Noah revisits cave-diving in the Hundred Islands national park

In scuba diving lingo, cave-diving means diving into a cave that is found underwater. This could be either under sea level or on any body of water with a cave full of water that would require full scuba gear to dive. In the case of this episode the cave is on an island with one opening on top of a hill and another opening at sea level. The subterranean plunge is done from the top cave and the diver exits at the second opening.

To get to the diving platform you will have to climb the hill of the island via a pathway that they carved out of the limestone. (The dame in the photo below probably chickened out and headed back down. Note the sea below - i said sea).

some more climbing and you will get to a spot that is almost at the top of the hill... (the guy below is  my cousin Tagore, answering some of jo ann's questions)

...to the opening of a cave that is swarming with bats. There is a sign that warns would-be divers about wearing a life vest. In Noah's heyday - some 45 years ago, there was no such sign nor guard to enforce it and we would just jump off the cliff without a care in the world. (note some swimmers below)

from the opening there's a stairway leading to a platform. Noah obediently complies to the rule and dons a life jacket.

he checks his gear...

...and the spot were he will land to see if all is clear. (note the other divers below)

...and jumps

This is a shot showing both openings into the cave.

Some differences that noah noted comparing before and now:

1. The pathway. There was no carved-out pathway before.

2. The stairway. This too didn't exist.

3. The hoards of swimmers. It used to be just noah and his cousins and a couple of strangers.

4. The trek up the hill - jump off the cliff - swim out the other opening - climb - jump - swim... didn't as much as increase the heart rate in years past. Now it's quite complicated.

I will never dive koh mak again!

The title may sound like I'm a poor loser - actually losing is not the issue here, rather it's doing the same mistake again that makes me look stupid.

A few years back some dive buddies and I decided to check out the dive sites around Koh Chang (Chang and Mak are two islands that share the same dive sites). After that trip I vowed not to return to this area again.

The photos will show why.

 shallow

 poor visibility

drab, monotonous flora and fauna

Forgive me for the descriptions. It just so happens that I'm from the Philippines where marine biodiversity and crystal clear water is at its best. If you have been to the Philippines you will understand my rant.

The good part about this dive trip was the company:

2 czechs, 1 dutch, 1 french and 1 pinoy

These guys had the "same feathers" although apparently one had less. the czechs were an elderly couple who were madly in love with each other that we had to give them some space.

 that's the dive boat. it had 12 adults and 2 kids for snorkeling and 5 divers with only two staff (captain and divemaster) - obviously understaffed.

 the swimming dutchman - Hajo, and the balding filipino.

Arnaud the frenchman engrossed with his u/w photography.

Notwithstanding the negative facts about this trip, we had a good time. We had ice cold beer on board and the trip to and from the dive sites did not take too long.

This Koh Mak trip was actually a family retreat to get away from the hassle of the daily routine. I just chanced upon a dive shop on the island and forgot my previous vow. 

Maybe next time I will remember not to dive Koh Mak again.

Jaws reminisced

A thresher shark – at least one if not hordes, was the scene that repeatedly played in my mind creating goose-bumps and palpitations in the process. This is not a scene that is viewed from a safe and dry spot in an aquarium at the mall, but rather down 100 feet or so in the dark and cold early morning hours at a remote shoal in the open sea separating the islands of Leyte and Cebu.

Call it insanity or foolishness and I’ll slap you a high-five in approval. But when you’re a scuba diver, scenes like these are the inner cravings that need to be quenched or your life could be one empty and barren Sahara.

Two blokes and a feisty lady had to satisfy this craving before the unscrupulous Chinese cooked the last remaining shark fin on the planet. The trip to the very spot described above was an adrenaline-packed experience in itself, which added up for the need to memorialize the event in this blog. (At this point I need to take a break to calm my galloping heart and soothe my fatigued erector pili muscles – a result of the mere thought of the event)

In the year 2013 this threesome went diving the Japanese World War II wrecks entombed in the depths of Coron Palawan’s island paradise and while at it they couldn’t shake off the challenge to intrude into the thresher sharks’ territory, which could only be reached by a plane ride, a long 5-hour bus trip and a 45-minute boat crossing to the tiny island of Malapascua off the northern tip of the island of Cebu. This they had to accomplish before flying back to a world of breast lifts and implants, varicose veins and axilla hair and the reconstruction of vaginas that have been to a thousand heavens and back.

Last minute resort accommodations and dive reservations were done by phone while the bus wound its way through the narrow seaside highway. It was then that we were informed that by the time we get to the last town on the tip of the island all boats would have been stored for the night and the only options left were to bed down in one of the cramp, bug-infested lodging houses or hire a boat to take us to the island.

The first option was unthinkable because we only had about 24 hours between that time and our flight back to Bangkok. If we didn’t meet the sharks at Monad shoal the next morning we would have to wait for another 24 hours before the sharks would be available again. (It is their habit to drop by that particular shoal at about 5 – 6 every morning to allow the cleaner wrasse fish to brush them up for another day of foraging in the ocean)

The second option was actually our only hope to be able to come face to face with the deathly jaws and yet it would take another ride through equally deathly darkness on board a flimsy out-rigger over the huge swells and whitecaps of the open sea. 

We called the resort manager telling her to send the boat over at 8:30 pm to fetch us at what now appeared to me to be the last pier at the edge of the world for our final trip in life. After the deal was sealed we rode through the last stretch of the bus trip in silence, detached from each other, thinking of the possible death trap that we had inadvertently gotten ourselves into.

The pungent smell of dried and rotting marine life and the crash of the waves on the breakwater shattered the scenes in our imaginations as the bus grounded to a stop and the driver announced that we were at the end of the road. Oddly, but it seemed to me that his voice was like that of the Grim Reaper. We disembarked and the small pier was right before us and so were three young men who took our bags and motioned us to follow them. They were sure that we were the ones they came for because we were the only passengers left in the bus.

My mind went over a quick check of the situation: a pitch black night, an outrigger pumpboat and three young men who didn't look like they were old enough to take charge of our lives across the deep and dark sea. That was when I realized what it meant by my choices dwindling down to the "devil or the deep blue sea." We got to the boat and I gave a sigh of relief when I saw an 'old' man of about my age waiting for us. He turned out to be the "captain" and my fears were allayed.

They pushed the boat to deeper waters before starting it so as not to get the propeller entangled in the seaweed. The engine sputtered to life and we headed out to sea. Craning my neck and with squinting eyes I tried to take stock of my bearings. The sky and the sea blended so well into one black wall that the horizon was just not where it should be. The boatmen pointed to us a small line of tiny flickering lights in the distance and said that that was Malapascua - our destination.

At my age these ears of mine are not as good as they used to be, but that night it was like they had amplifiers. I could hear every knock of the engine, every rise and fall of the revving of the RPM, which to me was my only hope of making it across. I noted that there was no communication gadget on board. There was not one paddle just a bamboo pole, and I knew if ever the engine conked out we would be left to the mercy of the wind and the waves. I even imagined the headlines in the papers telling of some foolhardy doctors who were swept out into the sea and were the object of a search and rescue operation.

The lights that outlined the horizon got bigger and closer until we were bathed in the soothing and much relieving glow. The boatmen brought us to our resort which was surprisingly modern and clean and that night we dreamed of rows of white shark teeth with bright wriggling fish brushing them to a nice shine.

Before the sun came out the following day, we were on a much bigger boat with our tanks and dive gear all ready. An elderly Brit was with us and so were two dive-masters and some boathands. I also noted a couple of dive boats in our convoy and as we sailed to Monad Shoal our dive-master started briefing us on what to expect, how to behave and how not to become a piece of breakfast for sharky.

Putting on the dive gear is not a difficult task once you have dozens of dives in your logbook, but that morning took quite a while to get all set to dive. Talk about the sympathetic response to epinephrine wherein the body is primed for the "fight or flight" event, where every cell is quivering to jump to any need to run away or fight, where your fingers twitch with every beat of your throbbing heart. Yeah, that was us and we had to check and double check each others gear before taking the plunge just to make sure we got everything connected correctly.

The sun was just slightly over the horizon and there was enough light to make out that we were being dropped on a small plateau about 50 feet down after which we still had to descend by a cliff (to a ledge the same distance deeper) that was wide enough for our team. The dive-master pointed to where we could wait and I made sure that we were a few steps behind the local guys - not exposed in the front, where the action was supposed to take place.

My thoughts were still trying to seize the moment when the dive-master pulled on my shoulder and pointed to a slow-moving shadow about 8 meters away. I squeezed the shutter of my cam and held my breath as the sleek and graceful critter swam to inspect the intruders that were lined up like dishes on a buffet table.

She was the most beautiful and elegant monster that I have ever seen in my entire life. Our eyes met and for a moment I knew that it was love at first sight, and it didn't matter to me if she thought that I was blood at first bite.

The fear and uncertainty that almost had me the night before suddenly vanished and in its place came peace and happiness that I knew would last forever.

That day saw us make 2 more dives in two different dive sites with critters that thought that we were the monsters. We took the same chartered boat back to the mainland, the same bus to the city and the same plane to Bangkok, but we would never be the same again.

divers go VEGAN!

This dive trip took place in a dive site about over an hour’s drive from my place. It is called Nuj’s Nook at the 5^th floor of the PNP Mansion northeast of downtown Bangkok.

We didn’t get wet nor did we have to don our diving gear. All we brought was our empty stomachs with apprehensive and anxious thoughts of food poisoning and gagging on meatless food concocted by a self-styled and plant-crazed diver who had grandiose plans of out-living and out-diving us to the age of 99.

Enough is enough… let’s get on with the photos.

 this is what met us the moment we got into his flat. a rather benign menu of food he was going to feed us.

 caught in the act trying to mix his secret ingredients 

while looking innocent

 the final setup... to me it looked like a convicted man's last meal before the gallows.

 some juice which i suspected originated from the deep recesses of the infamous khlong saen saeb

 that's my plate... not heaping on the first trip to the table, but mind you, i made about a dozen trips back for more and more until the serving plate showed its butt to me. in other words the food was exceptionally delicious. yum yum!

 the other divers were relieved to realize that they didn't choke or grimace at the taste. they echoed my sentiments and dug deep into the tasty and delicious stuff.

 the soup was really good

 a pan of carrot cake going nuts... somewhat moist with the tendency to stick to the palate and brush against the uvula on its course through the esophagus down to the stomach. somehow it managed to pass by my heart and i instantly fell in love with it.

 the after effects of vegan food... and did you notice
that we were all in the same blue-jeans-white-shirt attire?
this was the dress code for the occasion and he wouldn't
let us in if we came inappropriately dressed.

 some more bizarre signs and symptoms associated

with vegan dining

we just couldn't get over it

i just hope the next dive trip to Nuj's Nook 

is not too far off.

Coron - Malapascua Dive Safari 2013

Dive, Dive, Dive, is that all you’re thinking of? 

Yeah, coz there was a time in my life when all I was thinking of was girls, girls, girls… then tennis, tennis, tennis… then wife, wife, wife… then kids, kids, kids… and the list goes on.

So now, before we get to the commode and diaper phase of life let’s think, breath, dream and go scuba diving.

I’m not trying to justify the present hype of the sport that has me steeped and marinated. FYI, I’ve been a sea creature all my life even to the point of literally hauling the sea into our living room including critters, sand, water and fantasies.

One thing that has been a boon to my sport is the addition of two equally sea-mesmerized guys who refuse to be full-time landlubbers. Just imagine me thinking something up and these guys chiming in in perfect harmony. What else can this old doggie do?

Well, I’ll leave out the tales of the planning phase of this safari and go directly to the events that took place. The photos will conveniently eliminate the boredom of the narration.

this map shows the route from the kingdom of siam to mactan cebu then to coron then back to mactan cebu then to malapascua island then back to mactan cebu and home to bangkok.

this was the plane that took as to and from coron

that's one of Rocksteady's dive boats - "three little birds" that we had for ourselves for the whole time

 the rocksteady dive shop is owned and managed by Karin - a frau sea-struck diver. we had Kenneth as our dive master. the photo above shows D3 (Jun Budayao) D1 (shokoy) and D2 (Cheery Bacabis).

the crane of the Akisushima

these are her anti-aircraft guns

that's D2 going through a port to the hold of the ship while praying that she doesn't meet Ursula inside.

that's her inspecting some embedded critter

the massive winch of Akitsushima

D3 - Junjun Budayao in the engine room of the Taiei Maru

lunch break of a typical pinoy meal... yum yum

a stairway into the hold of Taiei Maru

an openning into the deck of Taiei Maru

a giant slug

beautiful corals on the Lusong gunboat

an easy swim through the Lusong wreck

in the background is Mt. Tapias with a cross and 720 steps to the top. It was one goal we intended to conquer before leaving Coron

three monkeys clowning on top of mt tapias overlooking coron

just showing off our t-shirts

it isn't difficult to fit the luggage in the overhead bins, but Junjun just wanted this pretty lady by his side hence his call for assistance. this was on the trip from Coron to Cebu.

the bus - Ceres Liner, that took us from Cebu city to the northernmost town of Cebu island - Maya.

we got to Maya at 8+ pm and there were no more boats to the island of Malapascua. we hired this pumpboat to take us across the choppy sea. it took us some 45 minutes in the dark night. at this point D2 regretted that she took Bonamine before the bus ride. it made her groggy and she had to fight off the effects to stay awake.

the following morning we were up at 4:30 and boarded this dive boat for the 45-minute ride to monad shoal halfway between Malapascua and Ormoc Leyte (the island in the horizon)

at Monad Shoal and the sun is barely out. we dived down to 35 meters on a ledge in a cliff full of corals to wait for the sharks to arrive.

at this depth it is still dark and still photography is poor without strobe lights, which we were forbidden to use because it might scare the sharks away.

at the sight of the graceful yet dangerous scavengers I felt like whooping with delight. my breathing picked up a bit and i feared i would run out of air a little faster than the other divers. later they admitted having the same thoughts.

divers ascending by the cliff after the shark encounter

this pesky snapper kept swimming in front of my lens while the sharks were parading before us. i had to snap its photo just to satisfy him. 

a colorful nudie that i met on the way up.

that's the hand sign for "shark" and we were certified thresher shark divers. the white guy is Jerry, a Brit who married a native pinay on the isle of Malapascua.

we just can't get over the thrill

comparing videos on the way back to the isle after the shark dive

that's the isle of Malapascua (meaning: bad-luck christmas)

second dive of the day and Cheery cant wait to go down deep

my quest for the elusive pygmy sea horse resumes

Eureka!

this photo shows that i finally found it. thanks to a mask with bifocal lenses that i found at the Oceanic dive shop in Bangkok.

some soft bubble corals(Plerogyra sinousa)

a damsel fish trying to blend into the corals

a lion fish very much at  home in Philippine waters and yet is a scourge to marine life in the US east coast.

this octopussy managed to fit into this tiny cranny

a lonely nudi branch

this flat worm not quite flat

never mind the native resting on his boat, but let the background scene take your breath away.

another dive boat with surface-feeding bottom-dwellers

good bye Malapascua, I'll be your date one more time before my days on this planet end.

satisfied and thrilled by our dives in Malapascua we board the same rented boat and head back to Daan Bantayan for the trip back to Cebu. this time diver2 didn't take her bonamine.

rest in peace my friends of the deep blue sea. you were created way down the food chain and i cant change that. i'll see your kin in my next dives and tell them of your fate.

our bus ride back to Cebu city took quite a long time because we had an accident with the other car quite damaged. it's only good they had some tagalog movies that kept diver3 amused.

the lonely road at night

POEA, OWWA ... if you're an OFW you'll know what these guys went through. i refused to get into this corruption prone system and chose instead to pay the hefty travel tax and terminal fee, which is equally corruption-ridden. no escape for the poor filipino people *sigh*

while still in Bangkok this birthday girl was imagining a candle-lit banquet in some trendy resto with some thick steaks and a bottle of fine wine. due to our tight schedule and the late bus we ended up celebrating her 'tieth birthday in a fastfood steak house named "Jonies" at the SM mall. whoever you are Jonie, you've got to know that you still saved diver2's birthday.

words can't describe this treat

that's our usual starbucks toast to celebrate the great dives we had and to keep us awake for the rest of the day.

we disconnected from each other at the pre-departure area before boarding for the return trip to Bangkok

diver2 misses the jelly fish verry much

dreaming of the next dive safari as the plane
brought us back to reality. Jesus, you are the giver of 
every good and perfect blessing and we return our praise
and thanks to you.