Possible Philipines trip, comments / advice please.

Hi all

Friends of mine living in Manila are organizing a 2 week trip for us in Oct this year. They are going through Sea Explorers and plan to go to the following places:

Moalboal - Lovers Lodge - 3 nights

Dumaguete - Pura Vida Beach Resort - 5 nights

Cabilao - Cabilao beach resort - 3 nights

Malapascua - Hippocampus - 3 nights

Any advice on dive sites that are a "must see" at these venues? Would you swap any of the venues for anywhere else? My primary interest is macro photography, but I want to give the wide angle stuff a go as well. Don't mind a few wreck dives either, I'm not the only one in the group of around 12 of us.

I am also planning to go to Anilao at the end of the organized bit, I've seen enough images on this board to convince me it's a "must go to" place !!!

Thanks !!!

For Cabilao - do the "Lighthouse" twice, morning and night dive.

Dumaguete:
Ducomi 2 - 150 times (great macro, but also atmospheric for wide angle in good vis)
Apo (daytrip on the 2nd day, if you like it you can go another time_
Dauin car-wrecks (no real wrecks but great makro)
Pura Vida House reef (artificial reef with great macro, also fantastic nightdive)
Bahura late afternoon 5:30 (Mandarin fish)
Mainit (nice drift with 2 schools of Baracudas, if the guide knows where to jump into the water, if not a bit boring dive, but hot springs at the end of the dive in 5 meters.

hope it helps

Rhoody

seconding the lighthouse twice a day in Cabilao. My favourite dive there.

Anilao: secret place really had some great macro. Twin Rocks is one my favourite. I've seen flamboyant cuttlefish and bluefin rays at Panni's Point, but they can be found in other dive sites too. See if you can make it out to Verde Island is you can.

Dumaguete: ducomi pier (but you probably knew that). Apo Island: Cocunut point and the whole east side of the island were great.

Good schedule and great advice from the gang! Your friends are HOOKING you up!!!

Thanks all for the comments and advice !!

Moalboal - try to time your visit to get a good current (around full moon/new moon) for Pescador Island. The fish action is so much better then.

I did a two week Island hopping with Sea Explorers in feb-march last year with three stops; Dauin/Dumaguete, Alona Beach and Malapascua. These places all have there strenghts and I would gladly go back to each and one of them. Then again I must say that even three places was a little too much on a two week trip.

In a few weeks we'll return and stay the two weeks in one place - Dumaguete/Dauin. The reason we decided to go back to this place is for one thing the macro life in the area, no other place even came close to what the regular dive spots in the Dauin area had to offer...and then there's Ducomi the Pier! Perhaps it's wise to go there when it's still the awesome site it is. You never know what the repair of the pillars will come to in terms of scrapings of the coralls!
Also the resort, Pura Vida, was far better than what the other places could offer when it comes to the general comfort and what the kitchen had to offer.


Malapascua was a really nice and relaxed little island and if you are interested in the possibility to see thresher sharks there is always Monad shoals. We went there a few times but saw only one thresher shark, on the last of four dives. But then again, we saw lots of mobulas on every dive. Another "sunken island" site was Kimud shoals, we went there once and saw a hammerhead and one other shark we couldn't identify, the guide said it might have been a bull shark ;-), but I guess I would say a gray reef or silky.

The regular dive sites around Malapascua was good but nothing spectacular, but maybe we were a little spoiled coming from Dauin. Oh yeah, there's one really good place for mandarin fish - the Lighthouse. This was the only place I saw a lot of them on the trip, Sarah''s Place in Dauin doesn't compare. Actually I never saw them there, but my buddies caught a glimpse of one or two...but no pictures.
We were unlucky with the weather at Malapascua, so we missed out on the some of the better dive sites and couldn't go to the wrecks. I hope I can go back there one day for them.

The third place we went to (actually the second) is not on your itinerary, Alona Beach. The reason I mention it is that you can go on a day trip to Balicasag, a small island with great wall diving...and pygmee seahorses! I would say that Balicasag is better than Apo Island, off Dauin. Can't really see what's so special about Apo Island, but I'll go there again when we get back to Dauin and maybe I'll figure it out.

BtW, I saw your picts at Flickr. Damn your good! I'm not close to shooting that kind of pictures but you can check out this to get an idea of what you will see when you go to the Visayas:

ww.dykarna.nu/photoAlbum/album.asp?albumId=16929
(d'oh I wasn't allowed to post URLs as I haven't made five post yet, so you'll have to copie past and add a w to the adress:doh2:

Have a good trip, where ever you decide to go.

tonyN:

Sarah''s Place in Dauin .

Click to expand...

that's how the Sea-Ex-Guys call it as they are not allowed to say Atlantis house-reef...hehe ...same the other way around, ATL-guys call the spot in front of PV and El Do "Sahara"

anyway, you'll find many mandarin fish at Bahura just ouside the Sanctuary to the north, just in Case the sea-Ex guys don't know that, but I am sure they do... the dive can also be done as a easy shoredive if you don't dive with one of the resorts and just rent tanks...

cheers

Rhoody

This is all great info ! Many thanks once again.