Swimming With Sharks - The Philippines part 2

Greetings from the Philippines!  This country has continued to surprise us after initial fears (from Sar) that we would be kidnapped as soon as we stepped off the plane. The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) website tells us it's not safe to fly, take a bus or a ferry, so how are you supposed to get around in a country of hundreds of islands? For those of you who are discouraged by the FCO's advice on countries, it is interesting to note that New York was considered safe to travel to after recent events. Enough of messed up politics anyhow, suffice to say we felt safe throughout our stay.

After a chilled out week with our own private beach and postcard views, we left the northern island of Malapascua to take a bumpy, dusty four hour bus ride to Cebu city and a three hour cab south to Pangasama beach near the town of Moalboal for another week long dose of snorkelling and... you guessed it, more chilling. This time the beach was a 15 minute ride in a mototrike (these are for the vertically challenged only and as you can see in the picture I was doing my fair share of window licking due to the cramped conditions). The beach was nice enough, but we were happy staying by our hotel as even though it lacked the white sand, the steps from the garden led into crystal clear waters and a drop off with great coral heads and colourful fish only 30 metres from the shore. Even after 2 weeks of being in and out of the water, I still can't quite get past the feeling that a shark is right behind me and so have a mild freak out every five to ten minutes if I'm in deep water on my own. Sarah is fine until she sees a jellyfish and then it's game over for her for the day.

 Our cottages in Moalboal looked out onto the Tanon Straits. The Strait lies between the islands of Negros and Cebu connecting the Visayan Sea to the Bohol Sea and it is known for it's population of dolphin, whales and turtles.The Mountains of the neighboring island of Negros in the background framed great sunsets every evening.

One of the highlights for me was the price of beer in the Philippines. No wonder the people can look a little tapped, when you can but a litre bottle of San Miguel or extra strong Red Horse beer for 60 pesos (£0.90p).Needless to say, I drank my fill and annoyed the hell out of Sarah every night with my antics.

Apart from beer and boxing (Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao aka Manny Pacquiao is a demi god in these parts) the main pastime of the Filipino male is the Sunday cockfight. Everywhere we traveled, we saw and heard cocks at every turn. We were invited to one in the local town by our friendly  mototrike driver, Dicky. Sarah nearly choked when I asked him if he had a big cock. We didn't make the fight due to a Red Horse hangover that kept me in bed all day. `Our time was up and we travelled back to Cebu city for a flight up to Donsol and the chance to swim with Whale Sharks.


We flew into Legazpi in a prop plane, we were sat at the front facing all the other passengers which combined with the feeling of flying backwards felt very strange. Not wanting to be stung by yet another long cab ride we roped a couple of Norwegian travel agents called Ingrid and Marie to share the fare. They turned out to be great company so we arranged to share the whale shark expedition boat with them and another couple we met later that day.

Ok, swimming with whale sharks. something I'd been looking forward to doing since we'd first planned this trip. We booked in at the whale shark centre for a 7am start the next day. That night I imagined floating serenely with these gentle giants of the deep. The next morning, after a hasty 6am breakfast I realised that things are rarely as you imagine them to be.

We spent around three hours skirting the coast with our captain and three local spotters searching in vain for the elusive 15 metre long fish. 15 metres sounds big, but in an ocean of choppy blue water it becomes very small indeed. As such, I was surprised when I heard the head spotter shout and tell us to get ready to go in. A sudden rush as we squeezed into flippers and masks and then...well, nothing. 'gone down deep' said the spotter, though I had the feeling this was a well practiced routine blag if things were going badly.

After another hour, we were well past our intended schedule and we hadn't even got our feet wet. Gutted and exausted I tried to catch up on some shut eye.


I was woken by another shout almost immediately and it was go time again. This time another boat's passengers were already in the water. We had to jump off the moving boat and whilst avoiding getting chopped up by the open-prop or knocked out by the hull, swim like hell to get to the whale shark before it got spooked by the circling boats. Sarah and I missed the cue and ended up a good fifty metres behind the group. I swallowed around a gallon of plankton rich water and brought it straight back up. By the time we got there. the bastard shark had already buggered off. This was not going the way I had pictured it.






Luckily we had one more roll of the dice. On our final leg, the former whale shark fishermen turned protectors and professional spotters saw another shark . This time I was off the boat and in the water first, no messing. I swam for around thirty seconds in the direction they had pointed and looked around. Nothing...Again.  I was just about to give up and return to the boat when I looked down. Directly underneath me, about twenty metres below, was a huge, silent figure. I can't have spent more than half a minute in the presence of the shark, before it shifted only ever so slightly and glided down out of view into the depths, but even this was enough. All the hassle of the trip faded in that short time and that one drifting image made it all worth it.

We did very little for the next few days in Donsol, as apart from eating, drinking and whale spotting, there isn't much else to offer. Fully recharged, we returned to the state capital to catch a plane to Manila. This was one of the best flights we've taken as the pilot decided to fly over the Mt Mayon volcano that looms over the city. We were around 150 metres away from the smoking cone, not sure how safe this was as I later found out it is the most active volcano in the Philippines, but it was one hell of a view all the same.

Oh! Think Twice! Just another day for me and Sar in Paradise.

Sar and Me enjoying a break from the daily grind of life on the road. Up at 12, bit of snorkeling then a spot of lunch with a beer or two.

Our spot in the sun with the path going down to the sea.

Is it still breakfast if you eat it after midday?

Snorkeling at sunset in Pangasama.








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