Malapascua, Thresher Shark Hunt - 27th February to 3rd March 2008
Well, our first major overseas trip this year was to Malapascua, Philippines, home to the infamous thresher shark. A group of 14 divers took the plunge and came with us on our Thresher Shark Hunt. Most of the group were GUE and half were actually Tech divers, this made for interesting dinner conversation throughout the trip. Definitely enjoyable company!
We arrived in Cebu airport after a late flight out of the Singapore Budget Terminal on Cebu Pacific Air. Not the most ideal time to travel, but I'm told that it's one of the few airlines that fly to Cebu direct. Getting off the airplane at about 3am, we then boarded a few vans bound for the coast. Not the most ideal thing to do after an uncomfortable flight, we endured bad roads and horrible driving to get to the jetty in about another 3 hrs. We then boarded a ferry that took us to Malapascua Island.
The aftermath of 7 hours spent travelling by air and road.
Courtesy of Leon Boey
Once firmly on Malapascua, we settled in at the resort and got our dive gear settled at Thresher Shark Divers, the dive operation we booked our package with. After which, we promptly crashed out for a few hours before our checkout dive later that afternoon.
A view of some of the cottages we stayed in at Cocobana Resort
Courtesy of Matilda Ong
Cocobana Resort and Malapascua Beach
Courtesy of Leon Boey
Thresher Shark Divers
Courtesy of Leon Boey
The diving at Malapascua isn't much to shout about, the visibility wasn't fantastic, probably because it was typhoon season in the Philippines, but the reef life was average at best.
Dive sites in Malapascua
Courtesy of Leon Boey
Dive sites we visited:
27th February
1) Bantigi
28th February
2) Monad Shoal
3) Gato Island
4) Gato Island
5) Lighthouse (Night dive)
29th February
6) Monad Shoal
7) Nunez Shoal
8) Calangaman Island
1st March
9) Monad Shoal
10) Dona Marilyn Wreck
11) North Point
2nd March
12) Monad Shoal
13) Monad Shoal
14) Galiano
Monad Shoal is where the famed Thresher Shark shows itself, which is why we were there so often. We had to wake up at 5am every morning to get to the dive site early enough to catch the shark, but it was worth it!
Thresher Shark sighting at Monad Shoals, Malapascua, Philippines
on 28th February 2008 by Leon Boey
Some divers were not so lucky, and had to wait till the end of the trip to see their Thresher Shark. There were isolated Manta sightings at Monad Shoal as well, but divers weren't as interested in the Manta as they were the Thresher Shark.
Another dive site worth mentioning was the Dona Marilyn Wreck. A passenger ferry which sank in the 80s and claimed the lives of 100 plus people, it's 100 plus metres long and lying on it's starboard side in 30m of water. A very diveable wreck with large openings available for penetration. The tech divers with us were excited at the prospect of diving this wreck, but without the proper facilities and equipment for tech diving, we had to contend with swimming around rather than in the wreck.
Dona Marilyn wreck
Courtesy of Indra Daviet
The rest of the sites were pretty average, with some nice walls and reefs, but somewhat hampered by the lack of visibility, we couldn't fully enjoy them. Below is a sampling of the reef life in Malapascua.
Monster Frogfish
Courtesy of Leon Boey
Seahorse
Courtesy of Jason Phang
Courtesy of Matilda Ong
Mandarin Fish
Courtesy of Indra Daviet
Courtesy of Indra Daviet
Courtesy of Indra Daviet
Frogfish
Courtesy of Matilda Ong
Final Verdict
Accomodation at Malapascua leaves something to be desired, we had to bathe in salty water most of the time there. With the sea water seeping into the water table on the island, we didn't really have a choice, hopefully that will change in the future. The resort however, was pretty nice, with an ample porch area for hanging stuff, and for hanging out.
The food was average, we only managed to find one restaurent, La Isla Bonita, with good service and good food on our last night. We spent most of our meals at Ging Ging's Flower Garden. Very good variety and pretty alright service. Most places however, suffer from very long waits for our food, the worst we have was close to three and a half hours for the last person to get fed. This is in part due to the fact that most establishments don't expect such a large group and partly because each kitchen normally has only one or two cooks.
Ging Ging's Flower Garden
Courtesy of Leon Boey
The diving operation at Thresher Shark Divers was good, very good divemasters, and a nice boats. The shop is clean and nice, with a large washup area at the back. The boat we used was comfortable enough for all 16 of us (including divemasters) to rest up on the 1 hour or so journey to some of the dive sites we visited. The only problem was the entry back onto the boat, which required us to remove our bcds before climbing on. As you probably know, backplate and harness systems aren't that easy to get out of in the water...
Our dive boat, the Amy
Courtesy of Leon Boey
Botchoy, the man to dive with in Malapascua
Courtesy of Leon Boey
Tata, our other divemaster who takes a lot of pride in his job
Courtesy of Leon Boey
The Rosie, Thresher Shark Divers other dive boat
Courtesy of Leon Boey
Overall, we all had a lot of fun in Malapascua, through the bad and through the good. The conditions might not be ideal, but the company more than made up for it.
Experience
