pakman
Contributor
[click on any of the pics to see the entire photo album from the trip]
Well, it didn't take much convincing when one of our local dive club members mentioned he was planning a Malapascua trip this month. I had been there nearly two years ago as part of a whirlwind tour of the Visayas (you can find my old trip report here).
This time we used Thresher Shark Divers (TSD), and I'd have to say I was pretty pleased with the overall service and would probably use them again.
First off, seems there have been a lot of changes on the island since I was last there in 2006 although I have to admit I didn't venture that far from Exotic last time. I guess someone got smart and decided to force all the buildings back away from the beach. They've put in a path back towards the treeline and anything beyond that was being torn down.
The Path
The old Hippocampus/ TSD building was being torn down as it was too close to the water. Anyways, a big thumbs up for this decision as the white beaches on Malapascua has always been one of its big attractions.
The new TSD building is further down south on Bounty Beach just next to Bluewater Resort and the TSD fleet had expanded to I think 3-4 bangkas. They've built a bar on the 2nd flr roof so made for a great happy hour right after our evening dives:14:. They've also got two brand spanking new compressors. Service was excellent from the owners down to the boatmen. In fact one of our dive club members was half jokingly complaining that the boatmen would refuse to let him on the boat with his BCD on and would insist he would take it off in the water so they could pull it in for him...
Another positive change is that it appears that the larger dive shops now coordinate their morning dives on Monad Shoal Mon-Sat to avoid congestion and possible deterioration of their marquee dive site.
The Diving...
Monad Shoal didn't fail to impress and we got threshers and some extras on both days. We even had a scene where a manta and a thresher were fighting for a spot on the cleaning station (stupid me didn't get the shot...). We also had a number of mobula rays buzz over the shoal. Always impressive to see those big-eyed longtail thresher sharks gracefully cruise by. The low viz, low early morning light, and timid threshers didn't make for ideal photo conditions and I just got a handful of passable shots.
Last time I did Malapascua, I said I wasn't impressed with Gato. I ran into another SB member, Jason, at TSD and we had a chat about this and he was ranting about it being one of his favorite sites. Well I have now been converted. We only did 2 dives on Gato but this time the island left me was a much better impression. For one of the dives, we did the swim-thru through the tunnel/ cavern. Some of our group saw a large sea snake and barracuda inside. We were greeted on the exit by a passing white tip (maybe we woke it up). On our first dive on Gato, we came across a mating pair of cuttlefish with the female planting her eggs. There was also another male cuttlefish waiting around (possibly for sloppy seconds:11:...).
Whip corals everywhere with gobies and shrimps. We even came across a pair of banded pipefish with the male carrying eggs.
And we almost missed this little finger sized white frogfish out in the open.
In addition to Gato, we did a number of sites on the North side of Malapascua island and Chocolate Island where we found pygmy seahorses and harlequin shrimp. Both of which didn't want to cooperate with me (probably annoyed at all the flashes from our group...:no). Also, just as last time, we could hear dynamite fishing in the distance. Given how far sound travels u/w, don't think it was close.
We had some funky weather as there was a storm front that came through Cebu during the weekend. This delayed our dusk dive at the Lighthouse and we missed the mating mandarin fish. The weather also prevented us from trying to get out Callangaman Island or Nunez Shoal.
Misc stuff
We stayed at Cocobana Resort which was a short walk to the TSD shop. Cocobana has also built some deluxe rooms in a separate two story building (in front of Sunplash Resort). The rooms we had were still nice and the rates included breakfast. Speaking of Sunsplash, if their owner reads this - HIRE ANOTHER COOK for christsakes!! We waited for an hour to get our food. The food was good, if you don't mind the wait... And another time we swung by to have their dessert fruit crepes. They forgot to tell us they only have 1 crepe machine... There were six of us... I'll let u guess how long that took...
Big thumbs up for La Isla Bonita restaurant (further behind Sunplash). We had a bunch of their local dishes and that was one of the tastiest meals we had on our trip. We also tried the monster Moldito's between the town beach and Bounty Beach. Service was a lot faster, servings big, food was OK. Good nachos. They had a live band but the audio system was horrendous (the band was actually not bad).
Lastly, I always complain about the brackish water which is all they have on the Island. For some reason, it wasn't as bad I remembered it.
Oh and getting off the bangka on the return to Maya, wait until the boatman properly tie up the boarding plank. I took a nice dunk in the water and chopped up my toes on the sharp coral... Nearly soaked my camera bag!!
So anyways, big thumbs on Malapascua diving. Glad to see them thinking of the future of the island and making positive plans. It sure would be a shame if they ran down the island and Monad Shoal.
Well, it didn't take much convincing when one of our local dive club members mentioned he was planning a Malapascua trip this month. I had been there nearly two years ago as part of a whirlwind tour of the Visayas (you can find my old trip report here).
This time we used Thresher Shark Divers (TSD), and I'd have to say I was pretty pleased with the overall service and would probably use them again.
First off, seems there have been a lot of changes on the island since I was last there in 2006 although I have to admit I didn't venture that far from Exotic last time. I guess someone got smart and decided to force all the buildings back away from the beach. They've put in a path back towards the treeline and anything beyond that was being torn down.
The Path
The old Hippocampus/ TSD building was being torn down as it was too close to the water. Anyways, a big thumbs up for this decision as the white beaches on Malapascua has always been one of its big attractions.
The new TSD building is further down south on Bounty Beach just next to Bluewater Resort and the TSD fleet had expanded to I think 3-4 bangkas. They've built a bar on the 2nd flr roof so made for a great happy hour right after our evening dives:14:. They've also got two brand spanking new compressors. Service was excellent from the owners down to the boatmen. In fact one of our dive club members was half jokingly complaining that the boatmen would refuse to let him on the boat with his BCD on and would insist he would take it off in the water so they could pull it in for him...
Another positive change is that it appears that the larger dive shops now coordinate their morning dives on Monad Shoal Mon-Sat to avoid congestion and possible deterioration of their marquee dive site.
The Diving...
Monad Shoal didn't fail to impress and we got threshers and some extras on both days. We even had a scene where a manta and a thresher were fighting for a spot on the cleaning station (stupid me didn't get the shot...). We also had a number of mobula rays buzz over the shoal. Always impressive to see those big-eyed longtail thresher sharks gracefully cruise by. The low viz, low early morning light, and timid threshers didn't make for ideal photo conditions and I just got a handful of passable shots.
Last time I did Malapascua, I said I wasn't impressed with Gato. I ran into another SB member, Jason, at TSD and we had a chat about this and he was ranting about it being one of his favorite sites. Well I have now been converted. We only did 2 dives on Gato but this time the island left me was a much better impression. For one of the dives, we did the swim-thru through the tunnel/ cavern. Some of our group saw a large sea snake and barracuda inside. We were greeted on the exit by a passing white tip (maybe we woke it up). On our first dive on Gato, we came across a mating pair of cuttlefish with the female planting her eggs. There was also another male cuttlefish waiting around (possibly for sloppy seconds:11:...).
Whip corals everywhere with gobies and shrimps. We even came across a pair of banded pipefish with the male carrying eggs.
And we almost missed this little finger sized white frogfish out in the open.
In addition to Gato, we did a number of sites on the North side of Malapascua island and Chocolate Island where we found pygmy seahorses and harlequin shrimp. Both of which didn't want to cooperate with me (probably annoyed at all the flashes from our group...:no). Also, just as last time, we could hear dynamite fishing in the distance. Given how far sound travels u/w, don't think it was close.
We had some funky weather as there was a storm front that came through Cebu during the weekend. This delayed our dusk dive at the Lighthouse and we missed the mating mandarin fish. The weather also prevented us from trying to get out Callangaman Island or Nunez Shoal.
Misc stuff
We stayed at Cocobana Resort which was a short walk to the TSD shop. Cocobana has also built some deluxe rooms in a separate two story building (in front of Sunplash Resort). The rooms we had were still nice and the rates included breakfast. Speaking of Sunsplash, if their owner reads this - HIRE ANOTHER COOK for christsakes!! We waited for an hour to get our food. The food was good, if you don't mind the wait... And another time we swung by to have their dessert fruit crepes. They forgot to tell us they only have 1 crepe machine... There were six of us... I'll let u guess how long that took...
Big thumbs up for La Isla Bonita restaurant (further behind Sunplash). We had a bunch of their local dishes and that was one of the tastiest meals we had on our trip. We also tried the monster Moldito's between the town beach and Bounty Beach. Service was a lot faster, servings big, food was OK. Good nachos. They had a live band but the audio system was horrendous (the band was actually not bad).
Lastly, I always complain about the brackish water which is all they have on the Island. For some reason, it wasn't as bad I remembered it.
Oh and getting off the bangka on the return to Maya, wait until the boatman properly tie up the boarding plank. I took a nice dunk in the water and chopped up my toes on the sharp coral... Nearly soaked my camera bag!!
So anyways, big thumbs on Malapascua diving. Glad to see them thinking of the future of the island and making positive plans. It sure would be a shame if they ran down the island and Monad Shoal.
