The Philippines

Hey everyone, this is a delayed post but better late than never.  Nat and I decided to travel to the Philippines over the long Dragon Boat weekend here in Taiwan.  We flew into Manila, the capital, with Cebu Pacific which was a very affordable $230 cdn. From there, we did a short night of shopping at the GreenHills market/mall and then flew out the next day to Legazpi and then Donsol, Sorsogon.

We ended up meeting our two friends from Gloria, Yahya and Anissa, and took a bus/tricycle (like a tuk-tuk in Bangkok) to Donsol. Donsol is a very hot spot in Phillies to swim/snorkel with whalesharks; every year between February and June, the whale sharks feed on the vast amounts of plankton.  We stayed at Vitton Beach Resort, which is really your only choice in that area.  We slept in bungalows that ran for 1800 pesos ($40 cdn) which is a bit steep but it was completely vacant and was a nice clean place.  The day trips that bring you out to see the whale sharks is organized by the Donsol tourism office, which is located opposite the resort. The staff was really friendly and helpful and the guides were all former whale shark hunters which made them experts in spotting them.  It was clear skies and bright blue water that day, and we were lucky enough to spot 7 whale sharks which was really high considering we were at the very end of the season (June).

The process would consist of us waiting on the speed boat until the guide spotted a shark, and then we all would jump into the water immediately with our snorkel/fins and just chase it; it was a huge adrenaline rush and a great work out! The sharks were all fairly large, at least 5-7 meters in length. In case you are wondering, whale sharks don’t have any teeth and are basically vacuumous fish, so we were safe… and they are the largest sharks in the world.  We had such a great time, and the last shark that popped up was so close to everyone you could basically touch it.  We ended the night doing a firefly watching boat tour, which sounds a bit crappy but it was really fun and amazing.  You could see thousands of fireflies nesting in the trees at night and it really looks quite astonishing.

The next day Nat and I decided that we wanted to try diving in the Manta bowl, which was a 2 hour boat ride away from Donsol and try to see some Manta Rays, which we have never seen before.  Without getting into too many details, it was one terrible experience and pretty much put a big damper on our trip.  We decided to go with “Steady Eddie Dive Center” which was located within Vitton beach resort, and what ended up happening was that the manager, Cynchia (or Cynthia), hired a supposed dive master to bring us out there and he didn’t follow any PADI safety regulations, nor did he speak any English.  After the first dive, we (along with another diver) told him we wanted to abort the dive because we were fearful of our safety due to him ditching one of us during our descent and not following what were were told during the pre-dive briefing.  When we got back to the dive shop a whole situation occurred and the manager refused to refund our money. The police became involved (whom she called) and she made excuses to not give our money back and apparently the resort has had many problems with her before with guests and the ‘divemaster’ she hired wasn’t even a certified PADI divemaster.  So I highly recommend NOT going to Steady Eddie Dive Center while in Donsol and choosing the other available dive shop.

The remainder of the trip was just mediocre, we did climb an old volcano and took some nice scenic pics as well as some really cheap shopping back in Manila.  In our few photos HERE, you can see our trip as well as a perfect cone shaped volcano, various Jeepnies which are unique in Manila and a really cheap way to get around.