We bought our ticket for 100 pesos to Tubigon from Cebu City. So far, so easy and a tiny bit slow. We slept all the way over and on the far side managed to grab a bus to Tagbilaran for 50 pesos. There we jumped straight onto another jeepney for 25 pesos each to Alona Beach. So much for private transport. Door to door, Cebu to Alona, we paid just 175 pesos each. We went looking for a cheap hotel and most were full. We eventually got a place in Casanova Gardens for 700 pesos, but it had wi-fi and a swimming pool. We found a cheap local dive centre for 1100 a dive to go to Balicasag. Sadly they had dived one of the two best dive sites at Balicasag the day before in Black Forest. Still they were cheap and we liked them. Good first impressions. They have some kick arse local barbecue places in Alona Beach and we opted for that for dinner.
The next day we did two dives at Balicasag Island. I can only say that a dive master is almost unnecessary here. So many fish. Just wow. Like an aquarium. The most fish I have ever seen on a dive site and Cannelle thinks it is the most beautiful coral she has ever seen. I'm not such a coral lover, but I'd take her word on it. I can understand why some people preferred it to Sipadan. Especially if you can't go deep at Sipadan. They are different and I would still put Barracuda Point, our first dive at Dauin and the Mandarin Fish sunset dive in Malapascua as my favourites so far, but it all depends what you like. I saw a stunning green nudibranch, tuna, a school of jack, a school of angelfish (so many schools of fish I had only ever seen in small numbers before) and so many small reef fish. Its not a big fish site, but if you like the small stuff you'll love it. There was a Dutch instructor with us and he told us that the PADI courses were mostly a waste of time and money. He said get your advanced as quick as possible and then its only worth doing rescue, deep and wreck (ice and cave if you have the interest as well). Those seem the best to me. He said that Bali and Gili were great places to dive and the Americans in Malapascua had told us that Komodo was the best they had ever dived. We shall hopefully see on the remainder of this trip. We had an American dive with us on the second dive and he kept annoying the fish and at one point he was even carrying a bit of the reef with him. Random and stupid. We had been warned about the titan triggerfish. Its very aggressive and territorial. At one point he was swimming along and I saw a fish swim behind him. I thought it must be this fish as it went above him and bit him in the head. I was laughing so hard I must have used a lot of oxygen. Too funny. Revenge of the fish. It then came for us as well but we used our fins to fend it off. Interesting fish. I loved these dive sites though. Would have dived again, but Cannelle was having ear problems so we figured we would take some time off diving until Pulau Weh. Spurs drew 2-2 that night and we lost on penalties to Basel. Shit. Only consolation was it meant no more really late nights watching the European football. We spent the afternoon hanging out in the swimming pool with a Dutch/English couple who also told us we would make shit tons of money in Australia and that a target of 24,000 Aussie dollars in a year was more than doable.
In the morning we had some laughs with a moto driver who was surprised we didn't want to rent a motorbike. We told him about the police problems and then another moto driver wanted to take us to Tagbilaran. We said we were taking the jeepney but he told us there wasn't one. The other guy told him not to lie and look like an idiot as we clearly weren't stupid tourists and we all had a laugh at him together. We got into Tagbilaran and found a really nice hotel. We decided to stay there and use it as a base to visit the centre of Bohol. It was even cheap for laundry. We took a jeepney to the tarsier sanctuary and got into a debate with some local women about which cuddly animal was the cutest. We both thought the rabbit. The second woman was not so sure so we told her to ask the kids in the jeepney. They all picked the rabbit. Unanimous lol. The first woman invited us to her hometown village after the tarsier sanctuary. She said just ask for her name and we'd find her. I fucking love the Philippines for the people. Best place. The tarsiers are impossibly cute and small. Was a really nice centre to visit. Then we took a jeepney to this tiny village and went door to door asking for her. Eventually her niece pointed us the right way and a local kid took us. Meanwhile someone had texted her to say some foreigners were looking for her lol. We were invited into someone's house for a wake and they made us eat loads. Such nice people. Then she got some people to get some coconuts for us. We had had fresh buko with the school teachers in Malapascua, but we had some again here. We stayed for a bit and then had to get the last bus back. She said next time we had to come and stay with her. We met quite a few travellers who never seemed to meet locals. I think you have to try hard not to in the Philippines. We watched Oblivion at the cinema which is not bad, but nothing special. Seems to be my summary of most films we watched here.
The next day we took the bus to Carmen to see the famous chocolate hills. The ride is pleasant and the hills are nice. We should have taken a motorbike to fully appreciate the scenery. Lots of people were taking stupid photos there. They are sort of like their photos. Its a weird one. They are very pretty, but at the same time underwhelming. Worth the trip though. On the way back we stopped off at Loboc. It is very tacky, but it is very pretty. Another hard one to judge. We opted against the overpriced river cruise and just enjoyed the very picturesque town on the river. You definitely have to visit, but I am not sure you need to stay there. We took a jeepney back to town and Cannelle chatted with her sister and father. Tagbilaran will probably go down as our second favourite Filipino city.
We realised that we could get across to Leyte from near Anda as we had suddenly decided not to go to Camiguin. Our planning and route was really a mess in the Philippines, but it can be such an infuriating country to travel around. Wonderful, but a pain in the arse. Everyone says Sumatra is difficult but its a picnic compared to the Philippines. They were trying to get us to take a van to Anda for a lot of money, but we eventually found a direct Ceres bus for 100 pesos and found a room in Anda for 500. Its a really beautiful beach area and so chilled. So much better than Alona Beach, though Alona Beach has a lot more life. While looking for a cave pool, we found a picture perfect, stunning beach with noone else there. That is the Philippines. Everywhere there are stunning beaches. The 1500th best beach here would be most countries number 1. Why anyone goes to Thailand for beaches and not here is beyond me. I hate beaches and this place is stunning. Even I am happy to spend time on them. We met some drunk local guys and then just bummed around on the beach all day. It seemed like the thing to do lol. Wish we had had more time here but we were starting to run out of time to make Clark Airport by land. You wouldn't think it though by how much time we would waste in the next two weeks.
This time wasting began the next day. We grabbed the local bus to the main road with the hotel owner, who was going to the dentist for his son. He told us how he had had people stay with him who got dengue on Palawan and others who had lost their passports. He always helped them out and seems like a really nice guy. In Anda they want tourists to go there, but they don't need our help to sell it. Just google image it and go. We got a local van to Ubay (again they thought we wanted a private charter. I must make a note to look more hobo like) and then the super, super, super slow boat to Bato on Leyte. Let the bum numbing journey begin.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Philippines Part 6 (Moalboal, Oslob, Malapascua and Cebu City)
Boy have I been slack with the blog. Time to make up for some lost time. We finally tore ourselves away from Dumaguete and took a minibus up the coast to grab the pumpboat across to Cebu island. Its so much cheaper than any of the tourist transport they were offering. We arrived at the other end and none of the public buses wanted to pick us up. Annoying. We walked a bit and jumped one to the transit town and took a bus up to Moalboal. Go with the non aircon buses as the aircon ones have a fixed minimum price of 60 pesos. I have no idea why. Damn Ceres. We were off to dive with the sardines in their bait ball or at least we thought we were. We walked the 5km down to the Moalboal dive resorts and settled in to a cheap place. A quick visit to the cheapest dive shop revealed that the sardines had not been to Moalboal for some time now and our main reason for coming all the way here was gone. In fact it seems that tourism in the town is down in general as the local tricycle drivers have that half starved, desperate for tourist money look touts in former boom towns tend to have. Sad really. Also means the liars come out. Anyway no sardines meant no diving as we had a limited budget (on hindsight I really think we should have done one dive and if you get here dive Pescador, but I am not sure its worth heading out of your way for. We decided to snorkel instead. The drop off is literally just offshore and the variety of fish is cool. In about 30 minutes of snorkelling we saw and followed a turtle and I saw a sea snake as well. The only downer was the large number of jellyfish that were in the sea. Painful in a bothersome kind of way. In a break between being stung we got chatting with an English kid. I told him they no longer had sardines here and his quite astute answer was 'well if you want sardines you can go to the market.' Very true, but I think it misses the point lol. There was a weird old German guy in our hotel and we had some good French crepes and Italian food in town. Spurs drew 2-2 with Basel (with Gallas, Bale and Lennon injured). We thought it was the end of the season right there and I am sitting here typing now while I anticipate the last day of the season. Can we pip Arsenal to 4th. We can always hope. Maybe they will eat some shitty lasagna.
We were up early the next day to walk out of Moalboal and get the bus to Oslob for the whale sharks. We were attempting to get there and onwards to Bohol in one day. Ambitious but doable, so we thought. We hadn't factored in the shittiness of the local transport mafia. They waved away the 6am bus when we got there (Cannelle disagrees with me on this) and then tried to sell us transport to Oslob for 400 pesos. Ridiculously expensive. They were chancing it, but we were worried we would miss the whale sharks. Pressure and stress were cranked up. Eventually we got a public bus around 7am after fighting off the parasites for an hour. With the change it cost us less than 100 pesos each, even though they tried to stick us on the aircon bus for 60 pesos to go 15km and we had to leap onto the non aircon for them to stop and let us on properly. We drove to Oslob. About halfway along Cannelle saw loads of signs for watching whale sharks. I figured it was just copycat villages we had read about. I figured wrong. We got to Oslob and had to go back the way we came. Of course they had a helpful tricycle for us. Cebu people are not as nice as those on Negros. We opted for a local bus and they wanted 30 pesos. I laughed until I realised he was serious. We settled on 9. About right. If you come to Oslob be aware that its a different village you have to go to though I've forgotten the exact name. Its 10 pesos maximum from Oslob though and in Oslob they can give you a business card with the village name. They want 500 pesos to watch the sharks, 1000 to snorkel and 3600 to dive. Unlike Donsol (where the sharks have now disappeared) here they are guaranteed (I think these may be Donsol's sharks who now stay here for the free food). Don't go expecting a real wildlife viewing experience, but neither is it totally fake. Its sort of like Bukit Lawang, Semenggoh or Sepilok for orangutans. They are free to come and go as they please, but they hang around for the free food and they don't follow the patterns they would in the wild. They do swim a bit, but they spend most of their time almost upright next to the boats eating. Its a bit weird. Its magnificent to see them, but I definitely wouldn't dive. A Spanish friend of ours did and said it was boring. You have to decide what option you want in advance unless you have your own snorkelling equipment. Then you can choose to pay 500 pesos to watch and if you later decide you want to snorkel you pay the 500 extra. This option is not available if you don't have your own equipment. We opted to watch and were never tempted to snorkel. Due to them being fed they are right under the boat most of the time, near the surface and the water is crystal clear. I didn't see any benefit to getting in the water for the extra money. Not in this controlled environment. If you really must be in the water, just to say you have been in the water with them then do it. If not, then wait for a more real experience or at least give yourself the option to decided once you are on the water. I think my semi zoo experience was really cool, but I will wait to enter the water when its a more genuine experience. We went to Argao by bus to catch the boat to Bohol. Only it goes at 4am. Shit. He offered that we could sleep in the boat house. I was suspicious of the truth, but not suspicious enough to call his bluff. There was the fast boat from Cebu City for 'just' 1000 pesos. Ah how I love the just in the Philippines lol. You can go to Bohol, for just the price of one arm. Everything seems reasonable when you use just. We decided to change plan, load up on cash in Cebu City and take a bus up to Maya for Malapascua. When we arrived in town it was too late for the public boat, though we could cross for 'just' 1600 pesos. Cool. Fuck you. We decided to stay the night in Maya where they told us it was 1600 pesos (It was 600) and they didn't factor in that we would have had to get a place to stay in Malapascua anyway. Idiots.
Up early the next day we went for the 6am public boat to Malapascua. They only leave when they have 15 people. Shit. We were in for a long wait. Of course for 'just' 1600 pesos we could have a private boat. Very generous when the public boat is 80. We stood our ground until about 8am. Most tourists in the Philippines (especially divers) have money but no time. We were the exception with the opposite problem. They kept pushing us and pushing us, but eventually a bus load of locals came and we could take the public boat. They claimed no change so I said I wouldn't pay them until we were in Malapascua. That worked out fine. Be aware that you will have to pay another 20 pesos for the privilege of being ferried 20m from the boat to the beach. I love a good scam. We figured Malapascua would be as shitty as Moalbaol for local hustlers but that was the only problem we had. We stayed at Purple Snapper where they wanted us to sign a piece of paper that we would dive exclusively with them. Luckily Cannelle saw it and we refused to sign as they are the most expensive dive shop on the island. We checked dive companies and went for a swim in the sea. Its a really cool, chilled island, though the food is overrated at Purple Snapper and overpriced. Arsenal won and we watched the third Harry Potter. I kind of want to see the ones I have never seen now. A local guy bumped into us on the way and took us to the cheapest restaurant on the island and probably the best as well. We ate there every day. Its in the LP. Next to them is the cheapest local dive centre as well but they needed two divers to do the thresher shark dive and Cannelle had decided that she didn't want to dive with the sharks. We decided to dive with Evolution divers, but more on that tomorrow. Kicking back in the afternoon with a cocktail we had the usual sunset experience of watching a Japanese woman have a heart attack. As she gasped for air, her friend/travel buddies/relatives seemed to look on unconcerned. Naturally we assumed she was handicapped and having a minor fit. Only 10 minutes later did we realise that wasn't the case, when her companions finally decided it might be serious. Christ I hope I never have a heart attack with that group of people. A bunch of useless people came to their aid and luckily some doctors arrived off one of the dive boats, recognised some shallow breathing and took her off to hospital. It took about 40 minutes for a boat to come to take her to Maya. My advice. Don't go to Malapascua if you are feeling sick at all, as 'rescue' is not a great option here. Nice end to the day.
4.30am and the alarm goes off. Fuck it. Why did I decide to do the thresher shark dive at 5am. Sod it. Off we went. I was worried as this was my first dive without Cannelle as my buddy. I was paired up with an English family and a Swiss guy who was to be my buddy. In the end I didn't really look out for him, so it was me who was the shit buddy. I knew my belt clasp was loose but I said nothing. Rookie error. We all jumped in at the only site where thresher sharks are almost guaranteed and I can't descend. Why? What the fuck. The divemaster comes. Where's your weight belt. Ah bollocks. The clasp had broken and sunk down. I had to get a new one and then swim down. I was sure I had fucked up everyone's dive. Not the calm diving environment you want and awful for the breathing. This is not a dive site if you like corals or fish. It is just for the sharks. Everyone was looking one way and someone pointed past me. I spun around and a a thresher shark was coming right at me. Cool, but intimidating. My oxygen was going quick and we watched the shark circle and circle. The Swiss guy said it looked like a moron. Quite true. We were back up on the surface after 36 minutes. Shitty. I don't normally go through oxygen that fast. The Swiss guy was ok with it. The dickish English family were pissed. I figured it was the panicking from the lost weight belt. Oh well. They wanted me to pay extra for a larger tank on the afternoon dive, but I didn't see the point as there was one left and Cannelle ate oxygen at the same rate as me. Weird. It left me feeling low for the afternoon dives at Gato Island. The afternoon we went out with some Americans and a dickhead English guy. He thought he was God's gift to diving. Newbie with super professional equipment. You know the type. Overall Gato Island was disappointing. The coral was fantastic but we saw almost no fish. Really none. Just some squid, a few seahorses and a large white tip reef shark. The first dive they had fixed my tank wrong and it came off mid dive. They readjusted and they must have hit a valve as my oxygen dropped really fast. I went from 120 to 60 in 10 minutes and I signalled to surface and was at 20 on the safety stop and surfaced with no oxygen left to inflate the BCD. It was only on the third dive that I realised my regulator was leaking as well. Not massively, but enough to explain why my underwater time was so short. On the second dive we came up round the wrong side of the island and floated in the water for about 20 minutes with no explanation of what was happening. Poor. The dive master didn't seem to give a shit on the second dive either and the Americans said the same thing. Three expensive dives for not much, though the local dive masters were better than the Scandinavian guy. Overall I wouldn't recommend them as they are overpriced, we had our dive instructor not giving a shit, a weight belt clasp break, a leaking regulator and a poorly fastened tank. Sad. Spurs drew 2-2 that evening and Arsenal were gaining on us.
The next day we went to the North of the island to go snorkelling. Its stunning up there. Superb white sand beach and so much better than the tourist end of the island. We had wanted to go snorkelling, but instead we met some teachers from Bohol and invited us to lunch. We had sea urchin and a local dish like ceviche. Delicious. Such nice people. We had a great afternoon just hanging out with them and then we went for a sunset dive with Sunsplash divers to see the Mandarin fish mating dance. Such a contrast to the day before. Much cheaper, great equipment and a great dive master. We watched the mandarin fish, which are stunning and smaller than I expected. Then we saw seahorses, frogfish and many types of crab. Its so much fun to search for stuff with your own spotlight. Wonderful experience. I would definitely night dive again. The only down side was that they had asked us if we wanted to take a dive boat back to Cebu and we had asked for the price. They hadn't told us before we left and seemed to presume we would just go. When they got back and told us the price we knew it would be too expensive. They seemed annoyed at us for that. Damn dive companies. Still much better than Evolution. After here and Bohol, we decided we would only dive with local dive companies now as they are cheaper and their divers always know the reef better as they spend all their life there. In the afternoon we had also hung out with an Aussie guy in the pool of our hotel. He seemed a total waster but a nice guy. He told us working in the mines was the best way to get cash, but that if we didn't drink and smoke we would make a lot of cash in Australia.
We grabbed breakfast early and took the return boat to Maya. No hassles this was round. We also chatted with an Israeli diver and the most exciting thing he had seen was a turtle. I don't think we missed out on much. I am a bit worried that we are being spoilt by our first real diving being only in top class sites. We took the bus to Cebu City and decided to stay the night. 600 pesos for the room, but no interesting films on at the cinema. We visited the basilica, the cathedral, Magellan's cross and the cute little fort. I think Cebu is a pretty little city at its core, surrounded by some crap. Cannelle remains unconvinced. She still believed that Dumaguete is the only city that's not too shitty. We managed to find a boat to Bohol for just 100 pesos to Tubigon. You have the option. 480 pesos or so to go to Tagbilaran direct or 100 to Tubigon and then a bus for 50. No brainer. Some tourists really do get fucked up the arse for convenience. Onwards to Bohol.
We were up early the next day to walk out of Moalboal and get the bus to Oslob for the whale sharks. We were attempting to get there and onwards to Bohol in one day. Ambitious but doable, so we thought. We hadn't factored in the shittiness of the local transport mafia. They waved away the 6am bus when we got there (Cannelle disagrees with me on this) and then tried to sell us transport to Oslob for 400 pesos. Ridiculously expensive. They were chancing it, but we were worried we would miss the whale sharks. Pressure and stress were cranked up. Eventually we got a public bus around 7am after fighting off the parasites for an hour. With the change it cost us less than 100 pesos each, even though they tried to stick us on the aircon bus for 60 pesos to go 15km and we had to leap onto the non aircon for them to stop and let us on properly. We drove to Oslob. About halfway along Cannelle saw loads of signs for watching whale sharks. I figured it was just copycat villages we had read about. I figured wrong. We got to Oslob and had to go back the way we came. Of course they had a helpful tricycle for us. Cebu people are not as nice as those on Negros. We opted for a local bus and they wanted 30 pesos. I laughed until I realised he was serious. We settled on 9. About right. If you come to Oslob be aware that its a different village you have to go to though I've forgotten the exact name. Its 10 pesos maximum from Oslob though and in Oslob they can give you a business card with the village name. They want 500 pesos to watch the sharks, 1000 to snorkel and 3600 to dive. Unlike Donsol (where the sharks have now disappeared) here they are guaranteed (I think these may be Donsol's sharks who now stay here for the free food). Don't go expecting a real wildlife viewing experience, but neither is it totally fake. Its sort of like Bukit Lawang, Semenggoh or Sepilok for orangutans. They are free to come and go as they please, but they hang around for the free food and they don't follow the patterns they would in the wild. They do swim a bit, but they spend most of their time almost upright next to the boats eating. Its a bit weird. Its magnificent to see them, but I definitely wouldn't dive. A Spanish friend of ours did and said it was boring. You have to decide what option you want in advance unless you have your own snorkelling equipment. Then you can choose to pay 500 pesos to watch and if you later decide you want to snorkel you pay the 500 extra. This option is not available if you don't have your own equipment. We opted to watch and were never tempted to snorkel. Due to them being fed they are right under the boat most of the time, near the surface and the water is crystal clear. I didn't see any benefit to getting in the water for the extra money. Not in this controlled environment. If you really must be in the water, just to say you have been in the water with them then do it. If not, then wait for a more real experience or at least give yourself the option to decided once you are on the water. I think my semi zoo experience was really cool, but I will wait to enter the water when its a more genuine experience. We went to Argao by bus to catch the boat to Bohol. Only it goes at 4am. Shit. He offered that we could sleep in the boat house. I was suspicious of the truth, but not suspicious enough to call his bluff. There was the fast boat from Cebu City for 'just' 1000 pesos. Ah how I love the just in the Philippines lol. You can go to Bohol, for just the price of one arm. Everything seems reasonable when you use just. We decided to change plan, load up on cash in Cebu City and take a bus up to Maya for Malapascua. When we arrived in town it was too late for the public boat, though we could cross for 'just' 1600 pesos. Cool. Fuck you. We decided to stay the night in Maya where they told us it was 1600 pesos (It was 600) and they didn't factor in that we would have had to get a place to stay in Malapascua anyway. Idiots.
Up early the next day we went for the 6am public boat to Malapascua. They only leave when they have 15 people. Shit. We were in for a long wait. Of course for 'just' 1600 pesos we could have a private boat. Very generous when the public boat is 80. We stood our ground until about 8am. Most tourists in the Philippines (especially divers) have money but no time. We were the exception with the opposite problem. They kept pushing us and pushing us, but eventually a bus load of locals came and we could take the public boat. They claimed no change so I said I wouldn't pay them until we were in Malapascua. That worked out fine. Be aware that you will have to pay another 20 pesos for the privilege of being ferried 20m from the boat to the beach. I love a good scam. We figured Malapascua would be as shitty as Moalbaol for local hustlers but that was the only problem we had. We stayed at Purple Snapper where they wanted us to sign a piece of paper that we would dive exclusively with them. Luckily Cannelle saw it and we refused to sign as they are the most expensive dive shop on the island. We checked dive companies and went for a swim in the sea. Its a really cool, chilled island, though the food is overrated at Purple Snapper and overpriced. Arsenal won and we watched the third Harry Potter. I kind of want to see the ones I have never seen now. A local guy bumped into us on the way and took us to the cheapest restaurant on the island and probably the best as well. We ate there every day. Its in the LP. Next to them is the cheapest local dive centre as well but they needed two divers to do the thresher shark dive and Cannelle had decided that she didn't want to dive with the sharks. We decided to dive with Evolution divers, but more on that tomorrow. Kicking back in the afternoon with a cocktail we had the usual sunset experience of watching a Japanese woman have a heart attack. As she gasped for air, her friend/travel buddies/relatives seemed to look on unconcerned. Naturally we assumed she was handicapped and having a minor fit. Only 10 minutes later did we realise that wasn't the case, when her companions finally decided it might be serious. Christ I hope I never have a heart attack with that group of people. A bunch of useless people came to their aid and luckily some doctors arrived off one of the dive boats, recognised some shallow breathing and took her off to hospital. It took about 40 minutes for a boat to come to take her to Maya. My advice. Don't go to Malapascua if you are feeling sick at all, as 'rescue' is not a great option here. Nice end to the day.
4.30am and the alarm goes off. Fuck it. Why did I decide to do the thresher shark dive at 5am. Sod it. Off we went. I was worried as this was my first dive without Cannelle as my buddy. I was paired up with an English family and a Swiss guy who was to be my buddy. In the end I didn't really look out for him, so it was me who was the shit buddy. I knew my belt clasp was loose but I said nothing. Rookie error. We all jumped in at the only site where thresher sharks are almost guaranteed and I can't descend. Why? What the fuck. The divemaster comes. Where's your weight belt. Ah bollocks. The clasp had broken and sunk down. I had to get a new one and then swim down. I was sure I had fucked up everyone's dive. Not the calm diving environment you want and awful for the breathing. This is not a dive site if you like corals or fish. It is just for the sharks. Everyone was looking one way and someone pointed past me. I spun around and a a thresher shark was coming right at me. Cool, but intimidating. My oxygen was going quick and we watched the shark circle and circle. The Swiss guy said it looked like a moron. Quite true. We were back up on the surface after 36 minutes. Shitty. I don't normally go through oxygen that fast. The Swiss guy was ok with it. The dickish English family were pissed. I figured it was the panicking from the lost weight belt. Oh well. They wanted me to pay extra for a larger tank on the afternoon dive, but I didn't see the point as there was one left and Cannelle ate oxygen at the same rate as me. Weird. It left me feeling low for the afternoon dives at Gato Island. The afternoon we went out with some Americans and a dickhead English guy. He thought he was God's gift to diving. Newbie with super professional equipment. You know the type. Overall Gato Island was disappointing. The coral was fantastic but we saw almost no fish. Really none. Just some squid, a few seahorses and a large white tip reef shark. The first dive they had fixed my tank wrong and it came off mid dive. They readjusted and they must have hit a valve as my oxygen dropped really fast. I went from 120 to 60 in 10 minutes and I signalled to surface and was at 20 on the safety stop and surfaced with no oxygen left to inflate the BCD. It was only on the third dive that I realised my regulator was leaking as well. Not massively, but enough to explain why my underwater time was so short. On the second dive we came up round the wrong side of the island and floated in the water for about 20 minutes with no explanation of what was happening. Poor. The dive master didn't seem to give a shit on the second dive either and the Americans said the same thing. Three expensive dives for not much, though the local dive masters were better than the Scandinavian guy. Overall I wouldn't recommend them as they are overpriced, we had our dive instructor not giving a shit, a weight belt clasp break, a leaking regulator and a poorly fastened tank. Sad. Spurs drew 2-2 that evening and Arsenal were gaining on us.
The next day we went to the North of the island to go snorkelling. Its stunning up there. Superb white sand beach and so much better than the tourist end of the island. We had wanted to go snorkelling, but instead we met some teachers from Bohol and invited us to lunch. We had sea urchin and a local dish like ceviche. Delicious. Such nice people. We had a great afternoon just hanging out with them and then we went for a sunset dive with Sunsplash divers to see the Mandarin fish mating dance. Such a contrast to the day before. Much cheaper, great equipment and a great dive master. We watched the mandarin fish, which are stunning and smaller than I expected. Then we saw seahorses, frogfish and many types of crab. Its so much fun to search for stuff with your own spotlight. Wonderful experience. I would definitely night dive again. The only down side was that they had asked us if we wanted to take a dive boat back to Cebu and we had asked for the price. They hadn't told us before we left and seemed to presume we would just go. When they got back and told us the price we knew it would be too expensive. They seemed annoyed at us for that. Damn dive companies. Still much better than Evolution. After here and Bohol, we decided we would only dive with local dive companies now as they are cheaper and their divers always know the reef better as they spend all their life there. In the afternoon we had also hung out with an Aussie guy in the pool of our hotel. He seemed a total waster but a nice guy. He told us working in the mines was the best way to get cash, but that if we didn't drink and smoke we would make a lot of cash in Australia.
We grabbed breakfast early and took the return boat to Maya. No hassles this was round. We also chatted with an Israeli diver and the most exciting thing he had seen was a turtle. I don't think we missed out on much. I am a bit worried that we are being spoilt by our first real diving being only in top class sites. We took the bus to Cebu City and decided to stay the night. 600 pesos for the room, but no interesting films on at the cinema. We visited the basilica, the cathedral, Magellan's cross and the cute little fort. I think Cebu is a pretty little city at its core, surrounded by some crap. Cannelle remains unconvinced. She still believed that Dumaguete is the only city that's not too shitty. We managed to find a boat to Bohol for just 100 pesos to Tubigon. You have the option. 480 pesos or so to go to Tagbilaran direct or 100 to Tubigon and then a bus for 50. No brainer. Some tourists really do get fucked up the arse for convenience. Onwards to Bohol.
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