The Philippines: Manila, Alona Beach, Moalboal.
We were back in Manila where we would stay for five days to have a hospital check for Jorunn, get some rest and take a look around Manila. The hospital check was OK, but Jorunn decided not to dive for the rest of this trip. Then it was back to Bohol and Alona Beach where we could, eat, relax and Christer could do some diving. We found a nice place to stay with a view over the water and it was close to the beach and I dived: Pungtud, Gak Ang, Arco Point, ABC, Habagat wreck and a few other sites. We also went out early one morning by boat to look for dolphins, but it seemed more like a dolphin chase than anything else. I won't say much more as this is our second time here on this trip and that Alona Beach is a really nice place with nice people, good food and is very relaxing (we met a girl here who lived down the street from us in Oslo). Jorunn spent her time in the sun, snorkelling and being social. And of course she met people who thought she was Molly from the time we spent there a couple of months earlier.
We took a ferry to Cebu City where we caught a bus to Panagama beach, Moalboal on the opposite side of the island Cebu with beautiful coast line facing Negros island. We stayed at a nice place on Panagsama beach with nice staff and it wasn't too busy. Off the coast was a small island, Pescador marine park that I had heard about and would find out what it was all about. Generally the diving was sloping walls except for Pescador which had hundreds of meters deep walls and at time a heavy current. I dived the following sites: 2x Pescador island, 2x Kasai, White beach house reef, Marine Sanctuary and oango Point. Things to see: Great barracuda, green turtle, hawksbill turtle, dogtooth tuna, batfish, lot's of schools of fish, mandarinfish, groupers, snappers, unicornfish, lot's of nudibrach (even snorkelling) and lot's more (really). This really is a great place to dive and relax if it were not for the karaoke bars blaring music all day and night and the weekend outdoor disco that played the music so loud we could almost hear the lyrics and we were over 3 kilometer away, until 6 in the morning.
We did take time out for a little sightseeing while were here as we had heard of a nice walk up a river gorge which started out wide and slowly the walls got steeper but the walking path was really good and very pretty. We walked for several kilometers following the river until we came to a fantastically beautiful small lake with bluegreen water and and a 10 to 15 meter high water fall. It was a very relaxing place with people swimming, eating and having a great time. We dipped or feet for a while then headed back down track to get a ride back to the hotel to pack as it was time to head back to Manila and then home.
This had been a long trip with some good and some bad but we learned that it is not easy to be in a third world country for such a long time with heavy drinking, poverty and people who are just trying to survive and do the best they can.
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