Where to go in S.E.Asia on budget

[scubadudee]

Thank you so much guys....


Indeed Thailand and Philippines should be my best choice...

Have been to Thailand...not so sure about the prices in Philippines...need to check them out.

 

[Corregidor]

You may want to take a look at Alona Beach, Panglao Island, Bohol:

http://www008.upp.so-net.ne.jp/panglao/english/map.htm

Many good spots are within boating distance (Balicasag, Pamilacan, Doljo). Some of the older resorts have rooms or cottages near the beach for 10 USD.

Jim

 

[Universal Diver]

In PI costs can range. I'm no expert but I'm one of the cheapest people I know.

I stayed at Eve's Kiosk in Moal Boal. They have rooms for about 300 piso a night and I dived with her brother's shop next store. Ocean Safari or what others call it Nelson's Dive Shop.

Diving was only $15 a dive. The dive sites are near enough to come back and do your surface interval on land. You can even go back to your hut and take a nap or grab some food at a local kiosk for about 100 piso or less.

I told Nelson I wanted to do three dives a day for five days and he never asked me for any money until the end. A very honest and trusting man. He is also part of the city council.

I felt the people in Moal Boal were very nice. Some of the nicest people I've ever met.

It is a really small, diving town with very little to do unless you go to Kawasan Falls or a jungle trek.

There is a larger town of Moal Boal if you want to do any shopping but nothing glamorous about this place. A very local place.

The most you would spend would be for a taxi to Moal Boal from the airport which could cost $35 or more. Coming back to Cebu City, just take a bus or a mini-van. The mini-van is about 800 piso if I can remember. They take you to the bus terminal then you take a taxi to the airport. The ride from the airport to Moal Boal is about 4 hours. This is why it isn't overcrowded.

This is just my advice from experience.

Chris

 

[JonnieB]

sounds like you found a nice place to dive in PI. I take it mabul is on cebu island. what did you see...macro, palegic, or both. vis wuz what, corals, drift, drop-offs? could you describe what you saw in a little more detail.

thx in advance

 

[Universal Diver]

Well JonnieB,

There is a bit of everything that's why I love diving there. This is a shortened version of a previous report I had listed on a different forum.

Cebu, Philippines Dive Report from Moal Boal.

Now, let me start by saying, I don't really want to tell everyone about this place. It's like telling someone about their secret fishing hole. Once you tell one person, then it's no longer a secret.

This place has some amazing wall dives. It doesn't have the vis like Coz but it's good enough. There are about eleven or twelve dive points in about a 20 to 30 minute boat ride. The jewel is Pescador Island. I had 5 days of diving and went there 5 times, by choice.

When I arrived in Cebu, they were having a typhoon. I couldnft believe it! The 3 hour drive from the airport was nothing but downpour. I almost had regrets about my timing. I got to Moalboal about 10:30pm and grabbed a bite to eat. I set my clock for 8:00am so I could get breakfast and get to my dive shop, which was next door.

My first dive was scheduled at 9:30am at Pescador Island. The morning turned out to be beautiful! The typhoon had ended! Needless to say, tourism isn't Moalboal's strong point. I was the only diver! Two boat men, a divemaster and me for five days. It was like a dream. I could dive my own profile and look for my little nudibranches! Only one day did I have company. Three Japanese people in Moalboal for the day. But I didn't dive with them, they had a different guide.

I dived with Ocean Safari Philippines or Nelsons Dive Shop. I had met Nelson the previous year and felt a little loyalty to give him my business. He assigned one DM to me, Benjim, and he stuck with me for all 15 dives. Poor guy. At Pescador Island we found only one nudibranch, but, we found a nursery of five young white tips under some table coral. They never left that spot. I saw them everyday. Also, to my surprise, Benjim had found a frogfish. That was my highlight. I'd always wanted to see one up close.

This place is foremost a fishing community so if you go, expect to see a lot of fishing line and some busted coral from anchoring. If you ever go, take some scissors or a knife with you and cut out some of the fishing line. The Moalboal dive community has taken strides to improve the dive sights with bouys for the boats so anchoring is no longer done, except in port.

On almost every dive, I saw table coral, soft corals, staghorn coral, sponges, sea fans, anemone, cabbage coral, and brain coral. Fish, well, lionfish, trumpetfish, scorpionfish, hawkfish, jacks, clownfish, all types of triggerfish, puffers, and the occasional shy yellow box fish.

I think that's all I'll say about my dive trip. It was awesome. Here are my ratings on a scale from one to five stars for the dive sights.


Pescador Island ** Frogfish, nudibranches, jacks, whitetips, morays, lionfish, sardines, everything! A giant swim through called "The Cathedral". Great for pics.

Copton Point ** Whale shark, batfish, banded sea snake, hawksbill turtles, and more!

Tongo Point ** A lot of small fish, purple anthias, various butterfly fish, sergeants, blue damsels, etc.

The Airport (wreck) ** Nudibranches, decent reef, lizardfish, gobys, clownfish, etc.

Kasai Wall *** A Napoleon! Clownfish, good coral.

Sunken Island ** Drop to 25-28 meters and pull yourself around in the current, not fun. It's a coral formation down there but I'm sure it could be nicer if the weather is clear. Vis was poor.

Dolphin Beach ** Full of sand. Coral was covered. Very boring dive. Some nudibranches mating. That was cool. The typhoon had messed up the sand.

White Beach ** Coral here was really nice. A lot of clownfish, nudibranches, small fish.

Sampaguita ** This place has potential. Some small swim throughs, nice coral, a lot of sea fans.

Talisay Point ** Wasn't of much interest.

House Reef ** Did a night dive. Saw a snake eel, crabs, some shrimp, some striped catfish but generally a dead dive. The striped catfish were very interesting.

 

[JonnieB]

thanks for the info on mabol...it sounds like a great site. will likely go next year sometime.

have you ever dived in Dauin and/or Apo marine park. i may go there in late november. if you have gone, can you give me your impressions.

thx

 

[travelem]

I think the peso gives you the best value for diving. Besides Cebu-Moalboal-Bohol area, have you thought of Puerto Galera?
It is about 4 hrs travel from Manila.

http://www.about-scuba-diving.com/countries/philippines/puerto-galera/index.htm

I like Small Laguna Beach which is close to the restaurants in Sanang and better beach in Big Laguna.

Dive prices are very competitive in PG.

http://www.sabang-inn.com/Resort/Package_Deals.html
http://www.southseadivers.com/packages.html

The Sabang Inn is especially good value:
One Week Dive Package
7 nights accommodation in seaview room w/aircon
Cable TV
Hotwater shower
American breakfast
10 guided dives **

Package Price US$229*
*Price based on double room occupancy per person
add US$ 56 for single occupancy
**Price based on use of own equipment, add $30 for shop equipment

In the top end, you have Atlantis Dive Resort, Tropicana Beach Resort, La Laguna Beach Beach Club, Club Mabuhay La Laguna
El Galleon Beach Resort, Portofino Beach Resort, etc.

http://www.philippineshotelresort.com/puertogalera/index.html

Undercurrent has an article for Sabang Inn and PG:

"Sabang Inn. For $2 it¡¦s a 2-hour trip on a Sabang Princess banca from Batangas, then a two-minute walk to the Sabang Inn. Sabang is a small beach town, packed with apartments, condos, small hotels, dive shops, restaurants, bars, discos, and lots of young people. Few dive destinations can compete with Sabang for all-night action. Everything is compactly located, so it is only a few minutes¡¦ walk to any night spot. The 16-room Sabang Inn has basic rooms for $18. Add $3 for hot water and another $3 for an ocean view. Rooms include a kitchenette, AC, and cable TV (65 channels). A small pool next to the dive gear area is good for rinsing the salt off your skin. The Sabang Inn offers breakfast and lunch, and a host of decent restaurants are nearby. I made 21 dives during the week and, all told, spent about $500.

Compared with the Club O, reefs here are prettier, with more schools of larger fish, such as sweetlips and snappers. Large groupers are uncommon, though I did see several large potato cod at Hole in the Wall. Sites like Fishbowl are 130 to 165 feet deep and require decompression. At Drydock, currents are strong. I needed my reef hook to shoot the huge mangrove jacks that hung out inside the drydock. The variety of exotic critters around the Sabang Wrecks is similar to Basura, but most divemasters lack the training to find them regularly. Three wooden wrecks in the Sabang harbor are habitat for ghost pipefish and frogfish. On the bottom (20 to 65 feet), a sharp-eyed diver can spot all kinds of strange animals. I saw a blue-ringed octopus -- its bite will kill you -- the blue-fin lionfish (supposedly endemic to north Bali) and pygmy seahorses. It¡¦s an excellent night dive. With the lights from Sabang, it¡¦s hard to get lost and one could swim to shore in a pinch.

The Canyons, one of the fishiest sites in the Philippines, is the signature dive site at Sabang. Depending on the current, the direction of the dive, and which of the three canyons you dive, will vary, creating a feeling of newness even after diving the site several times. Each canyon has its own resident fish: ribbon sweetlips, paddletail snappers, harlequin sweetlips, oriental sweetlips, and a variety of other snappers and sweetlips tend to school in the same areas.

Dive operators mix divers of all skills and limit the length of dives. Still, I could get 70 minutes on dives to normal depths. Three boat dives a day run $39. And they have Nitrox. Sabang Divers uses planing skiffs with large outboards that get to most sites in five minutes and return you to the resort after each dive. If you have a buddy, you can dive the house reef anytime, with no extra charge for tanks. Sabang tries to follow PADI rules, but they are relaxed about diving beyond 130 feet and developing a decompression ceiling. Several Sabang dive operators are heavily into technical diving. One Action Diver instructor apparently holds the world¡¦s open water depth record of more than 1000 feet. The dive only took nine and a half hours."