Dive-Boarder
Registered
When researching my recent trip to the Philippines, I was struggling to find any information regarding the dive safari offered jointly by Savedra Dive Centre in Moalboal, and Easy Diving in Sipalay. I hope the following report will prove useful to others contemplating the same trip.
We left Heathrow on a Cathay Pacific flight to Manila, via Hong Kong. A short flight with Cebu Pacific saw us arriving in Cebu to be met by our driver for the three-hour transfer to Moalboal. The cost of this was p2800, arranged by our dive centre inMoalboal. We arrived very tired at the Sunshine Pension in Moalboal at about 10pm local time, a door-to-door journey from Cardiff of over 36 hours. The Sunshine Pension, run by Aida, offers good, clean comfortable, basic fan rooms,each with its own diving-related mural on the wall. The rooms were arranged around a pleasant swimming pool set in garden surroundings. There was a safety deposit box available at reception. These rooms are located at the South end of Panagsama beach, about 50m away from the sea, turning opposite Abyss Divers. The cost of rooms ranged from p700 (twin room, no hot water) to p850 (double room with hot water shower). One word of caution though, there was a large brood of very vocal Cockerels a few plots down, that started an energetic dawn chorus at 3am each morning (switching the fan on in the room helped to drown their efforts).
We had a couple of days available to dive before picking up the safari, so had arranged diving with the Cebu Dive Centre, next door to Hannahs Place. Run by Geom, a French Instructor, we found this to be a very friendly, personal dive centre, with small groups and good local guides (thanks to ours, a gentleman called Bibit). Our kit was set up for us before each dive, and brought to and from the boat as needed. We were offered a free soft drink after every dive along with ample towels, a nice touch. Another plus point was the one free tank of Nitrox 32 available each day. We dived on the house reef in front of the centre as our first dive, and made two further dives that day on other sites along the beach. On the second day, we took the boat over to Pescador Island, and made two dives in the morning around the island. Both dives were on impressive coral walls,and we enjoyed dropping into the cathedral.
A short briefing on the dive safari was held at the Savedra Dive Centre, the evening before the safari was due to leave. Savedra Dive struck us as a much busier, less personal dive centre, and we were quite glad to have dived with Cebu Dive Centre. Here we met Klaus,our German guide, who explained the schedule and logistics for the trip. After the briefing we packed our dive kit into crates, ready for loading onto the boat the next morning. We had been told to split our other luggage into two parts. One part (toiletries etc) was to be used as an overnight bag, whilst the other was to be left on the boat; it was possible to access this during the trip.
The next morning we met our boat at 5am on the beach in front of Savedra. There are two boats than make thus trip, Royo and Goya. Our boat was Goya. Both boats are large bankas; Royo at 30m is slightly bigger than Goya (25m). The boat had a large table, capable of seating 10 people (the number on our trip). The dive deck was small, just enough to hold twelve dive crates in two rows of six. This was not a problem because cylinders (plus BCDs etc) were kept along the side of the boat, allowing plenty of room for kitting up. Above the dive deck, in front of the captains cabin, was a small platform that was used to store our overnight bags ,the rest of the luggage was stored in cabins below deck. Both sides of the boat were fitted with nets, which were very comfortable (with mattress) for snoozing between dives. The back of the boat housed a marine toilet,the kitchen area, and another seating area and separate sun deck. The boat was ably crewed by the captain, four boat boys, the two dive guides (Klaus and Ray), and a lovely lady called Jocelyn who kept us supplied with water, food and soft drinks. All the staff was very friendly, and couldn’t do enough to help.
After a short cruise, we made our first dive at Green Island, just down from Moalboal. After this dive we were given a breakfast of bacon and eggs, and plenty of hot coffee. This was followed by a visit to the Kayangan waterfall. Our rib dropped us off at the beach, and after a short riverside stroll through the forest we were swimming in the cool waters of the plunge pool. Back on the boat, we had a lunch of grilled chicken, garlic rice and salad, before making our second and third dives at Ilo-an. Between the second and third (twilight) dive, we were given sandwiches and coffee to keep us going. That night we were transported by RIB to the beach for our first overnight stop at the Kingdom Beach Resort. Rooms here were comfortable with a good size bed, air conditioning and hot water for a shower. Later that evening we were given dinner consisting of chicken, belly pork, rice and vegetables.
The next morning we rejoined the boat at 6.30am for a short (one hour) cruise to Oslob to see the whale sharks. We dropped just outside the marked area and swam over a sandy bottom at about 5m and entered the designated feeding area. Here we were not disappointed and spent about an hour with five or six whale sharks up to 6m in length. The sharks were being fed by the fishermen,and so for most of the time had their heads out of the water. This meant that divers were on the bottom looking up. There were a few people snorkelling, and other visitors just watching from the boats. After about twenty minutes, I surfaced, and found that in many respects the view of the sharks was better. Having seen whale sharks in Sharm and alsoin the Philippines at Donsol (the water in Oslob is a lot clearer), I found theexperience a little clinical for my liking. However, for those who have not seen whale sharks before, they were certainly there, particularly first thing in the morning. It should be noted that this dive cost anextra p1525, to cover the ‘sanctuary’ fees.
Back on the boat we took breakfast (fresh fruit salad and cereals) and after a short cruise arrived at Sumilon Island for our second and third dives. Lunch that day was a tasty beef and noodle stir-fry. We then spent a pleasant two and half hours cruising to Dauin (Dumaguete), and were dropped of at The Citas Beach Resort,our accommodation for the night (clean fan room with hot water). Klaus had arranged an extravagant grilledfish buffet at Mike’s Beach Resort just next door, which was followed by beers and a few excellent cocktails! The next day we made three dives at Dauin (Hot Springs, Car Wrecks and Sanctuary) before returning to shore for another night at Citas Resort.
In the morning, we made the crossing over to Apo Island for our first dive at Coconut Point. This is often quite a fast drift dive, but on this occasion was rather sedate. Two further dives were made at Rock Point and Chapel, and a night dive in the bay in front of the village. We were then taken to Apo Island to find our rooms for the night, and it was herethat we experienced the only real problem on the trip. Because they were running bothboats in parallel (not usual) and we were last to shore after the night dive all the rooms at the intended resort (Liberty Dive Resort) were taken. Instead, we were offered rooms in the village, which it has to be said, were totally unacceptable unless you were avery budget conscious backpacker! We refused to take these rooms, and were offered dinner whilst the problem was sorted out. The German guide from the other boat was rather rude at this point, and her attitude upset the ladies in our group. We had a rather uncomfortable (but pleasant) dinner whilst waiting, and to be fair, our guides offered to pay for all our drinks whilst we were eating (more cocktails please!). At about 10.30pm we were told, for the first time, that rooms had been found, and were taken by RIB to the resort next door. Since it was now pitch black and the tide was against us, this was a rather perilous ten-minuteboat ride until we managed a beach landing and were shown to our rooms at Apo Island Beach Resort. As it turned out,these are the best rooms on the island, although with an early start again the next day we did not have much time to enjoy them.
The following day we made anotherdive at Coconut Point (again little current), before a long cruise (six hours or so) around Negros to Sipalay. On the way we made a nice dive at a site called Copper Mine. Just after dark we arrived at Sipalay and were transported to theEasy Diving Resort. Here we were greeted personally by Christian, the owner (a nice touch) and given a drink of fresh coconut (from the shell), with a shot of rum if desired! Our luggage arrived promptly, and we were shown to our room, the Stone House, an annex of the main resort. We spent three nights at Easy Diving, diving for a further two days. I would recommend this resort.
In summary, we enjoyed the safari immensely. The weather was hot and sunny, the boat good, and the crew helpful and friendly. Food and accommodation met our expectations (we were expecting to spend one night on the boat). The diving was good and varied and our guide efficient. We managed fifteen dives over the five days,including of course, the whale sharks at Oslob. The cost of the trip was p37000 (or about £600) plus another p2500 to cover marine fees etc. With all the food and four nights accommodation I think this represented good value for money. It was certainly a good way to cover a lot of ground in a short space of time. The clientele on this trip was mainly Germans, Austrians and Swiss; as such, we were quite glad to be in a group of four, although everyone on the boat was friendly, communication was sometimes difficult. At the end of our stay at Sipalay, we took a car North (p5000, two hours) to Baclodod, overnighted in the O Hotel (recommended), then caught a flight the next day to Manila, and onwards to Busuanga (Coron) for some wreck diving.
We left Heathrow on a Cathay Pacific flight to Manila, via Hong Kong. A short flight with Cebu Pacific saw us arriving in Cebu to be met by our driver for the three-hour transfer to Moalboal. The cost of this was p2800, arranged by our dive centre inMoalboal. We arrived very tired at the Sunshine Pension in Moalboal at about 10pm local time, a door-to-door journey from Cardiff of over 36 hours. The Sunshine Pension, run by Aida, offers good, clean comfortable, basic fan rooms,each with its own diving-related mural on the wall. The rooms were arranged around a pleasant swimming pool set in garden surroundings. There was a safety deposit box available at reception. These rooms are located at the South end of Panagsama beach, about 50m away from the sea, turning opposite Abyss Divers. The cost of rooms ranged from p700 (twin room, no hot water) to p850 (double room with hot water shower). One word of caution though, there was a large brood of very vocal Cockerels a few plots down, that started an energetic dawn chorus at 3am each morning (switching the fan on in the room helped to drown their efforts).
We had a couple of days available to dive before picking up the safari, so had arranged diving with the Cebu Dive Centre, next door to Hannahs Place. Run by Geom, a French Instructor, we found this to be a very friendly, personal dive centre, with small groups and good local guides (thanks to ours, a gentleman called Bibit). Our kit was set up for us before each dive, and brought to and from the boat as needed. We were offered a free soft drink after every dive along with ample towels, a nice touch. Another plus point was the one free tank of Nitrox 32 available each day. We dived on the house reef in front of the centre as our first dive, and made two further dives that day on other sites along the beach. On the second day, we took the boat over to Pescador Island, and made two dives in the morning around the island. Both dives were on impressive coral walls,and we enjoyed dropping into the cathedral.
A short briefing on the dive safari was held at the Savedra Dive Centre, the evening before the safari was due to leave. Savedra Dive struck us as a much busier, less personal dive centre, and we were quite glad to have dived with Cebu Dive Centre. Here we met Klaus,our German guide, who explained the schedule and logistics for the trip. After the briefing we packed our dive kit into crates, ready for loading onto the boat the next morning. We had been told to split our other luggage into two parts. One part (toiletries etc) was to be used as an overnight bag, whilst the other was to be left on the boat; it was possible to access this during the trip.
The next morning we met our boat at 5am on the beach in front of Savedra. There are two boats than make thus trip, Royo and Goya. Our boat was Goya. Both boats are large bankas; Royo at 30m is slightly bigger than Goya (25m). The boat had a large table, capable of seating 10 people (the number on our trip). The dive deck was small, just enough to hold twelve dive crates in two rows of six. This was not a problem because cylinders (plus BCDs etc) were kept along the side of the boat, allowing plenty of room for kitting up. Above the dive deck, in front of the captains cabin, was a small platform that was used to store our overnight bags ,the rest of the luggage was stored in cabins below deck. Both sides of the boat were fitted with nets, which were very comfortable (with mattress) for snoozing between dives. The back of the boat housed a marine toilet,the kitchen area, and another seating area and separate sun deck. The boat was ably crewed by the captain, four boat boys, the two dive guides (Klaus and Ray), and a lovely lady called Jocelyn who kept us supplied with water, food and soft drinks. All the staff was very friendly, and couldn’t do enough to help.
After a short cruise, we made our first dive at Green Island, just down from Moalboal. After this dive we were given a breakfast of bacon and eggs, and plenty of hot coffee. This was followed by a visit to the Kayangan waterfall. Our rib dropped us off at the beach, and after a short riverside stroll through the forest we were swimming in the cool waters of the plunge pool. Back on the boat, we had a lunch of grilled chicken, garlic rice and salad, before making our second and third dives at Ilo-an. Between the second and third (twilight) dive, we were given sandwiches and coffee to keep us going. That night we were transported by RIB to the beach for our first overnight stop at the Kingdom Beach Resort. Rooms here were comfortable with a good size bed, air conditioning and hot water for a shower. Later that evening we were given dinner consisting of chicken, belly pork, rice and vegetables.
The next morning we rejoined the boat at 6.30am for a short (one hour) cruise to Oslob to see the whale sharks. We dropped just outside the marked area and swam over a sandy bottom at about 5m and entered the designated feeding area. Here we were not disappointed and spent about an hour with five or six whale sharks up to 6m in length. The sharks were being fed by the fishermen,and so for most of the time had their heads out of the water. This meant that divers were on the bottom looking up. There were a few people snorkelling, and other visitors just watching from the boats. After about twenty minutes, I surfaced, and found that in many respects the view of the sharks was better. Having seen whale sharks in Sharm and alsoin the Philippines at Donsol (the water in Oslob is a lot clearer), I found theexperience a little clinical for my liking. However, for those who have not seen whale sharks before, they were certainly there, particularly first thing in the morning. It should be noted that this dive cost anextra p1525, to cover the ‘sanctuary’ fees.
Back on the boat we took breakfast (fresh fruit salad and cereals) and after a short cruise arrived at Sumilon Island for our second and third dives. Lunch that day was a tasty beef and noodle stir-fry. We then spent a pleasant two and half hours cruising to Dauin (Dumaguete), and were dropped of at The Citas Beach Resort,our accommodation for the night (clean fan room with hot water). Klaus had arranged an extravagant grilledfish buffet at Mike’s Beach Resort just next door, which was followed by beers and a few excellent cocktails! The next day we made three dives at Dauin (Hot Springs, Car Wrecks and Sanctuary) before returning to shore for another night at Citas Resort.
In the morning, we made the crossing over to Apo Island for our first dive at Coconut Point. This is often quite a fast drift dive, but on this occasion was rather sedate. Two further dives were made at Rock Point and Chapel, and a night dive in the bay in front of the village. We were then taken to Apo Island to find our rooms for the night, and it was herethat we experienced the only real problem on the trip. Because they were running bothboats in parallel (not usual) and we were last to shore after the night dive all the rooms at the intended resort (Liberty Dive Resort) were taken. Instead, we were offered rooms in the village, which it has to be said, were totally unacceptable unless you were avery budget conscious backpacker! We refused to take these rooms, and were offered dinner whilst the problem was sorted out. The German guide from the other boat was rather rude at this point, and her attitude upset the ladies in our group. We had a rather uncomfortable (but pleasant) dinner whilst waiting, and to be fair, our guides offered to pay for all our drinks whilst we were eating (more cocktails please!). At about 10.30pm we were told, for the first time, that rooms had been found, and were taken by RIB to the resort next door. Since it was now pitch black and the tide was against us, this was a rather perilous ten-minuteboat ride until we managed a beach landing and were shown to our rooms at Apo Island Beach Resort. As it turned out,these are the best rooms on the island, although with an early start again the next day we did not have much time to enjoy them.
The following day we made anotherdive at Coconut Point (again little current), before a long cruise (six hours or so) around Negros to Sipalay. On the way we made a nice dive at a site called Copper Mine. Just after dark we arrived at Sipalay and were transported to theEasy Diving Resort. Here we were greeted personally by Christian, the owner (a nice touch) and given a drink of fresh coconut (from the shell), with a shot of rum if desired! Our luggage arrived promptly, and we were shown to our room, the Stone House, an annex of the main resort. We spent three nights at Easy Diving, diving for a further two days. I would recommend this resort.
In summary, we enjoyed the safari immensely. The weather was hot and sunny, the boat good, and the crew helpful and friendly. Food and accommodation met our expectations (we were expecting to spend one night on the boat). The diving was good and varied and our guide efficient. We managed fifteen dives over the five days,including of course, the whale sharks at Oslob. The cost of the trip was p37000 (or about £600) plus another p2500 to cover marine fees etc. With all the food and four nights accommodation I think this represented good value for money. It was certainly a good way to cover a lot of ground in a short space of time. The clientele on this trip was mainly Germans, Austrians and Swiss; as such, we were quite glad to be in a group of four, although everyone on the boat was friendly, communication was sometimes difficult. At the end of our stay at Sipalay, we took a car North (p5000, two hours) to Baclodod, overnighted in the O Hotel (recommended), then caught a flight the next day to Manila, and onwards to Busuanga (Coron) for some wreck diving.
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