Diving in Anilao

Anilao is in the municipality of Mabini, Batangas, the Philippines. It is located south of Manila, about 2.5hrs drive, on the large island of Luzon. Diving in Anilao is famous for its macro, nudibranch and critters; pelagic and large fish are not common. We didn't see any mantas nor sharks, not even turtles. Definitely a macro diver's paradise. 

Our dive resort was Planet Dive, a nice base for diving adventures, winner of Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence 2015. It had cosy rooms, aromatic Batangas coffee, good food, large tanks for rinsing equipment and outdoor chairs to laze around by the sea. Ooh the dinner was so good, bbq every night! Did I mention the beer was cheap too? 

Idyllic outdoor seating to laze around after a long day of diving

Having said that Anilao is a macro heaven, the equipment I had was hardly suitable. My new underwater housing that I ordered online arrived a few hours before I left my home for the airport, but when I was at Anilao I realised the housing didn't fit with my tray (different screw size). So I ended up shooting with just the housing, or attaching the Gopro to the tray which wasn't good for macro shots at all. Well it was still fun chasing after fish and shooting underwater video with the Gopro attached to an extension pole. 

Dive boats were the crampy boats with outriggers common in the Philippines

One of the first dive sites we went was aptly named "Bubbles", for the little bubbles that rise from beneath the seabed due to some natural geographical phenomenon. Don't ask me to explain. 

CY diving in "Bubbles"

Diving @ Raja Ampat

The long overdue Raja Ampat post is finally here!

Raja Ampat, meaning 4 Kings in Malayu, is situated in West Papua. It took me 3 flights and a 2hr ferry to get there, even from neighbouring country Singapore. Was it worth it? You decide.

After 1 day and 1 night of travelling (and waiting for connecting flights), I was finally in West Papua, in the town of Waisai, in the island of Waigeo. There isn't much to do in this little remote town, except to embark on a live-aboard to go diving.

Street kids in Waisai, finding entertainment from cardboards and a table. 

Diving @ Mabul Island part 3

The first part of this post is dedicated to the last dive, which personally was the best amongst the 11. There were too many fishes sighted to put everything into this post. 

Top: unknown. Bottom left: blue streak cleaner wrasse. Bottom right: emperor angelfish

Diving in Manado - Day 2

Today must have been the best dive day in my life ever! Well, not a big deal as I don't dive a lot, and only been to Tioman/Dayang and Phi Phi Islands to dive. Nevertheless, the sights today were remarkable! And armed with dive cameras (and iPhone) the experience got more interesting.

The night before I was fiddling with my borrowed underwater casing and external digital flash. The flash was big by my standards (until I saw the bunch of Hk-ers equipment), however they weren't bright at all. In fact the inbuilt flash of the camera was way brighter! Something must be wrong somewhere, but it was late and I was tired and wasn't going to find out. Just use the inbuilt flash. 

The journey to the dive sites at Bunaken Island was less than comfortable, surprisingly. Once the boat started I felt queasy in my tummy. Maybe I ate too much for breakfast. I thought with the years in OBS driving a small motorboat almost everyday was enough to leave my seasick days behind.... Haven't felt seasick in a long while, I'm getting soft. Went to the bow with Sherlyn but after less than 5mins decided to return to the cabin, otherwise the fish below would have an early lunch. 

First dive site was Lekuan 1, at the southern tip of Bunaken Island. As with the other Bunaken dives, this was a wall/slope dive.