Background: My boyfriend (BF) and I are budget-backpacking-scuba diving SEA for the next ~8 months. Our goal is to see as much healthy hard coral in the Coral Triangle as possible. We brought all our own gear (excluding weights & tanks of course), including full 3mm wetsuits, which we carry in 75L backpacks. The prices listed are for two people, unless otherwise noted. Apologies if the report is too long!
Day 0: We had flown in from Coron (layover in Cebu) two days earlier due to more cancelled ferries and a last minute schedule change.
Through communication with the Narayana manager, Diane, it was confirmed that we would be picked up via van from our accommodation in Puerto Princesa and brought to the meeting point (Lato Restaurant) at 13:45-14:00.
We got a message asking if we were ready for pickup around 10:00 since they were there to pickup some other guests from the same accommodation. We were not, since we were expecting the later time, and the later time was once again confirmed. Checkout was at 12:00 so BF and I killed time in a nearby cafe (which I updated Diane with). Around 13:00 a guy in a Narayana shirt walked in and asked us if we were a part of the liveaboard, which caught us off guard. We agreed to leave earlier and they loaded our bags into the van and dropped us off at SM Mall, stating that they would pick us up around 13:45-14:00. After pickup from the mall, us and two other guests were dropped off at the Lato Restaurant to wait for the other guests to be dropped off.
This pickup sequence wasn’t difficult, just unnecessarily complicated/changed multiple times day-of.
Once everyone else (16 guests in total, including BF & I) got to the restaurant, Diane handled the collection of everyone’s park & environment fees in cash (5000 PHP & 200 PHP per person, respectively). One note about this was that you had the option to pay in PHP or in USD, and the USD option was NOT equivalent to the PHP… (ex: park fee was 5000 PHP or 100 USD, which is ~5600 PHP). Wifi was also paid for at this time (1100 PHP or 20 USD, which was an ok conversion (~1126P)). Wifi was per person, per device, for the entire week, and only available in the common dining area.
Our bigger bags that we left in the van were transported directly to the boat into our rooms. Around 15:00 we were transported to the Narayana via dinghy directly from the front of the restaurant, which is on the harbor. Narayana only had one dinghy so we made the trip in two groups.
The two groups we made the trip to the Narayana in were our dive groups for the trip, since the other group consisted of 10 divers that came together. The other 6 of us were in the other group.
The Narayana: The boat was not bad at all, considering that it was one of the cheapest options for Tubbataha. Considering our Apo Reef adventure, this boat was luxury, but it will not win any competitions against the big name LOBs.
The boat has 3 decks. The bottom deck consists of the dive deck, which leads directly into a hallway with 6 cabins. The dive deck is small and crammed, with space for everyone’s (16 people) tanks to have their own assigned location but you were definitely squished into your neighbors. Since there was one dinghy anyway, the two groups got geared up separately, which allowed us to spread out on the dive deck a bit as compensation.
The boat has a compressor onboard and they would fill your tank between dives, rather than switching tanks out.
The second deck was the main deck area and consisted of an open-air dining/lounging area. This was also the wifi area and where we received briefings. There were two “walkways” along the side of the boat leading to the bow, which passed 2 additional cabins (1 on each side).
The crew told us that these cabins were traditionally for Diane and the owner, Frank. They were not coming along this trip since it was fully booked (normally only 14 guests). We were lucky because we had one of these cabins and the wifi extended from the dining area to reach (albeit only 1 bar).
I can’t speak on the other rooms downstairs but our room was quite nice, with a full-size bed and some shelves. The room had a smoke detector inside but I forgot to ask the last time it was tested so unsure if it was solely cosmetic or not (I am a cynic). The attached bathroom was a fully wet bathroom. It also smelled like the cleaning solution in a urinal/porta potty which was awful. The smell didn’t come into the room though. We had outlets in the room near the shelving and received no advisories about not keeping devices plugged in for long which I took as a good sign.
The third and top deck consisted of just a little sunbed/lounge.
The food on-board was okay. I didn’t feel blown away but it wasn’t inedible. There was always coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and cold/hot drinking water available at any time. In addition, you could have a glass of wine/can of beer at the end of the day for an additional charge.
After coming on-board and seeing our rooms, Frank gave us all a boat briefing. He was definitely a character and honestly quite racist and off-putting.
After every few minutes he would pause and point to a random person of the 10 diver group (who were Chinese) and ask them if they understood English. He also mixed up two divers (who didn’t look similar at all) just because they were sitting next to each other and Asian (but different nationalities). He even complemented one diver for speaking English well “for a Chinese”, when the diver said they weren’t Chinese, but Korean.
After the boat briefing we assembled our gear downstairs on the dive deck while the coast guard checked the boat. There were hangers for our wetsuits and a shelf underneath the tanks to leave masks/boots/weights. The fins were secured underneath weights as well.
The boat ended up leaving around 16:00 with calm waters (which was lucky! because the trips the week before were cancelled due to the monsoon). After dinner (early, ~17:00) we chatted a bit with the DMs (Edu & Job) and then had an early bedtime.
Day 1: Allegedly there was supposed to be a wake-up call at 5:40 for a 5:50 briefing, but we didn’t hear one. Good thing we set phone alarms for 5:30!
The first dive of the day was the check dive. We were supposed to only do the first two dives at the same site and then move to be closer to the ranger station, but due to waves we stayed at the same site all day, which got old after the first dive and was even more boring the third and then fourth dive. It was very disappointing that we essentially wasted a full day on the check dive site…
The visibility was really good the entire day, min 35m/100ft.
The dive operation: Mostly competent/good. I was irritated because there were not enough weight options available and therefore had to dive either unbalanced or overweighted (no weight belt but weight pockets on the top tank band). I chose to be overweighted after 2 dives of being unbalanced because it was such a pain.
The days consisted of a 5:50 briefing with the goal to start the first dive at 6:00. We then had a long SI with breakfast and the second dive briefing around 9:30 with the second dive at 9:40. Another long SI with lunch, third briefing at 12:50, and third dive at 13:00. SI with snacks, fourth briefing at 15:50, and fourth dive at 16:00. Dinner was around 19:00.
The dives went 50-60mins and low air was considered 50/60 bar (~700-750 PSI).
Edu did all of the briefings. He wasn’t our guide (with the other group) but was very knowledgeable and had been working on the Narayana for several years.
Job was a new DM for the Narayana since his predecessor had a family emergency and couldn’t participate on this trip.
Dive 1: Malayan Wreck/Reef
Max depth 81ft, 64 mins, min water temp 84F.
We saw 10+ sharks and many bumpbhead parrotfish.
Dive 2: Malayan Reef
Max depth 86ft, 55 mins, min water temp 84F.
No sharks.
Dive 3: Malayan Reef
Max depth 69ft, 57 mins, min water temp 84F.
We saw 3 separate adult Napoleon wrasses and 10+ sharks.
Dive 4: Malayan Reef
Max depth 63ft, 63 mins, min water temp 84F.
We saw 2 more adult Napoleon wrasses and a huge school of jacks at the safety stop.
Very uneventful day except for the boring repetitive sites. After dinner, Edu announced that we’d already used up 7,000/14,000 L of the freshwater!!! BF & I were quite perplexed and suspect that some people didn’t use the shower in bursts, instead keeping it on the entire time…
//Break for character limit
Day 0: We had flown in from Coron (layover in Cebu) two days earlier due to more cancelled ferries and a last minute schedule change.
Through communication with the Narayana manager, Diane, it was confirmed that we would be picked up via van from our accommodation in Puerto Princesa and brought to the meeting point (Lato Restaurant) at 13:45-14:00.
We got a message asking if we were ready for pickup around 10:00 since they were there to pickup some other guests from the same accommodation. We were not, since we were expecting the later time, and the later time was once again confirmed. Checkout was at 12:00 so BF and I killed time in a nearby cafe (which I updated Diane with). Around 13:00 a guy in a Narayana shirt walked in and asked us if we were a part of the liveaboard, which caught us off guard. We agreed to leave earlier and they loaded our bags into the van and dropped us off at SM Mall, stating that they would pick us up around 13:45-14:00. After pickup from the mall, us and two other guests were dropped off at the Lato Restaurant to wait for the other guests to be dropped off.
This pickup sequence wasn’t difficult, just unnecessarily complicated/changed multiple times day-of.
Once everyone else (16 guests in total, including BF & I) got to the restaurant, Diane handled the collection of everyone’s park & environment fees in cash (5000 PHP & 200 PHP per person, respectively). One note about this was that you had the option to pay in PHP or in USD, and the USD option was NOT equivalent to the PHP… (ex: park fee was 5000 PHP or 100 USD, which is ~5600 PHP). Wifi was also paid for at this time (1100 PHP or 20 USD, which was an ok conversion (~1126P)). Wifi was per person, per device, for the entire week, and only available in the common dining area.
Our bigger bags that we left in the van were transported directly to the boat into our rooms. Around 15:00 we were transported to the Narayana via dinghy directly from the front of the restaurant, which is on the harbor. Narayana only had one dinghy so we made the trip in two groups.
The two groups we made the trip to the Narayana in were our dive groups for the trip, since the other group consisted of 10 divers that came together. The other 6 of us were in the other group.
The Narayana: The boat was not bad at all, considering that it was one of the cheapest options for Tubbataha. Considering our Apo Reef adventure, this boat was luxury, but it will not win any competitions against the big name LOBs.
The boat has 3 decks. The bottom deck consists of the dive deck, which leads directly into a hallway with 6 cabins. The dive deck is small and crammed, with space for everyone’s (16 people) tanks to have their own assigned location but you were definitely squished into your neighbors. Since there was one dinghy anyway, the two groups got geared up separately, which allowed us to spread out on the dive deck a bit as compensation.
The boat has a compressor onboard and they would fill your tank between dives, rather than switching tanks out.
The second deck was the main deck area and consisted of an open-air dining/lounging area. This was also the wifi area and where we received briefings. There were two “walkways” along the side of the boat leading to the bow, which passed 2 additional cabins (1 on each side).
The crew told us that these cabins were traditionally for Diane and the owner, Frank. They were not coming along this trip since it was fully booked (normally only 14 guests). We were lucky because we had one of these cabins and the wifi extended from the dining area to reach (albeit only 1 bar).
I can’t speak on the other rooms downstairs but our room was quite nice, with a full-size bed and some shelves. The room had a smoke detector inside but I forgot to ask the last time it was tested so unsure if it was solely cosmetic or not (I am a cynic). The attached bathroom was a fully wet bathroom. It also smelled like the cleaning solution in a urinal/porta potty which was awful. The smell didn’t come into the room though. We had outlets in the room near the shelving and received no advisories about not keeping devices plugged in for long which I took as a good sign.
The third and top deck consisted of just a little sunbed/lounge.
The food on-board was okay. I didn’t feel blown away but it wasn’t inedible. There was always coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and cold/hot drinking water available at any time. In addition, you could have a glass of wine/can of beer at the end of the day for an additional charge.
After coming on-board and seeing our rooms, Frank gave us all a boat briefing. He was definitely a character and honestly quite racist and off-putting.
After every few minutes he would pause and point to a random person of the 10 diver group (who were Chinese) and ask them if they understood English. He also mixed up two divers (who didn’t look similar at all) just because they were sitting next to each other and Asian (but different nationalities). He even complemented one diver for speaking English well “for a Chinese”, when the diver said they weren’t Chinese, but Korean.
After the boat briefing we assembled our gear downstairs on the dive deck while the coast guard checked the boat. There were hangers for our wetsuits and a shelf underneath the tanks to leave masks/boots/weights. The fins were secured underneath weights as well.
The boat ended up leaving around 16:00 with calm waters (which was lucky! because the trips the week before were cancelled due to the monsoon). After dinner (early, ~17:00) we chatted a bit with the DMs (Edu & Job) and then had an early bedtime.
Day 1: Allegedly there was supposed to be a wake-up call at 5:40 for a 5:50 briefing, but we didn’t hear one. Good thing we set phone alarms for 5:30!
The first dive of the day was the check dive. We were supposed to only do the first two dives at the same site and then move to be closer to the ranger station, but due to waves we stayed at the same site all day, which got old after the first dive and was even more boring the third and then fourth dive. It was very disappointing that we essentially wasted a full day on the check dive site…
The visibility was really good the entire day, min 35m/100ft.
The dive operation: Mostly competent/good. I was irritated because there were not enough weight options available and therefore had to dive either unbalanced or overweighted (no weight belt but weight pockets on the top tank band). I chose to be overweighted after 2 dives of being unbalanced because it was such a pain.
The days consisted of a 5:50 briefing with the goal to start the first dive at 6:00. We then had a long SI with breakfast and the second dive briefing around 9:30 with the second dive at 9:40. Another long SI with lunch, third briefing at 12:50, and third dive at 13:00. SI with snacks, fourth briefing at 15:50, and fourth dive at 16:00. Dinner was around 19:00.
The dives went 50-60mins and low air was considered 50/60 bar (~700-750 PSI).
Edu did all of the briefings. He wasn’t our guide (with the other group) but was very knowledgeable and had been working on the Narayana for several years.
Job was a new DM for the Narayana since his predecessor had a family emergency and couldn’t participate on this trip.
Dive 1: Malayan Wreck/Reef
Max depth 81ft, 64 mins, min water temp 84F.
We saw 10+ sharks and many bumpbhead parrotfish.
Dive 2: Malayan Reef
Max depth 86ft, 55 mins, min water temp 84F.
No sharks.
Dive 3: Malayan Reef
Max depth 69ft, 57 mins, min water temp 84F.
We saw 3 separate adult Napoleon wrasses and 10+ sharks.
Dive 4: Malayan Reef
Max depth 63ft, 63 mins, min water temp 84F.
We saw 2 more adult Napoleon wrasses and a huge school of jacks at the safety stop.
Very uneventful day except for the boring repetitive sites. After dinner, Edu announced that we’d already used up 7,000/14,000 L of the freshwater!!! BF & I were quite perplexed and suspect that some people didn’t use the shower in bursts, instead keeping it on the entire time…
//Break for character limit
