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Bill22
02-21-2008, 06:02 PM
This report on my last trip to the Philippines (October 23-November 9, 2007) has already been posted on two other forums.... I'm copying it over here for those who haven't seen it yet....


I departed Japan on Tuesday October 23rd. I was able to get a direct flight to Cebu and arrived around 6:30 in the evening. Fortunately for me, there is only a one hour time difference between Japan and the Philippines, so I don't have the jet lag problem that people from the US would have to deal with.

I finally decided on Thresher Shark Divers Malapascua Island Diving, Philippines Cebu | Thresher Shark Divers for the Malapascua portion of my trip. I arranged my hotel and transportation through them also. Final price for my package was 79,500 pesos. This included Transportation to and from Cebu, six nights at Hippocampus Beach Resort (http://www.hippocampus-online.com/eng/resort.htm) , unlimited diving, Nitrox, Wreck, and Rescue Diver courses, 15 additional Nitrox dives in addition to the course dives, tanks, weights, boat, guide, and fees. At the current exchange rate (approx. 43 pesos=$1) this is approximately $1860.00 US XE.com - Universal Currency Converter

I brought cash with me and changed it at the airport in Cebu. After collecting my bags and passing through the customs, the money exchangers are all directly to the right as you come out. They all are right next to each other and they all give the same rate. They all want you to change your money with them of course. Since it didn't matter I picked one and changed my money.

You have to ask for small bills. Change is hard to come by in Malapascua. You will need it for meals, souvenirs, tips, etc... I waited once at a restaraunt for 10 minutes for them to bring change after I paid for a meal, only to be told that they were 10 peso's short (they had run out of change) I told them not to worry about it :-) I took every opportunity to get change when I could from the dive shop, the bar, or the hotel.

I was met by my driver at the airport. It was raining in Cebu when I got there. The driver told me not to worry, that it wasn't a typhoon... just rain. I laughed and said I wasn't worried... "it doesn't rain underwater" ;-)

There were also two men there who intially I thought were with the driver. Turned out that they were just looking to carry my bag in return for a tip. I have to much money tied up in dive and camera equipment to turn loose of my bags to people I don't know and who are not employed by the airport in any way :-)) It probably would have been okay, but it was only a few steps, and I kind of prefer to carry my own bags (usually) unless I really do need help. Unless you want to give them a tip don't let them carry your bag. One guy wanted a tip for "carrying" my camera case, despite the fact that I told him I had it and I never let go of it. He put his hand on it to "help" me and never let go despite my telling him politely a few times that "I had it".

We started up the road to Maya on the northern tip of Cebu Island where I would stay for the night. We stopped after a couple of hours at a little roadside stand. There are a lot of these places along the road. They grill meat and I had rice and soup (homemade) and a beer (San Miguel of course) We got a couple of bottles of water to take with us. 200 pesos for both the driver and myself. Roughly $4.75. I know.. I know... I was probably ripped off :-))

By around 10:30 PM we had reached Skips Beach Resort in Maya where I spent the night. I was met by the owner. Got checked in paid my 1000 pesos for the night. We ended up staying up and talking for a couple of hours. A very interesting guy. Was a student of Bruce Lee back in the 60's. Had pictures on the wall of the two of them together and it was obviously a younger version of him :-) He had lived in the Philippines for over 10 years. Had a lot of local information. Finally got to my room around midnight, took a shower and went to bed.

Was up at 5:30 AM and back on the road. We were only about 15 minutes from the pier at this point. We were met of course not only by our boat, but also men who wanted to carry my bags for a few pesos :-) The boatman took one, I took one, and this time after looking at the rocks we had to make our way across to get on the boat, I let someone carry my bag for me. I gave him 40 pesos. I tipped the the driver a couple of hundred pesos (he had slept in the car) and I was on my way.

I arrived at the dive shop at 6:45 AM. I was met by my guide for the morning. After having my C-Card checked and siging a few forms, we were back on the boat with my gear and on our way to dive by 7:05 AM. I had already missed the regular morning boat ride out to Monad Shoal for the Thresher Sharks. We went anyway. The sharks don't keep a schedule and are known to sometimes come up later. At 7:36 AM I was in the water on my first dive... less than an hour after arriving :-) To be continued.......

Bill22
02-21-2008, 06:09 PM
What I'll do now after going through the process of getting to Malapascua is talk about the dive sites.

Visibility at Monad Shoal when I made my first dive there the morning of October 24th was over 60 feet. This is actually considered very good visibility. I made 8 dives total at Monad Shoal. After the first few days, it probably averaged around 30 feet. My understanding is that this is more normal.

We put our wetsuits on and got our gear ready on the way out. It's about 20-25 minutes to get to the shoal. Felimar, my dive guide did a briefing on what our dive plan was. At Monad they travel around the edge of the shoal to different cleaning stations. They will go to the first one, wait for about five minutes, if nothing is seen, then a leisurely swim to the next one and so on, until either you sight something or your air runs low and you have to go up. Average depth of the shoal is about 65 feet. The deepest I ever went was 75 feet and that is because I went over the edge a little to photograph a nudibranch that my guide pointed out to me. We would get in the water and when ready descend straight down to the top of the shoal and then proceed to the first cleaning station. Coming back we would go to the mooring line and follow it up to the boat after making our 3 minutes safety stop.

On that first dive I saw a nice octopus, maybe the biggest that I've personally seen. There was some nice coral, but overall the shoal itself is pretty flat. When you get to the edge it drops off very steeply to deeper water. I saw good fish life. Large batfish, wrasse, emperors, butterflyfish, etc... I should also point out that they don't like you to take large strobes to Monad as it startles the sharks and can scare them away. The primary reason my octopus shot from that first morning looks a little blue ;-)

Trips to Monad are normally done between 5-6 AM to see Thresher's and again around 2:30 in the afternoon for Manta Rays. The morning that I got there, Threshers were seen by the groups that were coming in while I was headed out. The times on sightings do vary. I did seven morning dives there. The first day shouldn't really count as the Felimar my guide told me going in that it was probably to late that day to see Threshers. As I mentioned before, we werent in the water until just after 7:30. I saw it more as a checkout dive, which is to be expected. Any dive shop will want to evaluate you in the water to see where you are. The second day should probably not count either as we went out late that day also. That dive was more of a first dive on Nitrox kind of dive :-)

On other dives I saw some nice scorpionfish and nudibranchs also. I got a really nice shot of a cleaner shrimp at Monad Shoal. That was actually on the same dive as my Thresher shark photo's that are posted. I was never bored when I went to Monad. I always found something to look at. Certainly I hoped to see Threshers, but I always looked at it as a bonus. After all I'm DIVING in the PHILIPPINES in 84 DEGREE water and 60 FEET VISIBILITY!!! :-)

I'm sure many people can relate to my happiness at being there ;-) The week before I went the Philippines I was diving in water 15 degrees colder and 10-12 foot visibility. I think I came up from every dive I made there with a smile on my face :-D

Pretty much all the dives in Malapascua are made from large bangka boats. The boat crew would get your tank ready while you were putting on your wetsuit (3mm was fine). I'd step up when I was my turn and sit down near the bow. They would help you on with your tank. You would put on your fins and mask, stand up, shuffle about two short steps and then giant stride into the water. A drop of about 4 feet. Then a member of the boat crew would hand my camera down to me if I were taking it. Most of the dive sites there have permanent mooring buoys.

On my second dive at Monad we went out late again. Didn't make it into the water until 7:46 AM. On my third dive at Monad we were in the water at 6:21 and had a nice sighting. Two Threshers swam within 15-20 feet. Visibility had dropped down to under 40 feet so they were quite close before we saw them. Unfortunately for me, my camera picked this time to die. I changed batteries just before the dive, but apparently one of my sets of re-chargeable batteries was defective. I say this because after it happened again a few times I threw them away :-( The next morning we were in the water again, at believe it or not exactly the same time according to my dive computer! I got just a glimpse of a shark then it was gone.

That afternoon we headed out for my fifth dive at Monad to try and see Manta's. We were in the water at 2:53 PM. There was a pretty good current to kick into and visibility was down to around 30-35 feet. Within five minutes of showing up at the first cleaning station a Manta showed up. It was maybe 12 feet across. It swam around us, going in and out of sight as it would go out and then come back. My Nitrox instructor who was shooting video, got 18 minutes of footage of the Manta! Couldn't have asked for anthing better! :-)

On the 28th dives in the morning were cancelled. The weather was rough and conditions didn't allow us to go out. By the afternoon it had calmed down somewhat and we were able to make it out to Monad for my sixth dive there. Saw two very nice stonefish, but no Manta. We were in the water at 3:24. Were fighting a small current again and the visibility was down to about 30 feet.

I skipped the 29th morning dive so I could work on my Rescue course. On the 30th we were in at 6:09 AM for my seventh dive at Monad Shoal. Vis was around 30 feet. Saw a nice neon slug, wasn't happy with my picture though. The other group of divers who were diving off our boat asked me when we got up if I had seen the Thresher. When I said "No" he told me I had been between them and the shark. If I had turned my head to the left I would have seen him :-)) I was closer than they were! Apparently he didn't stay long, but it would have been nice to see :-)

My eighth and last dive at Monad was the morning of the 31st. We were in the water at 6:03 AM. I saw a Thresher at the second cleaning station we went to, but he swam off before I got a picture. At the next cleaning station, I saw a second thresher and got three photos. The first didn't come out at all. I could see the shark, but my camera couldn't because of the visibility. I got two more shots that gave me not a clear shot, but definitely a Thresher :-)

As it turns out, I hit Malapascua at a good time. There were not a lot of divers there for most of my stay. The high season there officially starts on October 1st. I found out later that there had been a pretty large group that left a couple of days before me. And another large group that left the day after I got there. Then it was quite. The day before I left some large groups showed up. I had thought about one last dive at Monad before I left, but decided to skip it that morning, because of the large number of people. There ended up being roughly 70+ divers in the water all at the same time. Of course they didn't see anything that morning.

Bill22
02-21-2008, 06:11 PM
I should have mentioned earlier that if negotiated separately, transfers to from the airport in Cebu are around $65 dollars each way. Are you can take a taxi to Cebu North bus station (150-200 pesos) and then take a bus to Maya. According to one webpage I looked at, Ceres runs brand new airconditioned buses. A bus to Maya runs 105 pesos and will take about 4 hours. I've heard now on ********** this is not the case?

If you have a large bag (like dive equipment), you should probably be prepared to buy a seat for your bags also. I had to do this when I took the bus from Manila to Batangas when I went to Puerto Galera in May. Then catch a ferry over to Malapascua Island (40 pesos). If I had arrived in the morning I might have taken this route. Arriving in the evening meant I would have lost a day of diving by taking the bus.

You can negotiate a taxi to bring you to Maya from Cebu for between 2000-2500 pesos and a private boat from Maya to Malapascua Island for 700-1000 pesos. It ends up being about the same as if you let the dive shop or resort do it. A taxi will save you about an hour to an hour and a half travel time.

I had originally wanted to stay at Blue Water Resort which is right next door. Blue Water Resort -- [ Malapascua Beach Resort ] -- I had some issues getting my IFPP approved (you would not believe the hoops I have to jump through as a military member to take leave in a foreign country). I didn't recieve final approval on that until the week before my trip started. By then all they had was a family room. I was willing to upgrade to a cottage, but not to a family room. A fan for this time of year was fine. I personally didn't feel the need for air conditioning. You're out diving all day and it cools down at night.

After coming back from my first dive at Monad Shoal I met Andrea one of the dive shop owners with whom I had negotiated my package by email and phone. I did a little more paperwork for my courses that I was taking and handed over 79,500 pesos, for what at that point was a planned six day trip. She then had someone escort me down the beach to Hippocampus, which was about a five minute walk.

They were expecting me at Hippocampus. Greeted me by my first name when I walked up. Everything was set. I signed in and then they took me to my room.

Hippocampus is a nice hotel. It's right off the beach. I could sit in the restaraunt in the morning and see the water while I had breakfast. The room was basic with a bed, table, chair, a large set of shelves to store my things. I had a porch where I could set outside. A tiled bathroom, with, as advertised, brackish water. Cold water of course, but this is not normally an issue here. I did rinse my teeth with it when brushing with no ill effects. There was faucet outside in the center of the building for rinsing the sand off your feet. (I was barefooted for a good portion of my stay :-)). Freshwater is in short supply there. No public drinking water system. Public electric system works only at night. Many of the resorts including Hippocampus have their own generators and 24 hour electricity. There are no cars and no roads, just paths. There are scooters though :-) Drinking water is bottled water.

I brought Salt Water Shampoo put out by Aquaseal and it worked very well. After unpacking my things (not much to unpack I traveled light), I had some breakfast and then headed back to the dive shop.

By 9:45 AM I was on back on the boat. My gear was there and tanks. This time there were some other groups onboard. Mostly Europeans. I don't remember actually meeting another American while I was in Malapascua, although I heard there were a few there. The boat crew set up my tank as we relaxed for the two hour boat ride to Nunez Shoal.

To be continued.....

Bill22
02-21-2008, 06:13 PM
These two spots represent what I felt was probably some of the best diving in the area. You have to hit it at the right time though. I made two trips there during my stay in Malapascua. Great visibility both times. The first trip on the first day I was there was probably a highlight to my entire stay in the Philippines.

Nunez Shoal and Calangaman Island are fairly near each other. We left around 10:30 AM as I recall (sorry I should have written the times down). Because of the distance, this is a two tank trip.

The sun was shining as we headed towards Nunez Shoal for the first dive. Near the beginning of the trip out we saw a pod of dolphins. That seemed like a good omen. Turned out to be the only dolphins I saw the whole time I was there, but thats okay:-) We were a group of about nine divers. One group from Europe, a family of four from Singapore, and myself.

I actually remember the moment when I was on my first dive that morning at Monad Shoal when I felt myself start to relax and get into the trip. It's something that I am starting to become aware of when I take my vacations. A moment when I feel myself begin to relax. This is why we take vacations to get away, to unwind, to relax, to enjoy. Not to say that I don't enjoy my life in Japan or my life in general, but it's really nice to get away :-)

As we aproached Nunez Shoal we took our cue from our guide and began suiting up. After we arrived the guide gave his brief and then we began approaching the bow of the boat two at a time to enter the water. One of the boatment would assist you with your tank. You would put on your fins and mask, stand up, take a step to the edge, and then step off into the water. Once everyone was in the water we descended together.

At 12:34 in the afternoon of my first day, I was making my second dive. I was immediately struck by how clear the water was. Visibility was over 60 feet. Perhaps after diving in Japan all summer where a good day would be 15-20 feet visibility had an effect, but I thought this was really cool. We descended to the bottom, a short swim and we were over the edge of the wall which dropped much deeper than we could see.

I was reminded right at the beginning how deceptive things can be when diving a wall. I rolled over on my back to shoot up at the other divers. Before I realized it I was below a 100 feet! I put a little air in my BC and kicked back up. My dive ended up averaging 56 feet... I have nothing against deep diving, if there is a reason, but it cuts into your bottom time to much :-))

There were lots of nice corals, good fish life, the usual assortment... Lionfish, emperors, wrasse, angelfish, sweetlips, parrotfish, etc.... A very enjoyable dive.

When getting back on the boat there is basically two procedures. You can hand your weights, up to the boat crew, then remove your BC/Tank and they will also take that. Then swim over to the ladder, hand up your fins, and then climb the ladder. The second way was to just go to the ladder, hand up your fins and then climb up while still wearing your tank.

I preferred the second method, especially if the water was rough. As I think I've already mentioned the weather was not always the best while I was there. We were still able to dive usually, but I found that keeping my mask on and my regulator in my mouth went a long way in preventing me from inhaling water while trying to ascend the ladder :-)) I also felt the extra weight made me more stable on the ladder as I climbed up. There was always someone from the boat crew there to assist as you came up the ladder.

After the first dive we proceeded to Calangaman Island where we anchored just off-shore. There were several fishing boats nearby. We watched as they pulled their nets in. Some people ate if they had brought a lunch, and others, went for a swim. If you want lunch, you have to make sure you make arrangements ahead. I think some people ordered their lunch through the dive shop and others just had the restaraunt at their hotel prepare one for them.

After about an hour and a half surface interval, we started gearing up again. Another brief, by our guide and repeated the procedure from earlier. My next dive started at 3:19 PM.

Again, great visibility, lots of different kinds of coral, fish life was good, and another nice wall dive.

After the dive we headed back, arriving around 6PM. I was told that it was to late for a night dive. I think there was a little confusion there. It wasn't to late for a night dive, but it was to late for the Mandarinfish. You have to be there at dusk to catch them. I let it go, it had been a long day.

My second trip to Nunez Shoal and Calangaman Island was a week later on October 31st. Was still good, but had to fight strong current on both dives getting over to the wall. Weather was also rougher that day. The group was larger and we had more guides that day.

I was working on my Rescue Diver course and we were going to work scenarios at the end of each dive. Saw a really nice flutefish, but didn't get any good pictures.

The strong current added perhaps a little more realism than I would have liked :-)) We came up a little earlier than the rest of the group. I had to work through unresponsive diver on the bottom and the surface a few times and then get them on the boat. Then I had to deal with first aid, CPR, etc...

In between while anchored in a sheltered spot near Calangaman Island we practiced over and over unresponsive diver on the surface. This required simulated rescue breathing while getting them to the boat and out of their gear. I spent pretty much the whole surface interval in the water practicing.

After we moved over to the other side of the island to start our dive. Found two really nice nudibranch's on the wall. Current was there, but not as strong as it had been at Nunez. At the end of the dive I practiced search techniques and then un-responsive diver on the bottom. Getting them to the surface, and to the boat. Playing out the scenario on the boat and what to do.

After getting everyone back on we headed back. I took off from the night dive, it had been a very long day starting at 5:30 AM when I went out to Monad (saw two Threshers that day). I had bookwork and knowledge reviews to work on, so I took a small break....

Bill22
02-21-2008, 06:16 PM
I'd really like to add photos to this trip report, but unlike the other two boards I've posted this report on, there seems to be some kind of restriction on the number of photos that I can include. I can only refer you to **********.com *********.com or that you track me down on facebook and request me as a friend if you want to see more photos of my trip to the Philippines

Bill22
02-21-2008, 06:18 PM
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My next dive on the 25th after the morning shark dive was Bantigue. After the morning Thresher Shark Dive at Monad Shoal, I had gone back to Hippocampus for breakfast. Then it was back to the dive shop where I met with my instructor Steve who would be taking me through my Nitrox and Wreck specialties and Rescue Diver.

I really think that I got lucky with Steve and his girlfriend Mal being there. Steve is from Australia and Mal from Sweden. They met while going through Divemaster/Instructor training. They had been moving around the last several years, having done time in the Mediterranean, Carribean and the last few years working on a live-aboard operating in the Red Sea. Very personable, knowlegeble, and experienced. I couldn't have asked for more. As it turned out the regular instructor was out sick. Steve and Mal were helping out while they're waiting for their work permits to go through as they have just been hired to work a live-aboard in Palau. Steve does incredible video work. He had done a promo for the dive shop and he would also put together a trip video also for anyone who wanted a memento. Mal is a really great photographer and gave me some really good tips that helped me a lot. I would log a lot of dives with them over the next week and a half. Really good people. I'm hoping to be able to go to Palau at some point to dive with them again. Mal usually played the "victim" during my Rescue practices and scenario's.

A little after 11 I headed out to Bantique for a dive. I was in the water at 11:31 and out at 12:32 diving 32% Nitrox. It had been recommended to me that I dive Nitrox because of all the diving I had planned. One of my buddies in the dive club told me that the extra oxygen would keep me from being tired... I don't know... maybe. I did a lot of diving in Moalboal also in a short period of time on air and still felt okay. I had planned on diving Nitrox for the trip and to leave my computer set on air for the last day before I left to give myself some extra safety margin.

Maximum depth at Bantigue was 49 feet, with an average of 36 feet. Not a really deep dive. Visibility was easily over 50 feet. At Bantigue there was lots of small stuff. I found three baby lionfish underneath an outcrop of coral... not a good angle to get a picture though. Lots of gobie, clownfish, damselfish, pipefish, a thornyback cowfish which looked just like the ones we have in Japan and a seamoth which I had never seen before. Also the largest nudibranch I have ever seen. It was several inches across and actually as it turned out was capable of swimming through the water... very cool.

The next dive of the day was at the Tapilon Wreck. In at 3:46, out at 4:24 PM. This is a WW II Japanese wreck. It's pretty much been blown to hell. The bow actually points off at an angle from the stern. Not only a wreck dive but a fairly deep one also. The wreck sits in just over 90 feet of water. I was diving 32% Nitrox. Visibility was not as good, maybe the worst that I experienced during my trip, probably 20-25 feet. This was the first Wreck dive for my course. Steve also had an AOW student along also.

I found a nice nudibranch. There was a huge school of barracuda that seemed to call the wreck home. Also saw a small lionfish and various other fish life. The next morning on my second dive there also saw a sea snake and remoras. I had not seen remoras before that weren't "attached" to something... I was a little worried they might try to attach to me :-)) There might be the possibility of a "limited" penetration from the stern which is open, but I don't know that it would be worth it.

Lighthouse Reef, is where you find the Mandarinfish. You have to be there at dusk though. If you get there to late then you're not going to see it. Once it's full dark then they dissappear. It's close to shore, only about 10 minutes by boat from the dive shop. It's also a shallow dive. I made four dives there and my maximum depth was only 36 feet.

On my first night dive the same day of my first dive at Tapilon, we got there to late for the Mandarinfish.... It was still a nice night dive though. Saw an octopus, different types of crabs, seahorses, and bigeyes, which I could never get a good picture of. On other night dives there I also saw banded pipefish, a small Leaf Scorpionfish and even an Anemone Hermit Crab and of course the Mandarinfish mating ;-) Visibility was usually over 30 feet... could have been more, but most of my dives there were at night.

Lighthouse is also where I got up close and maybe a little two personal with a sea urchin. I managed to move into it while maneuvering for a picture and got stuck good in my right hand. I was stuck in four places and in two of them the spine broke off. Stung like the dickens :-)) I decided at that point that 55 minutes was enough for a dive and my dive guide and I headed for the boat, doing a "swimming" safety stop at 15 feet.

The next day after a second dive at Tapilon where I had to work on mapping, we made a dive on the Japanese wreck at Lighthouse. It's a very shallow wreck, close in to the beach... maximum depth 17 feet. The main purpose was to practice running lines. The wreck is very open. Nothing left really but the shell, so it's not an overhead environment by any stretch of the imagination. First I practiced running lines on the surface, then below. There is enough of the wreck there to have things to tie off to. There was a juvenile lionfish inside the wreck and also a small anemone, with a tiny clownfish to go with it :-)

Bill22
02-21-2008, 06:19 PM
I should have added more on Mandarinfish, especially since routine sightings is one of the things that Malapascua is known for. I only made it out one time for the Mandarinfish... the other night dives I made there at Lighthouse Reef it was full dark when we arrived and was too late.

On the Mandarinfish dive that I made there were boats already there from other dive shops when we arrived. Everyone had taken up stations in the area that they came out in. As my guide and I swam around looking for a spot, I saw one and pointed. We took up positions, but the fish was staying down in the coral and I couldn't get a good shot.

My guide signaled me to turn off the modeling light on my strobe. He then held a flashlight, shining it through his fingers to reduce the amount of light. It was right at dusk, and we were less than 20 feet down, so we still had some ambient light. Just enough to frame the pictures, kind of.... :-)

The male which is twice the size of the female would move in and cover the female. They would swim around for a few moments together, then seperate.... then come together again. I got pictures, but not a single sharp one :-( That is an ongoing problem with my camera, getting it to focus in low light.

This went on for maybe five minutes then it was over... full darkness had arrived (we had just made it). I had already made three dives that day and barely made it back in time from the last one to get there in time for the Mandarinfish.

The Mandarinfish is a very colorful fish and apparently not so easy to find in other places. Definitely another highlight of the trip :-)

Bill22
02-21-2008, 06:20 PM
On the 27th we went to Gilianio. I had gotten just a glimpse of a Thresher earlier that day at Monad, but no pictures. Gilianio went a long way towards making up for that. This would turn out to be another great dive.

I was diving 32% Nitrox. Maximum depth was 63 feet, average of 46 feet. Water temp was 84 degrees Farenheit. Visibility was 30-35 feet. We were in the water at 11AM on the nose. We were fighting a fairly strong current, nothing to bad, but it did eat into my air supply. I was out at 11:49 AM with only 500 psi left in my tank.

Very nice corals at Gilianio. As we swam towards the wall I looked down and saw a sea snake. I signalled Steve and our guide Je-ann. Steve shot some video and then we moved on to the edge of a shallow wall that descended down just over 60 feet. We kicked along the wall basically shooting whatever took our fancy. Je-ann tapped on his tank and seemed very excited. Steve also. I came over to take a look. Steve was shooting video of what appeared to be some kind of black sponge. I'm thinking to myself... "what is this and why are they acting like this". Must be something "good" I thought... "take a picture and find out later". So I took a picture... when we were back on the boat, I asked Steve, "what was that black thing ya'll were so excited about?" What I thought was just a black sponge turned out to be a frogfish! :-))

This was a really cool reef. I came across a cave that seemed to extend fairly far back. A little to constricted for penetration though. Just out from it was a fan coral growing up from the sea floor. Je-ann was pointing something out to Steve who began shooting video of it.

While they were focused on whatever it was they were looking at, I noticed a large jellyfish. I was always trying to get a good picture of a jellyfish. My camera seemed to have a hard time focusing on them and they usually seemed to just fade into the water. The shot here, I manipulated once I got back so that it's a little easier to see. It ends up looking like a night shot, even though it was taken in the middle of the day.

When Steve was finished they called me over. At first all I saw was coral.... then when I looked closer I saw it! A Pygmy Seahorse! Talk about adapted to it's environment. It looked like a piece of the coral that it was clinging too! I put my closeup lens on and then tried to maneuver for shot. Not easy to do in the current! I was working very hard not to crash into the fan :-)) After several attempts I managed to get a couple of shots that "seemed" acceptable.

I moved out of the way as Felimar, my guide from the first day at Monad came over. He was guiding a group from the Netherlands today. As one of the women lay on the bottom for stability in the current while trying to get a shot, out of the corner of my eye I saw a sea snake approaching.

The first thing I thought was "that's interesting". All the sea snakes I had seen had pretty much ignored people. This one seemed very "interested". Had I been looking at a land snake, like a water moccasin (a very posionous snake and common where I grew up) I would have considered this agressive. Again behaviour that I had not seen previously in a sea snake.

The snake stopped about six feet behind the woman and looked at her. I began trying to get Felimar's attention. He looked at me, I pointed, and about this time, the snake moved again, this time stopping right between the womans knees as she lay oblivious of the snake, spread-eagled on the bottom, focusing on getting a picture. Felimar began moving to slowly maneuver the woman out of the way, not wanting to excite the snake I think. All of a sudden the snake moved! I never realized just how fast they could swim. In a flash it had left swimming into the cave in the wall that I had seen earlier, which was about 15 feet away.

After that we began making our way back towards the boat, again shooting as we went anything that we found interesting. I finally got an interesting shot of a False Clown Anemonefish (very difficult to shoot clownfish, because of camera lag on my point and shoot).

Later when we were topside, Steve who had seen the snake about the same time I did and captured the whole thing on video, joked to the woman that it looked like it was getting ready to "bite her on the bum" :-)) or words to that effect We all agreed that we had never seen a sea snake act in that manner and it was very unusual!

Bill22
02-21-2008, 06:22 PM
On the 28th we had rough seas. We did make it out for the afternoon Manta Ray dive at Monad, but that was the only dive that day. It was a very "wet" ride out and back. Pretty good current to :-D Earlier I practiced Rescue skills off the beach in front of the dive shop, so it wasn't a totally wasted day :-))

On the 29th we went to North Point. We were in the water at 11:06 AM. This dive was made a little shorter so I could practice Rescue skills. I was warned ahead of time that anything could happen so I was watching. Little things like Steve's tank coming unfastened :-))

I wasn't too surprised towards the end of the dive when Steve swam up and signalled "out of air" and we buddy breathed to the surface. It's a little trick to buddy breathe with someone while maintaining a safety stop in open water and deploying an SMB at the same time :-) I found my habit of never using the anchor or mooring line to hang on to during my safety stop (unless there was a strong current) paid off now. Deploying an SMB from depth though is something I'm still trying to perfect :-)) I hadn't actually practiced deploying it since I got it, so the Rescue course gave me a perfect opportunity to practice under "realistic" conditions :-)) Steve gave me some really good tips which of course as the instructor he was supposed to

North Point is a nice little dive. Maximum depth was 63 feet, with an average depth of 42 feet. Visibility that day was was 30-35 feet+... not bad considering the rain and bad weather we'd been having. Lots of coral heads to move around. Nice fish life.. lots of clownfish and saw several nudibranch. Steve found a nice black one with red dots all over it for me and I spied another one on the move underneath an overhang. I was practicing manual white balance, always trying on every dive to improve and practice my photography skills.

That afternoon we went to Chocolate Island. No underwater pictures here. This was all Rescue dive. This was all about practicing search patterns which I did for 53 minutes :-D. We were in at 3:37 and out at 4:30PM. My maximum depth was only 18 feet with an average depth of 7 feet ;-) Looked like some nice fish life and I saw several sea snakes, and there was a lots of nice corals, wth channels and crevasses. My focus, though was playing out scenarios with a "diver who has lost his buddy". Visibility was not particularly good, around 20 feet, which made finding the "lost buddy" a little more difficult.

The 29th was the day that I got stuck by the sea urchin during the night dive at Lighthouse.

The next morning on the 30th after diving Monad where I saw a nice Neon Slug (didn't like my picture though), had breakfast and worked on finishing up bookwork for my Nitrox course. Late morning we headed out to the Dona Marilyn.

The Dona Marilyn was a passenger ferry that sunk in 1988 when it was caught in a typhoon. It sunk stern first taking 389 people with it. Only 147 survived. 1988 Pacific typhoon season - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We were in the water at 12:21 PM and we were using 32% Nitrox. Visibility that day was over 30 feet. The boat dropped a shot line down to the wreck and we followed it down. There was some current that day but it wasn't bad. My maximum depth was 100 feet. Averge depth was 47', but I hung out for a while at 15 feet waiting for people to get on the boat. It was Steve's second time diving the wreck. The dive plan was to make a penetration, conditions and air supply permitting. It would be my call as this was my "final" for my Wreck Diving Specialty course. Penetration was not required to pass the course.

The ship is lying on it's starboard side in just over a 100 feet of water. It had lots of soft corals, small fish, sea urchins, all over the wreck. I saw a school of striped catfish. Steve, Mal, and myself descended to near the bottom and then worked our way along looking for a good place to penetrate. We eventually found a place to penetrate, but when I looked at my gauge I had used almost a 1000 psi. I was just over 2000 psi. The "rule of thirds" applies just as much in Wreck diving as it does in Cavern diving which I'm also certified in. I had started with 3000 psi. I'll admit there was a temptation (just for a moment ) to make a "limited" penetration, I opted not to. We continued to work our way around the wreck which was covered in soft corals and had plenty of fish life. We found another good penetration spot at a depth of around 60 feet. With a wreck that is over 300 feet long this is normal. One might have to make more than one dive to "survey" the wreck and then make a plan.

We were out of the water at 1:01 PM. Steve and I both talked about it after we were back on the boat. I think had I had more time in Malpascua we would have made a penetration on the next dive, but now I was getting close to end of my time in Malapascua. There were other places yet to dive in the Philippines and as it turned out not a place that I had planned on, but a place I kept hearing about after I got to the Philippines.

After the Dona Marilyn we headed for Gato Island. When we reached Gato again I had Rescue practice during the surface interval. Then Steve gave me a break and told me that this would be a fun dive. We started our dive at 2:59 PM. Visibility was 25 feet +. Maximum depth was 62 feet, but our average was only 31 feet.

There were lots of nice coral heads and "canyons" in between the coral heads to swim through. Good fish life. I found a nice zebra lionfish underneath an overhang. Also a hawkfish and various other reef fish... the usual suspects wrasse, angelfish, anthias..... We found a cave that was full of Whitetip Reef Sharks. Unfortunately, my flash was back in my room on charge, so no pictures :-( On the return to the boat we saw two nice cuttlefish. Ended up with a bottom time of exactly 60 minutes

On my second trip to Gato 2 days later I only made one dive. Lots of nice fish life again. During the second dive when the rest of the group went into the tunnel underneath the island I was finishing up my Rescue scenario's. Steve could tell that I was dissapointed about not making the second dive and offered to do the dive and finish up scenarios the following day, but I knew I needed to finish. That turned out to be a good decision as I don't think we would have finished in time the next morning to make our transportation back to Cebu.

So that's it for the "diving" portion for Malpascua :-)

Bill22
02-21-2008, 06:23 PM
I didn't talk much about how I spent my off time... mainly because there was so little of it. Bookwork took up a lot of my spare time. Doing three courses was probably a little optimistic on my part. I think I was glad when I finished them all

Most of the places along the beach like Hippocampus, Cocobana, Bluewater and Sunsplash were a little pricey for things like breakfast (although the view was nice). Breakfast would run 150-190 pesos. I could go to Ging-Gings which was on the main path that ran behind the resorts and dive shops on the beach and have breakfast for half that. You could also let them know what you wanted for dinner when you went in for breakfast and they would make sure to purchase fresh ingredients for your dinner that night. More than once I ran a tab there, because they were often short of change. This was not really uncommon. I bought a t-shirt from someone right next to Hippocampus. When I didn't have change they said it was okay, just bring it when I had it. I was diving a lot so it ended up being a few days before I saw them out again. The woman said she never worried about it. Her husband was a dive guide at Sea Explorers and her brother-in-law was one of my dive guides at Thresher Shark Divers. The bar above Thresher Shark Divers was open everynight after we came back from the last dive of the day. 2 for 1 during Happy Hour :-). Sometimes we'd have a beer there then go to Ging-Gings for dinner. By then it was time to go to bed since we had to get up early for the morning shark dive. There was an internet place at the Japanese restaraunt. Internet could be unreliable (one night I gave up after about 10 minutes) and it was always slow. I only used the internet three times in the nine days I was there.

I had wanted to go and see the cockfights while I was there having never seen them before. Mal who is a vegetarian told Steve that she was all in favor of cockfights now after having to listen to the roosters crowing every morning (and half the night) :-)) Steve and I often joked about eating chicken since the more chicken we ate, theoretically the less roosters there would be crowing :-)) The chicken curry at Ging-Gings is very good by the way

Bill22
02-29-2008, 03:43 PM
Well whatever glitch that kept me from uploading photos with my original posts seems to be fixed now, so here are a few photos :)

Bill22
02-29-2008, 03:48 PM
a few more photos from Malapascua...

davaotom
03-17-2008, 03:43 PM
I dove Malapascua about five years ago through Exotic Dive Resort. The threshers and Mantas were awesome at Monad but I also loved Gato Island. A nice spacious swim through the island starting at 4m and coming out at 12m in a cavern with resident white tips. Great experience.

Davaotom

Bill22
03-26-2008, 12:16 PM
I dove Malapascua about five years ago through Exotic Dive Resort. The threshers and Mantas were awesome at Monad but I also loved Gato Island. A nice spacious swim through the island starting at 4m and coming out at 12m in a cavern with resident white tips. Great experience.

Davaotom

That would be one of the reasons for me to go back. Unfortuantely on the trip to Gato when they did that dive I was finishing up my water skills for my Rescue Diver. I think I will go back some day, but there are so many other places to dive first :)

PinayDiver
03-30-2008, 12:25 PM
Sea Explorers arranged my Malapascua trip. The very first day out--all on one day!--we already spotted thresher sharks before breakfast, manta rays after lunch (both at Monad Shoal of course) and seahorses (Lighthouse) before dinner. Big grins on our faces alright. We're already planning to go back next February.

Bill22
03-31-2008, 06:49 AM
Sea Explorers arranged my Malapascua trip. The very first day out--all on one day!--we already spotted thresher sharks before breakfast, manta rays after lunch (both at Monad Shoal of course) and seahorses (Lighthouse) before dinner. Big grins on our faces alright. We're already planning to go back next February.

I was staying at Hippocampus right next door to Sea Explorers the first week I was in Malapascua. I used to walk past their dive shop every morning on my way down to Thresher Shark Divers. From what I could see they had a really good operation. I was thinking about giving them a try if I should ever go back :)

My next trip will likely be either Leyte or a wreck trip to Subic and Coron.

Bill22
04-01-2008, 11:16 AM
Just a reminder that this report and ALL photographs are copyrighted by myself and are not to be copied or re-used in any form.

AsiaDiveParadise
04-28-2009, 05:29 AM
Blessed Day,

I dove malapascua last January, and on the link is a very interesting trip report

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016545&id=1214494673

from
by
THE THRESHER SHARK research & conservation PROJECT

http://web.mac.com/spoliver/Site/Results.html

http://web.mac.com/spoliver/Site/Home.html

The Publisher
04-28-2009, 05:55 AM
I ought to get out there and produce an HD tourism promo video....

AsiaDiveParadise
04-28-2009, 06:48 AM
Dave
pwedi sumama :D

The Publisher
04-28-2009, 06:58 AM
>gets out Tagalog dictionary to figure out what that means....