The few weeks before Cebu had been so hectic; I literally didn’t have the opportunity to get excited. Shoving my parents out with one arm and dragging my suitcase with the other, we found ourselves at the airport once again with our travel buddies for the trip, the ShahShahShahs. With the amount of time we spend at Changi between us, you’d think we’d be pros at which terminal has which dining options, however we clearly aren’t that switched on. Anywho, thanks to AirAsia’s new direct flights to Mactan, we are now able to pop over to the Philippines for a long weekend (also a bit of a bargain at $150 SGD a flight!) and we definitely wanted to take full advantage of it.
Flying out on Friday after work, we reached Mactan and drove two hours to our hotel in Moalboal, reaching there in the early hours of Saturday morning. Cebu has a plethora of activities, all of which we planned on doing on our trip, and this meant arriving at the hotel at 3.30am and preparing to be collected by our activity organisers at 4.30am… to go swimming with whale sharks!
Our collection time got a little altered and after an hour of fretting and debating how we could alternatively spend these wee hours of the morning, when we thought they had forgotten all about us, we finally saw some headlights driving towards us. Tired and grumpy we jumped into the car, and fell asleep for an hour or so before arriving at Oslob. By this time the sun had risen and there were vans full of people ready to get on a small fishing boat to go swimming and spot some whale sharks. As we had arrived later than initially planned, we spent circa 90 minutes waiting for our turn on the boat, during which time we watched a quick brief on what not to do whilst out by the sharks.
Now there is some controversial talk about how these whale sharks are being attracted (food is used as bait, to ensure visitors get a view of these sharks), and what this means for their conservation. There are fears that the boats knocking into them scars them, and that the human touch (despite us being told avidly NOT to touch) can make them accustomed to humans.
However, 6 years earlier we had gone shark cage diving in South Africa to see the Great White, and pictured this to be of a similar nature, where the intent of seeing them to bring awareness to humans about their place in the world, and why they aren’t creatures we should be scared of.
Fun Facts:
Sharks only attack if provoked
Humans kill more sharks, than sharks do humans in any one year
But back to Filipino Whale Sharks…by no means am I an animal activist so my knowledge on the topic is minimal, but I had decided I wanted to do this activity and form an opinion for myself. I’ll be honest when I say the management of this activity was very much a cattle farm like, with porters swimming us out for exactly 30 minutes, pushing us near the sharks to take a quick photo and then dragging us back on the boat and to the shore to take the next set of people.
However, despite the negative management on this activity, within about three seconds into the water, all my doubts withered away. As soon as I dipped my head underwater a HUGE whale shark just glided right past. Despite being surrounded by a number of people, once under the water, silence fell and all focus went on these magnanimous animals. There was an element of fear, of being that close but also complete awestruckeness (check the Jictionary for more Jinalisms) and it was possibly one of the most incredible things I have experienced. I was close enough to touch these animals (although of course I did not attempt this) and watched on in awe as they gapped open their huge mouths and gulped the tiny fish swimming around them. Never has 30 minutes gone so quickly, I honestly could have spent a lot longer down there, just watching them. When we returned to land, I couldn’t get over it, literally gaping my own mouth open and shut like a fish, because I couldn’t find the right words to explain how I felt about what I saw.
Part of our tour included breakfast at the whale shark centre. Please note we had now been awake 36 hours and our last meal was at the airport the night before so we were all starving. Looking forward to breakfast, we could not have been any more disappointed when our plain egg omelettes arrived. Honestly the most flavourless meal I have ever had the unfortunate opportunity to try, none the less I did demolish it – although the prince(sses ) in our group struggled with finishing theirs, despite their hunger levels. Packed snacks are hugely recommended here, we were genuinely missing our mothers at this point!
Anywho, the day was to continue with our next stop being Aguinid Falls, roughly a couple of hours away from Oslob. This was an unexpected stop on our trip as we were expecting to go straight to Kawasan Falls infamous for it’s canyoneering. But fate was on our side and this extra stop was probably my most enjoyable activity!
Cebu has many different waterfalls, with Kawasan being the largest and most touristic of them all. Aguinid was a nice surprise, which came with its own unique experience. It is made up of six levels of interconnected waterfalls flowing their way into one another alongside the mountain. There are various options on how to spend your time there, either staying and swimming at the first level, moving up or completing to the top where the current is stronger and the pounding water of the falls gives you a nice shoulder massage and a great opportunity to do your best Peter Andre impression.
We got to climb up Aguinid Falls, with many different obstacles. We waded in the flow of the water (or swam where it was a little deeper), jumping from rock to rock and even doing a rope climb up a steep and slippery side of a fall. The limestone makes walking to the top possible even in flip flops and there is an option of taking a local guide with you, which I would highly recommend. Not only do they show you the best route to take (and all the hidden escapes) they are excellent users of the GoPro (see video at bottom for an example). At level three there is an option to jump 6 meters from a rock into the pool of water, which I have to say was absolutely awesome – so fun we all did it twice and our guide was championing us the whole way. They work on a purely tip basis, so go out of their way to make your experience enjoyable.
Once we finished at Aguinid, our last stop was Kawasan Falls, which if I am completely truthful was a letdown after everything else we had seen that day. It is remarkable to see, and it truly is huge, but it was covered in people, and little food stalls had been set up on either side making it less natural and way more commercial. We walked up to the main falls, ventured around, opted not to take the raft across the river (I’m not entirely sure of the appeal of that, I mean, you just float from one side to another…) and then made our way back to have a highly anticipated lunch. Thankfully lunch was so much better then breakfast and we managed to shovel as much food into our faces as possible.
Absolutely shattered from what had been an incredible day, we head back to The Blue Orchid Hotel, for our first nights sleep. The service at the hotel was beyond incredible, we were greeted by Renai who was so accommodating, helping us plan our next day, showing us around the hotel and facilities and generally providing loads of useful information. The hotel is small, and it has a real homely vibe to it, where everyone just chills and has a chat with one another. It is also a diving centre, so the perfect place for those heading to Cebu mainly for the underwater action. Note, this isn’t a five star multi-chain hotel, it is very authentic and there is a likelihood you’ll be constantly surrounded by geckos, massive frogs and of course mosquitos but given you’re in Moalboal, this is the closest you will get to living the high life.
That evening, we were so knackered, that by the time we had freshened up, we couldn’t bring ourselves to go much further than the hotel restaurant, which credit when due, had a very wide selection of cuisine. Even still we found a theme, food in Cebu was very simple, definitely not one for the foodies which was hard for our food fabulous travel buddies. This place is very much made for the activities, which I felt definitely made up for the lack of adventurous food.
After our dinner, we tried our best to keep our eyes open, played a couple of rounds of our favourite card game (and made some outrageous and wonderful forfeits for the weekend’s overall loser) and succumbed to sleep before an early morning start. Even still Neil and I had a little bedtime reading to do, as we had scheduled in our first ever diving experience the next day, to go and see the sardine run!
I am, and always have been complete water activities addict, however somehow diving had not presented itself as an opportunity. Neil and I had discussed doing our PADI on several occasions, but both total virgins to diving felt a discovery dive may be the best initial option.
The next morning, we discovered our superpower of being able to breathe underwater! With a session in the pool first, we learnt how to use our tools, before being taken out to sea and experiencing our first ever 11metre deep dive!
For all those first time divers out there; let me describe my personal experience in a little more detail. Bev, our rather impressive diving expert really put us at ease, and taught us the basics of equalising, breathing underwater and controlling our buoyancy in the pool first. Despite my confidence in him, after 30 minutes practising in the pool, I was not convinced that diving was the right thing for me. For the first time in my life I was apprehensive of getting into the sea. Regardless, I am not one to shy away from the challenge (except Kinabalu, but let’s NOT get into that #scarredforlife) and managed to hype myself up for the first official dive. We went out to sea, to an area called turtle bay which was around 8 metres deep, so the perfect place for newbies. The ShahShahShah’s, our more experienced counter parts, also came to turtle bay, but were in the intermediate class, whilst Neil and I battled it out in the remedial one. They went deeper and had more freedom in where they went, whilst we were (thankfully) handheld throughout the process.
We were kitted up with our oxygen tank and had to do a backwards roll off the boat (super James Bond) then the real thing started. Sinking under water with the aid of my regulator, I began to glide around underwater and quickly forgot my paranoia about breathing underwater which I had had in the pool causing me to panic more and enjoy the experience less. The difference was there was so much to see in the sea.
Within minutes of being down there, Bev spotted a turtle and led us over to arms distance of it. Now you might not know this about me yet, but I am obsessed with elephants and turtles. Seeing this turtle in its natural habitat, literally blue my mind and I didn’t want to move. Bev however, quickly spotted something else which him and our other scuba specialist got really excited about, but to me looked like a really ugly fish. An ugly fish it was, but it turned out it is a very rare type of ugly fish called a frogfish, and one hadn’t been seen in the area for months on end. Even rarer was for us to see it swimming (really… I mean isn’t that all fish do?) But apparently this ugly fish was also lazy too – tough gig – so this was a momentous occasion for those in the know. We carried on swimming around, seeing a lot of coral and tiny nemo like fish (I found him!) and managed to reach a depth of 11 metres, which I was pretty impressed by for our first dive. 45 minutes later we went back up to the top and got caught in a crazy current – and it startled me that it felt more dangerous being at sea level that 11 meters under! We found our boat eventually, clambered on and head over to the area famously known for its millions of schools of sardines.
Back on the boat, I was still not 100% committed to the cause, I liked it better in the sea than in the pool, but there was still a small element of fear. The second dive, flooded that right out of me. Down we went again, this time as a full group, and immediately all I could see were flickers of light. The sun was reflecting on the billions of silver sardines all around us.
It is perhaps the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, the way they stayed in formation and weaved in and out of one another, it was like a flash mob dance but just way more graceful! It got even more incredible when we saw a larger fish come, ready to dine on the sardines, and you saw how quickly they dispersed and then reformed on the other side, it was almost like magnetism. Bev was amazing, and took me straight into the schools, I was actually swimming within the billions of sardines, there were so many everywhere, they almost managed to block out all the light. Honestly, I was in complete awe of the whole thing. The hour we were down there disappeared and, in what had only felt like 10 minutes we were heading back up to the boat. This time we hadn’t dived so deep, as the sardines are quite near the surface – it is even possible to see them when snorkelling, for those not keen on diving.
As we head back to the hotel, I couldn’t get over everything we had done in the last two days. We went back, freshened up, lunched and then to top off a perfect weekend, got incredible massages whilst watching the sun set around us. That evening, we went into the core of Moalboal, where we dined at a pizzeria which was infested by cats (gross – I hate cats). The food was good, but I could have done without the constant glare of cat that clearly wanted to feast on my dinner. Then we wandered into a cafe a little further down, where we had some amazing dessert. Honestly, possibly the best food we had eaten in Cebu; lemon tart, chocolate brownie and a Nutella pancake, with fresh ginger tea and chocolate milkshakes, we were on to a winner.
After a quick game of pool (which I am swiftly going to glide over) and a couple of games of Monopoly deal, we took a crazy tuktuk ride, where we swerved past hundreds of stray dogs, smashed through tens of potholes and eventually arrived back at our home for the weekend.
The following day was dedicated to travel, although the more proactive one of us decided to go for a morning snorkel so as not to completely waste the day. We packed and attempted to settle our bill before learning they only accept cash! Thankfully they were really trusting of us (and the driver), and we stopped at an ATM on the way to the airport where we furnished the driver with the funds – as well as a cheeky MacD’s which I’m pretty sure was the boys favourite meal of the trip.
We sauntered into the airport, where they actually weighed our hand luggage at check in (obviously we were overweight, but a shuffle around and it was all good), and then settled in to wait for our gate to be called. Then out of nowhere they called the final call for our gate, so off we ran to the security, only to find we had to pay an airport service tax – Come ON AirAsia why had your man not told us this at check in?! – which was located at a different counter, and only accepted cash, which of course we did not have. The true gypsies that we are, we pulled together all our different currencies, including US Dollars, Pilipino Pesos and Singapore dollars and managed to conjure the correct amount.
With a slightly hectic end to the holiday, it was only once we got on the plane, did we reflect on our trip. In three days we had done so many things we had wanted to do for a while, and it really was one of the most enjoyable trips I’ve had. From seeing whale sharks, being face to face with turtles and jumping of cliffs – this will forever be a memorable trip.
The ShahShahShah’s are two for two now – first you got me on the path to becoming interested in food and now you may make a diver out of me yet! Bring on the next one!
