Cabilao Dive Trip Report- Sept 07

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rhadamantus

Contributor
Messages
3,937
Reaction score
6
Location
back in the awesome Philippine Paradise!
# of dives
100 - 199
Sept 1- Sept 4 2007

Resort: Polaris Dive Resort

Transportation: Had the resort arranged a private transpo for us. the taxi was already waiting at Tagbilaran airport when we arrived and the banca at the pick up point as well. Php1100/per trip, one way. No hassles or time wasted at all. Transfer took around an hour and 15 minutes all in all. Left the airport at 8:15, was already at the resort around 9:30AM.

Food: Ordering Dinner in advance is advised and recommended. you can specify at what time you want it served and they will serve it hot and ready by then. not so much options on the type of fish (depends on their catch of the day) but menu is pretty varied so you shouldn't be able to run out of choices. (p.s. Zee loves the Visayan Sauce!!!)

Accommodation: We booked the Treehouse (Php1100/night, fan with mosquito net - which is both for necessity and comfort!) and had no problems with it. the bathroom is so big you can actually sleep in there (please don't ask me how i know). they rely heavily on the rain for their water supply.

Amenities: They have a pool and a jacuzzi... the restaurant is open until 9pm only but if there are enough guests up for a night of drinking, they usually open their sundowner ship bar... lots of hammocks around the resort... view of the sunset from their garden is spectacular...

Diveshop: Diveshop is managed by a Polish guy named Gregg whom we did one dive with. the rest of the diveguides are Filipinos and are very good (Jericho, in particular is a very good spotter).

Divesites: diving was amazing (US$23/dive), shortest time we had was 64 minutes (and we stopped only because zee either fogged his camera or ran out of batteries!). there were no wasted time during safety stops as the marine life at shallower depths are as impressive as the ones at 18m-25m. didn't see a lot of big fish though but there were so much macro stuff everywhere.

the Lighthouse is amazing for night dives (did 2 dives there)... saw 2 giant crabs in the same dive, octopus, mantis shrimps, cleaner shrimps (???), moray eels, spider crabs, hermit crabs, beautiful nudis, and lots of other marine species i cannot ID anymore (zee can do a better job). cambaquiz is also another divesite not to be missed (we saw the pygmy seahorse here); this is probably the best site we dove during our stay in Cabilao.

other recommended divesites are Chapel Point, HouseReef, Sanctuary and Looc.

overall, the cabilao dive trip is spectacular. getting there and back is not a problem (as private transport is not expensive), service of Polaris Dive Resort is very personalized, warm, and superb, food is great, amenities like jacuzzi and pool are a plus after 3-4 dives/day, and the diving is amazing.

zee will post the pics once he's comfortably settled in Sydney.
 
but did the other guests complain about all the noise coming from the tree house...:coffee:

thanks for the trip report... Cabilao is a great little place isn't it! Too bad you didn't see the schooling barracudas.
 
fortunately, pak, the treehouse is really tall and quite far from the rest of the accommodation type. and they had the one at the back reserved exclusively for us... so no, they did not hear zee screaming.... :laughing: ....

i was hoping to see turtles too... but hey, i did see the pygmy seahorse and lots of other stuff... including the two giant crabs that were really horrible looking...
 
Great trip report Mags.
 
including the two giant crabs that were really horrible looking...

Zee still have that nasty crabs problem?:11: he really needs to watch his personal hygiene...:no
 
thanks for the report, Maggie. Can't wait to go...October....October...(we're renting the family house:D)

in a few weeks we'll be shooting all over the place :eyebrow:

@mags: so you actually slept at the bathroom? :11:
 
Another teaser before I post a proper trip report/photo thread...

nudigrblor.jpg

pic from zee. :)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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