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After trying to research possible dive spots to include in my summer 2007 trip to the Philippines, I got a bit frustrated. I ran across a few web sites that were supposedly about diving in the Philippines, but were obviously written by someone who had never been diving. One link led to a site that was supposedly about diving in the Philippines, but instead was full of information about what to do topside: festivals, churches, historical sites, and so on. Most of the sites I came across were heavily commercialized and obviously trying to get you to use their services, so they obviously were not very objective. For example, I found one site that laid heavy praise on a dive site I've been to, calling it one of the best places in the world to dive. I had been to that site, and I hadn't been impressed. "What a load of crap," I thought.

With this in mind, I decided to detail my own experiences about diving around South East Asia. This and the next two pages are a 'bs-free' zone about diving in the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia. My motivations for doing this are really threefold: 1) to counter a lot of the advertising 'bs' that seems to be prevailing on the Internet; 2) to give answers to my own scuba students who ask about good diving spots, and finally, 3) to serve as a kind of logbook for my own memory--after my first 250 dives, I kind of gave up on keeping a logbook: most of the entries became entirely too repetitious: "saw a triggerfish, big pufferfish, nudibranches, blah, blah, blah..." On this site, I will try to detail the various types and amounts of marine life that I see to the best of my ability as a sort of condensed log book entry; instead of detailing each specific dive, I'll combine each area into one description, making distinctions only for the different dates that I have visited these places. I hope that this will better serve the reader in giving condensed detail about what to expect when diving in these places. I'll also try to include other information about accommodation and transportation.

DISCLAIMER: This is certainly not meant to be a comprehensive guide to these dive spots. In most cases, I have only visited these areas for a few days: some dive sites I have only dove one or two times. My timing may have been bad (for example, high winds might have prevented me from fully experiencing a dive area) or my timing could have been extremely lucky (for example, on my first dive to Apo Island, I saw a thresher shark--which is extremely rare for that site). I certainly don't have the time or money to make frequent trips to these areas. Therefore, my write-up of these places represents only a very brief glimpse of part of the whole picture. Please keep in mind a truth about traveling: one person may have an awesome experience at a certain place, while two weeks later, another person may have an absolutely horrible experience at the very same spot. Seasons, weather, life happens.

I would also like to make very clear that I am NOT connected in any financial way to any of the places described on this site. I don't have any financial stake in praising or criticizing. Also, while I am reluctant to mention businesses or dive sites in a negative way, I have to remain true to my goal of providing an accurate description. Please remember that if I describe an area or business negatively, things may have changed since my write up.

Enough of my own 'bs'. Below, I detail my diving experiences in the Philippines. The next page describes Thailand and Malaysia.

PHILIPPINES: On this page, I describe my dive experiences at Apo Island; Dauin; Sabang Beach (near Puerto Galera); Bohol; and Malapasqua. Sorry I can't figure out how to link to these different descriptions on this same page. To skip to a certain location, hit 'Control+F' and type in one of these names to go right to that description.

APO ISLAND: is my favorite place (so far) in the Philippines to dive. I've been here twice: once in January 2005 and again in June-July 2007. Dives here are characterized by fish: large quantities in both number and variety. The first time I was here, I remember two distinct schools of jack fish (big-eye trevally). There was a huge school of adults near Cogon, at the northwest part of the island, and a smaller school of juveniles milling about above the shallow (10 meters) shelf that is the marine sanctuary off the middle west part of the island. On my second trip here, there seems to be more jacks, and several schools, although they do not stay in one particular spot. Now, several schools of between 50 to 100 can be seen swimming in the current at about 15 to 20 meters. The juveniles are still in the marine sanctuary; just snorkeling, I was able to slowly swim up behind them to find myself surrounded on three sides, less than a meter away from them. In 2007, I only had one dive where I did not encounter at least one of these schools. Also new in 2007 were several large bumphead parrot fish. I hope these increase in number.

Add to these huge schools of butterfly fish in various designs of yellow and white, seemingly endless schools of fusilier fish stretched out in a thin line, always seeming to be in a rush to get somewhere, blue-black triggerfish with horseshoe-shaped tails everywhere: here are fish of almost every shape, color and size. These are not encountered individually, but gather in schools that are sometimes staggeringly huge.

The story behind Apo Island (check it out here) is inspirational because of its obvious success.

The larger, silvery fish are usually out away from the coral, sometimes above you, while the smaller the fish tend to stay close to the slopes of the island (there really is very little wall diving at Apo). They gather in their schools snapping and darting at small bits of food in the current. Dancing right over the plentiful coral are clouds of mostly damsel fish ranging in color from black to neon blue. Very large fish such as the bumphead parrotfish, large trevallys, titan triggerfish and groupers almost a meter long are not uncommon. In 2005, on my first dive here, we saw a medium-sized thresher shark, but according to the resident scuba instructor at Liberty Lodge, such sighting are very rare. In 2007, I saw many hawkbill turtles. I was able to swim alongside one for about 5 minutes and observed another eating the coral from about a meter and a half away for another several minutes. Other highlights included a large eagle ray, the mating rituals of two small groupers and two large triggerfish (respectively, of course!).

Currents are very strong on the eastern side of the island. Dropping in on Cogon or Coconut dive sites usually means a negative buoyant entry to get to the bottom quickly and avoid being swept away. These dives can be a lot of fun in strong currents--sometimes you don't need to fin at all to cover large sections of the coast. Diving on the west side, in front of Liberty's Resort, is recommended for divers who are not comfortable in strong currents. However, the larger fish found on the east side are much rarer here.

Night diving: I've done three night dives on Apo: one in 2005 and two in 2007. None were as good as the night diving at Sabang, Puerto Galera, but Sabang is the best I've ever seen. In 2005, there wasn't much to see besides a small squid (about 10 inches) that was attracted to our light. We swam with it for a bit. When it stopped, the dive guide used his light to attract it closer until it actually bumped into the light. In 2007, our first dive turned up quite a lot of sights: a blue spotted stingray, moray eels, a huge yellow nudibranch, a flamboyant cuttlefish, a striped seasnake that scared the crap out me: I was investigating two large antennae sticking out from under the coral and got quite close when the snake came cruising over the coral right near my mask. Sea snakes are supposed to be very venomous, but their mouths are so small they probably couldn't bite you anywhere. Add to that the fact that every snake I've seen was oblivious to my presence and you realize there's really not a lot to worry about. However, it's still disconcerting to have one come out of nowhere right near your head on a night dive. Saw several decorator crabs that always remind me of 'The Thing' from the Fantastic Four. They weren't very large, only about 6-8 inches across.

Our second night dive was quite a bit more boring: besides a few of the usual fish, the only noteworthy thing was a small flamboyant cuttlefish hunting (and catching) a small damsel fish in the grass right by our exit point at the beach.

Accomodations: I stayed at Liberty's Lodge for 1,000 pesos a night, breakfast included for a single room with fan. That is not the normal rate, but I was able to negotiate, and I stayed for 6 nights. NOTE: Staying on Apo Island is not your typical tropical resort experience. There is no running water, just a big basin of slightly salty water that you can pour over yourself with a small plastic bucket. The resort requests that guests use the water sparingly, even suggesting that you do not 'shower' until "the other guests cannot stand to be near you." Electricity is only on three times a day, for about 2 hours each time: in the morning, mid-afternoon and early evening. Lights out at 10 p.m. Bring flashlights and be methodical about recharging your batteries. Therefore, if you can't live without hot showers, air conditioning and swimming pools, you'd be better off staying at one of the resorts near Dauin. However, diving Apo Island from there entails a 30-40 minute boat ride, whereas if you stay on the island, all dives sites are only 5-10 minutes away.

Getting there: Getting to Apo is best arranged through Liberty's. For 650 pesos (2007), they will send a driver to pick you up at the airport or pier in Dumaguette, who will drop you off 40 minutes to the south at Malatapay Beach. There, a small boat will pick you up and transfer you to the beach directly in front of Liberty's. If you try to get to Malatapay Beach on your own, it's much cheaper, but if you did not arrange for a boat, you could be waiting a very long time, unless you want to pay 1,000 pesos to one of the land sharks on the beach who will take you over in his own boat.



DAUIN: Dauin is a small town just 30 minutes south of Dumaguette on the island of Negros. There are many beachfront resorts here, some very high class. It's a nice place to 'get back into civilization' after a lengthy stay on Apo Island. I stayed here because I overheard another traveller on Apo Island praising Bacong Pier (also called Ducomi Pier; full name: The Pier of Dumaguette Coconut Mill) as "a world class dive site".

Bacong pier is located about 20 minutes south of Dumaguette, 5-10 minutes north of Dauin. It's just a commercial pier where medium-sized container ships load and off load. From the surface, it doesn't look like a typical dive site, or really like a dive site you'll want to dive. I came here because another diver I met on Apo Island called it 'a world class dive site.' I now share his enthusiasm for this unique place.

Bacong pier is an underwater forest where the 'trees' are concrete pillars about a foot and a half wide covered with 15 years of coral growth. These 'trees' do not stand straight up and down at regularly spaced intervals as one might expect from a man made structure. Many columns are crooked and sometimes spaced so close together they cross each other and touch--just like in a natural forest. The pier is large and T-shaped, so the dive site covers a sizeable area. The life that has made this pier home is very prolific. Because the pier is an overhead environment, this dive is a little similar to a night dive. Bring a light, or if you don't have one, rent one from the dive shop. You'll be rewarded with the bright, true colors of the coral and fish.

As you come up to a coral tree, the coral 'bark' seems to suddenly shift and it takes a second to realize the clams attached to the columns are closing on your approach. Sea plants and fan corals provide shelter for small bullseye fish, which are hunted by the many lion fish slowly cruising nearby. Look closely at the tree trunks, and you will see nudi branches, moray eels, a few seahorses, banded pipefish and a huge population of porcupine puffer fish. These cute fish ranging in size from 5 to 12 inches hide or sleep among the small coral shelves and caves growing on the columns.

Also in abundance were the porcupines' cousins: large reticulated puffers and mappa puffers. A few boxfish could be seen as well.

A large school of silver batfish makes its way through this forest, sometimes stopping and gathering in the hundreds. At one point in the dive, the entire school passed within a meter and a half in front of me. A smaller school of juvenile jacks schooled nearby the pier in open water, sometimes taking cover under the pier when the current became stronger.

Saw a cuttlefish just over a foot long that had dug a trench in the sand. Also saw a leopard flounder outlined in the sandy bottom.

One of the strangest fish I have ever seen is common here. The guide signaled that it was very dangerous. It looked like a scorpion fish with legs like a crab. Ranging from 4 to 8 inches long, this fish was always on the bottom in the sand. It pulled itself along the sand with three claws that seemed to stick out from its two dorsal fins. Its tail seemed useless: always tucked to the side. At first, I had the wild idea that some sort of decorator crab was using the dead carcass of a scorpion fish as cover, but two small round holes on either side of the fish's spine periodically opened and closed like gills, making it obvious that the fish was very much alive. When it got close to another, it would expand its fins to make it look larger. On one dive, we saw three of them within a meter of each other in the open sandy area between the large and small piers. Another two were in the sand near the edge of the larger pier. After the first dive, I tried to look it up in the reef fish id book, but there was no listing for it among the scorpion fish section. I asked the guide what it was as we walked ashore at the end of our second dive.

"In German, it's called 'Walkman'.'
"Like Sony?"
Blank look.
"Like you listen to music, that walkman?'
"Yes. But in English, it is the 'Demon Stinger Fish'."
"That sounds a lot tougher than 'Walkman'."
"Yes, it's very dangerous."

With a name like that, it's a good idea to observe it with more care than usual.


House Reef: All along the coast south of Dumaguette are resorts and many 'marine sanctuaries' where fishing is not allowed. Because most of this area is just a sandy bottom, there are many artificial reefs. When I dove here in July 2007, the visibility was a bit below average, meaning that the vis was good only to about 15-20 meters away. However, since these dives are focused on micro stuff, it's not a big problem.
The first dive I took in this area was named 'Car Wreck' because the steel frames of two cars were deposited at about 20 meters along with some concrete pipes. The larger of the two car frames seemed to be from a jeep. A big grouper used this as its home and was trying to chase away about 8-10 large sweet lips that hung out in the current near the car. Also in the car was a large loin fish that didn't seem to care about the grouper. Just downslope of the car was a cuttlefish hanging in the current about a meter and a half off the bottom. Its changing color scheme was very active as waves of pale off white alternated with dark brown pulsed over its body from front to back. The dive guide (Peter) and I got on either side of it, a few meters away, and the cuttlefish moved back and forth on an imaginary line perpendicular to the one connecting Peter and I.
We made our way through this site, noting the usual reef fish. It's amazing how just plopping down a few items on the barren sandy ocean floor can be the catalyst for an explosion of growth.

Saw a seahorse, ghost pipefish (black with red markings) many flounders on the slope going back up. There was a shelf of grass at the top of the slope about four meters under the surface. Miniature crabs could be found under the edges of sea anemones. This was also a good place for finding flatfish. These creatures can be spotted by noting the outline of their bodies just under the fine layer of sand they cover themselves with, or by recognizing their eyes, like a crab's, both on the top side of their bodies. There were many flatfish in this area.


Second dive: Gianama Point is another artificial reef, created by propping up two tires at an angle and tying them together at the top where they touch. Soft coral is growing well on these, and it will be interesting to see how this site develops over the years. About 80 such contraptions make up this artificial reef. This area is characterized by miniature marine life. Seahorses, nudibranches, shrimps, crabs and many small reef fish inhabit this area. At the end of this dive, in the shallows, we ran across large schools of small fish, including the largest school of what I think are leaf fish. These ranged in size from 6 inches to about 2 inches. I've usually only seen these fish singly or in pairs. They hover almost motionless, head down, tail up, looking like leaves or grass. I was amazed to see whole schools of them hovering about a meter or two above the bottom. As I got close, they would adopt a more traditional horizontal position to swim away.

Looking back, I realize I should have extended my stay in Dauin to dive more of the sites there. I will gladly come back to this area, if just to dive the Bacong Pier again. I would also like to dive a site called Masaplod because of its reputation for schools of jacks and barracuda. My tight schedule pushed me to leave too early. Oh well, there's always next time!

Accomodations: In July 2007, I stayed at the El Dorado, 1,370 pesos a night for single occupancy. This is a nice resort with A/C, hot water showers, refrigerator in room, and medium-sized swimming pool. The dive shop, called 'Dive Society' is in the same complex of buildings, near the beach. It's quite professional and accomodating to divers. After our first dive to Bacong Pier, we asked to do the same dive site again in the afternoon, and it was no problem. Dives (without renting gear) were a bit pricey. Because of the mandatory 'marine sanctuary entry fees', my bill for doing four dives was about $US 143, or about $US 35 per dive. This is a bit expensive for the Philippines.

Getting there: Fly or take a boat to Dumaguette. You can arrange for pick-up with one of the resorts. In my case, I arranged my stay at the Why Not? bar/restuarant/travel agency/Internet cafe in Dumaguette. They are also owned by El Dorado, so they have several free daily shuttles running between locations.
SABANG BEACH: I've been diving at Sabang Beach since 2001. There are three main attractions to Sabang: diving, drinking and women--not necessarily in that order. If you are interested in the two latter items, you'll have to visit a different web site.

I've stopped going to Sabang mainly because I've been there so many times. I've kind of gotten bored with diving the same sites over and over again. Also, it seems to me that the fish population is not very good at Sabang--perhaps overfishing has eliminated any large schools of fish that used to be there. You still can see medium-sized schools of large sweetlips and several large batfish in the Canyons, but most other sites are devoid of large populations of big marine life. On the other hand, night dives at Sabang are sometimes just incredible. The variety and amount of creatures that come out at night off the Sabang beach is just incredible. All of my best night dives have been here.

Here's a site-by-site description, mostly made through reading back on my logbooks. I've left out sites that were not (in my opinion) special:

Canyons: Probably the most popular daytime dive at Sabang, usually conducted as the morning's first dive because the depth is about 35 meters. Strong currents are usual on this site, so be prepared to swim along the bottom and duck down into the several deep gullies that give this site its name. In these gullies, you will find schools of striped sweetlips, snappers, and bat fish. I've also seen a large octopus in this area, but that's rare. The coral here is plentiful and colorful.

Hole in the Wall/Shark Cave: near canyons. Hole in the Wall is actually a narrow swim through. I don't like doing it because of potential damage to the coral. Shark Cave is just a broad shelf about 25 feet wide and about 1.5 meters tall at the opening. It narrows down to about half a meter at the back of the cave. In this cave, you have a very good chance of seeing one or two, sometimes three white tipped sharks ranging in size from 3 to 5 feet. Sometimes they are just resting on the bottom or circling in the narrow space.

Dry Dock: This is one of my favorite sites at Sabang. It's just a small dock formed by six large iron I-beams that support a hollow metal roof. It rests on a barren rocky/sandy bottom at almost 30 meters. Under the dock, there are large sweetlips, trevallis and some bat fish. Also, you can usually spot very large pufferfish, scorpion fish, and lion fish. There's a good chance at seeing frogfish at this site also. If you are lucky and careful on your approach, you may be able to get a good look at some decent sized cuttlefish before they take off into the blue. Before you leave, hang out at the top of the dock for a few minutes to watch the soft coral garden on the roof gently swaying in the current. Clouds of brightly colored damsel fish hover over the coral.

Alma Jane: This site is named after the 60 ton metal hulled cargo ship that was sunk on purpose to create an artificial reef. The ship is about 120 feet long, and provides a nice swim through of it's empty cargo space. I dove this site in 2003, the same year it was sunk. There was not a lot of coral on it then, but there must be by now. Even then, fish had become attracted to site. I remember doing my nitrox training dive here and sitting on the foremast with my instructor while we watched a huge school of sardines dancing in the sunlight, darting this way and that as several large tuna fish made runs at them. However, I wouldn't expect to see this again. Do expect to see frog fish, scorpion fish, small cuttlefish, sweetlips, snappers and of course, lion fish who really seem to like these kinds of wrecks.

Sabang Beach: This is a good daytime dive for beginners and is the main night dive site. There are three deliberate shipwrecks in this area, and it's easy to dive all three in a single dive. Dive shops used to feed cooked rice or bananas to the fish here (I think this has been discontinued) so don't be surprised if the fish seem extremely bold, on the point of being aggressive. On the bouy line during your descent, bat fish, parrot fish, wrasses and damsel fish will come up to you and swim right in front of your mask, expecting a meal. I've actually had an open water student get slightly freaked out by the 'friendliness' of the fish here. The wrecks are interesting during the day, but they really come alive during the night.

NIGHT DIVING: At night, expect to see tons of creatures, ordinary and wierd at this site, and also in the grass on your way back to the beach. On the wrecks, look for flamboyant cuttlefish, scorpion fish, frogfish and hunting lionfish. Under the wrecks, look for a variety of shrimp, small and large crabs, and moray eels. On the sand between the wrecks and on your way back to shore, look for spanish dancers, mantis shrimp, stargazers, flounders, sleeping flying fish, porcupine puffers, regular puffers, decorator crabs, hermit crabs, morays and sea snakes out hunting, and cuttlefish.If you are lucky, you may see an octopus or two. I've had night dives here where you are literally shining your flashlight from one amazing scene to the next with no break. However, the popularity of the night dives here means that more and more divers are doing night dives here. Try to go a bit later, even though the dive shop staff might not like it. It's not fun bumping into 30 or 40 other divers all trying to see the same thing on a night dive. As an alternative, do a shore dive and work your way through the grass so that by the time you get to the wrecks (about 18 meters) the other groups have left.

Accomodations: I usually wind up staying at Sabang Beach Inn. It's not a 5 star resort, more like a 3 or 4 star, with big rooms for about $US22 a night. The longer you stay, the cheaper the rooms. Rooms have A/C, hot water showers and a small kitchen area. If you get one of the second floor rooms overlooking the pool, you'll have a big balcony. The pool is a bit small, but it's nice in the summer time. The whole operation is very efficiently run. Guenter and Ralf are the co-managers/owners. The resort is located halfway down the beach on the east side of town. The town of Sabang can get a bit noisy at night with its karaoke and girlie bars going to the wee hours of the moring, but Sabang Inn is far enough away that the nights are comfortably quiet.

The dives are about $US 20 per dive. Again, the more you dive, the cheaper each dive is.

Getting there: Arrange to have a driver pick you up and also for private boat transfer. This costs $US 90 per group one way, so the more people you have in your group the cheaper it is per person. Your driver will meet you as you exit the airport. From there, it's a 2.5 hour drive to Batangas on the south coast of Luzon. As you pull up to the beach, your boat will be waiting for you. It's a one hour boat ride directly to Sabang Beach, where you are dropped off. If you made your arrangements with Sabang Inn, staff will be waiting to carry your luggage to your room. You can get to Sabang a lot cheaper by public transportation, but it will take at least twice as long and it'll be many times more sweaty. It's just too convenient to pay the extra for private transportation.

Don't get Sabang confused with Puerto Galara. Sabang used to be a small fishing village that has grown into a thriving diving community. Puerto Galera is a larger town 15 minutes away over mostly dirt roads. PG grew around a deep water, protected harbor. There's not much diving from PG itself.
BOHOL: I've been to Bohol twice: once in January 2005 and again for two days in July 2007. The best diving I did was around Balicasag Island. I remember one dive in 2005 where the wall of coral was on my left, and a wall of fish was on my right. There are large schools of jacks, fusiliers and unicorn fish here.

I only did two dives in 2007. I only saw one noteworthy thing each dive: on the first was a large turtle (almost a meter long) just sitting in the coral with its head up, look at us as we checked it out; on the second was a large sea snake hunting in the coral. There were many large schools of fusiliers on both dives.

Accomodations: One reason I didn't stay long at Alona beach is because the resorts are all pretty high priced. The cheapest resorts I could find were 1,500 pesos a night for an A/C room, even in the low season. I stayed at Lost Horizon for 1,600 pesos a night and they had a special going on at the time.

Getting there: Take a boat to Tagbilaran City and hire a driver (300 pesos) to take you to Alona Beach. There are other places to stay on Panglao Island that may be cheaper, but I need more time there to find them.
MALAPASQUA: I was told to expect the big stuff in Malapasqua, but a storm prevented me from doing many dives. This was really a shame because it was here that I saw the biggest manta ray I'll probably ever see: and it is a regular sight at Monad Shoals.

On the first two days, the wind was calmer in the morning, but picked up later in the day so it was only possible to dive in the morning. It's important to line up the next day's morning dive as soon as you get to the island because if you want to see the area's 'main' attraction: the thresher shark, you have to get up early. I say 'main' because after seeing both the thresher and the manta, I would say the manta is by far the most impressive. What's unique about the thresher at this spot is that Monad Shoal is one of the very few places in the world where thresher sharks come up from their usual depth of 40-60 meters to get cleaned.

On the first three days, we left the dive shop at 5:30 a.m. and motored out to a spot in the ocean over Monad Shoal. We hit the water at 6:30. If you don't see any sharks, this dive could be mightily disappointing: there's really not much else to see. Monad Shoal is a broad shelf of land at about 18-23 meters deep. There are a very few outcroppings of dark red coral, otherwise the area is covered in the soft coral (that waves in the surf and opens and closes). I was told this coral in this area was reduced to rubble several years ago by dynamite fishing and was also informed that the area is slowly recovering. It will be interesting to visit a few years from now to gauge any increase in marine life. In theory at least, the area is now protected from such destructive fishing techniques, but in practice, these laws are hard to enforce. While diving at nearby Gato Island, we heard two distinct dynamite blasts while underwater--obviously not at Gato itself, but in the area.

At Monad Shoal, there are several large schools of tiny reef fish here including some wrasses about 6-12 inches long. These wrasses are surprisingly bold, swimming right past your mask, as if they know you are not there to see them. On second thought, it's plain that they think you are a big fish that has come from a cleaning. They swim up to divers and hang around, waiting from some signal that they never get to start cleaning. There are also a few very large solitary bat fish that cruise the area, sometimes with cleaner fish hanging on. Other noteworthy creatures were a huge lionfish and a pregnant mantis shrimp.

I also found several very aggressive trigger fish, the only aggressive ones I have met on this entire trip. They were the titan triggerfish, and in July, they were nesting here. You can tell that a trigger fish is potentially aggressive because it sits near the bottom watching you, instead of just swimming by or picking up small rocks from the bottom, while totally ignoring you. One in particular kept coming after me even after I cleared the area by about 15 meters. It would point itself right at me, then wiggle its tail to get up speed, and come racing though the water. When it got close, I would lunge at it with my pointer, and it would veer off at the last second, move away and then come at me again, just like before. I've never encountered such persistence from a trigger fish. I also encountered a small school (about 40-50) of small silver barracuda. They did not have markings and were only about 8-10 inches long. They were the highlight of my third and last morning dive to Monal Shoals, as the thresher did not make an appearance on that dive.

But these are the side attractions. The main attraction is the thresher, but I only saw it once, on my first dive. The idea on this dive is to descend along the buoy line to the shelf. Then make your way to a designated 'cleaning station'. Wait there and hope a shark comes along. When it did, it was first a gray shadow in the water, twisting slowly towards us. The signature feature of this shark is its long tail that arcs behind and above it. The tail easily accounts for almost half of the shark's length. The body itself is about 5 feet long. The mouth is small, the eye is huge and it rotates in its socket as it swims by to check you out. A smaller fish swims alongside the shark's right pectoral fin. The two pectoral fins are like landing gear on a jet, forming a triangle with the shark's dorsal fin. It's an impressive creature that slowly and majestically makes its way over the shoal. Unfortunately, the typhoon headed to Taiwan was kicking up some very high winds and the visibility was not great. We could only see about 10-15 meters horizontally. We only had two good looks at the shark: he swam by us once at about 20 feet away, then came back later a little farther away. We caught only one more glimpse of it, more of a shadow, as he was on the edge of our visible horizon. A factor that limits your exposure to the shark is the amount of other divers in the water. The guide told me not to try to swim with the shark as it will spook easily. Even though this area has been a popular shark watching area for a long time now, the sharks are apparently still not comfortable around divers. So if there is a group of divers to your right, chances are a shark will not come from that direction.

One of the dive guides from our group was diving alone with a video camera. He did manage to shoot 20 continuous minutes of a shark that circled near his location. However, I didn't know about this until we were back in the boat, and he was proudly and excitedly relating his experience. His video was impressive.

The thresher sharks use this shoal as a cleaning station at 6 a.m. Manta rays use this same station at 2 p.m. As stated previously, high winds shut us down for dives later in the day. For the first two days, I was only able to do the early morning dive to Monad Shoals. On the third day, everything was set to go back to Monad Shoal, with 16 divers lined up to see the mantas at 2 p.m. , but the starter on the boat's engine broke down, and the dive was cancelled. In addition, the dive shop staff did not inform us of this until about 2:40. We had been standing around waiting since 1:30.

The next day, there were no boat problems and we left the beach at a little after 2 p.m. Finally, we got into the water at 2:45. The ten or so divers on the boat were split into three groups; the main distinction was nitrox divers versus plain air divers. When our group got to the bottom, there was already a larger group of nitrox divers waiting on the bottom for the manta to appear. Suddenly our guide rapped his tank twice and pointed. There out of the gloom, came a creature that defied proportion. It was a huge white and gray manta, easily 5 meters from wing tip to wing tip. It came over the first group towards us, and then suddenly wheeled and turned away. I couldn't believe how big it was in relation to the divers assembled on the bottom. Here was truly a monster of the deep. Only I guess it wouldn't be fair to call it a 'monster'; despite its enormous size, it was very graceful in the water and seemed more spooked by us than the other way around. We were treated to several encounters; after the dive there was talk of two different mantas, but as far as I could tell, I only saw one. Again, visibility was not optimum, so it our sightings were limited to catching brief views of it coming out of the gloom and fading again. It did not stay, or hover in one spot, but we did manage to get one good, close up of it as it came by. This is definitely worth the trip to Malapasqua, just by itself.

Other dive sites: High winds during the day prevented me from making more dives around the island. There is a passenger ferry wreck nearby, and several other dive locations. I did manage to get to Gato Island, which was recommended, and I also did the night dive near the island's lighthouse.

Gato Island: We did this as a series of two early morning dives. Unfortunately, the water was still stirred up by the previous day's high winds. Particles hung in the water like a stop-action snowstorm: as you moved through the water, it was like driving through a blizzard. This reduced visibility to about 5-8 meters. This was unfortunate because during the dive, we saw three large (about 4-5 feet long) white-tip reef sharks circling between two rocky outcrops. The poor visibility reduced there shapes to mere shadows. My guide also pointed out two smaller (2-3 feet long) whitetips resting in small crevices. These were observed from a distance of only a few feet. Also on this dive were several seahorses, including the pygmy seahorse that tried to pretend it was actually part of the sea fan to which it clung.

The highlight of the second dive was swimming through a cave (check on how long it is) that veered off to the right. It was completely black in the middle, and then opened up to sunlight as it exited from underneath the island. This was very dramatic. A school of silvery fish about 150 strong, 3-4 inches long each, hung out in the cave and parted as we swam through. There was another cave where we observed another whitetip shark (almost 3 feet long) swimming in a circle. At the end of both dives, we could see a small school of squid (one or two were 6-8 inches long, the rest were smaller) swimming just a meter or two under the surface. It was very nice doing a safety stop and trying to get close to them for a good look. Squid are usually very skittish creatures and will vanish in a flash if you try to swim directly at them. The best is to slowly, slowly hover closer and don't exhale quickly.

The Lighthouse/Night Dive: Boat problems on this dive prevented us from seeing the advertised highlight of this dive: the mating ritual of the mandarin fish. Mandarin fish are brightly and wildly colored fish that are only seen in certain areas. They mate by swimming up to the surface (check facts here) just as the sun is setting. After the afternoon fiasco of the broken starter on the main boat, the dive shop hired two big boats to take two groups to the lighthouse. The problem was with the small boat that took the divers to these two larger boats. All the divers assembled at the shop at 5:30. The small boat took the nitrox divers to one of the larger boats, which took off in time to see the activities of the mandarin fish. On the way back to shore, the propeller on the small boat fell off, so our group was surprised to see the boat driver suddenly throw anchor and dive in the water. By the time he got the propeller off the bottom and connected it to the boat, it was getting late. We thought about just swimming to the big boat, but there was one crate of gear that needed to go and it wouldn't float. The boat finally made it back to shore, we all loaded up, but then the propeller wouldn't work properly. A local fisherman apparently took pity on us, or perhaps he was paid later. He motored out to us and gave us a tow to the larger boat that would take us to the dive site. It was quite frustrating to get to the lighthouse just as it was getting dark and seeing the many camera flashes going off under the water. By the time we actually got into the water, it was 6:40 and dark. Needless to say, the only mandarin fish I saw was one small one, about an inch long, sleeping on a branch of staghorn coral.

However, there was plenty of other creatures to see. The most notable were huge decorator crabs that really looked like part of the coral. The first one was pointed out by our guide. I only saw the second one because I recognized a large crab claw. The third was easy to spot because it was moving over the coral, with a piece of soft coral growing on its back. They were quite large, ranging in body shell size from about 6-10 inches. Add legs and claws, and they were pretty big.

Also abundant in this area were small cuttlefish. I was actually surprised at how common they were. Unfortunately, they were also very shy and usually took cover under the coral soon after being lit up by the flashlight. Many seahorses, nudibranches and shrimp.

An interesting note about renting equipment. A Dutch diver in our group during the morning dive to Monad Shoal had her mouthpiece suddenly disconnect from her second stage at about 20 meters. There was no plastic tie to secure it, as there should have been. She calmly switched to her AAS, but on the boat later, said that she had to really suck the air from that regulator, as it did not seem to set properly. It was a very good thing that she did not panic. She said that the mouthpiece disengaged from her second stage after she had taken a breath, so she remained calm. Her boyfriend had his tank slip through the strap twice on that same dive. This isn't really a problem with the equipment, but it is something that should have been caught by the boat crew since they are the ones that assembled the divers' gear. It is sometimes a pain to lug your own scuba gear around with you, but on the other hand, you will be sure it works properly and you will save money from not having to rent. It's also a good idea to politely assemble your own gear for each dive.

Accomodations: I stayed at Blue Coral for 1,000 pesos a night. No air-conditioning, but room 9 was right in the path of the prevailing winds, and the windows opened right by the bed, so it didn't matter. However, once the wind died, it became quite hot at night.

Dive Shop: Sea Explorers. $US 25 per dive. When I set out to record my experiences on this trip, one of the reasons, as I stated previously, was to provide a "no b.s. account of my diving experiences". In a way, I am sorry to relate that I was not altogether happy with this dive shop. I think it began with the dive guide who got 20 minutes of a great encounter all by himself with a thresher shark while the diving customers only got a few minutes glimpse. This wasn't such a big deal by itself, but when other things started happening one after another, I started thinking that I should have chosen another diving outfit. The next thing that happened didn't affect me directly, and I didn't even know about it until after the dive: the aforementioned problems the Dutch couple had with their equipment. This got me to wondering about how well run the shop was. After the missed afternoon dive because of their main boat's starter problem, followed up by the propeller falling off their smaller ferry boat on the very next dive, I began to lose my patience. It may not seem to be a big deal for the dive shop staff, but these dive opportunities are not common for many customers. There's the high cost of plane tickets, together with taking time off work, that limit the number of opportunities to dive. Diving costs at least $US 20 per dive in the Philippines; in this case, it was $US 5 more. Most divers are on tight schedules. When dives are missed because of poor maintenance issues, this can really be a big deal for customers.

In all fairness, equipment problems can happen to anyone, anywhere. To their credit, the dive shop did not charge for the night dive for those customers who missed the mandarin fish because of the faulty propeller. Murphy's Law was indeed in effect that day. However, on my next visit to Malapasqua, I don't think I will dive with Sea Explorers.