Left Mactan at 0900hrs and after a 3 hour car ride arrived at Maya Port on the extreme northern tip of Cebu for a boat transfer over to the island. So where EXACTLY is Malapascua Island ? Well, google maps could not calculate the travel time and distance between Cebu and Malapascua! Guess google did not have the Malapascua public ferry schedule in their system yet :P (FYI ... its 138km between Cebu City and Maya Port).
Fun & Sun Dive Travel arranged my transfers, everything was smooth and I never had to wait for any car or boat transfer.
Our private boat transfer to Malapascua from Maya port.
We stayed at the Malapascua Legend Resort for 6 nights.
While it was no 5 star hotel, it was nice and simple with ample room and nothing to complain about. Years of dive trips has taught me that proximity to the dive center was my top priority to ease handling of my cameras, gears and catch in-between dives naps ... etc. The room at Legend was large with a double queen size beds, hotel staff was nice and accommodating, location was great along the beach front and near to all the food places.
Reading stuff on tripadvisor can be confusing with the varied expectations of the reviewers.
Well I am sure you will read some complains like Wifi is only available in the restaurant area and not in the room. BUT ! Why did you come all the way to Malapascua to surf the internet ?
There were also complains in the reviews that there were many flies and stray dogs in Malapascua Legend, I found the concerns unfounded.
It's a tropical island, of course there are flies but not to a extend that was bothering us too much. The dogs were the friendliest and most obedient bunch and never aggressive. In fact, I thought that they gave the island its character and warmth. We kind of missed them !
Breakfast was part of the hotel room rates and we enjoyed the breakfast at Legend. The large-sized chocolate pancakes with fresh cebu managoes are my favorite.
Exotic was one of the more up-market resorts, we decided to check them out for lunch. The food was good but generally pricey.
It's a tropical island ... so life was all about tall cold mango shakes or ice tea !!!
ANGELINA is without a doubt our favorite restaurant on the island !
We had 3 dinners at Angelina out of the 6 nights on the island, goes to say so much about how much we liked them !
Warm and friendly staff
Sliced yellowtail carppacio with pistachio, Italian style grilled meat, the Super Angelina pizza, 4 cheese gnocchi, seafood risotto. Oh yes ... forgot to mention the Tiaramisu ! Servings were hearty, everything was well prepared and reasonably priced for its quality !
NOTE: Servings are huge, so ordering to share is the best option.
Amihan was another nice restaurant over looking the small cove. Nice ambiance and specialized in wood grilled items.
Food was good but 2nd to Angelina in my opinion.
Holiday in Malapascua is Hard Work.
After a while, you do get use to the routine of waking at 4.20am, getting to the dive center at 4.50am, into the water at 5.50am, trying your luck with the thresher sharks and back at the hotel for breakfast at 7.30am.
I did 3 dives at Monad Shoal. No luck on day 1, just green dark waters and up-current. That was totally made up on day 2 with a super close encounter. On day 3, the threshers were visible but decided to keep their distance. Do plan to dive Monad Shoal as many dives as your schedule allows as the sharks can be temperamental :P
A
video compilation of the Thresher Shark dive at Monad Shoal Generally dive 2 will be at around 9am, dive 3 at 2pm and dusk dive at 5.30pm.
The rest of the day is basically macro. The array of nudibranches, bobtail squid, cuttlefish, crinod shrimps, banded sea snake, spearing mantis, school of bat fishes, all sorts of weird crabs, cowies, seahorses, zebra crabs, harlequin shrimps, snowflake moray, ... etc. I have done several mandarin fish dives in quite a few other places in the world, but I must say that the males here are large (at least 3-4 inches)
On a day trip to Gato Island, Danilo found the blue ring octopus!
Check out this fellow as it changes color and texture when moving among different surfaces in an attempt to camouflage itself.
Fun & Sun was a great team ... a well-run dive operations with a sense of fun, flexibility and dive safety.
John, Danilo, the boat captain and every crew member was always fun and enthusiastic. Danilo was an expert "macro spotter" ... finding 2mm baby bobtail squids was an everyday affair. At the same time, he was always conscious and diligently checking on everyone's air consumption.
Life on the island was pretty much tourism dependent and maybe a bit of fishing. The typhoon hit them pretty hard in 2013 and it clearly shows in many parts of the island.
I did not really need a "hand crafted" wooden thresher shark ... but its was the only way I knew to help the islanders in a very very small way to keep the craft trade alive.
And as quickly as it was, the time came to bid farewell to the island and our new found friends. Good bye and till next time.
We left Malapascu at 10am, arrived at mactan area around 1 pm and had lunch at Zubuchon.
No way we are leaving cebu without having another round of lechon. 0.5 kg of lechon, stuff squid, seaweed platter, cassava cake, drinks ... good for 3 people at about php1200
Since we did not have much time to go around, did some shopping for local produce at the Zubuchon
Now that we had our fill and shopping, its time to check-in and catch our flight back home.
Flight SQ5443
Departs:
Cebu (CEB)
Sat, 02 Aug 2014 17:35
Arrives:
Singapore (SIN)
Sat, 02 Aug 2014 21:05
Trip Highlights - Malapascua
6 nights on the idyllic island of Malapascua in search of the famed thresher shark