The Visayas

Ahhhhhh....the beauty of those crystal clear Philippine waters was magnificent and just beckoned one to jump right in (which I did everyday). I flew from Puerto Princesa to the city of Cebu on the island of Cebu. I spent a cockroach filled night in a city that is only slightly less crazy than Manila at a mall watching Ocean's Thirteen, the first cinema experience of my trip. Before the film started we all had to stand up and sing along to the Philippino national anthem! The next day, I awoke super early to catch a bus to the tiny island of Malapascua, off the northern tip of Cebu. I must be cursed as far as Filipino buses go since this one got a flat tire as well, yet despite this, we managed to make it to the port town of Maya only 1 hour later than the estimated 4 hour time. I then bartered to purchase the local (not foreigner) price to board the little fishing boat to take us the half an hour journey to Malapascua. I met Billy (a "wee" Irishman) on board and we decided to split a lovely (if overpriced) bungalow right smack on the beach. I then showered off the days travel grit and headed to the floating bar located just out to sea where it was happy hour. I met another few travelers who had already been on the island for a few days and knew some good dive spots and so decided to go diving with them the following day. We dove with DiveLink with Danny as our guide. I hadn't properly dived for some time and so was a bit anxious setting out, though not as anxious as I was soon to be. I knew that there was a reported current in this area where we were diving, but generally when doing a "Drift Dive" one swims with the current (using it as a propeller) rather than against it. We swam straight down against the current with no line and so I was flapping around trying to orientate myself while Danny was down there chasing after me so I didn't disappear into the depths. Finally I righted myself and we swam on seeing lovely sea creatures along the way: baby white-tipped reef sharks, sting rays, squid, hard and soft coral, shrimp, lobster, and a myriad of colorful fish. Since I'd worn myself out already we only did the one dive that day. Soon after reaching shore, I ran into a young Australian couple, Josh and Jodi, whom I had been sporadically running into since Vietnam. We decided to do our PADI Advanced Diving Course together which consisted of 5 specific dives over three days. We chose to do the following dives: a deep dive (at least 30 meters or 90 feet deep) to see Manta Rays, a wreck dive, a Navigation dive (where you use a compass), a Tunnel dive, and a Night Dive. We began the next day with an afternoon deep dive. We headed out to Monad Shoal and descended to 36 meters along a line to wait for the giant Manta Rays. While waiting, we did some long addition exercises with our instructor (Eddison) in order to show us the possible effects of Nitrogen Narcosis. N.N is a state underwater when there isn't enough oxygen in the blood and a diver that is too deep begins to feel a bit high/tipsy and is unable to effectively make good diving decisions thus possibly endangering themselves or their diver buddy. After correctly answering the math questions (a major feat in and of itself considering my rather poor math skills on land) we simply waited for the giant Manta to swim our way. Luckily, it appeared almost immediately. The visibility down that deep is very poor and so the Manta literally appears out of nowhere and it is HUGE! Manta Rays are harmless and naturally curious creatures who enjoy swimming near divers and this first one was at least 5 meters in width (15 feet) and was absolutely beautiful in the way it just slowly glided past our gawking faces. It came so close above my head that I had to lay down to avoid bumping into it! This has to be the best dive I've ever had as I have never been in such close contact with such an awesome (in every sense of the word) creature. We were lucky enough to see it 3 more times before we had to ascend. I loved this dive so much that I went back again the following day and was able to see a different, yet no less impressive, Manta Ray 4 different times.
I also was to do my first night dive that day and since I am a scaredy cat by nature I was a little apprehensive of doing a night dive, but it was a great experience. We began the dive at sunset in order to see the brightly colored little Mandarin fish mating and then continued the dive into the night seeing sea horses and tons of different shellfish along the way. It was rather spooky being down there in the dark as it is completely pitch black and the only thing you can see is the light from the other divers' flashlights beaming into the darkness. That night, Saturday, was the night of the weekly local disco and so we all decided that we had to show up. And local it was! There must have been everyone on the island in attendance that night and they all knew how to get down! Basically, it was a series of small disco lights strung up over the local basketball court with several large speakers surrounding the court pumping out random 80s and 90s pop and disco music. We spent the night dancing with the little kids and locals enjoying the cultural meshing of our group and theirs. The following day we had our Navigation Dive which was rather boring as we had to form a square underwater using a compass and count our kick cycles, though the surrounding coral life was quite beautiful. On Monday June 18th we had a big day: it was the day of the wreck dive which every one, dive masters and students alike, were looking forward to. We were out to find the wreck of the passenger ferry Dona Marilyn which capsized in 1988. According to Eddison, the captain of the ferry realized that something was wrong and got the ferry to shallow water where he called in for help. The captain was then instructed to turn back out to sea as the insurance would not pay for damages in shallow water. As a result, the boat sunk in deep water killing all 2,000 + passengers on board. The veracity of the story has yet to be verified, but it sure makes for a good dive story. The site of the wreck lay about 1.5 hours by boat from the shores of Malapascua. We made good time there, but it took us another 2.5 hours to actually find the bloody thing! The wreck is literally out in the middle of the ocean and DiveLink has several times placed a buoy over the site as a marker, but cunning local fishermen repeatedly cut it down in order to force the dive boats to pay them 500 pesos (roughly $12) for the guidance in finding it. We finally gave in after we were unable to find it for 2 hours and the fishermen immediately located it. Exulted, we all jumped in and proceeded to descend 28 meters into extremely murky waters. We were unable to even see the wreck until we were almost on top it. Since Jodi and I were the wimps of the group we stayed behind with Eddison, declining to actually penetrate the wreck, rather preferring to swim around the outside. We were, however, rewarded for our apprehension as we were the only 2 to see the large manta ray swimming around the backside of the wreck; everyone else was busy getting stuck inside the wreck and trying to climb out the windows! All in all, these dives have been the best dives I have ever done with clear, cool water and a myriad of sea life all around. After 4 days of intense diving we decided to go all out and treat our dive masters and instructors to a night out on the town which didn't end until the wee hours of the morning. Being in the Philippines, where everyone speaks great English, has been really great since we have really been able to bond with the locals and learn more about their culture from their point of views.

After finishing our Advanced Course, Josh, Jodi, and I moved onto another island: the tiny island of Panglao on the very southern tip of the larger island of Bohol. N.B. The Philippines is made up of over 7,000 islands so it can get a bit confusing! We spent a few days diving around the even tinier island of Balicasag where there were beautiful coral reefs overflowing with schools of giant Trevally, yellow and black striped Butterfly fish, nudi-branches, miniature shrimp, and my first Sea Turtle! To see these docile and relaxed creatures in the water is so lovely as they are not afraid of divers and simply glide gracefully amongst you as you swim along. After spending over 2 weeks diving in the beautiful Philippine waters we thought that we should head inland for a day to explore what the island of Bohol had to offer. We decided on three things: the Chocolate Hills, the tiny gremlin-like Tarsiers, and Nuts' Huts. The Chocolate Hills where literally nothing more than a mass of small greenish-brownish colored hills in the middle of the island. Beautiful as they were to look at, they lost all magic after about 10 minutes of gazing upon them. We shortly made our way to Nuts' Huts, a health resort located in the middle of the jungle along a beautiful river. We had to hike 750 meters into the jungle before descending over 200 steps to reach the place and naturally we arrived dripping wet and ready for a lie-down in the hammocks. Feeling that we deserved some treats we ordered lavishly and ended the afternoon with ice cream and banana pancakes! We then trudged back up those 200 steps and the 750 meters into the street to meet our air-conditioned taxi and to head to the Tarsier Breeding Sanctuary. The little Tarsiers are perhaps the oddest creatures I have ever beheld and they were most certainly the inspiration behind the 80s movie The Gremlins. Unfortunately, the sanctuary left much to be desired. Even though it was supposedly a breeding program the staff never released them into the wild nor did they raise them with that objective. The poor creatures where wholly dependant on their human captors, spending all their days in a fenced-in area. There where signs everywhere saying not to hold the tarsiers, but even the staff members were allowing people to hold them. Naturally, this creates an unhealthy atmosphere for these tiny, fragile creatures. We left almost immediately after seeing their sorry state, feeling much worse after the whole experience.

Josh, Jodi, and I were all coincidentally on the same flight back to Bangkok the next day. I spent the next 4 days running errands in BK: a city which makes running errands so easy as the public transportation is clean and efficient and there are 24 hour 7-11s on every corner. I flew to Kota Kinabalu, the main city in Sabah, Borneo Malaysia on June 28th. I've been here for over a week now and have much to write about, but I will save it for another post!

I've updated my Picasa photo site with new photos and videos of underwater creatures! Enjoy!