DesertEagle
Contributor
This was my third trip to the Philippines. Each time I have enjoyed meeting new people and diving the coral reefs.
Flights were Boston-Tokyo (Narita)-Manila and back on Japan Airlines. All flights were operated with the 787 using 8 across economy seating. The longer flights had an extra two inches of seat pitch. JAL has some of the best economy class in the business and the flights were under $1000.
NAIA Terminal 1 has undergone a renovation. It was hard to compare to the dreadful experience a few years ago. I spent the first night at the RedPlanet Aseana City for about $40.
An old friend picked me up and we drove to Batangas for the ro-ro ferry to Calapan. The in flight movie, if you will, was The Meg. What an irony to watch a movie about a killer shark on ferry. At least it wasn’t The Poseidon Adventure. The drive to Sabang had some great scenery.
We had rooms reserved at the Mermaid resort. They actually had parking available for my friend’s car. He made arrangements in advance with a very accommodating owner. I had pre-booked a penthouse room with an outdoor tub and a view of the bay. My friend got a regular room and said it was nice.
Diving was with Asia Divers, an operation I highly recommend. The dive staff is an international team with instructors from the Philippines, Britain, China, the UK and the US. After registering with my C-card and DAN card, I got my rental equipment. Asia Divers has good equipment from Cressi. The BCD they use has an integrated weight system that much prefer to a weight belt. These days I’m getting too lazy to bring my own gear. From what I recall they operate three boats. Lots of choices! Nitrox O2 levels were shown to each diver in advance. Always the tanks were 200+ bar.
The first day of diving was a trip to Verde Island, one of my favorite locations in the world. It’s a good thing I had been with Asia Divers before and showed them the logged dives. Otherwise I would have been to the local reefs that day. The two dives were spectacular: beautiful corals abound with tons of anthia fish shoaling by the thousands. It reminded me of Batu Bolong in Komodo.
The second day started with a dive at my favorite local reef, the Canyons. From past dives I knew to expect strong currents. This time we were fortunate to have low currents at high tide. The soft corals were great and the sweet lips fish were just as I remembered. The second dive was a local reef that I don’t remember well.
My third day began with a deep dive at Kilima Steps, a reef with good wide angle and macro photo photo opportunities. We did that dive to 30 meters in order to dive the Alma Jane wreck later. The ship has become a home to lots of creatures big and small. Accompanying the group was videographer Bob Jacobs. Even though I had my own rig, I was set up for wide angle. Bob got some incredible macro including a tiny seahorse, a lead scorpionfish, and lots of nudibrancs.
The forth day started with a shallower dive at Kilima followed by a dive in Sabang bay. On the ldive I gave my rented Olympus TG-6 a try. I have two Light & Motion Sola 3800 Pro video lights which mad it easy to do macro. I’ll try to attach some photos.
Unfortunately for my friend ear problem forced a quick end to his diving. He left early and I took the 888 TAXSEA speedboat back to a dock near Batangas. The hotel had arranged a van for me to the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati ($75). The hotel was very nice. I used Grab to get to the airport for about 200 pesos.
I have uploaded a short film on YouTube. Everything was filmed and edited on my iPhoneX. The housing a ValsTech V series. I used the optional super wide 120 degree
Optical dome and my two Light & Motion Sola 3800 video lights. I used the built-in red filter for most shots. The setup is simple: use the Moment camera app at 4K/48, preset white balance to 4000K, exposure to -1/3 and start filming.
Flights were Boston-Tokyo (Narita)-Manila and back on Japan Airlines. All flights were operated with the 787 using 8 across economy seating. The longer flights had an extra two inches of seat pitch. JAL has some of the best economy class in the business and the flights were under $1000.
NAIA Terminal 1 has undergone a renovation. It was hard to compare to the dreadful experience a few years ago. I spent the first night at the RedPlanet Aseana City for about $40.
An old friend picked me up and we drove to Batangas for the ro-ro ferry to Calapan. The in flight movie, if you will, was The Meg. What an irony to watch a movie about a killer shark on ferry. At least it wasn’t The Poseidon Adventure. The drive to Sabang had some great scenery.
We had rooms reserved at the Mermaid resort. They actually had parking available for my friend’s car. He made arrangements in advance with a very accommodating owner. I had pre-booked a penthouse room with an outdoor tub and a view of the bay. My friend got a regular room and said it was nice.
Diving was with Asia Divers, an operation I highly recommend. The dive staff is an international team with instructors from the Philippines, Britain, China, the UK and the US. After registering with my C-card and DAN card, I got my rental equipment. Asia Divers has good equipment from Cressi. The BCD they use has an integrated weight system that much prefer to a weight belt. These days I’m getting too lazy to bring my own gear. From what I recall they operate three boats. Lots of choices! Nitrox O2 levels were shown to each diver in advance. Always the tanks were 200+ bar.
The first day of diving was a trip to Verde Island, one of my favorite locations in the world. It’s a good thing I had been with Asia Divers before and showed them the logged dives. Otherwise I would have been to the local reefs that day. The two dives were spectacular: beautiful corals abound with tons of anthia fish shoaling by the thousands. It reminded me of Batu Bolong in Komodo.
The second day started with a dive at my favorite local reef, the Canyons. From past dives I knew to expect strong currents. This time we were fortunate to have low currents at high tide. The soft corals were great and the sweet lips fish were just as I remembered. The second dive was a local reef that I don’t remember well.
My third day began with a deep dive at Kilima Steps, a reef with good wide angle and macro photo photo opportunities. We did that dive to 30 meters in order to dive the Alma Jane wreck later. The ship has become a home to lots of creatures big and small. Accompanying the group was videographer Bob Jacobs. Even though I had my own rig, I was set up for wide angle. Bob got some incredible macro including a tiny seahorse, a lead scorpionfish, and lots of nudibrancs.
The forth day started with a shallower dive at Kilima followed by a dive in Sabang bay. On the ldive I gave my rented Olympus TG-6 a try. I have two Light & Motion Sola 3800 Pro video lights which mad it easy to do macro. I’ll try to attach some photos.
Unfortunately for my friend ear problem forced a quick end to his diving. He left early and I took the 888 TAXSEA speedboat back to a dock near Batangas. The hotel had arranged a van for me to the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati ($75). The hotel was very nice. I used Grab to get to the airport for about 200 pesos.
I have uploaded a short film on YouTube. Everything was filmed and edited on my iPhoneX. The housing a ValsTech V series. I used the optional super wide 120 degree
Optical dome and my two Light & Motion Sola 3800 video lights. I used the built-in red filter for most shots. The setup is simple: use the Moment camera app at 4K/48, preset white balance to 4000K, exposure to -1/3 and start filming.
