup/dropoff, two private dives, dive rental gear, an on-island grilled lunch, tourist fees to go to Kalanggaman (a 2-hour ride), and then the Malapascua sunset tour. Kalanggaman is a beautiful island with a huge sunbar at low tide, she really wanted to go and I heard the diving can be amazing. It was a drift dive, there's a wall, it's mostly a sandy bottom yet there's a grassy part where sea turtles eat. The tour included 3 snorkel sites, the first I can't remember the name but it's just tons of fish between these 3 rocks which protects them from the strong currents, the next spot was the baby blacktips where you could see many of them, and finally, the old IJN shipwreck, ended in North Beach for the sunset before dropping us off at 6 pm. You can visit all these Malapascua snorkel spots from shore but you need to get there so need to find a motorbike ride or rent a motorbike. The northern half of the island's roads are dangerous at times, there are blind hairpin turns, steep hills that test your brakes and at times the cement road is all cracked with big chunks missing. There can be stretches of dirt roads, not a big deal when dry but could only imagine if raining
Overall a great trip!
Disclaimers...YOLO, do what makes you happy which could mean you stay at the same dive location for 3 weeks
Day 1, The GF and I land in Manila, fly to Dumaguete, we check in at the resort 71% Dive Resort at $65/night USD all in, order grab food delivery, hit the pool/hot tub until the food comes, and go to bed early as we were jetlagged. The hotel was great, the room was mixed; the room was 600 square feet but there was only AC in the bedroom. We couldn't take the heat so spent very little time in the living room/kitchen. It also has very tall ceilings so takes quite a while for the AC to bring down the temperature of the room if you lf it off for the day. They included free breakfast
Day 2, Dove Apo Island. Very cool, schools of large fish and turtles
Day 3, Dove Dauin. In the video, you can see the flamboyant cuttlefish, mimic octopus, and blue ring octopus. Checked out, took the 30-minute drive to the Cebu Island ferry port, took the 5 pm 20-minute ferry, and another 40-minute drive to the Oslob Ging Ging hotel for $33 USD all in for the single night, it included free breakfast which was served very early at 5 am. Wifi didn't work when we checked in or at all that night, asked the front desk who confirmed it was down with no eta; it was working in the morning. Both the AC and hot shower were great
Day 4, Dove in Oslob with the Whalesharks, drive 2 hours to Moalboal, dive with the Sardines, continue to drive to Maya which is where the Malapascua ferry is, and check into the D & N Lounge for $29 USD all in for the single night. The room was okay for the price, there wasn't any hot water or temperature control for the shower or sink, just cold water which wasn't mentioned in their description. I was told it'll take 8-10 hours to drive from Moalboal to Maya yet I was checking Google Maps weeks before at the same estimated day/time and it was quoted around 5 and a half hours. I mention this because we departed Moalboal at 1 pm Tuesday and arrived in Maya only 4h 45minutes later which included two short breaks. I would imagine on a weekend it's far worse yet using Google Maps on the day and time weeks before was very accurate. We could have made the ferry but I had already paid for the Maya room for the night and speedboat the next morning so there really wasn't a benefit in taking the ferry the evening before
Day 5, We walked 5 minutes to the Maya ferry port and boarded the pre-booked private speedboat for $35 USD which took 20-minute to get to Malapascua. I was told the Coast Guard won't let boats out until 5:30 am but turns out that if the conditions aren't rough they routinely allow boats to leave at 5 am. Booked the Thresher Shark Dive with Mabuhay Dive Center and had their guide/DM but was really a joiner for Thresher Shark Divers as they were one of the only boats to leave a little later at 6 am and if you tell them you're taking a private speedboat, they'll wait if you're a little late. Dove with the thresher sharks for 2 tanks and a 3rd tank for potential tiger sharks but there weren't any (was told tigers appear 20% of the time). Checked into our "villa" at AABANA resort for $50/night USD all in. Very mixed opinions about it. In hindsight wouldn't recommend the location (Evolution is next door), I would highly recommend the southwest as you'll be a lot closer to the downtown area, the ferry port, and can watch the sunset vs the sunrise. The room is a free-standing structure without shared walls, A/C and wifi worked great but the shower had two showerheads, one was only TOO hot and the other was cold. To shower we found double fisting it was the way to go (lol). Worse, there was a huge trashcan in the large shower, I opened it having no idea what I'd find and it was full of water and had a bucket. I asked the front desk about it and they said you can wash yourself and fill the toilet tank to flush it if the water stops running. I asked how often this happens and she said she doubted it would happen during our 3 night stay. Well, the water did stop on the very last morning which was the day we wanted to shower the most since we would be on a flight so did use the bucket of water which woke us right up (lol). Additionally, the electricity went out 5 times that we knew of, one time for six hours yet that was a scheduled outage. Other more expensive places have generators so if being without power is a concern of yours look into places with generators. One night the power went out just before dinner, we spoke to the front desk who said it was an island-wide outage, so we walked next door to Evolution's restaurant as they have a generator and even wifi. To my surprise, on certain days you could sign up for the 3-tank morning threshers/tiger and 2-tank afternoon Gato and even tack on the single-tank twilight Mandarin fish dive. If you really wanted to, you could do all 6 tanks of Malapascua's best in one single day. We later learned you can book a private boat to pick you up and drop you off at Maya and do 3 thresher/tiger dives and 2 gato, never stepping foot onto Malapascua for under $200 USD (boat and fuel) and you would save a little on your dives as DMs/guides are eager to do this kind of dive as I was told by two of them
Day 6, Dove Gato Island and the Mandarin Fish Twilight dive. I highly recommend both, they're not to be missed although just know with the Mandarin fish, they stay hidden and only come out for two seconds at a time before darting back into hiding. You have to keep all lights off until they come out. There were two that were mating, they popped out of hiding maybe every 90 seconds on average. Between Gato and the Mandarin Fish dive, we bumped into a person selling tours and that's when we found out we could rent a whole boat from 8 am-3 pm for $130 USD (boat and fuel only) and for $25 USD could add on 3 pm-6 pm which adds the Malapascua tour including the sunset, we booked it
Day 7, We paid $325 all in for two people, a private boat from 8 am-6 pm with resort pickup/dropoff, two private dives, dive rental gear, an on-island grilled lunch, tourist fees to go to Kalanggaman (a 2-hour ride), and then the Malapascua sunset tour. Kalanggaman is a beautiful island with a huge sunbar at low tide, she really wanted to go and I heard the diving can be amazing. It was a drift dive, there's a wall, it's mostly a sandy bottom yet there's a grassy part where sea turtles eat. The tour included 3 snorkel sites, the first I can't remember the name but it's just tons of fish between these 3 rocks which protects them from the strong currents, the next spot was the baby blacktips where you could see many of them, and finally, the old IJN shipwreck, ended in North Beach for the sunset before dropping us off at 6 pm. You can visit all these Malapascua snorkel spots from shore but you need to get there so need to find a motorbike ride or rent a motorbike. The northern half of the island's roads are dangerous at times, there are blind hairpin turns, steep hills that test your brakes and at times the cement road is all cracked with big chunks missing. There can be stretches of dirt roads, not a big deal when dry but could only imagine if raining
Overall a great trip!
