Cebu - Moalboal - Oslob (3 - 7 Dec 2016)

Disclaimer: Most of the underwater pix were taken by my diving instructor JX, using my camera. Photo credits go to him.



Just weeks before we fly to Cebu, Phillipines Airline and Airasia started their service from Singapore to Cebu direct. The Silkair flight that we took from Singapore to Cebu has to go through Davao.

Photos taken from the plane:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

And It was late on departure on that day we took. In the end we reached Cebu more than 1 hour late. Not helping that due to full flight, luggages were offload in Changi, as a result the diving equipment of my friends' were not sent. They had to go to Silkair office in Cebu airport to lodge report and leave our address in Moalboal with the Silkair people so that the luggage can be sent later. Moalboal is 3 hours away from Cebu by car.

Dive instructor JX has to pay 3000+ pesos for entering Philippines under 15 years old unaccompanied by parents. He should have asked his parents to go Embassy of Philippines in Singapore to get waiver prior to coming to Cebu but no one knows about this, and his birthday was a mere 15 days away to rub it in the wound.

By the time we finished the businesses with the immigration and the silkair office, it was already closed to 5pm. Our guide Mafee was waiting outside, wondering what took us so long.

We hopped onto the a/c van, driver JP drove us to Rico's Leichon for our dinner before the 3 hour drive to Moalboal. The pork was good, but no crispy skin. We wanted the crispy skin pork, but they dont have it. There is no time difference between Cebu and Singapore, sky turn dark pretty early.

10

The traffic jam on a Friday evening out from the airport to Moalboal was bad. Our van was stucked on the bridge linking Mactan and Cebu for almost half an hour. Not moving. it was after some 1+ hours of battling the slow moving traffic before we finally moving in normal speed through the villages to Moalboal. JP is a good driver. We reached Moalboal city around 10+pm, sky suddenly poured. That was the only heavy passing shower we had at night throughout our trip.

Once we checked into Marcosas Resort, our hotel for the night, JX and I went to checkout a local bar. They serve milkshakes but was made from packets. There were live bands performing upstairs.

The next day, we had morning breakfast at the resort. There are about 8 choices to order from, and i took American breakfasts. During breakfasts time, the couple from Thailand chatted with us and shared some nice spots that they know about in Thailand and Philippines. They found that diving in Philippines is cheaper than in Thailand.

11

12

13

After that our dive master Mr Yip brought us to the Blue Abyss Dive Shop, which is jointly owned by Germans/Swiss Germans and the locals. That was my first shore dive. We went for a deep dive (32m) at the house reef. This was our deepest dive for the whole trip. We didn't realise how deep we go until JX told us. The reef was amazing.

After our first dive, mr Yip bumped into Jun, his previous dive guide. Jun didnt know we were coming elase he would gladly guide us in the morning. Our lunch at the Blue Abyss Restaurant (also owned by the dive shop) was slow in serving (almost true for all other restaurants we went to), we missed the afternoon boat dives. Jun brought us to different parts of the house reef. So many marine lifes and corals spotted.

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

Dinner was at Silveray Seafood restaurant. We walked past the bar that JX and I went, then proceed further, past the Chilli Bar and some stalls before reaching the restaurant. The seafood was good. Mr Yip ordered his usual salad.

There were kids who came into restaurant singing Christmas caroll and selling souvenirs.

The next day we started our first boat dive, for sardine run. It was totally amazing to see the vortex.

23

24

25

26

Seafood lunch at Silveray Restaurant.

27

Afternoon dive was even more awesome. We got to see green turtle that swam and subsequently retreated into his cave.

28

JX and I had the usual mango milk shake with ice cream before our night dive, which Marcosas did very well.

Second night dive was a blast. We saw crabs, lion fish, and some macro stuff.

Sunset before the night dive at 530pm:

29

30

Night dive:

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

Video on other interesting creatures:





it was raining when we board the boat on the third day. One minute later when we reach the diving spot, it was all sunny. Lunch was at HK restaurant (owned by a Hongkonger I think) was good. The calamari rings was the best calamari rings i had of all meals in this trip.

After lunch, we went to Sampaghita for our last boat dive. JX asked me to try a back roll since this is our last boat dive. I hesitated and did it in the end. It turned out to be much easier than giant leap in. I love back roll more than giant leap in after that.

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

JX and I did our third late afternoon/night dive to check out the dragonnet mandarin fish. We have to start earlier at 5pm. Very very colourful fish. We also saw an eel in the hideout shortly before we ended the dive.

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

Video on mandarin fish:



Eel:

84

85

Dinner was at Blue Abyss, Jun's sister manage the restaurant. Jun joined us for the dinner. The two germans whom we met this morning during our dives came over to our table to pour some rum-coke for Mr Yip and started to chat with him.

We checked out of our hotel and went to Oslob to see whale shark. The journey was about 1.5 hours.

86

Once we reached Oslob, we changed into our snorkeling gear and listened to a 2-min briefing. We got into bum boat and went out to see the whale sharks being fed. It was not far from the shore. The whalesharks were huge. One even hit my fins as it swam past. The current was strong so we were told to hang on to the bum boat at all times.

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

101

102

Videos on whale sharks:





We had lunch at the hut by the seaside.

103

104

105

106

107

108

Journey to Cebu city was another 3 hours. We were staying at Parklane, near to Ayala shopping Mall. Dinner was at Gerry's Grill. The ribs were fantastic. The ladies bought dried mangoes from the supermarket at the basement.

Flight back to Singapore was only 3 hours by Cebu Pacific. I went back ahead of the gang.

Thanks for reading. You can access my other travel blogs by clicking this link.