IS it really FUN in Cebu?

[Knightdivers]

Hi Divers! I was in Cebu during the 2012 Christmas season for a dive and just want to share the experience for those who plan to go there sometime in the near future.

26th Dec
Took a flight from KL to Kota Kinabalu on Air Asia. Waited for 3 hours in Kota Kinabalu airport before taking Cebu Pacific to Manila. Waited another 2 hours to transit to Cebu. Arrived at midnight and was told that my luggage was still in Manila!! Was also told not to worry as it happens all the time and it will arrive in the next flight! Darn! I was definitely worried as all my dive gear and camera equipment was in that luggage. We checked into BE Resort in Mactan way pass midnight!

Costing (approximately)
KL - KK (Air Asia) RM500
KK – Manila – Cebu – Manila – KL RM600
Taxi from Airport to Hotel RM15 (midnight charges)

Lesson Learnt
1. Take a direct flight from KL to Cebu on Cebu Pacific as it is cheaper and flies 3x a week.
2. Don’t check in your most important camera equipments!
3. Separate your camera from the hand luggage else you will be asked to pay for overloading. Cebu Pacific is very strict (Second strictest after Ryan Air in Europe!)

27th Dec 2012
Woke up after a few hours of sleep worrying about my lost luggage but was pleasantly surprised thanks to the efficient receptionist at the hotel who followed very closely with Cebu Pacific until they located my bag. She told me that it was ready for collection at the airport.

After breakfast, we were greeted by JC & Sito who are the owners of Fun & Sun Dive Travel. They offered to send us to the airport to retrieve our luggage after hearing our misadventures.
Fun & Sun's dive centre is located only a few minutes from our hotel and as of 1st January this year, they will also have a centre in BE Resort itself. Their current dive centre is fully equipped with half a dozen of dive masters and more than a few dozen helpers to make you dive like a king! It was an honour to have both the owners to take us on a private dive trip.

We only manage two dives that day because of my luggage issue. The first dive was at Nalusuan. Before diving in, I was considering whether I should go wide or 105mm and Sito pointed to my dome port. I did pop the question to him about the macro scene around here but he said it's not a big deal.

You wouldn't normally expect much from a dive site that is located minutes from a congested city especially with the sightings of tourist boats carrying bus loads of amateur divers, discovery divers and snorkelers. I am glad I was terribly wrong! We dive into the azure bluish sea with good visibility despite a storm a night before. According to Sito who has been operating and diving here for the past 2 decades, the visibility can reach over 30 metres. I was also expecting to see damaged corals on the slopes and to my amazement, the corals here are diverse and growing healthily with sea fans stretching out into the blue. Eagle rays were also spotted when we were at about 25 metres.

As a fan of macro, I have the habit checking the bubble corals for Orang Utan crabs, sea fan for pygmies, sea sponges for hairy squat lobsters, the back of a sea star for shrimps, anemones for porcelain crabs and crinoids for squats and guess what? They were all there and shockingly in abundance! Before I could curse myself for the wrong lens, JC and Sito were busy taking shots of a frog fish!

Our first dive did not end without seeing the icon of this site - a ghostly statue of a naked woman with a vase.
When we surfaced, the very first thing that I did after was to grumble to Sito and JC about the critters and the wrong lens! Sito laughed and assured me that there are tons of them everywhere and he didn't think it was such a big deal.

During our surface interval, we were treated to the secret recipe of the Fun & Sun - BBQ on the boat! From fresh prawns to BBQ pork, it was fantastic especially when you have fruits to end the meal. We were so stuffed up that I had difficulties with my zippers for the next dive!

As I was seriously considering bringing my macro setup, we saw a school of Jacks on the surface. Darn! I just couldn't make up my mind at that time but one basic rule that I learnt was to capture what you see and not what you expect to see. I know I don't sound much like an artistic person but I am just being practical I guess! As we joined the jacks, we could observe a few curious dogtooth tunas trying to get close to them. Hilutungan, which is the name the locals gave to this site, offers schools of batfishes, anemones, loads of macro critters (again!) and what appears to me an underwater meadow. At this spot which is less than 8 metres of water, you will notice that the sea grass looks extremely identical to the common cow grass at your backyard. With some rocks and the open blue, I was firing dozens of shots hoping to capture one that could justify the serene beauty of this site. Although there were enough tiny critters to justify my macro lens, I surfaced from this dive with a strong sense of satisfaction with my 10.5mm.

As we were heading back to the dive centre, JC was busy pointing to different dive sites that are great for macros and majority of those he fingered are shore dives.

After my quick wash up, I was greeted by Gary, the GM of the BE Resort who made an appointment with me for lunch at the best 'lechon' restaurant. He was also kind enough to give us some tips on the best seafood around before getting his driver to chauffeur us to Golden Cowrie.

We ended our day with a satisfying dinner and looking forward to tomorrow.

Dive: Varies according to season but way cheaper than you expect. Check with Alan of Home for pricing as he was the kind gentleman who made the arrangement for us.
Dinner at Golden Cowrie: RM30 per person for a fantastic fresh seafood meal.
Taxi (if you don't get a ride from the GM's driver!) RM15.00

28th Dec 2012
We started early as we wanted to catch a glimpse of the Threshers inTingo Point, a site located 15 minutes away from Fun & Sun's centre. Ididn't even have enough time to fully enjoy the huge deck on the spacious andcomfortable boat before I realized it was time to gear up. The choice of camerawas pretty obvious for this site but I have decided to bring my compact camerawith macro lens along (just in case!)

We agreed that we will have to hit 40 metres to see the Threshers andas we were heading down, we had to fight a pretty moderate current and a seasnake! As I was busy fining and breathing deeply, I thought I saw something. Icould see JC and Sito moving deeper but my depth meter showed that we were onlyat 25 metres. As I strained my eyes and gave chase, it was indeed theThreshers! With the tail and a sleek body swimming against the currentlyeffortlessly. Before, I could get the settings right on my camera, they weregone. It was then I started to realize that the visibility would be at least 30metres.

Sito and JC noticed that I wasn't going down with them, they thought Ihad some problems with my equipment but they were so envious when I told themwhat I saw when we surfaced. There is always this feeling of dissatisfactionwhen you couldn't show any evidence of what you witnessed. Sito gave me a paton the back and said that I can be almost certain of getting a good shot of the Threshers if we go to Malapascua.

It was pretty obvious to JC and Sito that I was a fan of macro as theybrought us to our last dive site for the day - Talima. Sito warned me that thissite is going to be a bit of everything on a good day but no promises. When Igot in, I realized this site had everything and not only a bit! The viz wasgreat and the corals were teeming with life. I then realized why JC and Sitosaid it was everything and not macro alone.

As we were packing up and heading back for my lunch appointment withGarry, I had a very good perspective of Fun & Sun's positioning. For diverswho can spare only a day or two in the exciting waters off Cebu City andwanting to check out the macro critters in the blue, my itinerary above wouldbe highly recommended. However, if you have five days or more, then it wouldindeed be more fun to dive with Fun & Sun as they have the most experiencein bringing divers to explore the Visayas on their comfortable boats. If youhave four divers or more, they will be more than happy to customize your trip.Their main routes are Northern Cebu (Malapascua), Southern Cebu, Bohol andSouthern Leyte (the Ultimate trip!). You can go to theirwww.funsundivetravel.com or FB http://www.facebook.com/funsundivetravel for details on thetrips.

Unlike a live aboard, JC and Sito's idea of an amazing dive journey isto spend the day on the boat exploring the seas and the night to be spent in acomfortable hotel on different islands that is on the route. It will be morelike a 'sea trip' instead of a road trip! By the way, if you are a Malaysian,Singaporean, Thai or Chinese from China, Mr. Alan Lim would be the man tocontact at http://pacdome.com/ to give you the detailsof all these sea trips.

After cleaning up, we manage to catch Garry for 'the best lechon' nearMactan airport called Zubu Chon. I have to agree with Anthony Bourdain afterthe sumptuous meal. Garry insisted of getting us to the Southern Bus Terminalin Cebu City and I can understand why. The roads were so congested that it tookus an hour from the restaurant to the station.

When we got to the station, we could see a long queue of people who hadsimilar plans to go south. I didn't expect the 'free Wi-Fi' on the bus wouldwork but it did! Not the whole journey but for a third at least.

After a journey of 4 hours that was filled with stops and winding turn,we arrived at the front entrance of Noblesse Hotel that is located in Santander.You would notice that this town is at the south most of Cebu Island and animportant port for those planning to go to the southern islands of Negros andApo.

As we were too tired to check out the surrounding area, we had dinnerin the hotel instead with a rather romantic view of the full moon, coconuttrees and what appeared to be crystal clear waters as we could see the lightfrom the dive torches of two night divers.

Before we called it a night, we made arrangements with the hotelmanager for some dive equipments and a motorized tricycle as our mode of transfer toOslob the next morning.

Lechon Lunch: Depends on how much you can eat. About RM35 per kilo oflechon
Return Bus Ticket to Santander RM20 per person
Dinner at hotel: RM40 per person (rather over priced at the hotel)
Noblesse Hotel: RM180 per room for two per night.

(to be continued)

 

[Knightdivers]

29th Dec 2012
After our heavy American breakfast at the hotel, the dive master ofNoblesse’s Dive Centre helped us to load our tanks and dive equipments onto thetricycle. We were pretty amazed with the load the tricycle took and before wecould ponder further, we were on our way to Tanawan Bay. The 15 minutes journeygave us amazing view from the top of the cliff and along the winding road.

Besides the busy port of Santander, the southern part of Cebu waspretty quite. Things are extremely different for over a year now especially inTanawan Bay, Oslob. It was not because of a new Jusco or a Disney Land andneither was it because of a central government project. It was strictly becausethe local fishermen found ways to attract Whale Sharks to this part of Cebu.They realized that the Whale Sharks are fond of the shrimps that they feed themwith.

I did some research before making a decision to check this unnaturalattraction. You will discover that there are some articles and research done bymarine biologist on this local practice and majority are against it. The localgovernment on the other hand is justifying their actions and the best way tounderstand their views is to see the whole affair for myself.

When we arrived at the bay, our tricyclist had difficulty making adecision as to which centre he should stop as there are over half a dozen ofdive operators situated along the beach. Most of them would come to you withoffers of better service than the other operator but the pricing here arepretty fixed by the local government. We made the decision to use the one withlockers and showering facilities. I would have to say that the operators here arevery efficient and systematic. They appear to be operating here for yearsalthough this phenomenon is only a year old. Perhaps with the constant threatfrom the environmentalist, the operators here feel that their days ofprosperity may be numbered and therefore are doing their best to be asprofessional as possible.

Within minutes, they assisted us with our gear and we headed off to theshore. We did not use a dive guide with us as the site was pretty straightforward. Basically, we had to fin ourselves for about 100 meters from the shoreand get below the boats. We had to fight an inward current that day but as thebay was less than 8 meters deep, it was quite simple. I signalled to my buddywhen I saw shadows above me and yes, it belonged to a 5 meters Whaley. We couldalso see loads of kids snorkelling around. Just like us, they were briefed on afew important rules i.e. no touching, no gloves, no diving right below thewhale and a maximum of 60 minutes bottom time is allowed.

I decided to surface as I wanted to take some split shots and at thesurface, I could see fleets of boats with tourist. I had to look out for theboats that had the tendency to come straight towards me. The whale sharks werefollowing those boats that held the task of feeding them with krills and Iguess they were instructed to circle the fleet of tourist boats. There wereeasily 7 whales circling us that day and I was told that it could double thatfigure on better days.

We spent the rest of our dive fining against the current to keep ourposition and it gave us a very good opportunity to observe the behaviour of thewhale sharks as well as the whole operation. We were told that the feedingstops about noon and the whale sharks will disappear to search for ‘real’ foodin the deep.

So what do we have here? Here are some questions and answers I gotafter interviewing a few locals and our dive.
Q: Are the operators well organized?
A: Yes!

Q: Is the current attraction giving them a better income?
A: Most definitely!

Q: Were they poverty stricken before the arrival of the whale sharks?
A: Obviously!

Q: Would they kill a whale shark for their fins before this touristattraction started?
A: Possible

Q: Would they kill a whale shark now?
A: They may be killed by the locals if they try!

Q: Do they think this practice should stop immediately?
A: Please DON’T!
Q: Are the dive operators the only party benefitting from thisattraction? A: No! Everyone from the cleaner to the government is benefitting from this(and that includes my tricycle driver!)
Q: If this practice continues, the whale sharks may be attracted andget friendly with poachers when they migrate to other waters. As it is,propeller marks are already seen on some of the whale sharks. Do the localsthink that this is an unhealthy act and just a selfish way of them earningmoney?
A: Propeller marks can also be seen on other whale sharks around theworld that doesn’t come to Tanawan Bay. Those people who are making such a fussare not the locals. They can say what they want in their comfortable sofa athome. If they earn our income and live our life, they will not say such thingsas life is really difficult for us. Please do not think that we are ignorant.With the above, I leave it to you to decide whether this activityshould continue or not. JC and Sito of Fun and Sun are totally against this asthey showed me detailed scientific research done by a friend of theirs thatindicates such activities will harm the whale sharks in the long run. Therefore,the only place that Fun and Sun will bring you for some whale sharks will be inSouthern Leyte.

As we had enough for the day after one dive, we headed back to thehotel and chill out for the rest of the day before departing on a bus back toCebu City the next morning.

Return Tricycle Ride: RM30 (this accommodates two divers, tanks and ourgears)
Full Gear with Tank from Noblesse Dive Centre: RM50 per set with tankand weights
Marine Fees at Tan-awan Bay: RM115 per diver
Porter Fees: RM5.00 (they will carry your gear and provides locker andshower facilities)
Lunch and Dinner at Santander RM5.00 per person per meal (if you go tothe nearby stalls outside of the hotel)

30^th Dec 2012
From Cebu City South Terminal, we headed back to Mactan Island for a nightof shopping and ‘lechons’ before departing back to KL on Cebu Pacific Airwayson New Year’s Eve. We definitely ended a fun year in Cebu and will be back formore!

 

[Knightdivers]

 

[chillyinCanada]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. It was food for my soul.

 

[franckxlegion]

Awsome trip report! I missed Cebu last time I was in the Philippines, it is sure on my list of very next diving destination A.S.A.P.! the guys at funfundive seem pretty good too! thanks for sharing!

 

[Knightdivers]

Thanks Frank!