Trip Report Malapascua & South Leyte March 2013

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outpost31

Contributor
Messages
118
Reaction score
28
Location
Surrey, UK
# of dives
200 - 499
Hi,

Just got back from my trip and thanks to SB it was awesome! Thanks to everyone who helped me choose and gave me such good info, especially OCDiver1 who was out doing pretty much the same itinerary as me while I was planning it and was kind enough to email a lot of invaluable info that really made a difference. Cheers Mate!
Here's my two threads if you need some of the info:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ph...-dive-late-march-must-see-pi-experiences.html

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ph...446520-dumaguete-dauin-apo-vs-bohol-best.html

Ok, so I flew from UK to Singapore then to Cebu on Cebu Air, more about them later, and arrived at Cebu Airport around 4am. I changed all my money up at the airport, word of warning the highest denomination is 1000 pesos. Didn't seem to be many around at that time to share a taxi so I just got one on my own. They wanted about the same as a resort would arrange, 8-8500 pesos, but I'd got a number of a local offering a round-trip for 6,000 and they priced matched that (Jen Alo...Globe: 09178229243, also on FB).

Then I sat back for the usual 'interesting' island taxi terror ride which involved almost hitting 6 dogs, 3 hens, 1 goat, 4 buses on the wrong side of the road and a bird flew into my windscreen. 3 and a half hours...What fun! Then got to Maya at about half seven ish and was instantly surrounded by the boat mafia. Now I was still a bit asleep and forgot there was a little office where you buy a cheap ticket so instead i got robbed for 1,000 peso for fuel as I was the only one going but then saw i wasn't..plus tips for them carrying your bags, one guy was even wearing a ski mask which seemed appropriate. So tip: Go to the office, buy ticket, refuse to pay anything except carrying tips!

I stayed at Slam's Resort which suited my needs and was nice, no complaints there, although it is a bit of a walk to the dive resort but I knew that. I should have stayed with the resort but it was a bit of a last minute booking. I arranged to dive with Evolution but OCDiver1 said I should check out Exotic's house reef so i did that to get an intro dive out of the way. At Exotic I met Rebecca and, although I was only having one little dive with them, she was very helpful and friendly and I'm sure they would have been a good shop to do more dives with. Their house reef was really good, a car wreck and some structures laid out down there, saw nudi, ornate ghostpipefish, mantis shrimp.

Next morning I started my diving with Evolution, which began at 4.30am with a 10-15min walk through an alleyway/dirt track, illuminated only by my torch, which would have been ok if not for the (possibly rabid local dogs) giving me sh*t but a bit of shouting scared them off. I made it through unscathed and we had our Thresher Shark briefing and set out for the rising sun. There weren't too many boats there and when we dropped down we went straight to the edge and within minutes a shark turned up for a quick visit. Then we headed to another spot for a second encounter, then returned to the 1st place for a third where a shark almost swam right over my head. The websites lead you to believe that you get frequent sightings and they were right. I had planned to do 2 morning dives out of 4 days but then decided to do it every morning and I saw 3-6 on each dive, plus a devil ray! No flash or lights allowed so I just stuck to video which worked out well.

Other sites I dove included Lapus Lapus (not impressed really), a trip to Gato Island which I highly recommend. Saw nudi, seahorse, Sea Krait, several White tips, frogfish plus more on the 1st dive but the treat was the second where most of the great stuff was at the end when we came up to 6m and we found lots of nudis, flatworm, cuttlefish & a spanish dancer which I've never seen before. The Lighthouse night dive was excellent from the word go, saw Mandarinfish fighting and mating, a small octopus, nudis and cuttlefish, prob one of the best night dives I've done. Went to Kalaggaman Island, the island itself is a thin strip of white beach where we stopped to rest and was a little piece of paradise in the middle of nowhere. The diving there was 2 walls dive which made a change, both very nice.

Diving with Evolution was a great, my guide Jojo did a fantastic job of finding some really tiny nudis and much more that I never would have spotted which means I came home with some great shots. Thanks guys, top job! Malapascua was a friendly place, nice locals + other divers. I ate at Exotic (massive pictured menu choice), a little place 5mins away with bean bags on the beach (forget the name) which was very nice.

I then left and headed back by taxi to Cebu and my driver took me to the office to buy a ferry ticket, Robel Ferry Cebu-Hilongos deluxe class for 330 pesos, which was a bunk among 30+ with a small tv playing a dvd, not an awful 5hr+ journey but tiring. I bought a bus ticket to Sogod Bay on the ferry and, when I departed, I asked which bus to get on and shown which one.

A couple of hours later in a packed hot bus I asked how long to my stopped and then found out they put me on the wrong one. I was then told to get off in the middle of nowhere late at night and left by a motorcycle taxi/sidecar and was then surrounded by locals, none of who could speak english. The one guy did speak english and told for for 500 peso's his mate with a van would take me to Padre Bourgos. Having no choice I accepted, got in, no seatbelt but the driver was friendly enough but every 10 mins he said we were 5km away and we kept almost breaking down. I was so exhausted by this point I just wanted to get to my bed, then the van did actually break down. He asked a local standing at the side of the road for help and, by an amazing stoke of luck he turned out to be a policeman and my dive guide, Jun, from Peter's?!?!?!

I booked last min and decided to dive with Peter's Dive Resort but I chose to book a room with Sogod Bay Scuba Resort bc they had one I preferred on price, at the time this didn't seem an issue but I soon found out that it was. Jun from Peter's phoned up Sogod and the manager kindly drove the few mins to come and get me. As soon as he turned up tho he questioned me about my arrangement and told me that's not how they do things. I could stay at his tonight but I would have to decide, I either stay AND dive with him or not at all. At the side of the road and after the journey I'd had this wasn't what I wanted to hear. Personally, I don't think you should treat a customer like that but I was too tired to argue so I opted to go to Peter's and see if they had a private room. They didn't so I took a bunk room but it was just me staying in there so it was fine.

I'm glad I switched to Peter's as I really enjoyed staying and diving with them. Jun my guide was a great laugh and I had a lot of fun with them for the short time I was there. The highlights were Napantau Reef where I saw 4 different coloured frogfish on one dive, Little Lembeh- a shallow muck slope where I saw cuttlefish, mantis shrimp, ornate ghostpipefish, banded pipefish and nudis, the Pier night dive incl nudis, triple seahorses and a big turtle.

I also went to see Whalesharks. I almost chose to go to see them at Oslob but i didn't want the zoo-like experience. We went along the coast and picked up some locals and their banca boats and towed them to the spot near to the shore. We went up and down while these locals tirelessly paddled and searched for us and signalled when they saw one. 1st sighting: jumped in but missed it. 2nd sighting: jumped in and just got a glimpse of the tail below me. 3rd: jumped in and saw it beneath me and tried to keep up but wasn't fast enough. I looked up and a local signalled to me to get in his banca and he then paddled me in front of about 20+ snorklers and then said jump in. I couldn't see where it was but I jumped anyway. As soon as I hit the water I was almost swallow by the whaleshark it was that close, I immediately backpaddled to avoid it and got a nice shot of it....and that was my awesome encounter!

I chose to eat a little place called Squirrel's just down the road which did some great food. I think I averaged about 6-800 pesos for food and drink a day, but with all the tipping for bag carrying etc it all adds up and I had to save cash for taxis and things which i didn't know how much would cost. I got a taxi back to the ferry port and headed back to Cebu for my flight out but I had one nasty surprise waiting for me. I booked my flight a month in advance and got email confirmation for both my flights (they treat a return as two separate payments) but, when I checked in for my flight out, they informed me that my payment had been declined. Did they email me to inform me right away? No, they chose to wait nearly a whole month to tell me this via email just two days before my flight!!! Not being near a computer, I hadn't seen it in my junk folder, So CebuAir are completely incompetent. So, i then had to run round to their office, wait in line, then pay for it hoping i would miss my flight. I only just made it..oh, and you need 500 pesos for them to let you leave the country btw.

All in all, I did really enjoy the Philippines, fantastic diving, the Thresher Sharks were more frequent than I had hoped for, got some nice pics, a very close encounter with a Whaleshark, met some really nice people, great dive guides who really made the effort, perfect weather and very nice food.

Thanks to everyone who helped me arrange my holiday!

Here's my pics and video:

Philippines 2013 - a set on Flickr
 
Nice photos! Glad you enjoyed your dives and trip except for some glitches. Thanks for sharing your report.
 
Cheers peeps!...I was using a G12 with Canon housing, my ext flash died for good on the first day but I still had my housing diffuser so close-up pics weren't a problem. If you're into sharks, I highly recommend seeing the Threshers, it's not often you can say that you're pretty much guaranteed a great shark experience and they are inquisitive and will keep coming back to you.
 
Nice trip and pictures , stayed at Peter's a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it , good set-up and restaurant. Seen a card there where they advertised a trip from them to Malapasque straight for 35oo pesos .
Frank
 
....stayed at Peter's a couple of weeks ago... Seen a card there where they advertised a trip from them to Malapasque straight for 35oo pesos .

That is very useful. Save a lot of time!!!!
Thank you.
 
Then I sat back for the usual 'interesting' island taxi terror ride which involved almost hitting 6 dogs, 3 hens, 1 goat, 4 buses on the wrong side of the road and a bird flew into my windscreen. 3 and a half hours...What fun!

This cracked me up. :p I'm glad despite some of the bad things you exprienced that you still enjoyed your stay in my country. Hope you'll come back for more adventure in the future! Hehe. Great pics btw. :)
 

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