We are sitting in the restaurant/bar of our hotel, Kokay’s Maldito Dive Resort. Lunch is spring rolls and Coke on ice. It is already 3:00 as we did three dives today. We traveled to Monad Shoal and then Kinod Shoal.
The dive at Monad Shoal is to search for tiger sharks. There have been sightings this week, so we are hopeful. The shoal is about the same size, on top, as Malapascua Island. When I hear this, I think to myself that it is going to be luck that we see one. We dive for an hour and no sightings. Just as we are getting in the boat, the dive master signals that there is one below us. We just stick our faces back in the water, and see the shark swimming away. It is so large it looks like a whale shark. BJ, our dive master thinks it was about 4 m long! Not a stellar sighting, but it still is one.
Thresher Shark
The next two dives are at Kinod Shoal, looking for Thresher Sharks. We jump into the water, descend and swim to the edge of the shoal and almost immediately we see one, then two. For the hour each of two dives, we almost constantly see these marvellous sharks with their big eyes and long tails. Murray shoots video after video and I shoot photo after photo, hoping to get one great video and shot. As we make our way back to the boat, our group of five is alone in the water and one final shark, swimming around and around getting cleaned, comes to say goodbye.
Murray and I love to find weird creatures, small creatures, fish and rare stuff. Boy, do we find all that on our two dives this morning. Between our dive master, BJ, and us we find pipefish and nudibranchs and crabs and cuttlefish and a small shark. The diving is almost like muck diving. We swim across sandy/rubble and encounter corals in splotches. There is current, but not nearly the currents in Tabbataha.
Nudibranch
We know it is going to be a good dive when Murray finds a pipefish as soon as we descend. Pipefish are not that common, normally, but here we see different ones in three various spots.
Ringed Pipefish
BJ is quite excited about finding a shark, he thinks it is a Bamboo Shark. Pretty little fellow only a couple of feet long, spotted white grey and black. Once back on land, we check the fish books and it turns out to be a Coral Catshark.
Coral Catshark
The coral here is also in terrific health. There is more soft coral than hard and we watch it feeding in the slow current. We see many many anemones with their “clown” fish swimming in and out of them. I love these guys but don’t take too many photos and just enjoy watching them frolic.
Today our adventure is taking the bus to Maya, the port, where we take a ferry over to Malapascua Island. Without going into excruciating detail, I think there is a difference here to the meaning of “direct” vs “non stop”. Direct does not necessarily mean non stop. Our bus was direct, but NOT non stop. Ride took 5 hours. We are not in a hurry, get to see lots of towns and people, but it is a long time to spend on the bus. One interesting thing is at certain spots, hawkers get on the bus to sell water and snacks to the passengers and then get off after a short ride.
The ferry is a traditional Philippine boat with outriggers. There are only about 15 passengers and the crossing takes about a half hour for the 7 km journey. It is good to be back on the water again.
Malapascua is only 1 km wide and 2.5 km long. Tiny! Most tourists come here to scuba dive with the thresher sharks, us included. We are diving for four days, so hope to see more than sharks.
We will explore this little island more and let you know what we find.
Last night we go on an adventure. Murray chatted with the hotel desk lady and found out which jeepney to take to get to the Sugbo IT Park Mercado, an outdoors food fare. The 17C stops right opposite our hotel, we wave it down as it approaches, climb in the back and find two seats on the bench.
A jeepney is an vibrantly coloured extended Jeep like vehicle with open windows, two long benches and the passenger door at the back. The fare is usually 15 pesos (40 cents Cdn). Coins are passed along the line of passengers to the driver. Change is passed back in the same way. Everyone is very honest about paying and transferring money.
Jeepney
We are let out at the mercado, which seems to be a popular spot as the jeepney empties out there. The mercado is an enclosed area with about 8 aisles of food and drink kiosks with tables in the center. It is crowded, noisy and bustling. Murray has nasi goreng and satay and I have pad thai. We share, of course. Pretty good food for cheap.
On our return jeepney ride, we chat with a 12 year old boy who is returning from swimming practise. He has a competition the next day, swimming a 400m and a 200m freestyle. Pretty good for a 12 year old. As we get off, we wish him good luck with his races.
Today, we leave the hotel at 8:30 am to walk to the tourist sites – the Spanish Fort San Pedro first built in the 1500s, the Basilica del Santo Nino, Magellan’s Cross and Carbon Market. The streets are quiet when we start out as it is Sunday morning. As we approach the area, we see streams of worshippers going into the church for mass. The voices singing hymns carry into the street (most likely miked).
Carbon Market
The Carbon Market is a mix of fruits and veggies, meats, food fare, household necessities and tourist type wares. By the time we wander through it (it’s gigantic), we are exhausted and most likely dehydrated. We find some shade and lemonade drinks and sit until we feel we can move again. Once again, trusty jeepney 17C takes us back to the hotel!
Murray writes:
Sunday in Cebu. Our last day here and the goal is to cover off the sites we had scouted before we left home. Most of the sights are in the same general area. We figured out how to use the Jeepneys so we thought we should use the cooler mornings (only 30C) to walk there and then use the Jeepney to get back to the hotel area. Worked out perfectly. We found the ‘bus stop’ to get on and got off exactly where we wanted. You would think we were locals.
A few random thoughts about the Philippines in general and Cebu specifically.
There are security guards at every door, Walmart greeters if you will, no matter how small the shop. They open the door when you enter, sort of check for things you should not bring in, and open the door for you to leave.
Read your restaurant bills carefully. First you should check to see if there is a service charge. I was about to pay one bill but I thought it was too high. Upon checking with Debbie about the price of one item we double checked the menu and a wrong item had been added to the bill increasing the total substantially. They did make the difference between the items’ costs but there was no adjustment to the taxes paid or the service charge. Not likely we will be back to that restaurant anyway but it did leave a bit of a sour impression.
Magellen’s Cross
Know your cab fares. The people at the front desk of the hotel are pretty good at passing on at least a ballpark figure. I paid too much for one fare I had not checked on. It only cost me a couple of Canadian dollars but still if I had known I could have been closer to the mark when bargaining.
Man, this country is noisy. When we are on the street Debbie and I yell to communicate. Talking loudly is also required in malls and restaurants. Last night in an open air ‘food fair’, the Sugbo Mercado IT Park, the din was overly loud and again we had to yell to converse.
The mercado we went to last night was quite a distance. The hotel receptionist told us to go outside catch the 17C Jeepney and it will drop us right there. For 15php each ($.40 CAD) we saved our feet. It was a truly ‘local’ experience. We climbed into the back of the vehicle, the ceiling was low, even Debbie had to duck. Squeezed in on the sideways bench seats and passed a few coins to the driver. Then as more people got on they passed their coins along the line of people and that money made it to the driver who made change and the coins were passed back to the proper passenger. Very trustworthy system.
I think most Asian countries have this problem but there is a considerable amount of pirating electricity. We walk under the power lines and there are many lines hanging down unconnected to anything. Someone has obviously cut the line, piped into the receiving power side and left the on going wire loose. Weird connections are everywhere. No need to install solar panels when the electricity is free anyway.
Scooters and small motor bikes are not as prevalent here as in other Asian countries. There are still a lot but there are a lot of cars as well. All the powered bike riders wear helmets in Cebu. Not the case in Puerto Princesa where is seemed to be some what optional. Probably law, just not enforced.
I’m quite sure there are loads of tourist somewhere in the Philippines but in the two cities, Puerto Princesa and Cebu, Debbie and I have spent time in are not tourist meccas by any means. We do see obvious tourists occasionally, especially around the ‘sites’ but for the most part we are unusual when we are out walking and the local people acknowledge the fact we are not a common sight. They’re all really friendly. They say hi or good morning or sometimes they just stare with a dropped jaw until we say good morning then they smile and return the greeting.
Friendly Folk
There are a few more homeless people in Cebu then in Puerto Princesa but it is a city of 3 million so I guess that can be expected. There are out and out beggars but it is hard to tell if they are for real or just preying on tourists. Some of them look like gypsies, but we are long way from Romania. The locals ignore them so, so do we. I have had a couple of well-dressed kids put their hand out to which I just scoffed at them. I wish bleeding heart tourists would stop handing out money and encouraging such behaviour.
We are in Cebu City today and tomorrow to dry out and see a different part of the Philippines. Our goals today are to exchange some Canadian cash for Philippine cash and to check out the bus to the ferry dock to get to Malapascua Island, our next destination.
Murray likes to play the exchange rate game. At the Puerto Princesa airport, we exchanged Canadian for Philippine at 40.3. Not bad. No one in town would deal in Canadian. We get to the Cebu airport and the rate is 37.4, so we didn’t exchange any. While going through our notes this morning, we notice there is an exchange office right across the street from our hotel. The rate there is 41.7! We exchange cash needed to get us past the next leg of the trip. As we walk this morning, things are churning in our brains and we decide to use that exchange rate to get the cash needed to the end of our whole trip, so we timed our return to make a stop at the exchange. Now, you are probably thinking, why go to all that fuss? I exchanged $850 Cdn the second time. If you take the difference between the Cebu Airport rate and this rate, it is about a $90 Cdn difference. In the Philippines, that is more than a few meals!
Water dispenser
As we walk towards the north bus terminal, I keep seeing these funny dispenser machines. I can’t figure out what they are for. Down one street, I point a blue one out to Murray. Then we see a red one on the side of the street we are walking on. We stop and as Murray is taking a photo, three fellows come out and talk to us. They have a machine shop that makes car parts. One fellow explains how the red machine works. It is a water dispenser, with one of those big jugs inside it. For a peso you can fill up a plastic bag with about 300ml of water. He was going to spend a peso to show us but we said no no that’s okay. I think they enjoyed our chat, talking about winter and summer and the temperatures in Canada vs the Philippines. We wished them a good morning and off we continued.
The streets are filled with a mix of new, modern buildings and old, rundown buildings. It is quite the contrast. Here there are side walks on many streets, which is better than walking next to the traffic zooming by. Canadians are not used to that.
We locate the bus terminal and find the answers we are looking for. Here is another aspect of how we travel that is different than most. We could have pre-arranged a transfer to Malapascua Island for about 3,500 pesos for the two of us. Easy, no fuss, no excitement. Instead, after researching at home and talking to people on the liveaboard, we walk to the bus terminal to inquire about the schedules, cost etc. An air conditioned bus costs 350 pesos each and leaves every hour. The car trip will take slightly less time than the bus, but do we mind? So, it will be an adventure to take the bus to the ferry to go to Malapascua Island.
I think I can mention this without jinxing it. We have been diving for four days now with 20 divers and 22 staff. They all seem to be quite easy to get along with. After the last couple of boat experiences we were worried. One of the deck hand guys has done up the zipper on the back of my wetsuit about ½ the time. The guests are from all over the world. Three from Shanghai, China, two ladies from Germany, a couple from the U.S., two guys from Belgium, a Vietnamese lady living in Singapore, one local fellow from Manila, a couple from Chile living in Panama, another couple from Singapore, three French Canadians and us. Almost everyone interacts and switches up seats at meals so we all get to know each other. Meal time is always fun.
The current today was behaving and the dive are much more manageable. We still glance out into the blue but we don’t spend a lot of time hanging in the water flying along with the current looking for the ever-elusive hammerheads or whale sharks. We spent time scouring the wall and traversing the flatter parts of the reef keeping our eyes peeled for some of the animals more familiar to us. As I mentioned before the coral is in extremely good shape and there are a ton of fish, mostly in ones and twos but there are some very large schools.
Debbie writes:
Murray mentioned the past boat experiences and I was feeling the same way. After our last liveaboard, I was not sure I ever wanted to go on a liveaboard again. This liveaboard, boat, crew and guests, has restored my faith in liveaboards.
May 02
Last day to dive Tabbataha. People leave tomorrow and some have early flights so in order that they get 24 hours of non dive time in we are up at 5.30am and diving at 6.15am. Roll back into the water and it is the first cold water we have got into right off the boat. It warms up as we dive but the early morning shock wakes us.
The goal is to go deep and see what is out there. Today is the day we are all short a bit of air and that does not coincide with deep diving. We use more air at depth. We motor along at about 60ft and then the dive master heads out into the blue to see if it is worth a trip to the deep. Nope. A school of jackfish is all he can see so we stay higher. More of a reef dive. There were a lot of sharks enroute but mostly small ones, less than a meter. I did find an octopus which is always ego boosting. I don’t find many. He was tucked in a hole and keeping an eye on us as we passed. Considering they were the one animal I was afraid of when I first started diving, I now find then super interesting and fun to watch.
The last dive of the trip the current was again very mild. We spent ½ the dive swimming into it. A lot of work after floating with the current for so many days.
Overall Impressions
The Solitude One is a great boat. It is a converted ocean going Japanese built ship and it is so stable. Even in moderately rough seas I didn’t even feel the rocking. It is laid out for divers. There is a big camera room, a lounge, dining area and a sun deck. The dive deck has ample room to get dressed and ready to dive and loading onto the pangas is easy. The cabins are small but definitely big enough to accommodate all of a divers’ needs. There is even a small desk to type the blog post on.
The crew was completely accommodating. They were there to help and help they did. Food was good. They say the people make the country and these folks made the boat. The guests were all great. To a person they were nice. They were all willing to chat and tell stories of where they had been and where they had dove. This liveaboard with crew and guests restored my faith in dive boats.
The diving was good but, in my view, unot spectacular. There was the opportunity to see some pelagics, big stuff, manta rays, whale sharks, hammerheads, but nature does what nature does and we didn’t see any. Considering the amount of time we spent looking we had a good chance if anything had been there to see but nope. The reef is in very good shape and there are tons of fish. With the strong current on most of the dives we could not stop and enjoy a lot of it. The movie went by and we had to be satisfied with that. Still fun though. I am not sure this would be one of the places I would come back to but not disappointed we came.
Debbie writes:
My overall impressions agree with Murray’s on the boat, crew and guests. I do disagree slightly with the diving. Although, maybe not spectacular, the diving was pretty darn great. Yeah, there was current. We didn’t see a lot of small stuff, which we like, but sometimes diving is like that. During many of the dives, I just marveled at the health of the reef, the large schools of fish and enjoyed being in the moment with the reef.
More diving at the north atoll. There are many, many boats plying the Tabbataha area. We were told 14 this week. So even though I‘m pretty sure the boats coordinate where each is going to be each day, we share the dive sites with other boats. Occasionally we pass one of our groups and every once in a while we come across a different boat’s group.
The four dives today had varying current conditions. One dive was medium to strong current. We could not stop to see anything and the last few minutes of the dive were a magic carpet ride. One dive was mostly docile. We flited around from place to place and if we wanted to stop and take a picture or just observe something it was possible. The last dive had a bit of everything. We don’t spend much time kicking into the current but there was one spot on the last dive I could not make any progress. I probably could have if completely necessary but I am not going to kill myself just to swim up current when we can turn around and go with it. The dive master wasn’t making any headway either so we were soon headed in the reverse direction.
On the second dive we headed out into the blue and tried to spot a hammerhead or two. No luck. We did see a lot of sharks. Mostly white tip, some black tip and I think a couple of grey reef sharks. I finally started to be able to ‘see’ things again. Up till now I have been blinded by the abundance of visual stimulation. Today I found two nudi’s. Funny I think this environment should have many nudi’s but between the five of us in our dive group we have only found a few.
The water is really warm. I have not felt cold for more than a minute on any dive. There are many thermoclines. Not horizontal layers but warm and cold up and down wellings of colder and warmer water. We pass through them but in the end my computer figures out the average temperature and it has been around 85F.
The excitement of the day came on the first dive. 40 minutes into the dive M, the other lady diving with us, had an O ring on the swivel attached to the mount piece of her reg. blow. There were bubbles everywhere, her vision was completely obscured and she had no idea where she was in the water column. The dive master was quick, grabbed her and held her down and managed to get his octopus to her. We aborted the dive. That was the first dive I have ever been on that was aborted because of an emergency. M wasn’t even really shaken by the whole thing. The other four of us were far more concerned than she was.
April 30
OK diving again today. Currents still and issue. The last dive, we only did 3 today, the current was so strong we couldn’t stop if we wanted to. I think we should have just aborted the dive. I should have taken it for what is was and enjoyed the magic carpet ride but I was just frustrated. We surfaced early. We had crossed two dive sites and were a long way from the mother ship. The pangas did not know where we were in the ocean and it took an extra long time for us to get picked up. The other dives were unspecial.
Debbie writes:
Yup, today’s currents were rocking. The first fast current was along the wall, so the trick is to stay close to the wall to go slower. But the problem is that we get sucked into the wall and knock the coral, which we try very hard not to destroy. The currents seemed to be coming from everywhere, up, down, left, right so it is very hard to control buoyancy. I thought it was just me but later heard everyone was having the same issues. The magic carpet ride was smoking and we ended up in the “washing machine”, where two currents collide and cause turbulence. The dive master didn’t keep us in there very long and we went to the blue to be picked up. Once of the surface, we were far from the mother ship with no pangas close, so we floated patiently, trying to stay together in the choppy water, until we are spotted and the trusty pangas came to get us. It definitely is an exciting day.
First day on the boat. Pick up at 2.00 and on the boat by 2.30. Everybody on board. All seem quite nice. After the last two group experiences we were somewhat apprehensive. The crew is super helpful. Can’t make a step without someone stepping up to help. The boat itself is roomy. There are only 20 of a possible 24 on board so there is elbow room The dining area is set out with two long tables and with way more that 20 settings so people are spread out. Over time I think Debbie and I will move around enough to chat with everybody. We set sail for Tabbataha at 6.30pm.
Debbie writes:
Tabbataha Natural Park is about a 10 hour ride from Puerto Princesa cruising at 8 knots. We leave after the port authorities clear us to go, about 6:00 pm. The park is made up of the North and South Atolls and Jesse Beasley Reef. At high tide, it is all covered with water and at low tide, just a small portion shows above the water line. There is a ranger station there whose rangers patrol the area and take care of the reef.
April 28
Up at 6.30am. First breakfast upstairs. Briefing at 7.00 and then in the pangas. Dives are all set for 60 minutes. My first time underwater in a year and I seem to be fairly much at ease right away. The dive master gives the let’s go hand direction and we’re off. There is a mild current and all our dives are drift dives so no battling up stream. I like that and from what I gather so does everyone else. The water is very warm. Haven’t had a chance to check the numbers on the dive computer but I don’t even feel a thermocline as we descend. We drift over the coral, which covers almost every inch of the reef, hardly kick at all. The current lets us drift at a leisurely pace. We can see things and if we want to inspect something we reverse, kick into the current and at least hold our position. Debbie says it is a bit difficult to take photos but she still manages to get a few. There are many fish but only a few schools, mostly individuals today. I still haven’t got my naming chops yet so I am looking but not being able to know exactly what I am looking at.
We are all in groups of 5. Our group has the other two older people, Americans from Houston. And one fellow who was born in the Philippines, with Spanish origins, and now lives in Manila. All nice people and good divers. We don’t get in each others’ way at all and we can all stay down for the entire hour. All things looking good for a fantastic week of diving.
Debbie writes:
I had just been to Roatan diving and the reef there is almost totally covered with green algae. As I looked across the landscape it was green green green. Right from the beginning of the first dive in Tabbataha, I see great swathes of hard corals, all brown in colour (their true colour). Individual soft and hard corals are as big as a coffee table. Incredible that a reef is so healthy. And the fish, huge schools of fish of all colours. And some of the individual fish that are the size of serving platters, or larger. These reef inhabitants are a healthly lot. I am in awe.
Even though we travelled east to west last fall coming home from Africa I had forgotten how bad the time zone change is. It is our third day here and I am sacked. We managed to stay awake last night until 9 pm and got out of bed at 5.30am, both reasonable times. At about 3pm this afternoon Debbie and I are on the bed nodding off uncontrollably. When we got home from Africa it took a month to get our clocks straightened around. This time we have 4 days because we will be 60ft under the surface of the water on Sunday.
After ½ a morning of lollygagging we left the hotel in search of lunch. Back on the street again I noted a few more things about Puerto Princesa, and I’m assuming that time will tell, about the Philippines. People here are not in a hurry. It’s a pretty good guess that has to do with the heat. I walk along at what I consider a saunter and still pass by people easily. Even the traffic is somewhat slow. It moves along but it is still easy to cross a street on foot.
The place is noisy. Debbie and I must almost yell at each other to communicate. Most of the sound I think is generated by the traffic. The din is loudest on the main roads and dwindles on the secondary roads, less again on the tertiary roads. Today we walked down one of the residential ‘alleys” and it was honestly quiet.
Again, something I just noticed today; everything is in English. So, I looked it up. There are two official languages in the Philippines, Filipino and English. Filipino is the language used to communicate between the peoples of many different ethic backgrounds but English is the official language for government, education, and business. I thought it was a bit too easy to get about here.
One more odd thing about at least Puerto Princesa, pedestrians obey the traffic lights. You arrive at a corner and there is a group of people waiting for the walk light to flash on. And, yes people jaywalk. I think mostly because the blocks are so long, but when they reach a corner, they stop and wait for the green walk light. And if there is an uncontrolled crosswalk mid block the cars are quite polite about not running you down. There are very few places we have travelled where these actions are common place. I thought Edmonton was unique in the world.
The other thing quite forward in thinking here is the count down for the traffic light change is for the walk light to end. At home the ever-intelligent powers that be have chosen to have the counters count down the wait light teaching people that it is acceptable to cross while the orange halt hand symbol is on display.
It seems the Philippines has a bit of the wild west in it. One of the more disturbing signs at the front door of many establishments is ‘no firearms’. Yup, no guns. I’m guessing again but by the need for those signs I assume it is OK for people to carry them. Yesterday we passed a gun store with hand guns on display in the window and what looked like very scary weapons on the wall just inside the open entrance door. That is a bit unnerving for these two Canadians.
Tomorrow we get picked up by the boat crew and head to the open ocean to do some diving. We will write a few blogs but will not post them until we are back on land and have access to the internet.
Our day starts early. 2:35 am to be exact. This is what flying west does to us. Melatonin tonight!
Murray mentioned the Philippines Airline vouchers we got yesterday. We searched for an agent on Google Maps and found none, so we decide to go to the airport and see if the check in counter folks can help us use them. I checked the flight departures and there is a flight leaving at 7:20 am, so we know there will be staff there, and since we are up, might as well walk over there early. We are quite close to the airport and it only takes us about 10 minutes to get there. The security guard points us to an actual office for the airline, but unfortunately it doesn’t open till 7:00 and it is only 6:20.
We walk back to the hotel and have breakfast, for Murray French Toast and for me rice, sweet pork, a small chicken leg, watermelon and papaya. I am in heaven!
We troop back to the airport and are the agent’s first customers. We explain the situation and ask that we somehow use the vouchers to upgrade a subsequent flight we are taking. She searches and manages to upgrade our flight from Puerto Princes to Cebu to Comfort Class, which includes seats at the front of the airplane, a snack and airport lounge access. Great! At least we are getting something for our money rather than going home with it unspent. We are happy campers walking back to the hotel.
It is screaming hot here. Today it is 32 C, feels like 39 C. We do shortish jaunts out of the hotel and come back to cool off.
Our tricycle driver!
We hire a tricycle, a motorbike with a covered frame on it to carry a couple people on a small bench, to take us to the Immaculate Conception Cathedral. The cost of the ride is about $2.50 Cdn. The Spanish first celebrated on the site back in 1872 and there have been a number of rebuilds of the Neo-Gothic structure.
Immaculate Conception Cathedral
We walk back along the bay walk by the water. Lots of concrete, a few trees and not much shade. We turn away from the water and head back into the scrum of traffic and people, find a Jollibee for a quick lunch, wander through the local market and then back to the hotel.
Jollibee is a Filipino based restaurant. When the first Jollibee restaurant opened in Edmonton, there was a big fuss made and a huge line up outside the place early in the morning. I thought to myself, cool, an Asian restaurant for a good lunch spot. But I never did go there. Well, today we walk in expecting an Asian menu, but it is burgers, fried chicken and spaghetti. What!? I eat chicken and rice and Murray has a chicken burger and fries. And cheap! We ate for about $6 Cdn total. Not sure we will go back there again, but at least we can say we went to Jollibee!
The people here are super friendly. We get Hellos everywhere we go and people are always willing to answer questions about directions that we pose. It’s the local people we encounter that make travelling enjoyable.
One more outing today, to find a restaurant for supper and then the chore of trying to stay awake past 7:30 pm. We will see how that goes!
