Bohol (Tagbilaran)/ Dumaguete/ Malapascua Trip Report

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Part II: Dumaguete/ Apo Island.

After Bohol/ Panglao/ Balicasag, I headed off to Dumaguete. Oceanjet ferry runs from Tagbilaran to Dumaguete. Actually their ferries run Cebu City-Tagbilaran-Dumaguete. If I knew this earlier, I would have reversed my trip order: fly to Cebu City, go to Malapascua, then back to Cebu City and down to Bohol, then to Dumaguete, and then fly back to Manila directly.

In Dumaguete, I went with Atlantis resort which was a nice refreshing change from Bohol Beach Club. After arriving at Dumaguete port, the Atlantis driver was there waiting for me. Dumaguete City looked interesting. Atlantis' rooms were very nice, the staff excellent, and I nearly had the entire resort to myself. There were maybe 2-4 other guests there during my stay. They were doing some slight renovations as it was the off season. Some thatch roofs were being replaced, the dive area was being expanded and cubbies installed for storing guests' dive gear. Klaus the manager and his staff made my stay very comfortable. The DM's did an excellent job. Again, I pretty much have the dives to myself. Dumaguete diving was a nice change from Bohol. The beaches are black volcanic sand vs the white coral beaches of Alona/ Balicasag. The dive areas are sanctuaries so there were abundant sea life. Not sure it's just the season, but some of the sites did have some surge which made it a bit difficult to get some good pics of small stuff. Over the next 3 days, I did the sites directly in front of Atlantis and some other sites further south. But my favorite was Sahara which I requested to do twice. We came across some wonderful little critters and again the DM did a great job spotting and would time things so that by the time I was finished shooting one subject, he would have another ready for me. Sahara also has about 4 interesting frogfish. One large greenish one looked like it was pregnant. But my favorite one was a bright yellow one with red markings. Atlantis also has some mandarin fish in front and we did a dusk dive. But this ended up being an exercise in total frustration for me as I had forgot to switch my lens to manual focus and these mandarins were extremely skittish with any light. On top of that, the swells had picked up from the storm earlier in the day and it just made it absolutely impossible to catch a shot of the mandarins mating.

Usually there is a minimum of 4 divers required for them to do a day trip to Apo Island but Klaus worked it out for me to take the bangka by myself for an additional charge. Excellent lunch was prepared for me, prawns, pork chops, squid, and shanghai fried rice. In fact it was too much and I ended up sharing it with the boat crew. Plenty of drinkable fresh water and instant coffee were available.

Unfortunately, the weather didn't coorperate with me and we had an overcast day as we headed out to Apo Island (approx 30min from the resort). I didn't mind the choppy seas, but the overcast skies meant I wouldn't be able to get some good wide angle shots with my favorite blue background... We did 3 dives on Apo. Nice coral including large barrel sponges, and even came across a nice school of jacks. We did Coconut Point, but hit it with little current (think slow drift dive). Ran into only one pair of divers during the whole day.

Some of my photos from Dumaguete/ Apo are in this thread in the u/w photography subforum starting from post #64.

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?p=2208751#post2208751post2208751
 
Awesome report.....Mike
thanks you for your sharing
 
Part III: Cebu City break and Malapascua

After Dumaguete, I headed back to Cebu City to take a break from diving, try to replace my leaking mask at Scubaworld, and sort out some cash issues with my bank account. Somewhere in Tagbilaran or Dumaguete, my ATM card pin got revoked. Not sure what the problem was as I've used Equitable PCI and PNB's ATM's in Manila without a problem (both on Plus networks). Stayed at the Marriott near Ayala Center. Driving around Cebu City, amazes me how many Koreans are in the town compared to years ago. I almost felt like I was in L.A.'s Koreatown; there were so many Korean restaurants, groceries, and bars. Speaking to some locals, it appears that a lot of Korean students are even coming out to the Philippines to study English (hahaha I can see the next generations of Koreans speaking with a filipino English accent... lol) and others are just packing up and moving out the Philippines to retire or start a new life.

After Cebu, I headed out to Malapascua. I had booked with Exotic and they arranged a private car/ boat transfer. Tip #1, demand a van or 4WD and not some dinky sedan. The drive is nice as you head out of congested greater Cebu City/ Mandaue area. You'll drive past some nice little barangays and see the ocean to the side. But... around 2-3hrs into the road trip to the port in Maya, you are going to hit some of the worst roads this side of Cambodia... You'll hit some patches of roads in severe disprepair with potholes that could swallow a family on a tricycle...

Once at Maya (a couple of shacks and a gas station at the port), you'll transfer to a bangka for Malapascua.

Malapascua is a beautiful little island with some nice white beaches. It is a shame that someone build that hideous resort right on top of the rocks. I got into Exotic around noon and checked into a fan bungalow right in front (all the AC rooms were booked). Initially I was a bit annoyed when I finally found someone in the dive shop and was told I wouldn't be able to dive that day because there were two big groups of divers in and that all 4 DM's were out on day trip. I gave the dive manager a bit of tongue lashing as I told them they KNEW I was coming at noon and if they had known they should have told me and I would have stayed back in Cebu City and slept in late! That and the annoying booming bass from the restaurant speakers had me in a pretty sour mood and I was almost getting ready to walk out and head over to Thresher Shark Divers. (I blame Atlantis for spoiling me...) Fortunately, the Gato daytrip boats got back before 3pm and they took me out to their house reef for a single dive (artificial reef with a jeepney, concrete thresher shark statue, and other wierd stuff...). Seems that they had a large group of HK divers (approx 8) that took up one bangka and two DM and a group of Europeans who were using the other two DM's. I was glad I got thrown in with a mix group of Europeans. The staff at Exotic are nice but the restaurant staff have a bad habit of turning up the stereo during the day. And the booming bass just echoes into everyone's rooms... Anyways, I was looking forward to the early morning Thresher Dive!

You wake up around 5am and head out by 530am for Monad Shoal for the show. Monad is a little underwater island sitting in about 20-22m. Here you'll drop down and sit near the edge waiting for the threshers sharks. It's recommended if you're Nitrox certified to do the dive on 36% to max your NDL. On both days, we headed out with a mix group of 4-6 people. There would also be about 2 other boats going out there at the same time. On both morning dives, those on air would start heading up leaving us nitrox divers to have the shoal to ourselves. That's when we seem to get the best view of the threshers. The first thresher dive, its as though the two threshers were teasing us by just barely staying in visible range (the visibility is poor). But I do have to say those threshers sharks are so graceful. We also got a manta swim by in the early morning. The 2nd day Thresher shark dive was better. Again, the threshers seemed to get closer as there were less people around. The DM, another American, and I were diving 36% nitrox again. One of the threshers was making a number of passes in front of us. At one point when we were moving to another view point, one thresher swam over the DM and the other divers who were across a gap from me. I was tinkering with my camera setting when this just happened and I was barely able to get a couple decent frames... I had a fast Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 lens but the lens was a bit finicky uw with the low light focusing and 50mm was still not enough to fill the frame :( ... Note: strobes aren't allowed as they spook the threshers. Anyways, even without some good threshers photos as souvenirs, the two dives were a hoot and it was a great experience to see these graceful creatures in person.

We also did a daytrip to Gato Island. I had heard a lot about Gato but honestly I was bit disappointed; part of it has to do with how our boat handled their groups. We had 8 divers onboard with 2 DM's. We were split into two group, BUT they kept the groups together underwater! So whenever the DM would find something interesting and begin clanging his tank, you would have 8 divers rushing over at once like a bargain sale bin. After a couple more times of this, I just started to wander away from the group and look for things to shoot on my own. There was a fairly large sleeping whitetip near one cave. But with so many divers around, it got spoooked before I could take a good pic. UW topography of Gato island is interesting as the waves have created a lot of overhangs and caves. Supposedly there is a tunnel that you can swim thru. Overall it was interesting, but I didn't think it was great

On the other hand, the Lighthouse dive was a real treat. We were going to do the evening dive to see the Mandarin fish mating at the Lighthouse. In contrast to the skittish Mandarins in Dumaguete, these were a lot more cooperative as long as you didn't crank your focus light to full strength and point it directly at them. I think I sat hovering in 1 place for 40min as I watched over 6 Mandarins swimming in and out of the coral looking for a possible mate... Then as though someone started to pipe in Barry White underwater, they'd start doing their little courtship dance and finally rising to their climax...

On top of the amorous Mandarins, there were baby cuttlefish, crabs, shrimps, froggies, and all sorts of critters around the lighthouse dive. The dive is very shallow (5-7m) so you could spend all night there if you wanted to! I wanted to but the DM called the dive eventually...

After doing the morning thresher dive, we dove North Point. The current was too strong to really enjoy it. I got separated from the group as I tried to take pics of a pygmy seahorse in a strong current. I ended up taking a wrong turn and got pushed out into open waters by the current. I launched my DSMB and the boat crew followed me and were ready to pic me up as I cleared my safety stop.

My last dive of my trip was somewhat anticlimatic. We went back to Monad Shoal after lunch to see the mantas. Just after we hit the bottom, we got two great close up passes by mantas. Then for the next 55min, we saw NOTHING!!! Oh well, I'll just have to come back for another trip to Malapascua! Now, I only sampled a few of the dive sites that the area has to offer. There are many dive sites that can be done as day trip including some cool wrecks not far off. Finally, kudos to one of the DM's at Exotic named "Tong". Really enthuthiastic DM and did a great job guiding.

Overall, I had a great time in Malapascua. Seeing the amazing threshers and the Lighthouse dives more than made up for the brackish water showers and annoying resort stereo. Not sure if its seasonable, but there was absolutely no wind during my 3 days there. It made sleeping in a fan room almost unbearable.

So to wrap things up, it's tough to say which was my favorite in the Visaya region. Each dive area had their pros and cons. And to a degree each area (Alona-Balicasag; Dumaguete-Apo Isl.; Malapascua) had a good mix of big and little stuff. The way I look at it is - you'll always find schooling barracudas and jacks in many dives spots around Asia, but how many places do you know where you can dive with Thresher Sharks....:eyebrow: :crafty:

will post Malapascua pics shortly...

in the meantime... enjoy this one....
IMG_2381.jpg
 
So when are you making the return trip?? :eyebrow: :eyebrow:

You going to Leyte at year end??
 
Heading to Monad Shoal from Malapascua, I could see Leyte Island... :wink: Yep, can't wait for Southern Leyte in December. Now to start lining up a hi-def video camera for those whale sharks... :D oh the buying never ends!!!

Tim if you ever plan a trip to Malapascua, give me a ring... I'll go again!
 
hmmm I am thinking about it .. but cannot seem to find the time. Gonna be back in Anilao end-Oct with some new divers, and there is Leyte in December.. do much diving to do.. so little time.. :wink:
 
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