Summer 2007 included TransMongolia and SE Asia. Spring 2009 Central-America as well as Colombia and Venezuela. 2010 University exchange in Indonesia and visits to nearby areas. 2014 trip was to South America and 2016-2017 was spent honeymooning in Asia. Latest trips are told in English, the ones before are written in Finnish.
Moalboal is a peculiar place. Located only a few hours away from Cebu city, on the western side of the island, it sees quite many tourists. Moalboal itself is actually a town further inland and most tourists stay by the Panagsama beach. They just call it Moalboal. Anyhow, there’s kind of a beach boulevard sort of thing where all the restaurants, dive shops, bars and hotels, resorts etc. are concentrated. It’s all set up for tourism with very little to do with local life. Still, for some reason I was surprised to find so many people and such a diverse group of foreigners. It looked like quite many non-diver backpacker party people had gotten lost and found themselves accidentally in Chilli bar in Moalboal.
So the thing in Moalboal is diving. Surprise! There’s also some canyoning etc. but we didn’t look much into that. Sardine run is the main attraction when it comes to diving. It means that only a few metres off shore there is a school of sardines, that are chased by jackfish. The sardines make a spectacular spectacle by creating crazy shapes and endless rivers of...well just millions of sardines. There’s other stuff too: sea turtles and fishes right by the shallow waters on the shore and then there’s of course the Pescador island which is supposedly a great dive site.
Chris and I were staying a bit outside the main hassle in a very pretty place called Sister’s inn. Since Chris’ ear was not too good, he decided to skip diving. I wasn’t sure, on the one hand I had heard that Malapascua and Apo diving was a lot better and the sardines one could just see by snorkelling as well. On the other hand seeing the sardine run from below could be really nice and very easily organized. Hmmm. I decided to check out the snorkelling first and only then decide.
Sister's inn and our balcony
Moalboal shore
In the evening we met with a French guy, Sebastien, who was our neighbor in Malapascua. With him was Clara, a young German girl who had the same route in mind as us so we made some plans to travel together to Apo island after a few days. Sebastien would be there too, although he’d stop in Oslob before.
After breakfast we decided to snorkel a bit, then do some hangboarding by the beach and after lunch snorkel a bit more. Chris had his own mask and snorkel with him so I decided to buy one for myself aswell. We only needed to rent fins and we were ready!
On the first snorkelling tour we didn’t quite find the sardines but stumbled into a huge turtle - right next to the beach! There it was, minding its own business, eating seaweed and having a wash by some cleaner fish. We were staring at this big beauty, slowly moving closer but being at respectful distance. It couldn’t have cared less about us. It just floated around munching away and almost swam into us.
Christmas deco seems so out of place
Snorkels up!
And afterwards some mango shakes and coffee. Perfecto.
After a really nice hangboarding session and a delicious lunch by the sea we went for another try and finally found the endless school of sardines! What a sight. It was more like a swarm though, these smallish silvery fish were everywhere around us, creating incredible shapes and holes and flooding the whole view. Their scales would glimmer in the sun and every now and then they would suddenly move, all of them so well coordinated, to a new direction. Really beautiful.
Hanging again in pretty views
Afterwards hopping in the clear water felt awesome
Hitting yourself with a carabiner might cause additional bumps on the forehead
For dinner we found something exceptional! We didn’t want to eat at the beach restaurants which all seemed to share a collective menu of pasta, pizza and seafood. To find something else we wondered off the beach street just some 50 meters and stumbled into Ven’s kitchen. The menu, unlike others in Moalboal, included really interesting sounding local foods from around the Philippines. The restaurant didn’t look like much but Ven, one of the owners and the chef, was so enthusiastic and proud of her fairly new restaurant and the dishes so we just had to try. And she should be proud! The food was delicious and for once it was easy to order these exotic dishes, Ven would explain us exactly what they contained and how everything was cooked. The definite star dish was the dessert: a classic halo-halo which obviously has as many forms as makers. Ven’s was great: pure ingredients, no gelatin, no bullsh*t. She said it was the third revision...perhaps the last too ;)?
You know how sometimes travelling can be a nightmare? If you don’t, you can read the post before the last one. But sometimes it’s the complete opposite and everything goes exactly according to the plan. So was our trip to Apo. We had written instructions from a kind lady in Moalboal with the amounts that we should pay for each ride. The rides included: 1) a tricycle to the bus stop in Moalboal 2) a bus to Bato 3) a tricycle to the ferry 4) the ferry to Sibulan 5) a tricycle to Dumaguete’s jeepney station 6) a jeepney to Malatapay 7) a ferry to Apo. Without much haggling we ended up paying the exact amounts and each bus, boat and jeepney would leave straight away after we got in.
Due to the easypeasy trip we found ourselves from another diver's paradise called Apo island.
It was dark and late, still raining. We were soaked, hungry and tired and had no place to sleep. Definitely all the great honeymoon vibes in the air as you can imagine. But at the same time we were super happy! We were finally there, on the small paradise island of Malapascua.
After a bit of searching we found us a great little cozy and not too expensive home for the upcoming days. Or weeks if we wanted, we had no schedule. Mike and Diose’s Aabana guest house was nicely next to the beach but a bit further from the main beach scene. After a dinner at a cheep but good restaurant Ging Ging’s we were happy to rest.
Next day was devoted to no plans nor activities unless we really felt like it. Sun came out and the island showed us its beautiful white beaches and those clear blue waters we’d been craving for. We walked around, got some quotes on diving from different scuba schools and thought about snorkelling later on.
Perfect place for some hangs at Aabana
It's important to share same interests with your loved one
Oh that white sand
And the perfect water - finally
Malapascua’s definite main attraction is diving - especially to see its incredibly beautiful thresher sharks! There’s much more than sharks of course: Gato island has fantastic coral reefs with nudibranchs of all sorts, seahorses and white tip reef sharks among other things.
It had been a while since we had last been diving. Three years to be exact. So a refresher course was in order. Also, Chris had not done the advanced course and technically wasn’t allowed to fun dive deeper than 18m. The sharks would be at around 22m and to be able to dive there Chris would have to pay extra for an “adventure dive”. It all seemed quite silly. And expensive of course. Then Chris said it out loud: maybe he should just do the advanced course and get it over and done with!
We suggested this great new idea to the extremely nice and sympathetic diver/restaurant manager of Evolution dive center, Alex, who said “of course!” and together we came up with a perfect plan. The advanced course includes five dives which all focus on different speciality (night dive, deep dive, navigation, dive computer and fish recognition for example). We would start with an easy dive, do a few skills as a refresher, then Chris would do the mandatory navigation skills part and the rest of the dive we’d just enjoy the marine life.
Same evening we’d go on a night dive, then next day we’d start with the deep dive (with the sharks) and lastly we’d have two dives at Gato where Chris would do fish recognition and dive computer stuff to finish off the course.
The course also includes a bit of theory before each dive but there are no exams really. The other good part of this idea was that I wouldn’t have to do a refresher separately but I could join in all the dives as fun dives. And get a little refresher on the advanced course in the meanwhile ;) We had a plan!
On our “activity free” first day we still found ourselves going on a three hour snorkelling tour around the island. There were a few good spots, reachable even from the shore but they were a bit of a walk away so we hopped on a bangka boat instead. The corals were quite dead and first I thought our boatman took us to a wrong place. But indeed there was some life there despite the broken corals: beautiful colorful fish, seahorse looking pipefish and a massive sea snake (which I later learned was called a banded sea krait, very venomous but not quite equipped to bite through human skin. At least I hope the latter part is true). Last snorkelling happened by a Japanese shipwreck which by itself wasn’t super impressive but the little brown-yellow-bunny looking nudibranch was so cute that it made my day!
Snorkel time!
Oh that T-shirt tan
Some jellyfish around o_O
Despite dogs, roosters and noisy hotel staff we slept well. Our porch was made for hangboarding and it’s always a perfect way to start the day. Afterwards a good breakfast was welcome and then it was already go time: diving!
The first dive after a long break is most likely pretty shit. This time was no exception: the mask fogged up ALL the time, I felt claustrophobic because I couldn’t see and breathing through the regulator felt weird, buoyancy was off because I didn’t have enough weights etc. But I was psyched anyway, so happy to be diving again! And after mastering the few skills needed I just enjoyed the surroundings (despite having to clean my mask the whole time). The single coolest creature we saw was a humongous cuttle fish that Chris spotted! It was just levitating still next to the bottom, eyeballing us with its massive peepers. Nice! Chris managed to pass his navigation part with dignity. 1/5 done.
Night dives are fantastic. I remember loving the one on my course so I was excited about this one too. Chris wasn’t quite as excited but in the end he shared my enthusiasm! The things you see and the atmosphere in the pitch black water is quite something.
Alex wanted to show us something special as the thing first but he wouldn’t spill the beans beforehand. When we descended, we saw the lights of other divers below us in a ring formation. Red lights of a massive underwater camera were pointing in the middle and everyone was dead still. Clumsy us tried our best not to disturb but still to see the tiny creatures above the corals. Two small things were shyly waving and moving up and down in front of us. It was hard to see because no torch was directly pointed at them but when the two little fish made their way a bit higher, someone showed the light and we could see two beautiful and fragile looking mandarin fish waving their scarf like fins and dancing around each other until they plunged down again in the shadows. Wow. Mandarin fish mating, definitely a cool sight.
We saw many more things: a squid that squirted its ink at us, a huge spider crab that looked like it escaped from a Pirates of the Caribbean movie and cool hermit crabs with the most peculiar houses. The grandiose lion fish were not a rare sight, a huge filefish filefish swam past us and I managed to spot a well-hidden and scary looking scorpionfish. 2/5 dives done and 5/5 rating for this. No foggy mask, no phobias, just pure fun.
Sunset
Time to suit up
Frog woman
Happy Malapascua divers
Local supermarket
One hungry diver
mmm veggies
We had seen a beautiful sunset on our way to the night dive and in the next morning we saw the fire ball rising: our shark dive was scheduled to leave quite early, at 5.00. Thresher sharks are a pretty funky looking shark species with their big round eyes but especially because of their looong cat like tail! Usually they arrive early morning to the same spot next to a deep wall for their morning wash: they are being tidied up by the cleanerfish.
We had another mission first, before the sharks: to go down to around 30m for Chris’ deep dive. The water was extremely clear and visibility awesome when we started to descend. One could see all the way down. And then suddenly, just a few minutes after starting the descent, the first thresher shark appeared from the shadows!!! Whoa. We weren’t even looking for them yet. It circled around and vanished again. Amazing.
We checked the dive computer, it showed us 28,5m after which we slowly ascended to 22m and found our way to the cleaning stations where there were already a few other divers waiting to spot those sharks. And sharks there were! It was an impressive sight to see them appear from the distance, swim past swinging the long tails and with the cleanerfish on the sides. Then they would disappear again in the blue darkness. 3/5 done. 5/5 stars.
Briefing for shark dive
Anticipation in the air
Early morning Chris
Sharks are somewhere in the back
Extrahappy sharkspotters
Video borrowed from Evolution
In the afternoon we left to do the last two dives in Gato island which was famous for its beautiful corals and plentiful nudibranchs and other little things. Also white tipped reef sharks were common visitors in these waters as well as frogfish, seahorses and other cool critters.
Indeed we saw some pretty nice things. Firstly the whole area was like a big beautiful garden with great colours and shapes, secondly the wildlife was so incredibly diverse: next to a big black seahorse I spotted a yellow baby seahorse (so cute!), we saw many many nudibranchs (blue-white-yellow ones and one black one with red stripes), a small moray eel peeking from its little cave, multibar pipefish, a big cuttlefish and multiple lionfish. I also created an eye for spotting those well-hidden scorpionfishes.
And since we had started the day with sharks, why not continue it with some more: the first white tip was sleeping in a cave and we could hardly see it, just the tail, but soon we encountered two more! They were hiding in a dark tunnel and we were diving past just at the right moment. A few other divers were coming from the other end of the tunnel and first we could only see glimpses of these two big white tips in the flashes from the divers’ torches. What a sight. The sharks didn’t like the idea of being trapped between us and the other divers so they fled - right past us! We stared in awe at the two sharks that were just a few meters away. Wow.
On the next dive we had a mission. Chris was supposed to find us a frogfish, stonefish and some special kind of nudibranch. Alex promised us a beer if the nudibranch would be a dragon one. It looks like something from a fantasy flick, really pretty but not so commonly seen.
A frogfish we found pretty quickly, a funny orange one, I think Alex had an idea where it would be hiding. We continued our search for the other stuff when suddenly Alex stopped us. Even without hearing or seeing his face hidden behind the mask I could feel the triumph in his gestures: a dragon nudibranch!! There it was, a lilac, delicate looking creature. Awesome!
I couldn’t have imagined more wonderful dives than these. Chris became a certified Advanced Open Water Diver and we saw what we came to see - and more. Malapascua is pretty amazing.
Lunch at Gato
But it was time to leave. Chris had developed a bit of an problem with his ear so no more diving for a while and we felt we could move on to new adventures. We said goodbye to Alex and our guesthouse and reversed our journey back to Cebu. This time we didn’t get wet nor did the bus take as long but it was still enough travelling for one day.
Hunting spider
Last hangs at the excellent spot
Bye bye Malapascua
We slept one night in a hostel called Elicon house where they told us not to walk one kilometer to a restaurant because it was too dangerous. How frustrating. So we took a cab and ate an excellent meal of Persian food for dinner. A great change for a while!
Next day we tried to find an ATM that would give us money but it wasn’t an easy task. We tried at least ten different ones before taking a taxi to HSBC which luckily worked. Then we left Cebu behind. With pleasure.
So.. we started our flight marathon with no problems. Air Asia took us to Don Mueng on time, a shuttle transferred us for free from DMK to BKK in an hour and we had plenty of time and thai baht to find food from the airport. And oh yeah we found sushi! Expensive but delicious.
Our next flight was delayed by an hour but we knew we had plenty of time at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino airport. Arriving there around 5.30 in the morning we didn’t have to queue long. ATM and money, checking in to our Surigao flight and chilling at the airport. Still all good.
Alright, Thailand.
Handy those carabiners
Chris had already been feeling better for a day or so but now his stomach was not happy again so he wasn’t hungry. I was but the airport options were limited and expensive and so I decided to wait until Surigao. It was only a few hours away.
The flight was great: we could see the amazing lush islands and the turquoise clear water below us! Soon we’ll be in paradise!!!
We had been flying for over 1,5 h and the pilot announced that we’d start landing soon. Not much happened though except that we were circling around, I noticed after seeing the same perfect little island beneath for the third time. I woke Chris up just in time for the pilot to explain that the weather is too bad in Surigao for us to land. We were running out of fuel so we’d go to Cebu to refuel. Noooo.
We landed in Cebu but weren’t let out of the plane. The pilot announced that the weather had turned better and we would try again.
But what false hopes, the weather was as sh*t and there was no chance to land. When he then told us that “Sorry guys, it’s a no go, we’ll fly back to Manila”. I was furious. We were flying in vain for 7 hours, I hadn’t eaten anything and the worst part was that we were so freaking close!! I saw the islands right there.
So. Manila again. It was the last place we wanted to be or stay for that matter but would we have any other options? Transfer desk adviced us that we can either fly to Surigao the next day or change the ticket to another flight just paying the difference. Would the weather be as bad the next day we wondered? Should we risk it?
No. We decided to go elsewhere and the only option for the same evening was a flight to Cebu. Cebu. Again. We ran thru the terminal to catch a shuttle to another terminal to catch the flight and found ourselves in Cebu at some late hour after about 32 hours of constant travelling. We were spent.
A tired traveller over Cebu
Grey Cebu
We didn’t know what to do next. Suddenly we were in the city where we were supposed to end our Philippines stay. All we wanted was to go to that chrystal clear water and dive and swim and beach. I had eyed the small island of Malapascua which is located in the north coast of Cebu island. The diving should be sterling and the journey wasn’t too bad: 4,5 h plus a boatride for 30 min. We could do it.
A clinical, expensive but clean and conveniently located hotel in Cebu offered us a short night’s sleep, local restaurant offered us food (I don’t know what it was and I don’t want to know) and the next morning’s taxi driver offered us extra sightseeing when he tried to take us to a wrong bus station (which we of course paid for).
Tarzan's adventures are captivating
The strangest toilet payments so far...
Instead of 3,5 h as advertised, or even 4,5 h as LP informed, the busride took 6,5 hours. And trust me, no more VIP buses. We arrived to the port for the boat to Malapascua and a typhoon style rain started smashing down. I’m not afraid of the monsoon rains but this was different. We were stranded under a leaky tiny shelter to wait for better weather.
It came but the sun started setting and suddenly the herds of boatmen came up with some extra charges for people and baggage. They had the most ridiculous reasoning and we weren't going to pay 40 peso more after already paying 100. Chris fetched the boss and in the end, after waiting for an hour or so the price was settled for 20. Cheez. We were shipped to the island on a bangka boat with its spiderlike legs for balance. But the boat had no lights. We were sailing in the darkness completely blind and invisible. Any sudden obstacle or other lightless floater we would’ve certainly hit with no chance of stopping in time. The waves were big, winds were high and we were wet. I wasn’t quite sure we would ever make it to the island. “We’ll probably have to turn back to Manila” became a tragicomic phrase that was later very much used in many occasions.
We made it alive in the end. Sort of. Jesus, crazy this travelling.
