Despite having a feast of great muck diving, Davao Gulf in the Southern Philippines has remained largely off the dive map. All that could be about to change.

This article was first published in Scuba Diver AustralAsia magazine, Issue 4, 2008. It appears here in a slightly different form.

Photos were kindly provided by Jeff De Guzman, who also illustrated my story in the magazine.

To see more of my stories for Scuba Diver AustralAsia magazine, visit my Scuba Diving Magazine Stories page.

If you were asked to picture what an emerging macro diving destination looks like, chances are you’d be thinking of somewhere remote and uninhabited, a Lost Eden island in the middle of nowhere. But less than 30 minutes boat trip from the huge city port of Davao on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao lies a plethora of spectacular small critters that will have macro enthusiasts grinning with delight. While locals have been diving in Davao’s waters for years, there has only been a trickle of foreign divers visiting up to now. It’s still an undiscovered dive destination in both senses – there are exploratory trips being carried out by local dive company Wind And Wave each month to explore further along Davao Gulf’s miles of coastline as it rolls out to the ocean.

© Jeff De Guzman

Davao lies at the apex of Davao Gulf, a huge V-shaped swathe of flat calm water that eventually opens out into the Celebes sea. The Gulf is sheltered from typhoons thanks to being surrounded by a ring of mountains, crowned by Mount Apo, the highest peak in the Philippines. Within the Gulf itself, and just across the water from the Davao city, lies the large island of Samal, which creates a natural channel between itself and the mainland and harbours virtually all of Davao’s dive sites. Unlike the mainland, Samal remains largely undeveloped besides one luxury hotel resort, Pearl Farm. The rest of the island features the thickly set palm trees and fringing white beaches for which the Philippines are famous. It’s hard to believe it’s only a few minutes boat ride away from the traffic clogged streets of Davao. Local fishermen paddle tiny one man outriggers up and down the shore as they go about their daily catch, and the occasional container ship heading in for the port is still dwarfed by the sheer size of the Gulf. And all the while, Mount Apo looms overhead catching clouds amongst the bright blue sky. It’s not a bad view at all from the dive boat.

5cm scorpion fish on the arm of a starfish © Jeff De Guzman Davao

Davao’s 20 plus dive sites are situated in clusters around the Pearl Farm resort and Samal’s three smaller sister islands, Ligid, Malipano and Talicud, as well as scattered along the coast of Samal itself. It quickly became clear from our first few dives that if you want gin clear water and big pelagics, you’ll probably be disappointed by Davao diving. While sailfish, dolphins. dugongs and even whale sharks have been occasionally spotted by local fishermen along the coast of Davao Gulf, they’re rarely seen by divers. The water can be turbid and silty, giving an average viz of around 10 metres, and there’s the occasional strong current which can signal the beginning of an impromptu drift dive. But for adventurous divers who aren’t bothered by less than postcard perfect conditions, Davao provides some fantastic opportunities.

Kaputian is a dive site in point. Dropping in at dusk, it seemed an unprepossessing flat gentle slope of small rocks, with patches of sand and sea grass. Within seconds I was mesmerized by the cowfish that seemed almost as taken with me, backing away slowly but keeping its gaze firmly fixed on me as I had a quiet grin about its cute big eyes and horns. When the cowfish had finally had enough of me, I’d only moved a few more metres before encountering the frozen profile of a reptilian eel, looking like an ornate bottle buried in the sand. More dynamic was the tiny bright blue bobtail squid that resembled a minature cuttlefish, which I only left alone when one of the guides started arcing his torch in a gentle circle to illuminate the graceful seahorse he’d found, some 8 inches or so long.

Yellow Frogfish © Jeff De Guzman

We had split up into two groups to maximize our spotting time, and there was a flurry of excitement from the other group as they stumbled across one of the holy grails of macro diving: a clown frogfish. This tiny creature, panstick white with a huge red stripe running through it just like its namesake, was almost wholly buried amongst the small rock chunks that make up the slope. Our guide Ricci was all smiles when he got out the water as it was the first time he’d ever seen one, let alone found one – even more impressive given it was a night dive!

As we headed back to Davao that night, it was already decided we’d go back in search of the clown frogfish. Instead, we subsequently encountered a harlequin shrimp in all its polka dotted finery and a pair of Pegasus. We dived Kaputian three times in all and it felt like a different site each time and that there was something not only new but quite special too.

Red Frogfish © Jeff De Guzman

Besides the fine muck diving along Samal’s coastline, Ligid and Talicud, two of the islands just off Samal, provide impressive coral landscapes with teeming fish populations. Big Ligid and Little Ligid are located around the other side of Samal on the north eastern tip. Little Ligid is a private island that’s available to rent by the day if you’re feeling particularly decadent. Big Ligid is one of Davao’s signature sites and provides the best chance of seeing roving pelagics like packs of barracuda and whitetip sharks riding the currents, which also improves the viz.

The island’s craggy limestone walls provide a scenic backdrop topped with dense foliage above water, while underneath the surface the ocean has hollowed out a fascinating cave in Ligid’s wall and a pinnacle off its furthest point. The vertical wall drops at around 20 metres and the cave is a large triangular gap at its base. The cave repaid our curious torchlit investigation of its floor with some vibrant nudibranches. Ligid’s wall itself is quite breathtaking – the vivid golds of the clouds of fish hovering over emerald green coral with random spots of bright pink and red look like the work of some aquatic graffiti artist, a stunning and slightly overwhelming mix of colours and textures. Seeing a full sized black and white banded sea snake gracefully sidewind across this landscape provided the final touch to a great dive.

Mushroom Rock at the other end of Samal is also a local favourite, a collection of sites with steep walls dropping to 30 metres completely suffused with a neverending tumble of soft corals whose fronds reach out from their vertical incline. It’s comparable to Mansud Wall, on Samal’s other small island Talicud. Both provide the perfect conditions for an exhilarating drift dive. The abundance of soft coral on Mansud’s vertical wall which has a plateau at around 12 metres and then continues down is breathtaking, perfect for hanging in the current and simply taking it all in. The fish life is also abundant here, with plenty of clownfish and the usual reef suspects, along with a ghostpipefish which seemingly materialized out of nowhere, so good was its camouflage.

Snake Eel © Jeff De Guzman

Mansud’s two neighbouring sites are very different – Coral Garden is a slightly murky coral patch that provided fantastic photo ops of jawfish peering suspiciously at us from their vertical hideyholes. There is an abundance of the always noteworthy spearing and peacock mantis shrimp in Davao Gulf as well – we spotted them on several dives, lurking amongst rocks and coral and, in one instance, defiantly standing out in the middle of the pebbles and facing us down. Babu Santa was particularly good for spotting mantis shrimp, another ugly looking site of scrubby vegetation on white sand that revealed playful pairs of puffafish cavorting wide-eyed around us, leading the way to the highlight of this dive and a first for me – a clown snake eel, much smaller than the reptilian eel and its crazy paving camouflage making it look a little less sinister. Even the trash on this site (Talicud island is a popular place for Davao partygoers) had become home to glass shrimp peering out of the neck of a discarded beer bottle.

Right by the Pearl Farm resort are the tiny islands of Malipano, on which are built the owner’s quite stunning array of beach houses. Two WWII era Japanese wrecks lie directly in front of the resort in murky conditions that make them only of interest to wreck enthusiasts. Besides seeing another seasnake racing across the deck of one wreck, we also encountered the biggest lionfish I have ever seen, nearly a foot across, only rivaled by the giant puffafish that hoved into view during our following dive at Bing’s Corner.

Hairy Pipefish © Jeff De Guzman

Bing’s is a site on Malipano island that encapsulates Davao diving in a way, with a contrasting mix of big, expansive reef and tiny creatures. It’s an excellent wall dive with a spectacular carpet of soft corals, lots of fronds and fans meshing in with one another, with a strong drift current in places too. The viz was a little silty but that didn’t really matter. Amongst the explosions of coral growth we went looking for pygmy seahorses in one of the immense scarlet gorgonian fans jutting out from the wall – we had no luck this time round, but the giant puffafish was a consolation, as was the plethora of nudibranches we found along the way, with no less than five vivid green and red nudibranches grouped together (easily identified post-dive as chromodoris nembrata).

When you add up the beauty of Davao’s natural surroundings above water with the fascinating array of critters under the surface, the ease with which you can visit the city and get to the dive sites as well, the convenience of having big city luxury nearby, and the genuine pride and excitement the dive guides have in Davao in showing off what is still a largely undiscovered dive destination, Davao has got a lot going for it. It may never be a chart topper like Palau or Sulawesi, but Davao has its own unique dive charm.

Thanks to: Albert and all the team at Wind And Wave Davao for organising a great trip in Davao. And to Carlos, for the cheese.

How To Get To Davao:
There are regular daily flights from Manila to Davao with Cebu Pacific , Air Philippines and Philippines Air. Air Philippines allow scuba divers 25kg of extra baggage for free on production of their scuba certification card. Check flight comparison sites and for current flight prices.

Entry/ Visa Requirements:
Most nationalities can get a free 30 day visa on arrival at Manila Airport. Check with your local Filipino embassy.

Language:
Tagalog is the official language of the Philippines. English is spoken widely.

Best time to dive:
Davao’s sheltered position means year-round diving is possible. The official off season is July to February – I went in September.

Currency:
Filipino Peso. US Dollars and credit cards are widely accepted, although check ahead with your dive operator to ensure you take acceptable payment.p

The much anticipated property comprises 74 exclusive guestrooms and suites including a Presidential Villa, featuring 2 bedrooms with butler service and measuring 320 square meters. All guestrooms overlook the plains of the Serengeti, and include luxury en-suite bathrooms, walking closets, and a sun deck for relaxation with personal telescope for watching game, whilst the suites feature their own private plunge pool.

It is located in the Central North, approximately 45 minutes drive from the Seronera airstrip, which in turn is a 50 minutes flight from Arusha. Located against a dramatic backdrop of Africa’s wilderness, the hotel provides private game drives, hot air balloon rides, bush walks and Champagne breakfasts in the African savannah. It has an Anantara Spa with 6 couple treatment rooms and 3 Thai massage rooms, a 24 metre infinity fresh-water swimming pool overlooking the waterhole, a restaurant with show kitchen, a bar, lounge, wine cellar, boma, library, game room, fitness centre, art gallery and gift shop, as well as conference and meeting facilities. Furthermore, experienced game rangers introduce you to the ultimate wildlife of the Serengeti.

Once upon a time, in a world far far away, travelling by air was actually enjoyable. Airlines had personalised service, legroom was bountiful and they couldn’t give away enough food and drink during your flight! How things in the airline industry have changed.

For most people travelling by air now involves more stress than a bad week at the office: additional charges for baggage and checkin, fuel surcharges, rigourous security checks, queues – and that’s before you even get onboard! At least the airlines treat their paying customers well, I hear you questionably say. Wrong. If you are unfortunate enough to book with one of these airlines then you’re troubles, my good friend, may have only just begun!

So here, in all their glory, are ten airlines plagued by a litany of overbooking, delays, cancellations and failed safety inspections.

Nepal Airlines, Nepal

Nepal Airlines: This is another one of those airline options that people in the region often choose because it’s cheaper than the competition, however they usually find out that there’s a reason for this since the airline is notorious for delayed and cancelled flights. Reportedly, this airline sends delayed passengers to the airline headquarters to make arrangements for alternative flights rather than just helping them get on another plane since they’re already at the airport. It then ends up costing customers extra money to make those alternative plans.

Additional problems include that the former chairman was put in jail in 2005 for corruption and that the planes for this airline have a history of being grounded for failure to meet safety conditions. On the plus side, the airline is trying to make things better; in 2007, they sacrificed 2 goats in front of a plane in order to please the sky god and resume good flight conditions!

Varig Airlines, Brazil

Varig Airlines: This airline has had a history of problems and recent reports indicate that it remains unreliable despite efforts to improve service. For several years, people anticipated that this airline would go out of business due in no small part to financial issues. It’s a bad sign when the bank shows up at the airport and actually seizes one of your planes since you haven’t paid them!

Throughout 2006 Varig was significantly downsized and was subsequently purchased by another company in 2007. It was hoped that this could turn things around. However, reports from customers in 2008 indicate that the airline remains unreliable; one customer has said ‘the crew try their best but are let down by ancient aircraft, unpunctual flights and seats that are dirty.’ Nice. Oddly Varig is quite efficient when dealing with delays; it has a system in place to email people (often in the middle of the night) to let them know that their planes will be delayed for hours.

Alitalia Airlines, Italy

Alitalia Airlines: This large airline is so notoriously bad that there is an entire website devoted to providing consumers with information about why they should boycott their flights, (a website that Alitalia tried unsuccessfully to have shut down). In 2006, one blog named it the worst airline of the year due to constant strikes, cancelled flights and general ongoing delays and service issues.

Financial problems have caused these same issues to continue on into 2008. In fact, Alitalia just received an emergency loan from the government to help it avoid complete collapse (which the EU is investigating for issues of legality). Either way, many say that the airline’s demise is inevitable.

United Airlines, USA

United Airlines: This airline has regularly been called one of the worst airlines in the world because of constant delays that are compounded by horrible customer service. Just one example of a typical problem with this airline was the case of a woman who was returning from Cancun last year and got stranded in Mexico when United cancelled her flight. The airline basically told her, ‘it’s your problem, not ours’ and it ended up costing her nearly $1,200 to get new tickets on another flight!

In one set of reviews from a site that ranks airlines based on comfort, customer service and delays, the highest rank for United was in the area of on-time flights and that was only a 4 out of 10. It is believed that the problems are at least partly due to the nearly constant financial issues the airline faces, a problem that they’ve tried to remedy by overselling seats which sometimes leads to delays of more than seven hours for customers on their flights.

Aeromexico, Mexico

Aeromexico: This airline operates over six hundred daily flights, which is apparently too much for them to handle because they’re constantly receiving complaints about delays, poor customer service and lost baggage.

For example, one customer reported an incident a few months ago in which she had taken three students on a Spring Break trip from the USA to Nicaragua that was supposed to have a one night sleepover in Mexico City. When they arrived in Mexico City, the airline told them that the flight to Nicaragua had been delayed and that it would be eight days before they could get a new flight. The group decided to just return back to the USA; however Aeromexico couldn’t get them back there for another five days so they were stuck hanging out in Mexico City for almost a full week on their own tab.

Air India, India

Air India: The one thing that can be said for this airline is that it gets some points for consistency; unfortunately they’re awarded that honour only because they are consistently delayed. In 2005, customers experienced long periods of time just sitting on planes that pilots refused to fly because of safety concerns. In 2006, one customer reported that a flight was cancelled because there were too few people on it to make flying profitable so they were delayed to the point of needing to purchase a ticket on another airline.

In 2007, there was a day on which five flights were cancelled leaving approximately one thousand people stranded for as long as 24 hours. Air India’s problems continued into 2008 with numerous complaints of overbooking, sitting in cabins without food for up to six hours and regular delays.

Ariana Afghan Airlines, Afghanistan

Ariana Afghan Airlines: This airline is so bad that the EU has banned all but one of its planes from flying in Europe due to concerns about safety. One report states that Ariana Afghan Airlines have crashed more planes than are currently working in their fleet.

The airline is notorious for taking bribes; one customer reported that $50 would get you on a flight despite an announcement that the flight was delayed. However, the real concern comes from more recent reports that $500 will get you a pilot’s license to fly with Ariana! Some hope that increased political stability in this part of the world could ultimately lead to positive changes for this airline but for now it’s not one that you want to fly with.

Cebu Pacific, Philippines

Cebu Pacific: This small airline doesn’t have a huge itinerary of daily flights to manage so you would think that they could operate the ones they do have scheduled, but that’s not the case since they’re legendary for constant problems with delays. Currently a domestic airline, Cebu Pacific have ambitious plants to add scheduled international flights. Don’t let optimistic ambition blind you from reality: one set of industry reviews has them ranked only 2 out of a possible 10 for on time flights.

Recent complaints focus on the fact that flights are frequently several hours late on both the outgoing and incoming legs, often requiring passengers to wait inside uncomfortable planes for long periods of time while problems are sorted out. Cebu Pacific are also fond of the travellers worst nightmare – additional hidden charges.

Southwest Airlines, USA

Southwest Airlines: Many people in the United States love Southwest Airlines because it offers low prices on many flights. Unfortunately, this is often a case of ‘you get what you pay for’ as flying with Southwest has been notoriously problematic over the past few years.

There are the typical delays, of course, due to things like weather. It makes sense that Southwest is particularly concerned about weather issues since there was a case back in 2005 in which a Southwest plane mistakenly landed on an icy runway, skidding off of the track and killing a 6 year old boy. In fairness to the airline, it was said that the problem could have been the fault of the air traffic controller there but it put the airline on edge and made it so that weather-related delays were more frequent than necessary.

The following year, Southwest pulled its service out of airports where weather was often a problem, like in San Francisco (although they recently decided to return to servicing that airport this year). Things were good for the airline for a short time until early 2008 when over 40 planes were grounded because of the airline’s failure to meet inspection requirements causing widespread delays and cancellations.

AirTran Airways, USA

AirTran Airways: This small airline receives various customer complaints but the main one seems to be a result of the company’s practice of denying boarding rights to passengers who arrive late at the gate (even though the plane hasn’t even been readied to leave yet). It doesn’t seem to matter that the passengers are late because of delays in their connecting flights, delays frequently caused by the airlines themselves; passengers are often left idly at the gate watching the plane as it sits on the runway.

AirTran planes apparently like to just sit at those same gates for a while, with some passengers reporting that they’ve been stuck sitting on a stationary plane for up to five hours.

Have some food. Jersey is close to the French coast, so there is a lot of influence.  Seafood is a big part of the cuisine, especially mussels and crabs.  As you can imagine, it’s all fresh and tasty.  My favourite treat though is Jersey wonders, or mèrvelles, which is a fried dough.   If you live in the UK you’ll no doubt be familiar with Jersey cheese, but did you know it even has its own Cheese Festival?  And you’ll have to try Jersey fudge, made with the same milk.

Check out the beaches.  With loads of sun and mild weather, Brits love to hang out along the Jersey shore. (Pun on similar-sounding place in America is intentional.)   I’ve been told that Grouville is a good off-the-beaten-path recommendation, but I can’t attest to it first hand.    Regardless, if you want some ocean views they’re not difficult to be had.

Soak up some history. Jersey was the only portion of British soil to be occupied by Germany in WWII.  But there’s loads of strange and interesting history here.  Start with the Jersey War Tunnels for the most comprehensive view of recent history.  Then go way, way back in time at La Hougue Bie, a neolithic burial chamber.  It doesn’t end there… amongst castles and other interesting sights, check out this tale of folklore courtesy of the BBC.

If You Go:  The easiest way is via flight from Ireland or the UK mainland – low cost carriers offer cheap flights from a number of airports.  Once you’re there, it’s easy to get around but keep in mind the bus service doesn’t run late and taxis can be quite expensive!

Photo by tompagenet

Clock Tower of Cardiff City Hall by Anthea’s pics

So if you have any suggestions and/or would like to show me around Cardiff, please leave a comment on the post or contact me. I’ll add your tips to this post with a link to your site/blog (if applicable).

Itinerary

I’m be leaving on the Heart of the Valleys Tour at 09:00 on Friday 30 July, on which I’ll visit the National Coal Mining Museum at Bleanavon, Brecon Beacons National Park and the Penderyn Distillery.

Brecon Beacons by Chor Ip

As I’ve been thinking of visiting Bournemounth for some time I decided to book  a £2 return flight. I’ll only take hand luggage and I paid using Visa Electron to avoid the card payment fees.

The promotion runs until midnight on 16 July 2009 for flights departing until 27 March 2010 There are black out periods during the Mid Term Holidays and the Festive Season.

So I’d advise that you get on the Ryanair site as soon as possible and start searching for these £1 tickets.

Newquay by Tamara Areshian

So if you have any suggestions and/or would like to show me around Newquay, please leave a comment on the post or contact me. I’ll add your tips to this post with a link to your site/blog (if applicable).

So if you have any suggestions and/or would like to show me around Belfast, please leave a comment on the post or contact me. I’ll add your tips to this post with a link to your site/blog (if applicable).

Belfast Wheel by pawelbak

Readers’ Tips for Belfast

Kerry Dexter of Music Road has recommended An Chultúrlan, an old church which has been made into center for Irish language community in west Belfast, bookstore, tourist point, lovely people, frequent music events, cafe. It’s in the 200 block in the Falls Road, a short walk from city center.

Manchester Art Gallery by Hamed Masoumi

If you have any recommendations or tips for my visit to Manchester please leave a comment on this post or contact me. I’ll add your tips to this post with a link to your site/blog (if applicable).

Volunteer Guides

Chris Norwood of the Forever Manchester Blog will be my guide on the morning of Monday 27 July.

The Urbis Centre, an exhibition about city life, who have a great choice of guided tours including a 60s Magical Music Tour, Suffragette City, Tavern Tour and Medieval Manchester have offered to show me around Manchester.

Urbis Exhibition Centre, Manchester by jlcwalker

Birmingham Police Station by Patricia Drury

So if you have any suggestions and/or would like to show me around Birmingham, please leave a comment on this post or contact me. I’ll add your tips to this post with a link to your site/blog (if applicable).

Volunteer Guides

Nicky Getgood of Digbeth is Good is going to show me around the Digbeth area on the evening of Thursday 23 July.

Nicky Getgood describing her adventures in local blogging by pigsonthewinguk