Puerto Galera Nov 2014 Trip Report

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lenardcheng

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Location
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Hi guys! Benefitted alot from you guys on this forum and the trip reports, so decided to try to keep it going!

Photos are at the end of the trip report, the rest are on facebook, link below :D

TRIP REPORT PUERTO GALERA 22-27 NOV 2014

Summary:


Great for - Macro photography, Sea Riders' authentic No-Frills Diving, partying
Not so good for - big fish, family time, quiet time

I had an awesome time there since the above stuff i listed that were great were exactly what I set out for!

Before the trip:

I took abit of time to decide where exactly to dive. I hail from Singapore hence the decision to focus on Philippines. Was intrigued by macro photography having read tutorials, bought a strobe/G15 housing, hence the options of Anilao/Puerto Galera. Finally landed in Puerto Galera cos of the more competitive price (Anilao in a small group is largely disadvantageous in terms of cost, and I was only going as a pair with a dive buddy)

Trawled through the forums and shortlisted some dive shops with great reviews, but I decided on Sea Riders. The fact that it was Philippine owned, small operation appealed to me, but frankly I didn't have much else prior to the trip that really made Sea Riders stand out. ALL THAT CHANGED AFTER ACTUALLY HAVING GONE AND DIVED WITH THEM THOUGH, more details to come.

Getting there:

Flew international from Singapore (where I'm from) to Manila Airport and landed at 6am. Walked a little away from the Airport wanting to get a cab to City State Tower in the town of Mabini ~20mins drive away. There were signs saying avoid the white coloured cabs which I tried, but realised EVERY cab was white anyway and got tired of waiting. I'm not too sure how much difference it would have actually made.

At City State Tower, went in to the hotel and booked in with the Si-Kat bus counter. They have people stationed there at 8am to check you in. They say there's no need to pre-book, and I didn't, it's probably pretty safe to just walk-in. HOWEVER, I think there's one bus per trip out, the space on the bus is limited to the number of seats on it plus planks that they put in the aisle if it's overbooked. My trip didn't have any space problems though, think it's probably okay not to pre-book. (there's wifi on the bus so that's pretty awesome)

Afterward, the Si-Kat bus staff pretty much make sure you land up in Sabang, the main diving area of Puerto Galera. There's only one transfer to the ferry for a one hour journey and it's pretty foolproof, so nothing to worry about there.

Staying there:

I arranged with Sea Riders for them to find me the cheapest accomodation. That came in to 800 php per night at a second-floor room owned by some locals, about 10 minute slow walk from Sabang beach. I went with one other guy, and most of the time it felt safe, but I THINK if I were a solo female and it's past 2200h, I might find it intimidating to walk that far. The locals are nice and friendly, but the problem I IMAGINE is that the place is very dim, and majority of people on Sabang beach are drunk after 2100h (haha). I would exercise caution in this aspect.

The alternative to accomodation is to stay at some of the bigger dive shops (big apple, asia diver's etc.) They generally do walk in requests for accomodation although they say peak periods (as in November) can get full up. If I were a solo female, I'd email and pre book these dive-shop run accomodation. Right on the beach itself, no walking, crowded and safe. Can be noisy though cos it's pretty much an all out party everyday there.

Diving there:

Let me just quickly air a disclaimer that I've ONLY dived in PG once, and with Sea Riders, but to be honest, if I went again I'd go right back to Sea Riders without any second thought.

When I first arrived, I had a little bit of reservation cos the shop front was dwarfed by all the other dive shops. Beat (my DM through the trip) was the only guy there with two of their boatmen (who are awesome people), and he did come across as a little disinterested at first. I was shown to my accomodation without much discourse or discussion.

We later warmed up to one another and I realised Beat is friendly and sincere. He's not the teddy bear who would welcome you with a bottle of champagne, but I appreciate his honesty. It really is the side of friendly that lasts longer and to me is more valuable.

I went there wanting to max out my dives and dive 5 per day. I was a little disappointed when Beat said he wanted to do 3 for us, but little did I know there was ALOT of wisdom and generosity in that.

What followed was basically 3 dives per day of 80-100 minute boat dives with maximum bottom time - the ideal for macro photography. Our decompression was maxed out; we maxed out our diving. If you think about it, this really is the best: he could have brought me out for 5 dives a day to earn that much more money, but what that would have been for me was actually just more time and fuel spent gearing up and setting in/out.

The second-best part: we dived as 3, just me, my friend, and Beat. Sea Riders had just us, and that was HEAVEN. No squeezing, no worrying whether I was holding 10 people up when I stopped for 10 mins to take the same photo again and again, no worrying Beat won't know where I was (the guy is a fish, by the way, you can trust him with your life). The other dive shops had 10-20 people moving out to a dive spot per dive shop at once, I'd have really hated that.

Sea Riders doesn't go all out to advertise, I think. You can tell they really just want to provide service to people who are really interested in diving. There were a few groups who walked past and you could tell from their discourse with Beat that he didn't really want to take people out who had expectations that were not realistic (mantas, whale sharks), or weren't responsible (people who showed up late for dives), etc. It felt like Beat wasn't too interested in money making, he just wanted to guide people who wanted to dive PG.

Mark and Annie (the owners) came back from Manila on the last day of my trip and they were every bit as sincere as Beat was.

Macro Photography:

As mentioned earlier, I'm new to underwater photography. Had my housing for one other dive in Malapascua last year, and just bought a new strobe and macro lens to dabble in macro photography. I was really ****ty when I started out, but got a bit more confident as the 80-100 minute dives went along.

Please do not expect Galapagos-level big schools/pelagics when you go to PG (Beat said in 1980s there were mantas/whale sharks swimming around in his frontyard heh). You gotta go slow, look small, and bring a camera when you dive PG.

I'll let my photos do the rest of my talking, thanks for listening! Please comment and help me improve on my photography, it was after all picked up from scubaboard :D

photo.php

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...777005325.1073741829.675650324&type=3&theater
Pygmy!

photo.php

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...777005325.1073741829.675650324&type=3&theater
Nudi

photo.php

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...777005325.1073741829.675650324&type=3&theater
Mantis

photo.php

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...777005325.1073741829.675650324&type=3&theater
Ghost shrimp

photo.php

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...777005325.1073741829.675650324&type=3&theater
Porcelain Crab

photo.php

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...777005325.1073741829.675650324&type=3&theater
Pygmy!

Album link: https://www.facebook.com/lenard.che...05325.1073741829.675650324&type=1&pnref=story
 
Thanks for the excellent trip report. We are heading down there in April! Hubby just bought a g16 and we are thinking about strobes. Which strobe did you buy and how do you like it?
 
Wow -- you found some super cool nudis!

We really enjoyed our trip to PG. We stayed at Atlantis, which gave us a very quiet and peaceful base, from which we could sally forth into the mêlée when we felt like it, and hang back when we didn't. I would have enjoyed 3 80 - 100 minute dives a day, though!
 
Good choice on Sea Riders.
I would avoid all those big players any time in PG!!!!!
Sea Riders has moved to Sabang from Small La Laguna not long ago. It is sandwiched by those operators favoured by Korean or commie chinese, so you can guarantee large group instead of a handful few!!!!
 
Heading to PG in one week. Nice trip report!!

What was the water temp last month? Trying to gather what it might be next week, 74 or 79. Hoping for the latter or warmer.
 
Nice Pygmy sea horses. I can never see them regularly. Old age I guess.
 
Thanks for the excellent trip report. We are heading down there in April! Hubby just bought a g16 and we are thinking about strobes. Which strobe did you buy and how do you like it?

I have a YS-D1. I've never tried other alternatives, but it's served it's purpose for me! The only thing I think could have been improved is to get another strobe.

Btw, I didn't use TTL at all. Could have been because single strobing calls for less predictable strobe placement and distance, but TTL never gave me what I wanted. It was easy to operate manually though.

Water was about 76 farenheit. It felt abit cold when the dives start out, but the shivering was soon forgotten! Hehe. Anyway I think people coming from outside of Asia used to diving in cooler waters won't feel the chill like I did.
 

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