So, this is it. From Malapascua.
When I first saw it underwater, I thought it look like a cathedral. I have another not so colorful print on my wall. Someone told me it looks like the earth breaking up or something.
The beach outside Exotic Resort where we stayed. Dive resorts line the beach along the island. Exotic is one of the more established ones in the area. The food at the restaurant was simply spectacular. We spent most of our non-diving hours sitting at the restaurant pigging out and wifi-ing:D
Catching waves at the beach. You can also find souvenir peddlers along the beach. They sell some pretty nice woodwork. I got my wooden Manta and Thresher shark there. Pricing wise, it’s considered expensive there, but you probably won’t get it at that price in Singapore provided you can even find it.
Loading up for the next dive. Resort staff loading equipments up the smaller boats which will ferry them to the bigger dive boats.
Every morning, we gather around 5am in the morning for the dawn dive to wait for the Thresher Sharks at Monad Shoal. Whether or not the shark shows up, we still get to see the beautiful sunrise. During the 20 min ride to Monad Shoal, we just stone or have coffee onboard.
Taking the giant leap off the boat. Amos giving a positive demonstration:D
Kelvin checking out the strange looking jellyfish. While we were there, the seas were filled with tiny jellyfishes or their dismembered parts. It’s not uncommon to get stung, but nothing too serious.
A lone batfish patroling Monad Shoal.
A lone Thresher shark appeared on the first dive of our second trip. Unfortunately, that was our only Thresher sighting that trip.
A flatworm during the night dives.
Whip coral shrimp.
It’s the same one, just a silhouette. It’s interesting that part of the body seem to glow in green.
Bubble coral shrimp. That’s one of my favorite subjects.
Sometimes the mornings can get rather cold. On this day, the waves were pretty bad and we had a bit of difficulty getting up the boat using that narrow plank, especially with the heavy camera. Good thing the guides are always there to assist. The guide for my first trip was Paul and the second one was Wilmar.
Getting your morning facewash at the bow of the boat.
At some sites, the current can be extremely strong. We took a trip to Dona wreck and were swept left right center by the current. I left my camera onboard after the first dive. It’s just not worth fighting the current with the camera. Tien Beng holding the rope during the surface interval. The bubbles were going sideways here.
While descending, I spotted this jellyfish and decided to take “a few” pictures of it, forgetting that the current was pretty strong. Within seconds, I lost the party but descended anyway. Got to 30m and did not see a single soul and the surrounding didn’t match the ones mentioned during the dive brief. I was thinking “where the hell is the plateau? what coral garden?! all I’m seeing is SAND!” So I ascended and found the boat more than 100m away.
So here’s the boat on it’s way to pick me up. Sorry guys, my bad.
The ‘feeder’ boats ferrying stuff to the bigger dive boats during low tide.
An approaching storm.
Swimming around this school of tiny fish while trying to get a decent shot. It’s fun to see how the flash lights up the water from beneath.
While waiting for the Thresher shark, I stayed relatively motionless and this lionfish was so attracted by it’s reflection off the dome port of my camera. It literally stuck it’s face on the port and looked left and right. Just like how you do in front of the mirror.
Probably the first time it saw it’s own reflection.
The Thresher shark doing it’s rounds while Andrew took the videos.
A headshot of the Thresher shark.
Sometimes they get rather close.
The tail is just amazingly beautiful.
The pregnant (?) nurse shark at Gato Island. That’s quite an incredible dive site. You also get to swim through a mini cave which was kind of fun.
Squid protecting it’s eggs nearby.
Frogfish looking devilish here. This was at the Exotic Resort’s house reef. which is pretty darn amazing for a house reef.
Juvenile Lionfish.
And finally, the mantas decide to make an appearance. These are huge, probably in the range of 5m.
Wave. This one’s good for facebook covers:D
Outriggers outside Wilmar’s house. He invited us for dinner and also to watch some cockfighting as there were some festival going on.
The last night on the island.
Outrigger.
The spotlights from the resort lighting up the outrigger.
Finally, on the second trip I managed to blow perfect bubble rings. All thanks to Paul, who was very patient despite me pestering him every now and then to teach me.
