Cebu Island - Swimming with whale sharks!
- mollyben98
- Apr 22, 2018
- 3 min read
The flight from Caticlan (Boracay) to Cebu (£32.50 pp) took about 45 minutes with Air Asia (we will always fly with them over Cebu following the issue we had with Molly’s case when flying Cebu Pacific). After grabbing our bags we got a white cab, allegedly cheaper, to the south city bus station. The bus to Moalboal cost P140 each and took about 4 hours. We then got a trike to our hostel MoHo (which we would definitely recommend - great WiFi!) where we dumped our bags and headed down the road for some cheap grub. The next day we hired a moped from the hostel next door (P300) and drove for about 45 minutes to the Kawasan Falls. We paid P50 to park the bike and another P45pp entry fee. The Falls themselves were pretty spectacular with crystal clear blue water. There were a couple of cliff jumps you could do too (without paying for the canyoneering trip) which were fun. After an hour or so there we headed back into Moalboal to grab some lunch at Chillis bar then went snorkel with the millions of Sardines! We’d been told you could see sea turtles as well, so we were a little gutted when we didn’t see any.
Later that night we went to Three Bears for dinner with another couple we met at the falls - it was pretty damn good, and cheap too! The next day we chilled in the hostel before making a move to Oslob to swim with the whale sharks. We got the bus from Moalboal to Bato (P90 pp) then from Bato to Oslob (P30) where we got dropped off two minutes from Sharkies hostel. Sharkies is the best hostel to stay in if you want to do the whale shark experience as they guarantee you are in the water first, however it’s by no means a great place to stay, so we’d definitely recommend just doing one night here, waking up for the whale sharks and then leaving that day. We paid P1000 pp to do the whale shark experience the next morning, which included snorkel gear, then went for dinner with the couple we met in Moalboal and played a bit of cards.
The next morning our alarms went off at 5am and we headed down to the orientation centre for a briefing (2 minute walk away). As promised, we were the first boat out and were instantly surrounded by huge whale sharks - it was absolutely incredible! Boat men in little kayaks throw krill into the area to attract them and we spent about 30 minutes in the water with them before being dropped back to shore. As it was now only 7.30am, Molly decided to have a nap whilst I faffed about on the laptop for a few hours then went for pizza in the restaurant opposite. When then got the bus to the port and then a boat across to Dumaguete. We decided to break up our journey to Siquijor so we stayed one night here.
From Sharkies to our hostel in Dumaguete we paid P30 bus to the Liloan port, P65 for the ferry across to Dumaguete - including all fees (prices pp) then P150 for a trike to our hostel. We actually got ripped off and shouldn’t have paid more than P60 but didn’t find that out until we arrived at Cafe Noborii Share House (£6 for a private dorm room, with the tiniest beds ever!). We chilled out for a couple of hours then headed down to the New Boulevard and went to Fun cafe/bar for a few drinks and some pub games (pool, cards and jenga) then out for dinner. The next morning we got up early and headed to the ferry port to catch a boat to Siquijor. We had completely forgotten that it was the beginning of the Easter Holiday, which is a big celebration in the Philippines, so hadn’t taken into account the masses of people looking to travel that day. I queued for about an hour in the boiling heat for a 10am boat ticket then decided the queue wasn’t moving and I was getting more and more impatient, so skipped over to a different (smaller) queue and booked us on to the 12 o’clock boat over to Siquijor (P130 pp). We retreated to the passenger waiting area inside (with air con) and waited there for the next three hours before our ferry arrived.
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