7 day trip to Malapascua Island or Alona Beach in Bohol, which is better location?

[gee13]

hey rjjj111 i will be in port lincoln for the white sharks in a few months!

yes curious about threshers out in the midday. you did get lucky indeed!

we left cebu city early in the morning and caught a private boat from maya. We were in malapascua by lunchtime and was in the water soon after

It was quite a trek for us - even being not so far from australia we had to go via kl to manila then to cebu overnight. Then the long land and boat trip to mp from cebu city. After mp we did the long trek south to moalboal and then back to cebu city on to manila to singapore overnight then flight back to perth. Yes it was long transit time but we had some great diving and was lucky to see a thresher on our last dive on monad.

 

[rjjj111]

gee13, when i went great white shark diving with rodney fox group in 2007, it was basically a no show on the sharks. we saw one great white for about 1 minute that was it. it was very disappointing to say the least. we did go snorkeling with some big Australian sea lions which was very nice. great whites are never guaranteed. i did have a good time in general everywhere else in Australia.

one of the highlights of my trip besides the barrier reef diving was scuba diving in the Melbourne Aquarium. a really nice trip, scuba diving with 200 to 225 kilo nerf sharks. plus a lot of other things. i would encourage you to do the aquarium dive if at all possible.

how many days were you diving in Malapascua to see the threshers in monad? i was thinking of staying 4 to 7 days, depending on the diving. what about seeing some rays in Malapascua? did you see any of those? what time of the morning did you get up to go on the threshers dives? what company did you dive with? what time of the year did you dive Malapascua? i hear the visibility is not great during early january when i plan to be there.

 

[rjjj111]

gee13, what resort did you stay at? any suggestions while i am in Malapascua? things to go and do or things to see?

 

[gee13]

Rjjj111 - I hear there are larger congregations of GWS around Neptune island in recent years and sightings are almost guaranteed for 1-2 or more of them now. Well lets hope I get to see one. I spent about 4 days diving in MP. We saw one thresher in the last 10 min of dive on the 2nd day! We also had 5 Devil rays swim by on one dive at Monad. No decent photos of course it was too dark. Very Lucky because we had some strong winds come in after that and no chance of dives on Monad on following days with swell big too. That also cancelled our trip to Gato. Vis was about 10-15m at Monad and 5-10m around the island. You can check my galleries of mp which I managed to get finally a decent mandarin mating shot. Had the whole site to myself and Jojo! Which was great for a change to the mass of photogs on one clump.

I stayed at Purple Snapper and was happy with it. Basic, with hot water, inexpensive in a quiet compound away from the beach. Dived with Evolution and got looked after well. Apart from a little hitch with booking of the boat on the return leg to maya, the diving was well organised they had nitrox avail which was great for the monad dives and the dms were great spotters and really easy going. It was fairly quiet so we usually had 2 dms to 3-4 of us. I would say if the transfer costs were not so high (I was lucky because I got a friend to share a taxi and boat fare to halve costs) I would be back there in an earshot and prob spend a week. I really enjoyed the quiet island life during off-gassing time. Theres a bit too do there are some decent mangroves to visit and a few other villages and interesting spots around the island. I spent most of the time diving though, and processing photos. Dont know much about the nightlife. Was usually in bed by 9pm for that 3.30am rise! There's still a chance of another return leg though. However this time I wouldnt do it in Jan for the risk of those local winds (not sure what the locals called it again) Hope you manage to avoid it.

 

[rjjj111]

Gee13, did you go to Malapascua in the January time range? I am planing going there to Malapascua around 12th of January time range. Would you go again now looking back? I want to go some place I have never been before, but i do not want to waste a week in Malapascua if it is not worth it? What do you think?

 

[gee13]

We were there late Jan I think around 23-26. So you may be okay to arrive early if the patterns this year are anything to go by. The winds would have started on the 25th not to stop for a bit. Perhaps Matt can shed more light for you as he is more knowledgable about weather time frames. That said the weather when we arrived was perfect with dead calm seas (prob eye of the storm). And for saving grace at Moalboal we had reasonably good conditions down there after.

 

[thebib]

Hi,

I've more or less the same plan (i.e. Malapascua - bohol) begin november but in 10 days (for both destinations). Does it sound feasible or would you recommand another option ?

Thanks

 

[Centrals]

Hi,

I've more or less the same plan (i.e. Malapascua - bohol) begin november but in 10 days (for both destinations). Does it sound feasible or would you recommand another option ?

Thanks

Go to Malapascua first and then Bohol.
The trip from Bohol back to Cebu is straight forward.
However, Moalboal has the sardines that got everyone talking about.
If the sea is rough or typhoon is around then go to Moalboal which is 2hrs away by car from Cebu.

 

[eagerbeaver]

In terms of weather, January is not traditionally a bad time of year and it is "busy" season in the Philippines - so clearly people keep returning or giving decent feedback about that time of year. Obvious weather patterns all over the place have been a bit strange in the last year or 2, so I don't really hold my breathe and I look out the window in the morning to see what the conditions are like.

I don't think in 8+yrs that I've ever missed a day of diving in January due to weather. And probably only missed 5 in total in that time. We dive all year round and the conditions are generally excellent.

Is Malapascua worth it? Well yesterday we had 20mins of Thresher shark viewing in the morning; then we went to Dona Marilyn, a fantastic 100m long ferry sunk in 1988, covered in Black Coral bushes and schools of fish - good penetration too The last dive was at Gato Island, swim through the cave, whitetip sharks, cuttle fish, loads of nudis and brilliant colourful soft corals.

This morning I dove at Monad mid morning and saw a huge whitetip and 2 eagle rays whilst i glided along the fan covered wall with no other divers in site than the 2 with me. This afternoon we're goign for another great wall dive which is just in front of the diveshop(tech cert required)...

I think the diving here is awesome.

 

[rjjj111]

Thanks for your opinions...... I will think about things for now. I still have 2 months before I come to the Philippines. But i am sure i will have a good time.