Kevster
Contributor
Trip Report Part 1- PG, Anilao, Coron, Jan 2010
PG
Arrived in Manila at 6 am and took a taxi from the airport to City state tower hotel in Ermita. A company within the hotel, Si-Kat, arrange transport to Sabang beach for 780 Php. A tourist class coach leaves at 8am from the hotel and took just over 2 hours to reach Bantagas pier. After a 1hr wait and 1hr boat ride i arrived in clam central on Sabang beach
I stayed and dived with Asia divers. They are located on Laguna beach. The El Galleon resort is nice (budget rooms $50/night) & has a very good/cheap restaurant, a good bar (The point) & a small pool. My budget room had a safe, fan, & fridge. There is free wifi. The dive op is very well organised, with excellent facilities (hot face towels after cold dives!), good boats and good rinse/storage facilities. Dives were $30. I stayed 6 nights and done 2 dives (weather & a back injury limited my diving). PG was quiet; our boat generally had 4-6 divers. Unfortunately the weather was mixed, windy, overcast, 2 sunny days. My visit was early in the season. March- May would appear to be the best months for diving in the Philippines. The water was really cold at 24-25 C. Viss was ok, around 10-15m.
Sites visited were Small Laguna (Ok), Alma Jane.(boring)
Highlights – Nudis, displaying Effrin Reyes like skills on the Big apple pool tables
1. . A small Nudi
I got the El Galleon resort to apply for my visa extension to extend my visa from 21 days to 59 days. The process was very simple. I gave the staff my passport & 3225 Php and they done the rest. I got my extension within 2 days.
Summary
PG is excellent value for money for a sociable, easy dive holiday. Diving from $30, good selection of food $5, beer $1. Cheap accom is also available. Perhaps not the best place to dive if you are travelling a long distance for a short dive vacation & want to concentrate on quality diving, but a very good choice to chill & do some decent diving. There are a lot of dive shops where you can buy dive gear (I managed to get a new strap for my dive computer).
The diving is ok. There are some nice reefs and always small stuff to see. This was my second visit to PG and it was more enjoyable than my first visit. I would definitely recommend Asia divers/El Galleon.
Anilao
After 6 nights in PG I got the boat from Sabang beach back to Bantagas pier. I then took a tricycle (800 php) to Anilao. I stayed with Club Ocellaris ($145/day for accom, meals & 4 boat dives) for 3 nights. Anilao is very different to PG. The resorts are spread out and generally you have to eat at the place you stay. Although Club Ocellaris is expensive, it was a similar price to a few other dive Ops I was considering (based on being a single diver). The resort is quite nice. Simple clean accom. My small room was right above the water. There is free wifi. The food was very nice. The staff & boatmen done a great job. Dive guide was an excellent spotter. There are 4 dives a day, all boat dives. Two boat dives before lunch. Then 2 dives after 3 pm. The last dive was always a night dive. You had a lot of freedom while diving. The guide did not expect you to follow him; you could do your own thing.
Weather was mixed. Sunny, overcast and windy.
Water temp was 25 C. This was really cold doing 4 dives a day. I was thankful I had a wind proof jacket during the surface intervals. Viss was around 10m. The dive sites are spread out along the coastline. Some sites were 30+ mins away. The resort does not accept credit cards.
The Diving.
Excellent!!!!
I done 11 dives. Sites visited Koala, Basura, Mainit, Kirbys, Mato Pt, Twin rocks, Apols rock, Beatrice, Sombrero Batok.
The diving is FANTASTIC. There was so much stuff to see. Lots of Nudis.
Great muck diving, great slopes, colourful walls, nice reefs. This is one of the best places I have ever been to in terms of macro. Simply brilliant.
Highlights from the first 20 minutes of my first dive at Anilao at Koala dive site.
2 Porcelain crabs, 4-5 Nudis, Octopus, Small moray eel, pigmy sea horse, whale shark (well the tail of a whale shark. There was a lot of plankton in the water.)
1. Giant Frogfish
2. Clownfish
A small selection of other highlights , 3 Hairy frogfish, mantis shrimp with eggs, ghost pipefish, several nudis that I have not seen before, a huge frogfish.
3. Hairy frogfish
However the main highlight was seeing a shaded batfish
. (The only item on my “Want to see list”.
4. Shaded Batfish
Summary
Anilao was really great. Every dive was very good to excellent. I highly recommend a visit here especially if you like small stuff. Don’t think I would return to Club Ocellaris. No complaints & I do not want to put people off the place. I am not a big fan of night dives. Dinner was served at 9.30 ish. I prob should have stayed at Planet dive as 2 boat dives per day & Twin rock shore dives would have been sufficient. Twin rocks really rocks!
Club O is popular with photo pros/serious photographers. (I was disappointed to find various containers/sample jars containing Nudis at the resort after every couple of dives.)
I was very happy with my visit to Anilao, just a shame it was so cold. I will definitely return to Anilao. IMHO some of the best diving in S E Asia.
I took a tricycle from Anilao to Batangas (600 Php), then a bus to Manila (175 Php). I stayed a couple of nights in Manila at the City state tower hotel (1750 Php). Hotel is cheap & in a decent location.
PG
Arrived in Manila at 6 am and took a taxi from the airport to City state tower hotel in Ermita. A company within the hotel, Si-Kat, arrange transport to Sabang beach for 780 Php. A tourist class coach leaves at 8am from the hotel and took just over 2 hours to reach Bantagas pier. After a 1hr wait and 1hr boat ride i arrived in clam central on Sabang beach
I stayed and dived with Asia divers. They are located on Laguna beach. The El Galleon resort is nice (budget rooms $50/night) & has a very good/cheap restaurant, a good bar (The point) & a small pool. My budget room had a safe, fan, & fridge. There is free wifi. The dive op is very well organised, with excellent facilities (hot face towels after cold dives!), good boats and good rinse/storage facilities. Dives were $30. I stayed 6 nights and done 2 dives (weather & a back injury limited my diving). PG was quiet; our boat generally had 4-6 divers. Unfortunately the weather was mixed, windy, overcast, 2 sunny days. My visit was early in the season. March- May would appear to be the best months for diving in the Philippines. The water was really cold at 24-25 C. Viss was ok, around 10-15m.
Sites visited were Small Laguna (Ok), Alma Jane.(boring)
Highlights – Nudis, displaying Effrin Reyes like skills on the Big apple pool tables
1. . A small Nudi
I got the El Galleon resort to apply for my visa extension to extend my visa from 21 days to 59 days. The process was very simple. I gave the staff my passport & 3225 Php and they done the rest. I got my extension within 2 days.
Summary
PG is excellent value for money for a sociable, easy dive holiday. Diving from $30, good selection of food $5, beer $1. Cheap accom is also available. Perhaps not the best place to dive if you are travelling a long distance for a short dive vacation & want to concentrate on quality diving, but a very good choice to chill & do some decent diving. There are a lot of dive shops where you can buy dive gear (I managed to get a new strap for my dive computer).
The diving is ok. There are some nice reefs and always small stuff to see. This was my second visit to PG and it was more enjoyable than my first visit. I would definitely recommend Asia divers/El Galleon.
Anilao
After 6 nights in PG I got the boat from Sabang beach back to Bantagas pier. I then took a tricycle (800 php) to Anilao. I stayed with Club Ocellaris ($145/day for accom, meals & 4 boat dives) for 3 nights. Anilao is very different to PG. The resorts are spread out and generally you have to eat at the place you stay. Although Club Ocellaris is expensive, it was a similar price to a few other dive Ops I was considering (based on being a single diver). The resort is quite nice. Simple clean accom. My small room was right above the water. There is free wifi. The food was very nice. The staff & boatmen done a great job. Dive guide was an excellent spotter. There are 4 dives a day, all boat dives. Two boat dives before lunch. Then 2 dives after 3 pm. The last dive was always a night dive. You had a lot of freedom while diving. The guide did not expect you to follow him; you could do your own thing.
Weather was mixed. Sunny, overcast and windy.
Water temp was 25 C. This was really cold doing 4 dives a day. I was thankful I had a wind proof jacket during the surface intervals. Viss was around 10m. The dive sites are spread out along the coastline. Some sites were 30+ mins away. The resort does not accept credit cards.
The Diving.
Excellent!!!!
I done 11 dives. Sites visited Koala, Basura, Mainit, Kirbys, Mato Pt, Twin rocks, Apols rock, Beatrice, Sombrero Batok.
The diving is FANTASTIC. There was so much stuff to see. Lots of Nudis.
Great muck diving, great slopes, colourful walls, nice reefs. This is one of the best places I have ever been to in terms of macro. Simply brilliant.
Highlights from the first 20 minutes of my first dive at Anilao at Koala dive site.
2 Porcelain crabs, 4-5 Nudis, Octopus, Small moray eel, pigmy sea horse, whale shark (well the tail of a whale shark. There was a lot of plankton in the water.)
1. Giant Frogfish
2. Clownfish
A small selection of other highlights , 3 Hairy frogfish, mantis shrimp with eggs, ghost pipefish, several nudis that I have not seen before, a huge frogfish.
3. Hairy frogfish
However the main highlight was seeing a shaded batfish
. (The only item on my “Want to see list”. 4. Shaded Batfish
Summary
Anilao was really great. Every dive was very good to excellent. I highly recommend a visit here especially if you like small stuff. Don’t think I would return to Club Ocellaris. No complaints & I do not want to put people off the place. I am not a big fan of night dives. Dinner was served at 9.30 ish. I prob should have stayed at Planet dive as 2 boat dives per day & Twin rock shore dives would have been sufficient. Twin rocks really rocks!
Club O is popular with photo pros/serious photographers. (I was disappointed to find various containers/sample jars containing Nudis at the resort after every couple of dives.)
I was very happy with my visit to Anilao, just a shame it was so cold. I will definitely return to Anilao. IMHO some of the best diving in S E Asia.
I took a tricycle from Anilao to Batangas (600 Php), then a bus to Manila (175 Php). I stayed a couple of nights in Manila at the City state tower hotel (1750 Php). Hotel is cheap & in a decent location.
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