Sabang trip report - April 17

[BKKDiver64]

hi, just returned from a week at Sabang. Dived with Big Apple divers. Did 9 dives. Have been to Sabang 3 times before over the years. Summary as follows:

Sabang town:
- now on the Chinese and Japanese tourist sights (as also confirmed by the owner of my hotel). Pretty much overrun (although this was Easter week, there are no public holidays in China).
- chatting to a HK professional young guy, he had no idea that Sabang was/is notorious for "nightlife" involving more mature men. Seems Sabang is just another get-away for Asians.

Quality of dives:
- dive sites look tired and worn out. Certainly no wow factor here. This is not how I remember it. Same sentiments expressed by my Swedish dive buddy.
- site quite crowded especially with Koreans. Looking "cool" with their selfie sticks and base ball caps on.

- caught a Korean diver wrapping his Go-Pro stick around the front of a turtle, preventing it from swimming. I smacked him on the head (the Korean that is) to tell him to fxxx the right off. This guys mask was all steamed over. Total amateur diver with no respect for the sea.

- dived the 30m wreck Alma Jane. 4 of us including a Korean. On descending to the wreck we found the Korean was absent. DM went up to find him. Long story he never made it down and swam back to base (found out while we were frantically searching for him).

- on the way up from the Alma Jane (DM was waiting half way for us after not finding the Korean), we encountered at least 10 divers descending on the buoy line. It was ridiculous, what appeared to be novice divers (maybe I am wrong), trying to pass us doing our 5 m stop, struggling in the rip.

Conclusion:
- doubt very much I will do Sabang again. Overrun and dives sites of no real great quality. Novice divers been allowed to get away with stupid behavior. Let us watch this space for some fatalities!

 

[drrich2]

Interesting to read a negative trip report about the Philippines. Never been. Got a few follow up questions:

1.) Seems like most people post about Puerto Galera, Dumaguete or Anilao; I've heard of Sabang (including the seedy side you alluded to) in another post. Sabang is a part of Puerto Galera. Is it the part most people dive?

2.) You're based out of Bangkok? How long a trip is to the Puerto Galera? If I were going to the Philippines, I'd want a lot more than 9 dives to make it worthwhile, but I'm U.S.-based.

3.) I wonder if the incidence of newbie (or similarly deficient) diver issues is comparable across the main dive op.s, or some of your issues might be fixed by booking with a different one? Were you guys on smaller, '6-pack' dive boats, big 'cattle' boats, or something in between?

4.) Did anyone mention if the Asian newbie invasion (or so I get the gist of your report to indicate; no offense intended to any ethnic groups) is focused on Sabang, or Puerto Galera generally, or whether it's impacted Dumagete, Anilao and other Philippines locations?

Richard.

 

[Wingy]

Interesting to see how OP responds - I noticed all of the above problems 4 years ago at Sabang - which is where the Invasion was Richard. Sabang beach in Puerto Gallera.

 

[WetPup]

Overcrowding and inexperienced newbies are not really big issues in Anilao - yet. Getting there though. Increasing numbers of Chinese tourists. Already a huge issue in Malapascua - to the point where I can definitively say I will not be doing a return trip there.

Puerto Galera in general has been known as a party town for over a decade. I first went in 2003, and it was seedy af even then. It attracts younger crowds for whom diving is secondary to the party scene. Nothing wrong with that, they are just as entitled to travel the world as we are, but is basically why I now choose Anilao instead of PG. Get the resort in Anilao to send a boat over to PG for the day if you're that desperate...

 

[dlofting]

Puerto Galera in general has been known as a party town for over a decade. I first went in 2003, and it was seedy af even then. It attracts younger crowds for whom diving is secondary to the party scene. Nothing wrong with that, they are just as entitled to travel the world as we are, but is basically why I now choose Anilao instead of PG. Get the resort in Anilao to send a boat over to PG for the day if you're that desperate...

Sabang Beach is definitely a party town, but it was easy for us to stay away from that part of the scene. We stayed at the Steps and Garden resort which was about in the "middle" of town. All the "party" bars were to the east of us so we just went west to find a restaurant for dinner.

I am surprised at the OP's comment about the coral and general quality of the dive sites. We found the coral to be healthy, colourful and vibrant. There were many varieties of fish and lots of them....also nudibranchs, seahorses, large clams.....There were no eagle rays or sharks such as we've seen in the Caribbean, but that was about it.

The Alma Jane is not a good dive site if you want to see coral and the associated reef fish. Since it's close to the town and covers a very small area it can be very crowded.....at least that was our experience.

 

[tridacna]

Absolute balderdash review. I just returned from a week at Atlantis at Sabang.

Reefs were in fantastic condition. Diving was wonderful. I suppose it all depends with whom you dive. No complaints from any of our group of 16 divers. And who cares about how seedy SB is? We kinda enjoyed walking around the town. If you don't like that, stay at the resort and dive. 9 dives in 7 days? Really? We did an average of 4 every day.

Yes, there are a lot of Asian divers there. And yes they are usually horrible divers, no question. But we stayed away from them and their Poles. But you're in Asia. That's where they go to dive - Duh - It's cheap and close to them.

We loved Atlantis in SB. Would go back in an instant.

 

[dlofting]

Absolute balderdash review.

I'm always a bit dubious when someone's first post on Subaboard is a very negative review.

 

[MV Dive]

I don't think its best to write a review of any place during Holy Week as it is one of the busiest weeks of the whole year. Totally disagree with you about the reefs looking tired and worn. Maybe you should have looked closer for the amazing marco subjects instead of looking at the Korean divers with their selfie sticks.
Sabang Bay has become a popular destination with the markets from China and Korea due to the cheap dives and accommodation on offer. Yes it is true that they are not the best divers in the world and sometimes its hard to avoid a group of them while underwater. Sabang is full of cheap dive shops, restaurants and bars full of loose girls if you are into that kind of thing.
There are plenty of other places to stay other than Sabang if you want a quieter vacation in the Puerto Galera area.
Don't let the OP put you off the diving either. If you are coming here then make sure you check out Canyons, Kilima Step, Sabang wrecks, Dry dock, Sinandigan wall and the other 40 plus dive sites. Please do let us know if the reefs are looking tires and worn. I think you will find they are they are quite the opposite.

 

[BKKDiver64]

thanks for feed back. In hindsight should have chosen better outfit that the one I did (complaints from my friend who did his open water and also another couple about the instructor).

However I am not sure why I am ridiculed for doing 9 dives only. I am a qualified diver since 1993 and don't have to brag I did 4 dives a day! What a prat who wrote this. Also the one who wrote my review is dubious because I am a first timer. In god's name why would a negative (or even positive) review be viewed as "dubious" if it a first timer. I have heard of internet trolls and now I experience it. weird people out there.

 

[Wingy]

Just curious as to the op's comment -

- chatting to a HK professional young guy, he had no idea that Sabang was/is notorious for "nightlife" involving more mature men. Seems Sabang is just another get-away for Asians

Other than well of course it is, its Asia - do you mean Sabang attracts Old asians for the sex industry?

Regarding the Alma Jane - its not an overwhelmingly spectacular wreck...at first glance. I found the Alma Jane one of the most Nudibranch infested wrecks ive ever seen. When I dived it there were nudis queued up on the seafloor waiting for a spot on the wreck proper itself. Were you looking just at the structure or the marine life it holds? Too many divers there for your liking? Mine too, unfortunately with cheap diving comes numbers, if you want to have a limit of no more than 16 other divers per thousand sea miles...I suggest papua new guinea, but you will be paying a lot more and your resort experience will not be quite as developed as you are getting in PI. Nor will your transit and sightseeing and activities experience. But you wont be overcrowded by other divers.

Re Korean and Japanese divers - its Asia. Too many asian divers in an asian dive hotspot that people travel to from countries all around the world is akin to complaining that there are too many American divers in Cozumel - its their neighborhood, of course they are going to be there. Oh hell yeah I saw some really bad divers in Sabang, Koreans, but I also dived with some Japanese and Koreans who were brilliant divers. One of the best divers ive dived with anywhere in the world is a Japanese woman. The Asian market has not just emerged gently its exploding with a bang - cheap air travel, confidence to travel, disposable income - they're here and are going further and further afield very rapidly.

How about instead of bagging out a sizeable chunk of the worlds new divers we encourage them to become better divers through a bit of understanding of their cultural mindset - one for the instructors out there?

The girly bars exist, like they do all over the world. They're not running around dragging you inside - I found the touts more annoying than the girls, and I went to a girly bar with some guys I was diving with, had a drink, came out psychologically no more damaged than I went in. No big deal.

Im actually not a real fan of Philippines topside from the miniscule bit I have seen but im not writing off an entire nation as there is probably a place amongst a huge archipeligo that would suit me.

Sorry to OP - we were posting at same time - just re read you have been to Sabang 3 times and found it deteriorated terribly - sadly....the same could be said for most of the worlds oceans