I was in two minds about posting this, because I feel it's kind of a case of "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". But someone asked me to post it, so here it is. Feel free to argue with me. My experience at Malapascua was poor, and there's no avoiding that reality.
Flights
I flew Townsville-Cairns on Qantas after work, with a 3 hour connection in Cairns before my flight on Philippine Airlines to Manila, with another 3 hour connection before my flight to Cebu (also on Philippine Airlines). Had a 30kg baggage allowance the entire trip.
Resort
Ok, so in Malapascua, my options were pretty limited, because I booked this trip relatively late and basically had to take what I could get since I was travelling around Christmas time. I got 10 nights in the Buena Vida Resort and Spa. It was nice enough. My only real requirements are: hot water, flushing toilet, decent bed, airconditioning, and wifi. I don’t need fancy, I need internet.
Food was variable. I had breakfast included at the resort, and that was pretty standard fare. Lunch and dinner were at my discretion. I tried to eat at a variety of places to see what they had to offer – to be honest, most of the menus were same-same but different (and if you’ve been to Asia before you will know exactly what that means). In the end, I actually found the menu at the Hippocampus resort (next to Sea Explorers) to be the best out of everywhere I tried. Obviously YMMV depending on what kind of food you like – I’m veg*n. Most main meals were around the 300-400 peso mark, which isn’t too bad given the remote location of the island. Can of soda was about 60 pesos. I don’t drink anymore, but everywhere had decent cocktail menus and plenty of beer.
Diving
Because I had to book accommodation with Buena Vida, I was given a dive package with their sister operation Sea Explorers. I liked Sea Explorers – it was well run, I had a great guide, it was reasonably priced, and I honestly had nothing bad to say about them. My guide Lydio was fantastic, particularly with the critter spotting on the muck dives, and most of the time I pretty much had him to myself, as with a couple of exceptions, I was usually the only guest diving nitrox.
But then I wanted to go dive with Evolution, because I had heard good things about them from a couple of friends, but my experience was…less than ideal. I took my dive gear down to get checked in, do paperwork, and set my gear up, and started pulling everything out of my dive bag to put in the allocated tub. Took out my muck stick – and holy hell it was like I was suddenly the devil incarnate. I had one of the staff who was doing my intro briefing call me a bad diver because I had a muck stick. Seriously? Proper use of a muck stick prevents damage to coral, assists with stability during photography in a current so you’re not kicking up muck, and nearly every DM who works in areas with muck diving uses one. Apparently Evolution think they’re the scuba police or something. If they’d just politely said “sorry, but we don’t allow that here”, that would be one thing. But the guy who said this was just so condescending about it that I was thinking “woah, what have I got myself into here?”...Everything was fine when we got out on the boat to dive, and this may have been a once off incident, but sadly first impressions stick. I expect people to have a go at me for this comment - but bear in mind my issue wasn't being told that I couldn't use a muck stick, it was the sanctimonious attitude I got from the staff member for having one in the first place.
The diving itself was incredibly hit and miss. The thresher shark dives were worth the trip to Malapascua – I thought the part of Monad Shoal that Evolution went to was a much better spot for the shark sightings than where Sea Explorers went. Overcrowding during this dive was an issue at times – regardless of which part of the shoal we went to. Again, too many people and not enough space. Combined with the fact that the majority of the divers there seem to be relatively inexperienced, and despite the dive ops all saying “be careful with your buoyancy”, hardly any of them actually realise how much crap they’re kicking up (and repeatedly kicking people in the face and landing on top of others because they have no spatial awareness *cough*).
I did a day trip to Gato Island, and while I thought the outside of the island had some reasonable diving, the tunnel swim through was totally overrated. There were 5-6 boats at Gato Island that day – and if you’re not the first ones on the dive site, there is so much sediment kicked up from the bottom due to people with poor buoyancy control (you’ll notice this is a recurring theme), that it pretty much ruins the dive for anyone who comes after them.
This was a problem around Malapascua in general to be totally honest. There are way too many divers there and a limited number of dive sites, meaning that all the dive sites get overcrowded because the dive ops on the island seem to make absolutely no effort to coordinate schedules for the different sites. This is what I like about the muck diving locations around Indonesia – the resorts actually cooperate with each other, so that Resort A goes to Site 1 on Monday, Resort B goes to site 1 on Tuesday…etc. This is particularly important on small dive sites (like for the sunset mandarin fish dives) where the dive is totally ruined when you’ve got 50+ people on a tiny bit of coral rubble trying to see something. Which is exactly what happened at Lighthouse one evening when I decided I wanted to go see the mandarin fish…Subsequently followed by idiots who didn’t seem to understand the whole “turn your dive lights off” request which meant the fish didn’t want to come out. And none of their guides saying anything to them about it because heaven forbid you actually tell someone they’re ruining the entire dive for everyone else in the vicinity.
I attempted to get to Calanggaman Island 3 times – cancelled each time due to either numbers or the weather. I attempted to get to the Dona Marilyn wreck one day, cancelled.
The rest of the diving was basically muck diving around Malapascua Island. And I have to be totally honest here – the Sea Explorers guides were way better at the critter spotting than Evolution. The macro was nothing to really write home about by any means, I mean it’s there and there’s critters around, but nothing really noteworthy.
Yes, diving was affected by the weather - Typhoon Nina was around while I was on the island. Dives were cancelled, rescheduled, relocated. Often with no prior notification to divers - unless you physically happened to be there at the time the decision was made. Show up for a scheduled 8am dive and find out "oh, you missed it. That dive got rescheduled from 8am to 7am. Oops, my bad for not letting you know!". I know you can't control the weather, but the communication from both Sea Explorers and Evolution was less than ideal regarding what the plans were.
So yeah…Overall, I have to be honest and say I was not particularly enamoured by the diving around Malapascua. The thresher shark dives were the one redeeming aspect of this trip, and for that single reason I’m glad I went. I’m happy that I got to cross the threshers off my “must see” list, but Malapascua is not somewhere I can see myself returning to. I spent 10 days in Malapascua – in hindsight, 4-5 days would have been more than enough. It gets too repetitive after that because there’s not a whole lot of dive sites around in the first place (this is why the sites are overcrowded – lots of resorts and not many dive sites). And the sheer number of divers in the water really made for a poor experience. I can see the potential there for some good diving, but unless the dive ops come together to do something to limit the overcrowding, I don’t see that potential being reached.
Have some thresher shark video:
Flights
I flew Townsville-Cairns on Qantas after work, with a 3 hour connection in Cairns before my flight on Philippine Airlines to Manila, with another 3 hour connection before my flight to Cebu (also on Philippine Airlines). Had a 30kg baggage allowance the entire trip.
Resort
Ok, so in Malapascua, my options were pretty limited, because I booked this trip relatively late and basically had to take what I could get since I was travelling around Christmas time. I got 10 nights in the Buena Vida Resort and Spa. It was nice enough. My only real requirements are: hot water, flushing toilet, decent bed, airconditioning, and wifi. I don’t need fancy, I need internet.
Food was variable. I had breakfast included at the resort, and that was pretty standard fare. Lunch and dinner were at my discretion. I tried to eat at a variety of places to see what they had to offer – to be honest, most of the menus were same-same but different (and if you’ve been to Asia before you will know exactly what that means). In the end, I actually found the menu at the Hippocampus resort (next to Sea Explorers) to be the best out of everywhere I tried. Obviously YMMV depending on what kind of food you like – I’m veg*n. Most main meals were around the 300-400 peso mark, which isn’t too bad given the remote location of the island. Can of soda was about 60 pesos. I don’t drink anymore, but everywhere had decent cocktail menus and plenty of beer.
Diving
Because I had to book accommodation with Buena Vida, I was given a dive package with their sister operation Sea Explorers. I liked Sea Explorers – it was well run, I had a great guide, it was reasonably priced, and I honestly had nothing bad to say about them. My guide Lydio was fantastic, particularly with the critter spotting on the muck dives, and most of the time I pretty much had him to myself, as with a couple of exceptions, I was usually the only guest diving nitrox.
But then I wanted to go dive with Evolution, because I had heard good things about them from a couple of friends, but my experience was…less than ideal. I took my dive gear down to get checked in, do paperwork, and set my gear up, and started pulling everything out of my dive bag to put in the allocated tub. Took out my muck stick – and holy hell it was like I was suddenly the devil incarnate. I had one of the staff who was doing my intro briefing call me a bad diver because I had a muck stick. Seriously? Proper use of a muck stick prevents damage to coral, assists with stability during photography in a current so you’re not kicking up muck, and nearly every DM who works in areas with muck diving uses one. Apparently Evolution think they’re the scuba police or something. If they’d just politely said “sorry, but we don’t allow that here”, that would be one thing. But the guy who said this was just so condescending about it that I was thinking “woah, what have I got myself into here?”...Everything was fine when we got out on the boat to dive, and this may have been a once off incident, but sadly first impressions stick. I expect people to have a go at me for this comment - but bear in mind my issue wasn't being told that I couldn't use a muck stick, it was the sanctimonious attitude I got from the staff member for having one in the first place.
The diving itself was incredibly hit and miss. The thresher shark dives were worth the trip to Malapascua – I thought the part of Monad Shoal that Evolution went to was a much better spot for the shark sightings than where Sea Explorers went. Overcrowding during this dive was an issue at times – regardless of which part of the shoal we went to. Again, too many people and not enough space. Combined with the fact that the majority of the divers there seem to be relatively inexperienced, and despite the dive ops all saying “be careful with your buoyancy”, hardly any of them actually realise how much crap they’re kicking up (and repeatedly kicking people in the face and landing on top of others because they have no spatial awareness *cough*).
I did a day trip to Gato Island, and while I thought the outside of the island had some reasonable diving, the tunnel swim through was totally overrated. There were 5-6 boats at Gato Island that day – and if you’re not the first ones on the dive site, there is so much sediment kicked up from the bottom due to people with poor buoyancy control (you’ll notice this is a recurring theme), that it pretty much ruins the dive for anyone who comes after them.
This was a problem around Malapascua in general to be totally honest. There are way too many divers there and a limited number of dive sites, meaning that all the dive sites get overcrowded because the dive ops on the island seem to make absolutely no effort to coordinate schedules for the different sites. This is what I like about the muck diving locations around Indonesia – the resorts actually cooperate with each other, so that Resort A goes to Site 1 on Monday, Resort B goes to site 1 on Tuesday…etc. This is particularly important on small dive sites (like for the sunset mandarin fish dives) where the dive is totally ruined when you’ve got 50+ people on a tiny bit of coral rubble trying to see something. Which is exactly what happened at Lighthouse one evening when I decided I wanted to go see the mandarin fish…Subsequently followed by idiots who didn’t seem to understand the whole “turn your dive lights off” request which meant the fish didn’t want to come out. And none of their guides saying anything to them about it because heaven forbid you actually tell someone they’re ruining the entire dive for everyone else in the vicinity.
I attempted to get to Calanggaman Island 3 times – cancelled each time due to either numbers or the weather. I attempted to get to the Dona Marilyn wreck one day, cancelled.
The rest of the diving was basically muck diving around Malapascua Island. And I have to be totally honest here – the Sea Explorers guides were way better at the critter spotting than Evolution. The macro was nothing to really write home about by any means, I mean it’s there and there’s critters around, but nothing really noteworthy.
Yes, diving was affected by the weather - Typhoon Nina was around while I was on the island. Dives were cancelled, rescheduled, relocated. Often with no prior notification to divers - unless you physically happened to be there at the time the decision was made. Show up for a scheduled 8am dive and find out "oh, you missed it. That dive got rescheduled from 8am to 7am. Oops, my bad for not letting you know!". I know you can't control the weather, but the communication from both Sea Explorers and Evolution was less than ideal regarding what the plans were.
So yeah…Overall, I have to be honest and say I was not particularly enamoured by the diving around Malapascua. The thresher shark dives were the one redeeming aspect of this trip, and for that single reason I’m glad I went. I’m happy that I got to cross the threshers off my “must see” list, but Malapascua is not somewhere I can see myself returning to. I spent 10 days in Malapascua – in hindsight, 4-5 days would have been more than enough. It gets too repetitive after that because there’s not a whole lot of dive sites around in the first place (this is why the sites are overcrowded – lots of resorts and not many dive sites). And the sheer number of divers in the water really made for a poor experience. I can see the potential there for some good diving, but unless the dive ops come together to do something to limit the overcrowding, I don’t see that potential being reached.
Have some thresher shark video:
Just crossing fingers that diving isn't cancelled!
