I'm actually from the Philippines but never had the chance to dive there. I've been living in in the US for the past 2 years now, and I also got certified here. But I will get a chance to dive there when I come home this May! I plan to visit Boracay, Palawan (for the wrecks in Coron), and Puerto Galera, which is closer to where I live than the first two. Needless to say, I'd choose Philippines over Malaysia because I am very excited to see the marine life of my own country. :yea:
Malaysia or Phillipines??
- Thread starter pekingcowboy
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elsa
Registered
Flying into Cebu you have many good options.
Some of my favorite diving in the area is Siquijor, which is not so famous. They have a really good sanctuary where we have seen sea turtles and lots of barracudas and a good variety. What makes the diving on Siquijor special is that after 20-25 dives I have never seen other dive boats on the sites, it's very uncrowded, unlike the dive spots off Moalboal and Alona Beach, that can get very crowded.
Apo Island and Malapascua also have excellent diving. Apo Island is famous for its marine sanctuary, and in Malapuscua you can see tresher sharks. Cabilao is also good, although I think you have to be very lucky to see the hammerheads that they used to be famous for.
What do you like to do when not diving? Peace and quiet or nightlife? If you're in for the night life I would say Moalboal or Alona. If you like it more quiet I would go for one of the other places.
If you do go to Siquijor I highly recommend Kiwi Dive Resort, both for the dive shop, the accomodation and the people, make sure to say hi to Bruce from me
Some of my favorite diving in the area is Siquijor, which is not so famous. They have a really good sanctuary where we have seen sea turtles and lots of barracudas and a good variety. What makes the diving on Siquijor special is that after 20-25 dives I have never seen other dive boats on the sites, it's very uncrowded, unlike the dive spots off Moalboal and Alona Beach, that can get very crowded.
Apo Island and Malapascua also have excellent diving. Apo Island is famous for its marine sanctuary, and in Malapuscua you can see tresher sharks. Cabilao is also good, although I think you have to be very lucky to see the hammerheads that they used to be famous for.
What do you like to do when not diving? Peace and quiet or nightlife? If you're in for the night life I would say Moalboal or Alona. If you like it more quiet I would go for one of the other places.
If you do go to Siquijor I highly recommend Kiwi Dive Resort, both for the dive shop, the accomodation and the people, make sure to say hi to Bruce from me
Good luck on your trip pekingcowboy. I live in the Philippines and its a great place to dive. If your flying into Cebu definitely take the fast ferry over to Bohol and dive there.
The place to go is Alona Beach on Pangalao Island (connected to Tagbilaran the capital by a causeway). I was there in August and had a great time. I believe you said in an earlier post you will be on a backpacker budget so stay at Peter's House, a cool little guesthouse right on the beach. Peter's is also next to the only decent bar on the beach, the Oops!! bar. The beach out front is pretty good as well.
The inhouse dive shop is Genesis and Eric Laurel runs the diving there. Genesis has a comfortable boat and Eric does a great job on dives. His email is badjao@pacific.net.ph or badjao@diving.com.ph. Feel free to tell Eric that Drew recommended him.
The day we did Balicasag Island we spent a lot of the first dive watching a large school of barracuda and on the second dive a large school of jacks took about 10 minutes to sprial up past us.
Also friends just came back from Apo Island (not to be confused with Apo Reef near Mindoro) and gave very good reports on the diving there. Apo is a small island off Dumaguete, Negros and has a well maintained marine sanctuary. You can get to Dumaguete by ferry from Cebu. My friends did there diving with Paul's Diving and stayed at Liberty's Resort (http://www.apoisland.com/). Paul's will pick you up from the ferry for a very reasonable fee I'm told.
Drew
The place to go is Alona Beach on Pangalao Island (connected to Tagbilaran the capital by a causeway). I was there in August and had a great time. I believe you said in an earlier post you will be on a backpacker budget so stay at Peter's House, a cool little guesthouse right on the beach. Peter's is also next to the only decent bar on the beach, the Oops!! bar. The beach out front is pretty good as well.
The inhouse dive shop is Genesis and Eric Laurel runs the diving there. Genesis has a comfortable boat and Eric does a great job on dives. His email is badjao@pacific.net.ph or badjao@diving.com.ph. Feel free to tell Eric that Drew recommended him.
The day we did Balicasag Island we spent a lot of the first dive watching a large school of barracuda and on the second dive a large school of jacks took about 10 minutes to sprial up past us.
Also friends just came back from Apo Island (not to be confused with Apo Reef near Mindoro) and gave very good reports on the diving there. Apo is a small island off Dumaguete, Negros and has a well maintained marine sanctuary. You can get to Dumaguete by ferry from Cebu. My friends did there diving with Paul's Diving and stayed at Liberty's Resort (http://www.apoisland.com/). Paul's will pick you up from the ferry for a very reasonable fee I'm told.
Drew
exnewwavedivers
Guest
There are many places in the Philippines where you can dive at. Being an archipelago with over 7000 islands, there's bound to be ... oh well, you know what I mean.
Cebu is ok.
Bohol - go dive the Balicasag Island.
Dumaguete - Very nice also. Balicasag can blow everyone's brains when you dive there but Apo Island off Dumaguete is even better.
Apo Reef in Mindoro is remote but very good also. Turtle everywhere.
Tubbataha offers the best diving.
Coron wrecks are dramatic.
Boracay - total package, lots of activities from dusk til dawn.
diverkim, out of curiousity, who did you dive with when you were in Boracay and which dive sites, also what month? Thanks.
Cebu is ok.
Bohol - go dive the Balicasag Island.
Dumaguete - Very nice also. Balicasag can blow everyone's brains when you dive there but Apo Island off Dumaguete is even better.
Apo Reef in Mindoro is remote but very good also. Turtle everywhere.
Tubbataha offers the best diving.
Coron wrecks are dramatic.
Boracay - total package, lots of activities from dusk til dawn.
diverkim, out of curiousity, who did you dive with when you were in Boracay and which dive sites, also what month? Thanks.
Luko
Contributor
Think you're right to choose the Phils. the best malaysian spots on eastern Borneo are far out of the backpacker's route, you'd pay more than a 150USd a night for posh Sipadan or Mabul resorts : on this aspect, i believe no where else in the world is cheaper for diving than the Phils, expect to pay less than 35USd for a two boat dives day trip.
IMHO, Phils are the ultimate spots for fish variety, equal to Indonesia's best such as North Sulawesi and even more accessible.
I've been three times in the Phils and did my best dives there. for a two weeks trip I'd advise staying around the Cebu area where you island hop to either Panglao (Balicasag), Malapascua and south Leyte (BTW, nobody mentioned yet Padre Burgos, Donsol area whale sharks?).
Moalboal on Cebu is must dive : personally Pescador (more exactly fisherman in spanish) provided me the best dives ever, from whitetips down at 40m to sea moths at 9m on the coral garden.
Malapascua's dives are thrilling : it's thresher party early in the morning and huge Mantas in the afternoon on the same spot (Monad schoals). These dives are not for beginners as the open sea can get really rough with poor viz.
You always encounter a very large shool of barracudas on Balicasag's Black Forest spot.
Now for 2 weeks you can do those three spots, you'd be short of time for Leyte, as most of the inter-island travel is done by sea and I've already been stuck for one day on a spot because a baguio (their name for typhoons) was coming through and no boat was crossing to the next island. Hence, be comfortable with your travel schedule.
Don't miss the San Miguel, best and cheapest beer in SEA. And most importanly for banana pancakes lovers who I'm part of, Phils are the mecca of the true yummy and fluffy banana pancake, don't forget to press a calamansi over it : Phils beat Thailand hands down on b.p., no contest!
IMHO, Phils are the ultimate spots for fish variety, equal to Indonesia's best such as North Sulawesi and even more accessible.
I've been three times in the Phils and did my best dives there. for a two weeks trip I'd advise staying around the Cebu area where you island hop to either Panglao (Balicasag), Malapascua and south Leyte (BTW, nobody mentioned yet Padre Burgos, Donsol area whale sharks?).
Moalboal on Cebu is must dive : personally Pescador (more exactly fisherman in spanish) provided me the best dives ever, from whitetips down at 40m to sea moths at 9m on the coral garden.
Malapascua's dives are thrilling : it's thresher party early in the morning and huge Mantas in the afternoon on the same spot (Monad schoals). These dives are not for beginners as the open sea can get really rough with poor viz.
You always encounter a very large shool of barracudas on Balicasag's Black Forest spot.
Now for 2 weeks you can do those three spots, you'd be short of time for Leyte, as most of the inter-island travel is done by sea and I've already been stuck for one day on a spot because a baguio (their name for typhoons) was coming through and no boat was crossing to the next island. Hence, be comfortable with your travel schedule.
Don't miss the San Miguel, best and cheapest beer in SEA. And most importanly for banana pancakes lovers who I'm part of, Phils are the mecca of the true yummy and fluffy banana pancake, don't forget to press a calamansi over it : Phils beat Thailand hands down on b.p., no contest!
I think a lot has been said already on why it's great diving in the Philippines, but I just wanted to jump in, too. I've dived both the Philippines and Malaysia (although not Sipadan; I dove the Peninsula -- Tioman and the like) and as unbiasedly as I can say it, the Philippines offers much better diving.
Depends on how much time you have here, so you can really maximize your diving experience. Anilao, Batangas is known for spectacular macro life, with some large animal experiences (mantas, eagle rays, jacks, sharks) in certain sites; same goes for Puerto Galera, Mindoro.
Bohol offers a great variety too, as well as Apo Island, well worth a visit just to see the marine sanctuary and do a couple of drift dives off the island.
Malapascua, off of Cebu, has amazing variety. I was there earlier this year and saw threshers at one site, mantas on the way to another, and at a third, sleeping sharks, sea snakes, seahorses, mating cuttlefish, and several varieties of nudibranches I'd never seen before.
And if you've really got the time, you must do Tubbataha, in the Sulu Sea. 5-day liveaboard, although the usual season is summer, so that means you can't plan to go until next year.
Drop me a line if there's anything more you want to know about any of these places.
Depends on how much time you have here, so you can really maximize your diving experience. Anilao, Batangas is known for spectacular macro life, with some large animal experiences (mantas, eagle rays, jacks, sharks) in certain sites; same goes for Puerto Galera, Mindoro.
Bohol offers a great variety too, as well as Apo Island, well worth a visit just to see the marine sanctuary and do a couple of drift dives off the island.
Malapascua, off of Cebu, has amazing variety. I was there earlier this year and saw threshers at one site, mantas on the way to another, and at a third, sleeping sharks, sea snakes, seahorses, mating cuttlefish, and several varieties of nudibranches I'd never seen before.
And if you've really got the time, you must do Tubbataha, in the Sulu Sea. 5-day liveaboard, although the usual season is summer, so that means you can't plan to go until next year.
Drop me a line if there's anything more you want to know about any of these places.
We had been Atlantis Resort Hotel of Dumaguete of Philippine on Sept 28- Oct 3,2002. We searched the resort from web and the first image of it was clean, private, good facility. After arrived there, we found that it was a private resort, far away from downtown, no others diving shops and resorts in same area.
Due to no competition in same area, all kind of charge was high, such as meal, drinks, diving, accommodation, transportation¡_ They also charged customer the 10% tax of total expensice; this was the first time for us (we had dived in Philippine over 10 times before). The most incredible thing was that we had a quick lunch in boat between dive, they charge us 10USD and without any advance information. But we had no choice! As the result, the charge of this trip was 30% more than Cebu , Moalboal and Puerto Galera.
Philippine is a beautiful place with a lot of excellent diving site, the people on there are kindly, and the expenses are cheap. But this trip make us disappointed and charge our impress. Although we don¡¯t know where can we complain, we can share our bad experience to the friends who¡¯s love diving and Philippine!
Due to no competition in same area, all kind of charge was high, such as meal, drinks, diving, accommodation, transportation¡_ They also charged customer the 10% tax of total expensice; this was the first time for us (we had dived in Philippine over 10 times before). The most incredible thing was that we had a quick lunch in boat between dive, they charge us 10USD and without any advance information. But we had no choice! As the result, the charge of this trip was 30% more than Cebu , Moalboal and Puerto Galera.
Philippine is a beautiful place with a lot of excellent diving site, the people on there are kindly, and the expenses are cheap. But this trip make us disappointed and charge our impress. Although we don¡¯t know where can we complain, we can share our bad experience to the friends who¡¯s love diving and Philippine!
chipster
Registered
Mikimaru once bubbled...
What do you good people think of Dumaguete (Negros Oriental) and Malapascua (north of Cebu) ?
Boracay for diving??? Forget it, it is lousy nothing to see..... for chilling out and having a good time and world class food from around the world, and possibly one of the best beaches in the world, you have to go. The wife(originally from Bacolod Negros Occidental) and I were in heaven. There is a Swedish cook house there order the Austarulian steak and Swiss Salad mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
I could probably arrange for you to meet a contact there(Dumaguete), brother inlaw
Yes, I saw your post on another thread about your bad experience with Atlantis in Dumaguete. FYI, since you were wondering whom you could complain to, I know a couple of people within the Atlantis organization, and I forwarded your comments to them. They'll be looking into it.
Cheers!
Cheers!
Mikimaru once bubbled...
Can I jump in here please ??
hi,
contact georg (like me) at georg@atlantishotel.com
he got me on a deal with "enjoyment with money back guarantee" and i just loved it. great diving, great resort and great people. try it!
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