Mediocre Me: Malapascua 22/8/18

Day 1

And off we go!

Really shouldn’t have gotten so smashed the night before but still made it for flight!

Landed early but super inefficient custom took almost 2 hours. Finally met our driver and the first thing we did was to eat Jollibee!

And Malapascua here we come! Air-land-sea transfer all in one day

Managed to squeeze in a night dive before dinner where we tried walking through the dark village alleys but failed to find the local market. Still got our tummies filled before we turn in after a long day.

Day 2

Monad shoal early in the morning (5am) was a disappointment cos the thresher didn’t appear but I really enjoyed the early morning sunrise journey out into the sea

Came back to chill between our dives~ island life best life

Second dive of the day after lazing at the bar was to Giliano. Mostly macro and nothing too exciting.

Attempted to walk through the villages again, this time under the daylight

Oh and these are the kinds of boats we use for diving!

And we made it to Angelina! Legendary handmade wood fired pizza

Third dive at Deep Slope was much more eventful though the landscape was nothing spectacular. But I also cut my hands on the coral. Worth it for the frog fish, zebra crab, sea moth, eel, moray eel, mantis shrimp, school of cat fish, pipefish, transparent small tiny shrimps, bat fish, pufferfish, cuttlefish, and octopus.

Lazed around yet again before heading for a shiok massage session. Dinner after at the local market was a mixed of shiok BBQ and undercooked pork and fish with fishy taste.

Day 3

Thresher at last! Not 1, not 2... but 4 thresher shark in the morning! And even as we hit no deco of 1min and had to use up higher to 18m, we still manage to catch the last thresher coming up right next to us! Amazeballs.

And that’s our guide - Jo!

Day trip out to Gato Island for the next two dive and they were both exciting! Second dive saw 3 whitetip reef sharks napping / strolling around in the hidden cravens of the reef.

Last day dive was to dive through the tunnel that cuts across the island and boy is this one of the best dive on my life. First cave dive, and the whitetip swam so close up to us! Though these reef sharks are much smaller at an average mass of 10kg, it’s still quite a surreal experience swimming alongside these creatures (no doubt this is already the fifth time I’ve swam with sharks). Top this up with the massive plot of mesmerising corals opening and closing up - enchanting to say the least, but really beyond words.

Dust dive ended with a tinge of disappointment because we didn’t see the mating of the mandarin fishes but that was salvaged by the awesome micro aquatic life we saw hovering/pivoting by the corals and staring up close with the marine animals - hermit crabs, corals feeding with their scary looking “roots”, crab that just changed its shell, sea worm squirming around - perfecto.

Angelina was too tempting so we got lured back to them once again - this time with an upgraded pizza!

Day 4

Finally not having to wake up in the middle of the night though we were told we missed the sighting of dolphins but the sleep was much needed.

The swing just beside the little bar at our accomm. I fell off the swing -.-

Final dive at Devil Ray Corner, no rays but one last thresher came by to say bye (along with one last Bat Fish as well - that’s all we asked for anyway, one Bat Fish - trying to keep our expectations low lol).

Realised we overspent (too excited and just kept diving) but underconsumed (breakfast was complimentary?!) when we check out but all is well!

Wouldn’t mind staying here a little longer...

Sea and land transfer took up the whole afternoon yet again and after some confusion over where our accom on Cebu main island is, we found it!

Nice cozy little loft which is near major shopping mall and even had a massage place (where they tried to solicit extra service! Lol). The only place it is far away from...