Date: April 29th, 2014 – Leaving for Cebu
Today was a Tuesday. I had a nice one day break after the Sunday trek to Mount Pinatubo. I was to leave Manila and head to Cebu by flight. I thought I’d take the train to Pasay and then take a taxi or jeepney from Pasay/TAFT Avenue to the airport.
But that was a mistake. When I got to the Cubao station, first there was a line for tickets. After I got the ticket, there was another line just to pass through security. Then another line after security just before taking the steps up to the platform. Then another line to get inside the train. This was done because that’s how many people there are during morning rush hour! It took an hour after getting my ticket just to get inside the stuffed train. It was such a struggle to stand inside with my two bags but I somehow survived! I got to Terminal 3 in time… which was not that important as the flight was later delayed by half-an-hour.
Anyway, my Cebu Pacific flight landed in Cebu safely, but getting to my hostel took more than an hour due to the line for taxis, first, then the city traffic. As irritated I was arriving past lunch time, it was nice to be back in Cebu since 2011.
I stepped out soon after to first, get some drinking water, hand over my laundry, and then to have lunch. Fortunately, just across the road from Tr3ats Guesthouse were many laundry shops (₱25/kg). I then took a jeepney, paid minimum fare (₱8) to get to Fuente Osmeña circle. It was already well past 3pm and I was late for lunch as it is. I went downstairs where the supermarket and food court is.
After lunch, I went around to find travel agencies offering trips to Oslob for the whale shark sighting tours. A few of the travel agencies I visited said they need a minimum of 3 people for them to organize a tour and even if I managed to group together 3-4 people, they told me it would still cost me ₱3k or more, per person, which was way too much. Back at the hostel, the staff told me how to get to Oslob by bus (which I also read online). I convinced myself to wake up really early — like 3am early — and so I went to bed early.
April 30th, 2014 – Cebu to Oslob by Bus
I woke up at 3:30am and took a taxi to the Cebu bus station, which only took 10 minutes to get to due to the lack of traffic.
For locals, it’s ₱300; for foreign tourists it costs ₱1000 (Rs. 1300/$22/€16). The staff told me to get into my swim wear and come out quickly. I changed (they have shower rooms).
It was time for me to get on the boat and dive in. I locked up my camera bag and left it beside the cashier who said she would look after it. I was going in with just my GoPro camera.
When I got to the point where I get into the water, I looked down from the boat and wondered where the whale sharks were. I put on my snorkel mask and jumped in.
After a shower and a snack, I sat down to preview the photos I had taken on the GoPro. I use my iPad Mini for this and although I got some good shots, I felt if I had an LCD screen, I could have framed my photos better. Anyway, here’s a brief video I took under water.
After the disappointment in Donsol last year, I was thrilled I could finally scratch the “I saw butanding!” off my list of things-to-do in Philippines.
Done with the whale sharks, next I took a motorbike taxi to Tumalog Falls — Oslob’s other big attraction. I’m making that another post as I took some photos from Oslob town as well. Trust me, Tumalog Falls is just as beautiful as the whale sharks!
Next post(s) in this series:
Philippines 2014: Tumalog Falls; Oslob church, Cuartel
Philippines 2014: Leaving Cebu for Davao; Davao City sights
Philippines 2014: Sky Cycle at Eden Nature Park, Davao
Philippines 2014: Attractions at Eden Nature Park… and getting lost
Philippines 2014: Scuba diving for the first time, at Samal Island (Davao)
Philippines 2014: Japanese tunnel; leaving Davao for Manila
Philippines 2014: Bargain shopping in Manila; Paseo de Santa Rosa & Solenad
Philippines 2014: Corregidor Island tour
Philippines 2014: Manila Chinese Cemetery
Philippines 2014: Pahiyas Festival in Lucban; Kamay Ni Hesus
Previous posts in this series:
Philippines 2014: Trek to Mount Pinatubo crater lake
Philippines 2014: The itinerary this time around; UP Diliman and Maginhawa
My Philippines journeys: 2011 series | 2013 series
arduinoProject
26/06/2014In Cebu, when you arrive at the airport from your flight, head towards the departure area. You can hail a cab there that was just used by the people heading to the airport. There is no queue so it should be faster than waiting in line.
Revati
20/08/2014You have no idea how thrilled I am that I found your blog today! We’re going to Cebu next month, and this sounds like a brilliant idea. (Also because I’m dying to use my new GoPro underwater, thanks for the LCD screen tip, will definitely buy it along with the floatie before going) Now to get over my fear of sharks and jump in. (Burning question: How scary was it?)
Mithun Divakaran Reply:
August 22nd, 2014 at 7:16 AM
Whalesharks are harmless. They don’t even have jaws.
Jack
02/09/2014We also swam with the whale sharks in Oslob, Philippines. It was one of the best things we did in South East Asia.
This is an incredible post, you have gone into so much detail and your images are amazing! Like you, we also wrote a blog post on our experience. We actually did it through a personal tour that was the best value for money ever. So if you are interested in getting a second perspective on swimming with the whale sharks, check out the post below!
http://www.whoneedsmaps.com/whale-sharks/
phuong
21/12/2014Hi there,
may I ask where could I get to see the whaleshark for just 1000 peso? As I’m looking for some package but it all costs over 3000 peso 🙁
Thanks heaps!!
Johnell Whiteoak
07/03/2015Dear Mithun,
Thanks so much for sharing!! My husband and I haven’t had a holiday for YEARS and have been talking about going somewhere ‘a bit special’ for an overseas trip in the near future, just for a rare but well deserved treat. I enjoyed your picture-story tour and advice to get there early so much that I’ve already booked and paid for our airfares to fly to Cebu from Australia – in just 8 weeks!! I hope we enjoy it as much as you have : ) Thank you!!
Kindest regards,
Jamie & Johnell Whiteoak,
Qld., Australia.
Mithun Divakaran Reply:
March 8th, 2015 at 12:11 AM
Well, Cebu is sure to be special! Enjoy your holiday 🙂
alex
09/04/2015cool photos from your oslob trip! i’d like to ask you, what “technique” did you apply when you dove back in? I noticed that photos looked better 🙂 thanks! going there soon!
Mithun Divakaran Reply:
April 10th, 2015 at 5:40 PM
No much technique really. I jut use standard settings on the GoPro and tweak the images a little in Photoshops. Just play around with colour adjustments, the curve tool and the sharpen tool.
imadreamer2015
29/10/2015awesome article and great pics. I hope to do this sometime. Did you go from India?
Mithun Divakaran Reply:
October 30th, 2015 at 3:31 AM
Yes, I flew out from Bangalore 🙂
imadreamer2015
29/10/2015what is the model of the gopro you used?
Mithun Divakaran Reply:
October 30th, 2015 at 3:31 AM
I use a GoPro Hero 3+
Ray
11/01/2016Thank you so much for sharing.God bless you🙏
Mithun Divakaran Reply:
January 11th, 2016 at 12:49 PM
Thanks for reading Ray! 🙂