Diving with Thresher Sharks in the Phillipines

As it was Chinese New Year, Singapore gave everyone a long weekend which Phil and I used to head over to to Malapascua Island, just north of Cebu in the Philippines.

We caught the 8pm flight landing in Cebu at 1am... we then had a 3 hour drive up to Maya port, a 45 minute boat ride to Malapascua Island, then finally a half hour walk to our resort just as the sun was rising over the island.

Sunrise in Malapascua

Although it was a long way to travel, it was well worth it. I liked the Spanish vibe and it's off the beaten track making it far less touristy than other places I've gone to like Bali or Thailand.  

We did four dives over the two days we were there - two of which were pretty incredible. (We dived with Evolution Divers who I would highly recommend)

1. The Monad Shoal. We were up and in the water at the crack of dawn to watch majestic Thresher Sharks enjoy their morning cleaning session. Apparently the sharks go to the Monad Shoal almost every morning to wait for the cleaner fish to nibble all their parasites and dead skin away. Thrshers are pretty rare so I feel pretty lucky to have got the chance to see them in their natural habitat.

Here's a photo of a Thresher Shark... unfortunately I didn't get any good underwater shots of the real thing so this is a carrot version. Basically the same thing.

Thresher Shark

2. Gato Island.  We left the bright sunshine to swim down into the Gato caves where it was completely black except for the small circle of our torch lights. The best bit was moving my torch to find it land upon two 5ft white tipped reef sharks right in front of us. We also watched, mesmerised, as a huge shoal of mackerel glimmered in the sunlight like silver. I have a video, but it really doesn't do it justice:

After the dives, we wandered around the island where we saw whole rows of washed up damaged boats and rubbish from where Typhoon Yolanda had left her mark. There were lots of men building new boats and renewing old ones as their children flew their kites along the beach. 

Eventually we found our way to an idyllic bar where we spent the evening watching the sunset and drinking cocktails. 

To anyone interested in diving, I would recommend visiting Malapascua. It was a good little getaway, but with the travel time we could have definitely done with another night on the island!

The Gili Islands - 3 days in paradise

A couple of Phil's friends have been over in South East Asia so Phil and I made the most of them being this side of the world and had a little holiday ourselves.

They flew into Singapore first, so we did what I've been looking for an excuse to do in months and took them to Club 55 to devour plate after plate of cheese and chocolate. Club 55 is so reasonably priced at $48++ for all-you-can-eat. This time was even better than the last as they had a huge wheel of raclette bubbling away onto little individuals portions of fried potato croquettes, pickles and salad. Food heaven.

Not that anyone would need another reason to go there, but the view at Club 55 is also pretty special. It's on the 55th floor (if you hadn't already guessed) of Marina Bay Sands Hotel and I love seeing the expression on people's faces when they see the bay from a height for the first time.

After one night in Singapore, Phil's pals flew off to Bali whilst Phil and I counted down the days until the weekend when we were to head over to the Gili Islands to meet them. We were up at 3am Saturday morning to catch our flight to Bali where we then caught a taxi and a boat over to our first stop - Gili Air.

Advice for anyone travelling from Singapore to the Gili Islands: Don't do it this way as it's a right faff. Instead fly from Bali to Lombok then hop on a quick boat to the Gilis. We arrived a bit stressed and tired after around 10 hours of travelling, but any bad feeling melted away instantly the minute we arrived on the island.

The first thing I noticed was that there are no motorised vehicles anywhere. Instead of cars and motorbikes, everyone gets around by walking, horse and cart or bicycle which meant the whole island was quiet and peaceful. The other thing I noticed was that as there aren't really any street names. Instead the island is filled with colourful painted signs nailed to poles at the side of the streets directing visitors to the nearest villa, bar or beach.

I was expecting the Gilis to feel a bit like Bali, but it's different kettle of fish altogether.

We stayed at a place called H2O Yoga which was a lovely, idyllic little air bnb full hammocks and very fit looking yogis! Unfortunately we ran out of time to do any yoga or meditation practices, but I'd recommend H20 Yoga to anyone staying on Gili Air - yogi or not.

We spent the first afternoon on the beach and in various bars; finishing the evening with a delicious rendang curry (me) and nasi goreng (Phil) and an early night before a day of diving on Sunday.

The Gilis have got to be THE best diving I have done. We saw black and white tipped reef sharks, hawksbill and sea turtles, rays, trigger fish, unicorn fish, parrot fish and about a hundred other types. The visibility was about 20 metres and it felt incredible.

We were on such a high after diving (and the espresso martinis we had afterwards) that we then spent the rest of the evening dancing and singing along to a band called Old Town who were playing in one of the restaurants. Old Town are one of the best live bands I have ever seen or heard (sounds like an overstatement, but I'm not kidding)! I don't remember how many drinks were drunk, but I do remember feeling zero embarrassment when dancing barefoot in the sand in front of a restaurant full of people for hours on end.

Old Town

We met the guys on Gili T the following morning - just a 30 minute, $4 boat ride away. Gili T has a slightly different vibe; a younger crowd, a little busier, and a few more loud bars and souvenir shops. Someone summed the three islands up perfectly: Gili Meno is perfect for honeymooners, Gili T is perfect for young backpackers, and Gili Air is a perfect combination of the two.

We spent the day snorkelling in the crystal clear waters and spotted another huge sea turtle just 20m out from the shore.

We rented bikes and cycled the whole circumference of the island, stopping on the west beach to watch the sun set and take a few obligatory swing photos...

Sunset swinging

We didn't meet the couple that own the air bnb we stayed in on Gili T, but it was so beautiful and their bio has inspired Phil and I. The owners are an Austro/Italian couple who upped sticks and left Europe, and moved to the Gilis to start their air bnb - Rumah Cahaya.

It just shows; when the 9-5 job (or more likely, 8-6 job) and city life ever gets too much, there's always an option to leave it all behind to lead a relaxed life on a little island in paradise.

Koh Tao & Koh Samui

We travelled down from Chiang Mai to Koh Tao where we had booked on to an SSI Open Water Diving Course at Roctopus Dive.

In a way I'm a bit surprised we managed to have such a great time on Koh Tao as we seemed to accumulate new injuries daily during our time on the island.

On our first day we decided to head to one of the beaches and snorkel with some black tipped sharks. The snorkelling was amazing but I quickly managed to cut my hands and soles of my feet on the sharp coral whilst Phil was busy building up a red raw burn from the sun.

We then hired a moped as we thought it would save time and taxi money getting to and from our dive course every day as it was on the other side of the island... Of course, I immediately crashed it, resulting in most of our bodies being covered in cuts, scratches and bruises.

The following day we began our Open Water course and, as luck would have it, I then perforated my ear drum due to the water pressure. By the next day all our cuts were infected and both Phil and I had the beginnings of ear infections.

Despite all of this - we had the time of our lives. Koh Tao is one of the most beautiful places either of us have been to. Every morning we woke up to the turquoise sea and cloudless sky over Freedom Beach, and each evening we watched the sun burning orange, red and purple over the horizon.

Freedom Beach view from our balcony

Sunset on Sairee Beach

The food was also delicious, most of all the out-of-this-world fish platter at Barracudas near Sairee beach. Too much fresh fish to know what to do with.

Roctopus Dive were a 5* dive school and we are thrilled we completed our Open Water with them. They take groups of up to 4 people per instructor so we were well looked after the whole time. Our instructor Mick was fun, patient and so passionate about diving it was hard not to feel the same fire in our bellies by the end of our course.

Our first day consisted of pool training, day two was our written exam followed by two 12m dives, and finally on day three we did two 18m dives and became certified Open Water Divers! We had heard a lot about Big Blue dive school, but they take large groups and it seems a bit of a factory - churning new divers out day by day. I would recommend Koh Tao to anyone who is thinking of doing an Open Water course, and there is no better dive school to learn with than Roctopus. 

We left Koh Tao the following morning and spent a couple of nights at a beautiful air bnb on Koh Samui which had views of the ocean and mountains.

We had just one day left in Thailand so followed a friends recommendation and booked onto a tour to AngThon Marine Park where we kayaked and relaxed before flying back to Singapore the next day.