Swimming with the Whale Sharks

majestic whale shark

When we first heard of Donsol and the idea of swimming with the biggest fish in the ocean we knew this was something we had to do.   It is definitely one of the highlights of our honeymoon! Donsol is located on the south-eastern tip of Luzon (the main island) and was a small quiet fishing village until about 10 years ago.  That’s when the world got wind of the large concentration of whale sharks that gather in the waters off the shore from February to May each year and eco-tourism began.  They call it eco-tourism as the interaction with the whale sharks occurs in its natural habitat and is controlled to ensure the least amount of stress to the fish.

friendly giant so close you can pet it

The whale shark or buntanding as it’s locally known, is described as the gentle giant of the ocean.  Though the largest fish in the ocean it is quite harmless as it feeds exclusively on plankton.  It can grow up to 18 meters in size so imagine a public transit bus moving gracefully through the water with mouth open capturing all the plankton it can.  It comes up, feeds and then dives back down into the deep blue.  We were quite shocked at how close they swam to the shore, at times, we were no more than 100 meters off the coast.   Researchers think that the whale sharks come to this area to feed on the abundance of plankton found in the water, but as of recently they have started finding baby whale sharks in the area so mating may be another factor.

fun under water

Let us tell you how it works.  Donsol is now geared towards the  hordes of tourists that show up each year for a swim with the buntanding and is a very well oiled machine.  When you show up in town the first stop is the tourism office to sign in and pay your registration fee (which goes towards the conservation effort and is valid for one week) and watch the mandatory video.  The video explains the do’s and don’t of interacting with the whale shark: no scuba gear, no flash photography, no more than six swimmers per whale shark and lastly, you are not allowed to get too close to the fish (for your safety as the tail can do some serious damage).  You can hire your own boat if you want to go in the afternoon or you can line up and share a boat first thing in the morning (8 am start time).  Again, it’s a maximum of 6 people per boat.

first dive: concentrating (aka: praying)

Once on the boat with your mask, snorkel and fins (and fins are a must as though you may be a strong swimmer, the whale sharks is way stronger!) the captain circles in the water while the spotter and the BIO (Buntanding Interaction Officer) looks for the buntanding’s dark shadow below the surface.  Once one is spotted the captain turns off the engine and we all get ready to jump in with our hearts pounding with excitement and anticipation and, for the first time around, a bit of fear!  On the BIO’s command, everyone jumps into the water and the chase is on.  Our BIO was amazing and always managed to place us in the path of the whale shark so the first thing you see is its big mouth coming towards you.  There’s no words to describe the feeling of seeing this gigantic fish coming straight at you, having to dive out of its way and then frantically turning around and trying to keep up next to it.  It was just amazing!!!  We were so close to this giant that we could easily reach out and pet it as it swam by us.  We were very lucky as well, as we got to swim with 11 sharks in our three hour outing.   We were told that there is another place in the Philippines south of Tacloban (on the island Leyte) that is less touristy but it was a bit out of our way so we didn’t go check it out.

check out the sack under its stomach

Before we sign off we have to share a somewhat embarrassing and funny story.  We decided we didn’t want to stay in a resort and found ourselves a small cottage in the heart of the fishing village.  On our last day we were supposed to check out at noon but as no one else was moving in, we convinced the caretaker to let us stay until 5 pm when we had to catch our bus.  Everything was gong smoothly until about noon, when S was brushing her teeth and M shouted, “don’t move, there‘s an F’ing huge spider next to you”.   M kept his eye on the massive spider, while S slowly made her way over the kitchen counter, over the bed and out the door.  We were pretty freaked out as not only was this one of the biggest we had ever seen (up to this point), was missing two legs (hello, evil fighting spider!!) and it had this massive growth or sack attached to its stomach.  So, we slowly and carefully packed all of our stuff and moved to the porch where we spent the next five hours :).  We told the lady taking care of the place to be careful that there was a huge spider on the wall by the bathroom and she just laughed, gave us a weird look and walked away.   Losers.

For more pictures of our Donsol visit click HERE (password: whaleshark)

Until next time, your scaredy cat city-folk,  S&M

Mt. Mayon as seen from Legazpi bus station

on a high at the end of a day

best outdoor drying rack... ever!

traffic jam on the streets of Donsol

kicked out by the spider five hours before departure

beach in front of our bungalo

The Stairways to Heaven

Rice terraces of Batad

Before heading off to the many beaches in the Philippines we set off for the north of the main island Luzon to see the world renowned rice terraces.   The first stop was Banaue which is about an eight hour trip up the mountains on a good day so we chose travel in the comfort of a deluxe AC bus.  Were we ever wrong.  While the bus itself was comfortable the AC made it feel like we were traveling in a meat freezer!  Apparently the AC  switch on a Filipino bus only has two settings: off or full blast.  This also applies to the stereo systems.  We should have guessed it was going to be that bad when there were men selling blankets outside the bus.  Luckily we bought one but unfortunately we could have used four.  Thank god for the best of George Michael keeping us company all through the night!

the so called road to the Batad junction

The rice terraces around Banaue were carved into the mountain side by the Ifaguo tribes people two thousand years ago using primitive tools; an achievement in engineering terms that could rank alongside the building of the pyramids.  The Ifaguo people call these terraces the “stairways to heaven” and it is said that they would stretch 20,000 kilometres if laid out end to end.  While there is not much to see or do in Banaue (and admittedly it’s a dump), it is a good starting point for visiting the terraces and the nearby village of Batad.    Batad is a popular hiking destination and a peaceful place from which to view the rice terraces.   There are two ways to get there: either take a jeepney for the first 12 km to the Batad junction and then walk the remaining 3 km fairly difficult trail to the village or take a cyclo to the end of the main road and walk an extra three kilometres to the junction before starting on the hike to Batad.  We opted for the latter and were very happy we did as we beat all of the jeepneys to the junction as they kept getting stuck in the mud and potholes on the steep road!   As a side note, the road from Banaue to the road to Batad was not much better and particularly uncomfortable in our tiny cyclo built for the average Filipino.

terraces from the Banaue lookout

The Stairways to heaven are by far the most amazing rice terraces we have ever seen.  While we were there the rice had just been planted so the terraces were mostly brown but we’ve been told that the best time to go is in June or July just before harvest when all the terraces are a bright green.  We can only imagine how amazing that sight must be as they were already quite magnificent brown.   Another interesting aspect of Banaue and its surroundings is how all the buildings are built all along the mountain side so that front of the house sits on mountain while the back half is supported only by stilts!  Quite something and an economical use of space :).

the hanging coffins

Last stop in the north was Sagada: a beautiful charming village famous for its caves and hanging coffins.  We gotta say, the hanging coffins were a let down: you hike to the edge of a cliff and have to max out your camera’s zoom to see a few coffins hanging on the other side of the gorge.  We heard the caves were fun to explore but we didn’t do them as we simply enjoyed hiking the many trails and just relaxing in this laid back village.  There are plenty of cafes and guesthouse terraces from which to enjoy the peaceful surrounding limestone cliffs and rice terraces. We really liked Sagada and would highly recommend it to everyone: you can do nothing or keep yourself busy hiking, caving and visiting the nearby waterfalls.   Oddly, an informal 9pm curfew is still posted and supposedly in effect from the Marcos era in the 1970’s, though we don’t think it’s heavily enforced.

Click HERE (password: heaven) for more photos of our rice terrace adventures. Enjoy,
S&M

Ifaguo women in traditional dress

terraces in Batad - they use stone here to separate each level

rice terraces around Sagada

Ifaguo woman weaving a basket

working on the rice paddy

Sunday afternoon at the small waterfall

scenery on the way back from the waterfall

Thrilla in Manila

Hello ma’am, hello sir;

The title of this post if a bit misleading as the only “thrilla” that’s left in Manila is found in the numerous shopping malls and fast food joints.  But, if we are giving credit where credit is due then 7-11 is the ultimate king of Manila.  We stopped counting after 53 because it was getting pointless.

street view from the sky train

The fast food nation in North America can’t hold a candle to Manila and the Philippinos. We have never in our lives seen so many fast food places in one location until we walked into theSM City Manila shopping mall that was across the street from our hotel.  There are five levels of fast food restaurants with stores scattered around them and a food court with about twenty more restaurants to choose from.  As if there aren’t enough food options, they also have food carts in the middle of the hallways that sell anything from popcorn to shwarmas to Jamaican paddies.  This trend pretty much continues on the surrounding streets and other malls that are in Manila.  For God’s sake there were seven different Kenny Rogers Rotisseries that we counted in the four days we spent there.

family time on the boardwalk

One thing about Manila that we really enjoyed was the walk down their waterfront boardwalk which has some spectacular sunsets.  The boardwalk is built for walking, running and biking so its used as a social gathering for the locals.  Along with the couples holding hands and the men fishing, there are street vendors selling fresh green mangoes and numerous merchants peddling “real” pearls for about five bucks.  The only eyesore at the boardwalk is the fortress at one end that is the American embassy.

one of many family tombs

While in Manila we visited the morbidly impressive Chinese cemetery.  This place look more like a neighborhood than a cemetery with tombs resembling mini-houses (or not so mini) with fountains, fully functioning kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms.  It is more of a showcase of wealth than anything else and the running joke is that it is packed with amenities that millions in Manila go without.  One interesting thing that we noticed was that a lot of people (we assumed the family of the deceased and maybe the caretakers) use the land and tombs for lounging, socializing and doing their laundry.  The latter was obvious from the piles of laundry that was drying in the sun next to the buildings.  The cemetery itself is huge and it would take around three to four hours to go through.  We opted for the shorter two hour version because after a while it all starts to look the same … and it was time to get away from the stray dogs.

Jeepney

There really isn’t much to do in Manila besides visiting one of the many many malls, walk the streets and eat.  A couple of cool things that we did notice were that there were: (1) more jeepneys (local transportation that we’ll discuss in another post) than cars, (2) basketball courts everywhere and we even saw one in the parking lot of the courthouse!; (3) a lot of 24 hour massage parlours;  and (4) a 10:1 ration of staff to customers in their department stores.

We would say that if you decide to visit the Philippines, Manila is worth a visit but we’d say for no more than two days.

For more pictures of Manila, click HERE (password: jollybee).

Thank you ma’am, thank you sir!
S&M

fisherman at the boardwalk

sunset over the marina with the volcano in the background

7-11 at the historic Intramuros

Rizal park

one of many streets in downtown Manila

Manila

rooftops in Manila

 

buying green mangos on the boardwalk

laundry drying along the golf course fence - downtown Manila