Malapascua. Any recommendation?

We are planning to go to Malapascua in February for 5 days. We thinking to do the Thresher shark early morning dive and then may be macro stuff in the afternoon. Does anyone have any good experience to share? We are not sure where is the best location to stay if we are looking for a quiet get away but without having to walk too far with the camera rig to the dive/port. For the dive shop, we are looking for a small group and a guide that dive well with photographer.

Cheers

Si

There's a plethora of dive ops and places to stay. My favorite place is still the Blue Coral. The Bounty beach facing rooms catch the breeze and it's nice and cool throughout the day and night without the need for a/c. Most of the boats take off from the beach in front. It however can get a bit noisy at night with the music from Maldito's and in the mornings on the other side of the beach where the fishermen come in to sell their fish. But you'd be out diving Monad when that happens.

Exotic is on the other side of the beach and is all inclusive dive resort. they have nice rooms with a/c and fan. CocoBana has nice little cottages and rooms on the main beach as Blue Coral. These are the ones I've stayed in and a few others but my fave is still Blue Coral. I just left my camera stuff at the dive shop since we had the boat to ourselves.

Ops:

Andrea and Trev of Thresher Shark Divers are great people and if Trev likes you, TWIN TANKS for Monad Shoal can be had, but I didn't say that. They still have a faster boat and if you offer to pay for the extra fuel, they can get you to Calangaman or Gato faster.

Sea Explorers are also a good op. Exotic's own op is very decent too and they have been hosts to TV and photogs as well.

Food:

La Dolce Vita: great italian food in the Visaya Sea! Better than 90% of the restos in Manila by a lot!

La Isla Bonita: Good food and I hear the seafood is awesome too. But I wouldn't know. SLLLOOOOWWWW service!

Sunsplash: Thai food in PI. Not exactly authentic but it beats pinoy food.

There are a few other restos which had nice food including local favorites like Ging Ging's and Exotic's own resto.

Just bring a head lamp and watch out for falling coconuts. I almost got beaned twice in my several visits there. It can be a noisy place which is why Exotic is probably the quietest of the lot.

I have stayed at Malapascua Exotic twice. Very good dive op, and comfortable rooms, I always took the hot water/AC room.

I stayed there as it was the only place with 24 hour electricity (last visit in 2005, so don't know if that is still true.) You might want to check if this is still true, cause there is no fan or A/C without electricity.

There was no fresh water for camera rinsing or in the bathrooms. You must purchase fresh water to drink, and I improvised a camera rinse bucket with a crate I had.

Have a good trip.

Many many thanks for both of the swift and detailed answers. We've just booked our flight today and I can't wait to go. We checked with exotic and the rooms are not available already (may be because it's chinese new year that weekend?). So we are looking at Mangrove Oriental but I've heard it's a trek getting to the dive shop every morning.

I guess no electricity during the day can be a nuisance for charging batteries but I can bring a few extra rechargable batches and chargers to make the most of it during the night. Does the shower work when the electricity is turned off? I'd need to change the lense between the dives and would need to rinse it during the day.

Many of the resorts keep the generators running in the daytime if the resort has guests. The promised municio provided electric is still vaporware I think. Dive shops also run their generators when they need to fill tanks. What you MUST invest in is a voltage regulator or surge protector. Generator power can have spikes and drops, especially when switching.

Next year's Chinese New Year coincides with the Valentine's Day... Guess it would be busy busy time, if Exotic is booked out...

Both times I have stayed & dived with Exotic. They will usually arrange for 1 guide per group & will try to keep the group small. But it is still good to tell them your preferences upfront... The blue-ring octopus at my avatar is fr Malapascua...

Have lots of fun! Good luck with the thresher sharks!

Thanks Drew, Thanks Cat. Will follow your advices and let you know how it goes.

Just remember, strobes are not permitted during the Thresher Shark dives.

Stu

Just remember, strobes are not permitted during the Thresher Shark dives.

 

Stu

Thanks Stu, I have seen it in the previous post somewhere. Does it include torch and other lights? This should be the first thing for dive operators to mention but I guess it has detrimental effect on the booking.

Thanks Stu, I have seen it in the previous post somewhere. Does it include torch and other lights? This should be the first thing for dive operators to mention but I guess it has detrimental effect on the booking.

If I remember correctly, even my little uK Q40 light was not allowed at Monad Shoal...

I stayed at Hippocampus recently. Clean rooms, great food. Aircon, hot showers but not in all of the rooms. Dived with Sea Explorers, no complaints.

Hi !

Given the strobes are forbidden and the low light conditions in early mornings in Malapascua, what lense would you recommend to shoot the thresher sharks ?

Will they usually come close enough to use the Tokina 10-17 FE? Or should I best take a fixed focal lense with wide aperture such as the 35mm 1.8 (using a DX camera) ?

Thanks,

Axel

The problem with shooting with a longer lens is DOF. If you get within 2m of the thresher, shooting with a 24mm @ f4 will give you a DOF of less than 2m (if my guesstimate is correct). Threshers can be pretty long. Normally 24-35mm (FX equivalent) would be a nice shark lens since you won't be getting too close, so maintaining f5.6 is important, which means high ISO. I suggest a 16-35 or 17-55 f2.8 for flexibility.

It is extremely dark at that time in the morning when the threshers come up to the top of the reef. I suggest you get an FX camera set to ISO 1000 at least for ambient light pics. I used strobes and no-one said anything about them being banned.

John, the ban was instituted in Apr 08 I believe. When were you there last?

John, the ban was instituted in Apr 08 I believe. When were you there last?

March 2010.

Lemme guess... you dived with that liveaboard which doesn't follow the rules the island based operators adhere to. If I remember correctly, they also tend to drop divers onto other groups and ruining their interaction by overcrowding cleaning stations already occupied by others interacting with threshers, thus scaring away those very threshers when it could have stayed for awhile and be shared by all. Not a very cooperator operator. The point of the staggered allotted times was to minimize crowds and allow all the operators to have quality time with the threshers.

I remember they were French? I almost gave them the Lambert Wilson/Merovingian lines!

Lemme guess... you dived with that liveaboard which doesn't follow the rules the island based operators adhere to. If I remember correctly, they also tend to drop divers onto other groups and ruining their interaction by overcrowding cleaning stations already occupied by others interacting with threshers, thus scaring away those very threshers when it could have stayed for awhile and be shared by all. Not a very cooperator operator. The point of the staggered allotted times was to minimize crowds and allow all the operators to have quality time with the threshers.

I remember they were French? I almost gave them the Lambert Wilson/Merovingian lines!

Not a liveaboard, the French owner of Abyss seemed to be very well received by the locals. He's been diving there for 20 years. Maybe it's a rule like the one some Emperor dive guides tried to enforce in the Red Sea - without success...and no, we didn't drop on top of anyone else although we did gather up one time a happy local dive-guide ascending on our mooring line.

That's right. It's a big day boat and you crash at various hotels along the way. They were staying at that Mangrove resort.

I actually find that no strobe rule to be worthwhile due to the traffic of people with strobes going through Monad. Having been there a few times, over the years, it's pretty obvious the more people flashing the fewer sharks hang around. I think TSD's Andrea was saying since they instituted that ban, the encounters have increased despite more bubble blowers than in the 90s. I can't argue with facts, no matter how much I want well lit pics of threshers.

As for being welcomed, that's the great thing about the filipinos. They are magnanimous people who are friendly. Confrontation (other than the military of course) isn't in the general culture. Regardless of who the owner is and how well received they are, their diving practices did not impress me. I'm glad to hear they don't do that while a magazine writer is on board.

Maybe it's a rule like the one some Emperor dive guides tried to enforce in the Red Sea - without success...

That doesnt mean that the ban is without merit. Ensuring that the sharks remain comfortable with the interactions is the number one priority