chem
Registered
Hi guys,
We've done a 3+ weeks trip around the Philippines with about 25 dives/24 hours of diving.
Cebu
We've arrived in Cebu on easter-saturday, and not much was going on. Except of course, for the the theater-performance outside our hotel at 4 am.
We've left Cebu for Malapascua the next morning by bus; we took a cab to the North Cebu Busstation and we had a bus within *minutes*, and it took off straight away. With nearly no stops in between it took us less then 3 hours to reach maya - it'd be very unlikely that a taxi would've been faster! Then a small rainstorm passed us an we had to wait about 15 minutes before a public boat took us to Malapascua - with only 1 other passenger, once again a very smooth ride
Malapascua
Once on Malapascua we walked to Exotic beach resort. Very hot, and seemlingly endlessly far away, we arrived soaking in sweat. Yes, that offer for a motorbike ride then seems a very good idea.
Exotic is on a very nice stretch of beach. We had the cheapest room, but still a comfortable place for 2. There's not much swimming or snorkling in front of the resort, but then again - we're not there to stay on the surface
Exotic's gear was OK, with just a few minor glitches in the equipment. Their DM's are ranging from friendly to uninterested/annoyed but we had a great time anyways. The food is so-so, but the neighbours are an easy (but dark) walk in the evening. Especially Hippo had good and tasty food.
Diving around Malapascua wasn't all it's cracked what it's supposed to be - Gato Island and Doña Marilyn were very nice, but many reefs are devoid of fish and the explosions of dynamite can be heard on most dives. The reefs are quite nice thought.
We had 2 nitrox dives at 5am, but saw no thresher sharks - many other guests reported a 1 in 3 chance to see them, so if this is your goal preper for a few days of trying.
Other dives were at 9am, 12am and 3pm, with a duskdive at 5.30pm. The housereef is of particular no interest, I'd avoid it if you can.
We also completed 2 courses (Nitrox adv. and wreck adv.) at Exotic.
What we did see where a bunch of sea snakes, white-tip sharks (at very close range), pygmy sea horses, ghost pipefish, loads of lion fishes, nudibranchs, frogfish, squid, shrimps, devil rays and loads of other stuff. Doña Marilyn proved to be a challenge to find, it took nearly 45 minutes to find it, and 2 dive attempts to get to the bottom. But once there, it's a very nice an worthwhile wreck but don't expect much fish there.
From Malapascua we headed by public transport to Padre Burgos on southern Leyte. Once again a road not often travelled, as the resort in Padre Burgos was both unable to pick us up and way too expensive for the part that they were able to do.
We took a motorbike to the public boat this time, and headed of to Maya in a rather full boat this time. Once on Maya, the boat to San Isidro on Leyte departed within half an hour at roughly 10am for a mere 100php per person.
At San Isidro we were helped on a motorbike to the local bus terminal where we took the public bus to Ormoc. This took a LOT of time, travelling four hours for a mere 100 kilometers. We were able to sit in the front, which helped with our by Philippine standards long legs, but still - it seemed endless. In Ormoc we took a v-hire too Maasin for 150php pp, and a hubbel-hubbel to Padre Burgos for 300php.
Once in Padre Burgos the hubbel-hubbel driver was unable to find the resort, but locals were able to point us in the right direction. More than 12 hours of travelling later and about 1k php in total, we arrived and slept very well.
Accidentally, two travellers did the exact same trip on the same day but by taking the bus down to Cebu and then the night ferry to Leyte. That worked out as well, thought they travelled just about as much and arrived at 4 am at the resort, having not much sleep left.
Padre Burgos
We stayed at Peter's dive resort, which seems to be run only by locals. The food was OK, the best dishes seemed to be the ones mostly related to Philippine dishes. The room had air con, but that doesn't help our sinuses all that much so we kept it of most of the time. Their pool is nice and deep, the beach is not worthwhile for sunbathing.
The diving at Pete's housereef (max climax) was a delight compared to many reefs at Malapascua. Like swimming from Chinese restaurant's aquarium to aquarium, we saw more fish in one dive then all of Malapascua, including scorpionfishes, moorish idols and damsels. At Medicare South, a couple of minutes away, we saw a turtle as well. On other reefs nearby we saw pipefish, spadefish and nudibranchs.
Worthwhile mentioning is that most dives from this point onwards is that they lasted 60+ minutes, rather then the 45 at Exotic.
We also tried spotting the whale sharks in the Sogod bay. After about an hour of boat ride to the other side we signed in, picked up 3 local spotters and searched around. After 3 hours we did a bit of diving there, and the amount of Crown of Thorns was astonishing - nearly every square meter had at least one, and up to three or four CoT's. It's amazing anything was left, but was still a fun dive with some ribbon eels and stingrays.
After the dive we searched for another 2 hours and headed back to Pete's for another dive. We decided not too do so and went for the pool.
From Pete's we took a taxi to Hilongos and a boat ride to Cebu from there. Then about an hour later we took the boat to Siquijor and arrived 7-8 hours later at Kiwi Dive Resort on Siquijor, at it's nothern tip.
Siquijor
At the time we were there, and by the looks of it for quite some time, Siquijor was an road-under-construction all around Larena. We took a hubbel-hubbel from the peer to the northern tip and at some point we thought we would fall of the island. Kiwi is at the end of an unspecified and barren dirt road, and arriving at night we felt we'd never get out of the place.
After a good night's sleep we felt much better, and we had a great little hut at the beach with a massive porch.
Unfortunately the compressor at Kiwi's was broken, and it had both been so for quite some time and would be so as well (at least 6 weeks to go). We were not told and found out from other guests. We decided to rent a motorbike for the day and crossed the island. Loads of fun, and despite getting lost and a flat tire, we really had a great time.
We did dive eventually with Last Frontier Dives, located in San Juan. Our dive guide was a very friendly guide and the driver a friendly and cheerful blabbermouth. We did some dives at Paliton, spotted some ribbon eels, scorpionfish, tiny gorilla crabs, fire dart fishes and juvenile sweetlips. The gear was yet again not of great quality.
The next day we were able to convince, with quite some persuasion, the dive guide to take us to the japanese ww2 wreck. He was very reluctant because it would be very, very, VERY far away. We arrived within minutes at the shore, and had to wade an astonishing 150 meters to the drop off. Yes, that was very, very, VERY far away for a Pinoy to walk I suppose. The dive there was great. Not much visibility, and the wreck had been seriously plundered, but still impressive. We saw many and very large lion fishes and some spadefishes but not much else. The wreck was surrounded with fishing nets, so I'd really recommend taking a knife with you - I did not, got stuck and it took me a while to get loose.
As a last dive we did a dive at the Last Frontier house reef, Maite. At first we wondered if they were kidding - absolutely nothing but sand, sand and sand. But then, slowly we started to notice very small pieces of reef life; and once your eye got used to it you would find an endless amount of small marine life. We saw ornated pipefishes, crabs, shrimps, stick fishes, a flounder, pygmy lion fishes (very cute!) and scorpion fishes.
Diving at LF was rather expensive though - especially being picked up at 1,200 php/day was quite a hefty charge. If Kiwi had been able to arrange the dives themselves, we would have surely saved half our budget. All in all the dive guide made sure we had a great time.
From Siquijor we took a ferry to Dumaguete, a hubbel-hubbel to Zamboanguita and 2 motorbikes the remaining 11 kms of dirt road in the soaking, storming rain. We arrived very, very wet at Kookoo's nest.
Negros
Our last destination was Kookoo's nest, once again located at the end of a very, very long dirt road. This time we were unable to escape, and had to stay there. We had a wonderful little cottage and the staff and owners made sure everything was in order. Every day a supper buffet at 350php pp was arranged, though you could order a la carte as well.
We did 5 dives at the house reef and just around the corner. The house reef has very nice coral, and around the corner there was more fish. We saw loads and loads of ribbon eels in all colors, morays and (huge) scorpionfishes, ghost pipefish, mantis shrimps, frogfishes, massive baracuda's, a 5m ø gorgonian, sea snakes, nudibranchs and rays.
We also planned a trip to Apo of course, but on the day of our trip we woke up early from the storm that was passing over. At first the trip was cancelled, but the weather cleared enough and we headed there anyways. Once there it seemed no one thought they'd go anymore and Apo seemed deserted. The ocean was still rough at some times, but beneath the surface this meant nothing.
Apo had beautiful corals at our first (wall) dive, and the second drift dive was both exhilarating and beautiful. At the drift dive we saw some of the bigger fishes, including huge puffers, red snappers and giant travelli's, a large school of jacks and a turtle.
Life at Kookoo's was slow and fun, even though the weather wasnt all that great. Getting money wasn't so easy, as many of the ATM's in Duma were either broken or didn't offer international services. Getting 40k php in 100 bills isn't fun either.
From Duma, we took the ferry back to Cebu and stayed at SDR apartments. SDR is mostly oriented to monthly and yearly leases of the app's, but one is more then welcome to stay for the night. We had a very nice loft for $50/night and a very late checkout at 6pm without extra charges, almost next to the airport. There's no hotel services obviously, but with a supermarket at 5 minutes walking distance this was no problem at all. I'd very much recommend them to anyone looking for accommodation in Cebu.
We've done a 3+ weeks trip around the Philippines with about 25 dives/24 hours of diving.
Cebu
We've arrived in Cebu on easter-saturday, and not much was going on. Except of course, for the the theater-performance outside our hotel at 4 am.
We've left Cebu for Malapascua the next morning by bus; we took a cab to the North Cebu Busstation and we had a bus within *minutes*, and it took off straight away. With nearly no stops in between it took us less then 3 hours to reach maya - it'd be very unlikely that a taxi would've been faster! Then a small rainstorm passed us an we had to wait about 15 minutes before a public boat took us to Malapascua - with only 1 other passenger, once again a very smooth ride
Malapascua
Once on Malapascua we walked to Exotic beach resort. Very hot, and seemlingly endlessly far away, we arrived soaking in sweat. Yes, that offer for a motorbike ride then seems a very good idea.
Exotic is on a very nice stretch of beach. We had the cheapest room, but still a comfortable place for 2. There's not much swimming or snorkling in front of the resort, but then again - we're not there to stay on the surface
Exotic's gear was OK, with just a few minor glitches in the equipment. Their DM's are ranging from friendly to uninterested/annoyed but we had a great time anyways. The food is so-so, but the neighbours are an easy (but dark) walk in the evening. Especially Hippo had good and tasty food.
Diving around Malapascua wasn't all it's cracked what it's supposed to be - Gato Island and Doña Marilyn were very nice, but many reefs are devoid of fish and the explosions of dynamite can be heard on most dives. The reefs are quite nice thought.
We had 2 nitrox dives at 5am, but saw no thresher sharks - many other guests reported a 1 in 3 chance to see them, so if this is your goal preper for a few days of trying.
Other dives were at 9am, 12am and 3pm, with a duskdive at 5.30pm. The housereef is of particular no interest, I'd avoid it if you can.
We also completed 2 courses (Nitrox adv. and wreck adv.) at Exotic.
What we did see where a bunch of sea snakes, white-tip sharks (at very close range), pygmy sea horses, ghost pipefish, loads of lion fishes, nudibranchs, frogfish, squid, shrimps, devil rays and loads of other stuff. Doña Marilyn proved to be a challenge to find, it took nearly 45 minutes to find it, and 2 dive attempts to get to the bottom. But once there, it's a very nice an worthwhile wreck but don't expect much fish there.
From Malapascua we headed by public transport to Padre Burgos on southern Leyte. Once again a road not often travelled, as the resort in Padre Burgos was both unable to pick us up and way too expensive for the part that they were able to do.
We took a motorbike to the public boat this time, and headed of to Maya in a rather full boat this time. Once on Maya, the boat to San Isidro on Leyte departed within half an hour at roughly 10am for a mere 100php per person.
At San Isidro we were helped on a motorbike to the local bus terminal where we took the public bus to Ormoc. This took a LOT of time, travelling four hours for a mere 100 kilometers. We were able to sit in the front, which helped with our by Philippine standards long legs, but still - it seemed endless. In Ormoc we took a v-hire too Maasin for 150php pp, and a hubbel-hubbel to Padre Burgos for 300php.
Once in Padre Burgos the hubbel-hubbel driver was unable to find the resort, but locals were able to point us in the right direction. More than 12 hours of travelling later and about 1k php in total, we arrived and slept very well.
Accidentally, two travellers did the exact same trip on the same day but by taking the bus down to Cebu and then the night ferry to Leyte. That worked out as well, thought they travelled just about as much and arrived at 4 am at the resort, having not much sleep left.
Padre Burgos
We stayed at Peter's dive resort, which seems to be run only by locals. The food was OK, the best dishes seemed to be the ones mostly related to Philippine dishes. The room had air con, but that doesn't help our sinuses all that much so we kept it of most of the time. Their pool is nice and deep, the beach is not worthwhile for sunbathing.
The diving at Pete's housereef (max climax) was a delight compared to many reefs at Malapascua. Like swimming from Chinese restaurant's aquarium to aquarium, we saw more fish in one dive then all of Malapascua, including scorpionfishes, moorish idols and damsels. At Medicare South, a couple of minutes away, we saw a turtle as well. On other reefs nearby we saw pipefish, spadefish and nudibranchs.
Worthwhile mentioning is that most dives from this point onwards is that they lasted 60+ minutes, rather then the 45 at Exotic.
We also tried spotting the whale sharks in the Sogod bay. After about an hour of boat ride to the other side we signed in, picked up 3 local spotters and searched around. After 3 hours we did a bit of diving there, and the amount of Crown of Thorns was astonishing - nearly every square meter had at least one, and up to three or four CoT's. It's amazing anything was left, but was still a fun dive with some ribbon eels and stingrays.
After the dive we searched for another 2 hours and headed back to Pete's for another dive. We decided not too do so and went for the pool.
From Pete's we took a taxi to Hilongos and a boat ride to Cebu from there. Then about an hour later we took the boat to Siquijor and arrived 7-8 hours later at Kiwi Dive Resort on Siquijor, at it's nothern tip.
Siquijor
At the time we were there, and by the looks of it for quite some time, Siquijor was an road-under-construction all around Larena. We took a hubbel-hubbel from the peer to the northern tip and at some point we thought we would fall of the island. Kiwi is at the end of an unspecified and barren dirt road, and arriving at night we felt we'd never get out of the place.
After a good night's sleep we felt much better, and we had a great little hut at the beach with a massive porch.
Unfortunately the compressor at Kiwi's was broken, and it had both been so for quite some time and would be so as well (at least 6 weeks to go). We were not told and found out from other guests. We decided to rent a motorbike for the day and crossed the island. Loads of fun, and despite getting lost and a flat tire, we really had a great time.
We did dive eventually with Last Frontier Dives, located in San Juan. Our dive guide was a very friendly guide and the driver a friendly and cheerful blabbermouth. We did some dives at Paliton, spotted some ribbon eels, scorpionfish, tiny gorilla crabs, fire dart fishes and juvenile sweetlips. The gear was yet again not of great quality.
The next day we were able to convince, with quite some persuasion, the dive guide to take us to the japanese ww2 wreck. He was very reluctant because it would be very, very, VERY far away. We arrived within minutes at the shore, and had to wade an astonishing 150 meters to the drop off. Yes, that was very, very, VERY far away for a Pinoy to walk I suppose
. The dive there was great. Not much visibility, and the wreck had been seriously plundered, but still impressive. We saw many and very large lion fishes and some spadefishes but not much else. The wreck was surrounded with fishing nets, so I'd really recommend taking a knife with you - I did not, got stuck and it took me a while to get loose. 
As a last dive we did a dive at the Last Frontier house reef, Maite. At first we wondered if they were kidding - absolutely nothing but sand, sand and sand. But then, slowly we started to notice very small pieces of reef life; and once your eye got used to it you would find an endless amount of small marine life. We saw ornated pipefishes, crabs, shrimps, stick fishes, a flounder, pygmy lion fishes (very cute!) and scorpion fishes.
Diving at LF was rather expensive though - especially being picked up at 1,200 php/day was quite a hefty charge. If Kiwi had been able to arrange the dives themselves, we would have surely saved half our budget. All in all the dive guide made sure we had a great time.
From Siquijor we took a ferry to Dumaguete, a hubbel-hubbel to Zamboanguita and 2 motorbikes the remaining 11 kms of dirt road in the soaking, storming rain. We arrived very, very wet at Kookoo's nest.
Negros
Our last destination was Kookoo's nest, once again located at the end of a very, very long dirt road. This time we were unable to escape, and had to stay there. We had a wonderful little cottage and the staff and owners made sure everything was in order. Every day a supper buffet at 350php pp was arranged, though you could order a la carte as well.
We did 5 dives at the house reef and just around the corner. The house reef has very nice coral, and around the corner there was more fish. We saw loads and loads of ribbon eels in all colors, morays and (huge) scorpionfishes, ghost pipefish, mantis shrimps, frogfishes, massive baracuda's, a 5m ø gorgonian, sea snakes, nudibranchs and rays.
We also planned a trip to Apo of course, but on the day of our trip we woke up early from the storm that was passing over. At first the trip was cancelled, but the weather cleared enough and we headed there anyways. Once there it seemed no one thought they'd go anymore and Apo seemed deserted. The ocean was still rough at some times, but beneath the surface this meant nothing.
Apo had beautiful corals at our first (wall) dive, and the second drift dive was both exhilarating and beautiful. At the drift dive we saw some of the bigger fishes, including huge puffers, red snappers and giant travelli's, a large school of jacks and a turtle.
Life at Kookoo's was slow and fun, even though the weather wasnt all that great. Getting money wasn't so easy, as many of the ATM's in Duma were either broken or didn't offer international services. Getting 40k php in 100 bills isn't fun either.
From Duma, we took the ferry back to Cebu and stayed at SDR apartments. SDR is mostly oriented to monthly and yearly leases of the app's, but one is more then welcome to stay for the night. We had a very nice loft for $50/night and a very late checkout at 6pm without extra charges, almost next to the airport. There's no hotel services obviously, but with a supermarket at 5 minutes walking distance this was no problem at all. I'd very much recommend them to anyone looking for accommodation in Cebu.
