This is a belated trip report - before I begin I want to thank all the posters on PPD. I didn't really have to ask too many questions as all the answers were in past posts. All you need to do is do a search. Thank god for the internet, otherwise I would have never found all these great dive sites.
We (party of 4) went to Bohol for 6 days in the first week of January, 2 friends were brand-new divers and myself/my bf logged 30 dives before, so none of us were too experienced. Getting to Cebu from Hong Kong was uneventful (CX has a high on-time rate). Getting to the ferry port was also easy, we had a bit of bad luck when our ferry was delayed for 3 hours! Glad I wasn't in a hurry to catch a plane! When we got to Bohol it was already dusk, for some miraclous reason the driver sent to pick us up by the hotel was still there! I suspect he waited for us for the whole day....
We stayed at Alona Tropical as per recommendation we've got from scuba board. It was dirt-cheap (at least dirt-cheap in NY standard), around 35 USD per night for an air-con room. We called to make a reservation over phone - no deposits or anything required. I still find it very strange.... Room was basic but clean. The only problem was some unidentified black powder would fall periodically from the ceiling. Upon asking the front desk they said it was just the natural building material. Uhmmm.... I suspect the "powder" is really wood specks from ants eating away the material on the roof of the hut. Once it started rain this powder stopped sprinkling down from the ceiling.
The weather was overcast and a bit chilly while we were there. I underestimated the water temp (around 81F during the day) and was constantly cold inside the water in my 3mm full suit (not fun). I ended up buying a hood from a local dive shop and it helped somewhat. We dove with Genesis Divers. Both the dive masters and the instructors were very nice there - they really watched out for my friends. (My friends' buoyancy were not good and the DMs really made sure they stuck close to them all the time - I put a big tip in the tip box at the end of the trip cos they totally worked for it!) We dove Balicasag twice and it was as pretty as everyone claims - I love the stackhorn coral fields. The house reef was surprisingly full of life - lots of photography subjects.
We usually ate at the hotel for breakfast for convenience. It was around 120 peso for a set dish, cheap in US standard but expensive in Alona standard. Lunch is usually on the dive boat - you can bring your own lunch or order a lunch box at the dive shop every morning. At night we picked a beachside "restaurant" with the freshest seafood and ate grilled seafood. It was plentiful and nourishing - we also didn't get any upset stomach during our stay so cleaniness was not a problem.
On the day of departure our flight back to HK departed at 8pm, so we took our time to take the ferry back to Cebu. We killed the 5 hours of waiting time in Cebu by negotiating a cab driver to take us around town at 2000 peso for the 4 of us at the ferry port (I have no idea if that was overpriced or not - but I thought a half day tour for 10 USD pp was not very expensive). He dropped us off at a big mall for lunch and shopping (we bought a lot of dried mango), then off to the usual sights like the Magellan Cross, the Old Fort, a Chinese temple and some other sights. He definitely did not try to conserve gas! He dropped us off at the airport in the end - very good service
Our first attempt at underwater photography - http://mentat.smugmug.com/Underwater
All in all Philippines was fun and much more easier to organize the trip from oversea than I thought!
We (party of 4) went to Bohol for 6 days in the first week of January, 2 friends were brand-new divers and myself/my bf logged 30 dives before, so none of us were too experienced. Getting to Cebu from Hong Kong was uneventful (CX has a high on-time rate). Getting to the ferry port was also easy, we had a bit of bad luck when our ferry was delayed for 3 hours! Glad I wasn't in a hurry to catch a plane! When we got to Bohol it was already dusk, for some miraclous reason the driver sent to pick us up by the hotel was still there! I suspect he waited for us for the whole day....
We stayed at Alona Tropical as per recommendation we've got from scuba board. It was dirt-cheap (at least dirt-cheap in NY standard), around 35 USD per night for an air-con room. We called to make a reservation over phone - no deposits or anything required. I still find it very strange.... Room was basic but clean. The only problem was some unidentified black powder would fall periodically from the ceiling. Upon asking the front desk they said it was just the natural building material. Uhmmm.... I suspect the "powder" is really wood specks from ants eating away the material on the roof of the hut. Once it started rain this powder stopped sprinkling down from the ceiling.
The weather was overcast and a bit chilly while we were there. I underestimated the water temp (around 81F during the day) and was constantly cold inside the water in my 3mm full suit (not fun). I ended up buying a hood from a local dive shop and it helped somewhat. We dove with Genesis Divers. Both the dive masters and the instructors were very nice there - they really watched out for my friends. (My friends' buoyancy were not good and the DMs really made sure they stuck close to them all the time - I put a big tip in the tip box at the end of the trip cos they totally worked for it!) We dove Balicasag twice and it was as pretty as everyone claims - I love the stackhorn coral fields. The house reef was surprisingly full of life - lots of photography subjects.
We usually ate at the hotel for breakfast for convenience. It was around 120 peso for a set dish, cheap in US standard but expensive in Alona standard. Lunch is usually on the dive boat - you can bring your own lunch or order a lunch box at the dive shop every morning. At night we picked a beachside "restaurant" with the freshest seafood and ate grilled seafood. It was plentiful and nourishing - we also didn't get any upset stomach during our stay so cleaniness was not a problem.
On the day of departure our flight back to HK departed at 8pm, so we took our time to take the ferry back to Cebu. We killed the 5 hours of waiting time in Cebu by negotiating a cab driver to take us around town at 2000 peso for the 4 of us at the ferry port (I have no idea if that was overpriced or not - but I thought a half day tour for 10 USD pp was not very expensive). He dropped us off at a big mall for lunch and shopping (we bought a lot of dried mango), then off to the usual sights like the Magellan Cross, the Old Fort, a Chinese temple and some other sights. He definitely did not try to conserve gas! He dropped us off at the airport in the end - very good service
Our first attempt at underwater photography - http://mentat.smugmug.com/Underwater
All in all Philippines was fun and much more easier to organize the trip from oversea than I thought!
