Ultimate Philippines Data Sheet: Manila, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, GenSan, Butuan
02-28-2013, 12:38 PM
Mini-report: Malapascua
Malaspascua is a dive spot on a small, remote island at the very northern tip of Cebu island. It has a population of about 4000 and most of the people live off of tourism and fishing.
Getting there: From Cebu, go to the northern bus terminal and take a Ceres bus to the town of Maya (163 Pesos), the trip takes 4 hours and the bus will drop you off at the port where you can take a boat to Malapascua. Actually, you take a small dorey type boat (50P) to a larger boat (80P) to another dorey boat (50P) then after half an hour (in good consitions, can be much longer), you'll arrive in Malapascua. Make sure that you leave Cebu on an early bus as the boats in Maya stop running after dark, I found this out the hard way and had to spend the night in Maya.
There's nothing to see or do in Maya, no ATM's, no bars, no restaurants, just a small, shitty fishing village but we stayed at a decent hotel called "Skip's Beach Resort", it was owned by a cool retired American guy who has since passed away and left the business to his much younger Filipina wife and kids, lots of good info on his website: http://www.skipsbeachresort.com/
Why I went there: My buddy from Canada came to visit me for a month and we planned on diving as much as possible. We didn't make any advanced plans, so after a few days in Manila, we found ourselves in Cebu and we called dive shops in Lapu Lapu, Dumaguete and Malapascua and got the best response from Thresher Shark Divers in Malapascua, so there we went.
My friend did his PADI open water and ended up staying a couple of more days to do his advanced, I already had my open water so I just did my advanced.
Diving: This is basically the only reason to come here and I would rate the diving experience as mediocre. The instruction at Threser Shark Divers: (http://www.malapascua-diving.com/) was excellent but it was very pricey, 20K for open water and 16K for advanced, compared to 12 for OW in Dumaguete and 10 for advanced.
There are quite a few dive shops on Malapascua but TSD seemed the most professional so that's who we went with. I did 5 dives and saw a few of the thresher sharks, that was pretty cool but other than that the marine life was nothing special, a lot of damaged coral from dynamite fishing by the locals and the fish weren't plentiful or impressive.
Beaches: Once you arrive in Malapascua, you'll be in the main area, about a 200M walk to all of the hotels and the "downtown" village area. The hotels and dive shops are all along the main beach, which is decent and has white sand but is nothing special. There's a few decent restaurants along the beach.
Hotels: Stayed at Blue Coral resort which was about 50M from our dive shop and right on the beach, ideal location but at 2500 P/night was a bit pricey, like a lot of things on Malapascua. Plenty of other options but it looked like you'd pay at least 1500/night for something half decent.
Night life: Basically non-existent. Some of the dive shops have bars and restaurants that have tourists drinking in them at night, there's a bar with pool tables and karaoke but I forget the name. The town's only "night club" is the basket ball court beside the Catholic church, which they have open every night and a DJ plays music and everyone in the town from 2 years old to 80 is there dancing, its pretty funny but lame. I went there once and ended up dancing with some young cute Filipinas but it will be hard to pull (I tried) as these girls aren't too keen on going home with a random foreigner in front of the entire town. Also, I had to wake up at 4:30 am everyday so I could go see the sharks that only come out in the early morning so I was in bed each night by 10pm.
Basically, you're best bet is to hit on tourist chicks, which there are a few of, you can meet a lot of them by going diving or hanging out at the restaurants.
So, I didn't get any bangs "on the island" but when I left after 4 days and took the bus back to Cebu, a girl got on at Bogo, about 2 hours from Cebu and she sat next to me. She was on her way to Cebu and leaving for a job in Manila the next night at 10pm, so I took her out for a drink after the bus ride and offered her to stay at my place after she complained that her motel was shitty. She declined my offer but showed up at my hotel in Cebu the next day at 8:30am, we spent the day at Ayala mall, went to a movie and I got the bang an hour before she had to catch her flight.
Anyway, overall, unless you're a diver and keen on seeing thresher sharks (they are cool), I would honestly pass on Malapascua, especially if you're after the local punani.
This video will give you a good idea of what Malapascua is like:
Malaspascua is a dive spot on a small, remote island at the very northern tip of Cebu island. It has a population of about 4000 and most of the people live off of tourism and fishing.
Getting there: From Cebu, go to the northern bus terminal and take a Ceres bus to the town of Maya (163 Pesos), the trip takes 4 hours and the bus will drop you off at the port where you can take a boat to Malapascua. Actually, you take a small dorey type boat (50P) to a larger boat (80P) to another dorey boat (50P) then after half an hour (in good consitions, can be much longer), you'll arrive in Malapascua. Make sure that you leave Cebu on an early bus as the boats in Maya stop running after dark, I found this out the hard way and had to spend the night in Maya.
There's nothing to see or do in Maya, no ATM's, no bars, no restaurants, just a small, shitty fishing village but we stayed at a decent hotel called "Skip's Beach Resort", it was owned by a cool retired American guy who has since passed away and left the business to his much younger Filipina wife and kids, lots of good info on his website: http://www.skipsbeachresort.com/
Why I went there: My buddy from Canada came to visit me for a month and we planned on diving as much as possible. We didn't make any advanced plans, so after a few days in Manila, we found ourselves in Cebu and we called dive shops in Lapu Lapu, Dumaguete and Malapascua and got the best response from Thresher Shark Divers in Malapascua, so there we went.
My friend did his PADI open water and ended up staying a couple of more days to do his advanced, I already had my open water so I just did my advanced.
Diving: This is basically the only reason to come here and I would rate the diving experience as mediocre. The instruction at Threser Shark Divers: (http://www.malapascua-diving.com/) was excellent but it was very pricey, 20K for open water and 16K for advanced, compared to 12 for OW in Dumaguete and 10 for advanced.
There are quite a few dive shops on Malapascua but TSD seemed the most professional so that's who we went with. I did 5 dives and saw a few of the thresher sharks, that was pretty cool but other than that the marine life was nothing special, a lot of damaged coral from dynamite fishing by the locals and the fish weren't plentiful or impressive.
Beaches: Once you arrive in Malapascua, you'll be in the main area, about a 200M walk to all of the hotels and the "downtown" village area. The hotels and dive shops are all along the main beach, which is decent and has white sand but is nothing special. There's a few decent restaurants along the beach.
Hotels: Stayed at Blue Coral resort which was about 50M from our dive shop and right on the beach, ideal location but at 2500 P/night was a bit pricey, like a lot of things on Malapascua. Plenty of other options but it looked like you'd pay at least 1500/night for something half decent.
Night life: Basically non-existent. Some of the dive shops have bars and restaurants that have tourists drinking in them at night, there's a bar with pool tables and karaoke but I forget the name. The town's only "night club" is the basket ball court beside the Catholic church, which they have open every night and a DJ plays music and everyone in the town from 2 years old to 80 is there dancing, its pretty funny but lame. I went there once and ended up dancing with some young cute Filipinas but it will be hard to pull (I tried) as these girls aren't too keen on going home with a random foreigner in front of the entire town. Also, I had to wake up at 4:30 am everyday so I could go see the sharks that only come out in the early morning so I was in bed each night by 10pm.
Basically, you're best bet is to hit on tourist chicks, which there are a few of, you can meet a lot of them by going diving or hanging out at the restaurants.
So, I didn't get any bangs "on the island" but when I left after 4 days and took the bus back to Cebu, a girl got on at Bogo, about 2 hours from Cebu and she sat next to me. She was on her way to Cebu and leaving for a job in Manila the next night at 10pm, so I took her out for a drink after the bus ride and offered her to stay at my place after she complained that her motel was shitty. She declined my offer but showed up at my hotel in Cebu the next day at 8:30am, we spent the day at Ayala mall, went to a movie and I got the bang an hour before she had to catch her flight.
Anyway, overall, unless you're a diver and keen on seeing thresher sharks (they are cool), I would honestly pass on Malapascua, especially if you're after the local punani.
This video will give you a good idea of what Malapascua is like: