Tubbutaha.hahahaha

Just got back from an AMAZING liveaboard adventure on the borneo explorer in Tubbataha Reef in the middle of the Sulu Sea between Palawan, Indonesia, and the Visayas. It was known as Jacque Cousteau's playground and favorite place. It was a bit expensive, but worth every penny. I was able to book the transition trip which meant for the same price I got 8 days instead of the typical 5. As soon as I boarded, I knew I was in for quite a trip. Took a chase boat to the main boat, the borneo explorer. This may not seem like much, but after taking deafening bancas where even earplugs would do little to sooth the ears all the time, this was a nice treat. I was welcomed on board into a fancy (and airconned!) main cabin and dining area and treated to ice tea (with its namesake ice). I was given a boat tour and shown my cabin which was quite awesome as well. A huge window looking out onto the ocean, a queen bed and then a bunk bed on top of that. Air conned of course, my own private bathroom with cold and hot shower. The room was so very clean and smelled of fresh fruit and was made daily and they'd even fold my clothes everyday. This was a complete 180 from everywhere else I had been staying. I arrived early so as not to miss the trip...philippine travel can be quite unreliable so I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon walking along the road that followed the coast. I boarded the ship around 5pm and settled into the cabin. I explored the ship some more and tried to meet and chat with the crew. I then made my way up to the bridge to learn all about the controls from Captain Castillo. We had a briefing and met all the other passengers on board (lucille from australia but works in the manila embassy, Bill and Lisa Bubb from Australia, Jean Paul, Anuete, georgio armani, and lindua from france, Sara and Kent from Sweden, Chester and Lucy from Palawan, Jean Paul and Thereu from France. The head divemaster was Paul Ancla from Cebu and the two divemaster guides were Cathy Ridsdale from the UK and Mike from Canada. Herg and Carrie (Germany and France but live in bali) were also along for half the trip but met up to guide another ship once we were a couple days in Tubbataha. (these names are more for my poor memory). I was the youngest by far (except the two guides who were in their late 20's), and the only real budget traveller also. They were all pretty much purely dive vacationers and I was by far the most inexperienced. I had 22 dives going into the trip and most had over 250.

That night we sat down for dinner that was just a preview of the amazingness to come. It was buffet style and there was always different meals to choose from, then fresh fruit (mangos every day!), fancy desserts, fruit juices and MILK! I'm pretty sure I gained lots of wait on this trip b/c we had so much food and on the budget thing I'm on I never really eat enough, so I was always helping myself to 3rds. And you know those shirts that are like eat, sleep, play basketball or whatever, well this was seriously, eat, sleep, dive. We had five dives a day and between each dive and before the first and after the lat there was food. Before the first dive was "light" breakfast which included cornflakes and milk (a delicacy here), bananas, WHEAT bread and peanut butter, hot coco. Then after the first dive at 7am was the heavy breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage, porridge, other kinds of meats, pancakes, etc. After the 2nd dive was a big hot lunch. after the 3rd dive was snacks after the 4th dive was cookies and pastries and after the 5th dive (the night dive) was the big dinner. And of course there was juice, coco, and candy around the clock. And of course we were quite pampered. Anything you wanted. They helped most people gear up, but didn't help me much b/c I was the youngest and didn't have too much trouble. Fresh warm towels after every dive.



And of course the diving was super sweet. It was actually pretty intense. 5 dives at 1 hour per dive is actually a lot b/c breathing compressed oxygen can make you tired (that's why a lot of the people there used nitrox...but too expensive for me). Of course my schedule was also a bit more rigorous than everyone else. I did every single dive except the first night dive b/c I didn't have my advance cert yet so I had to wait one day before I could get that, where as most people only did 3 or 4 of the dives a day. No way would I do that b/c the diving was too good and I wanted to get my money's worth. And most people retired to their cabin during surface intervals, but not me...I enjoyed hanging out with the crew or swimming off the boat or even bettter, jumping off from the top of the boat (the boat was 4 stories tall). The french always got a kick out of that b/c they snoozed on the top of the ship on the beach chairs in their speedos getting tans.

So back to the diving. The first night we sailed all night to get to Apo Reef off of Mindoro, which is a nationally protected reef. That night was very rough seas and it took 14 hours instead of the planned 11 to get there. I was a bit seasick in the morning, but not really too much. More groggy from not sleeping too well b/c with every big way I would roll across the bed. I had 4 great dives there. Lots of sharks, turtles, and of course all of the reef fish. I also had Carrie in my group the first 3 days before she moved on to the other boat and she was a pro at finding the macro stuff, so we saw lots and lots of different nudibranchs, anenome crabs, shrimps, and other highly camoflauged tiny things. The next day we steamed to the Cuyo islands. Because of rough seas, we were late in arriving there (this time I slept well b/c I slept a different direction on the bed) which meant we only did 2 dives there that day, which ended up being ok anyways. The cuyo islands unfortunately aren't protected from fishing, dynamite blasting, or cyanide poisoning, the the fish life isn't the best and there wasn't much big stuff. All the same we saw lots of cool little things with the help of Carrie. The area was actually quite good for macro b/c all the big stuff to eat the little stuff was overfished. And there was a cool cave we got to swim through that started at about 25m depth and ended up at 18m depth. Also, the islands were quite gorgeous in the area, abit like el nido style. We left early that day to make it to Tubbataha in order to get there on time in the morning. That night watched a couple movies with the crew in the dining area, which is quite fun with the boat is rolling up and down. The 3rd day we arrived at Tubbataha reef. It's divided into the N. and S. Atolls and we spent two days at each one. The diving was absolutely amazing there. So many fish and such good corals and the most incredibl wall dives Tubattaha is a world heritage site, nationally protected, as well as protected by the WWF. It is supposedly the most pristine reef complex in asia b/c it is very remote, and has incredibly rough seas 9 months of the year, so not many fisherman got to it before it was protected. The fish diversity was definitely impressive with all the typical butterfly, damsel, parrot fish etc. More angel fish than I'd ever seen anywhere and just an incredible amount of sweetlips and grouper (a good indication of a non-fished reef as they are quite tasty fish). And of course the sharks, oh the sharks. More than you could count. So many that you almost got to a point where you were just like, oh, just another shark and kept swimming. Diddn't happen too much for me b/c I love watching them, but I know for some people it did. Mainly white tipped reef sharks and grey reef sharks. But I saw one huge bullshark. We went to one area to look for hammerheads, but didn't get any luck unfortunately. Lots of times you could get quite close to the sharks as they napped during the day and would just sit in sandy areas or in caves. But on the early morning and late afternoon dives we often got to see them hunting which was quite exciting. And we saw lots of other typically uncommon fish with high frequency here such as moray eels, ribbon eels, and lion fish. A few of the exciting finds were an octopus just sitting on a coral head changing color and texture, and anenome hermit crab, triton shells, a pygmy sea horse (microscopic sea horse that lives in sea fans that has only been known to science for 10 years), a couple conical sponges spawning (they look like volcanos and when they're spawning which occurs once a year, they look like erupting volcanos), a marble ray, and a few eagle rays. We unfortunately struck out with manta rays though the crew saw a bunch from the boat while we were diving one day. I love turtles and there were lots and lots. Hawkbills and Green. Almost everywhere I had been except for Apo Island with lucas, the turtles typically scare easy. But here you could just sit and watch them forage for food or just float along with them for minutes on end in the current. We got to do 4 days, 5 dives a day at Tubatahha which was just great. On the last night dive there we dove at the Malayan wreck. There are always unusual creatures inhabiting wrecks and I also saw the largest grouper and parrotfish I have ever seen, but the big excitement in addition to a turtle nearly running into me in the dark was near the hull of the ship. Bill and I were squeezed into a tiny hole barely big enough for the two of us in the hull of the ship looking at some large fish in there when in a flash and out of nowhere a huge reef shark swam straight at us. Nearly slammed into us and somehow managed to turn around in the tiny space and go the otherway so that all we could see was the tail. We were so surprised that we nearly slammed our heads on the wreck and then started laughing. Quite exhillarating.

Tubatahha is made up of two atolls. The southernost has a tiny island with a few trees and a lighthouse. The northern one has the wreck above water and just the tiniest of sandbars. There is also a rangerstation that is built on stuilts, but even on low tide there is no dry land. So the ranger station is always on at least 1 foot of water. On the 3rd day we took a tender boat in to see the ranger station and splash around on the sandbar and the emerald water. It was the first dry land I'd been on in 5 days and it felt quite weird!

Besides the diving though I had a lot of fun on the boat. Had fun with the crew (again for my memory) especially Ben, Ardy, Angelo, Jay, Roan, Jeff, Richard, Eddy. The crew loved me. I think because I actually talked to them, joked with them a lot, and tried to learn their names, and also I was the craziest and most spunky of the people on the boat. At the end of the trip paul told me that the crew really liked me and wished I would stay for another round. I actually felt like quite a celebrity with them b/c when we'd load up on the boats to go to the dive site they'd all sit on the ship and wave and say have fun Trabis (the v is not really used in the philippines), and when we'd come back they'd jump up and down and yell my name again. And of course in the morning they'd all be quick to shout out my name and I was always invited to crew movie time at night. And just anytime walking through the ship they'd always have their hands out for highfives and such. No one else got this treatment at all. I was especially fond of Angelo who was the server and bartender and was fun to make laugh. At one point the french group asked me why they were always so excited to see me in the mornings and when I came back. In my head I was thinking b/c I actually talk to them and try and be friends, but I just told them perhaps b/c I was young. I think they also really liked me b/c I knew about filipinos and their culture. Everyone else (besides bill and lisa) were on purely dive holidays. So I think they really respected that I'd try and speak tagalog, that I knew the names of filipino dishes, that I ate turo turo on the streets, that I knew things about each of the regions the different crew were from (from bicol to romblon to cebu to n. luzon), that I could talke to them about rooster fights and that I was always teasing them if they had a videoke machine. The first day of diving at Tubbataha (the 3rd day overall) at 7am as we were gearing up on the side decks I opened the door to the dining area next door (I didn't wear a wetsuit or fancy equipment so I was always dressed a full 5-10 minutes before everyone else) to grab a quick hot chocolate and angelo had the music blasting as he was cleaning up. What song was it...none other than total eclipse of the heart, one of my very favorite 80's power ballads to karaoke to. I was feeling especially happy and excited for the diving so I was running around and singing to it, and there is a pole in the middle of the dining area and I did a pole dance from it. Angelo loved it. And of course he had air supply's all out of love, my next favorite song. So every morning it became routine that before the dive I would belt out and dance to those two songs with all the crew loving it. By the last day, the 4 french friends in my boat (my boat had the 4 french friends, lisa, bill, and mike as guide with jay as boatman and eddy as helper) joined in the dancing and I was twirling Anuete around. I actually really liked the group of french people too. It took a few days to warm up to them b/c of the english barrier, but they were quite cool and I think found me rather funny. I especially like georgie as he seemed so nice and was always smiling. I actually had quite a lot of fun with them and I was glad b/c the other english speakers seemed to ignore them b/c there english wasn't quite as good. But you can still have a lot of fun with people just with hand motions and tones. But my favorite was Bill. As Kathy and I joked, especially after looking at all of chesters pictures he had taken of the trip at the end where bill and I were always hanging out, he was my new best friend. Bill was about 65 and had been everywhere and dove everywhere it seemed and had quite good stories. He and lisa had done quite a bit of budget travel in their day as well and were the next most budget people to me on the trip. We always had good convo at dinner and since lisa didn't dive as many dives as bill, I was often his dive buddy. But I really did like them a lot and we had fun diving together. We just had a good connection for some reason. I also had good fun hanging out with Cathy and Mike who were more my age and also native english speakers.

On the 8th day we arrived into the port of puerto princesa on Palawan. I had one last huge breakfast. Most the people got off the ship right away by like 9 or 10, but bill lisa and I took our time and stayed on the ship for a while. Everyone else at pre-arranged resort reservations but we had to find our places and check out time isn't until noon. Around noon we took the borneo explorer van and went in search of budget places. Before I left the crew gave me a gift of one of the cool bright yellow crew t-shirts for the ship. I was very appreciative of that and was happy not to have to spend the 15 dollars that everyone else did for their tubbataha shirt. Went out to a fairly fancy place for lunch with all the divers from the ship as a goodbye thing, but then headed back to the borneo explorer to find the boys to hang out with again. We cruised around town and then they all went to get pedicures. I'd never had one before, but they were less than a dollar and they were all doing it, so I got one. As they were working on my dirty feet with their tools that they didn't exactly sanitize I was crossing my fingers I wouldn't get any fungus or anything like the last time I was in the tropics. I was nearly done with I looked at Jeff's feet and asked him what the black area was. "worm" he said. I could only laugh...and pray.

That night they took me to videoke, something they had been waiting to take me to for quite some time. And I thrilled them with passionate but most likely terrible renditions of all out of love, total eclipse of the heart, making love out of nothing at all, and I will survive. They bought me several rounds of beer and then Angelo, ardy, and I went down to this concert by the ocean walk they were having that night in puerto to meet up with Paul, Mike, Cathy, Chester and Lucy. Chester who is a big wig in Palawan (owns all the petrol stations) had gotten mike and cathy backstage to meet the band (apparently a big and famous one inthe philippines. Tanduay Rhum was sponsoring the concert so they were giving out 1 free sample each of mango juice and tanduay and some energy drink and tanduay. But since we were with chester, we got unlimited drinks and eventually found ourselves with whole bottles of it. We had a good time at the concert drinking the rum, attempting fountains of rum, and just joking around before Cathy and I finally went up towards the front of the band. In this country whites seem to get way too much respect (in malls and airports where they check your bags they thoroughly search the filipinos and let me walk in without hardly looking or in a line of people they always try to help me first), so we were easily able to walk right up to the front of the crowd so we were in the front row. And when we would shout for covers, the people next to us would join us and eventually the whole crowd. And thanks to chester the band gave a shout out to cathy and mike as well. After the concert we all too trikes to get some mami noodles before turning in. Definitely a great way to end my first liveaboard expedition. Paul said he'd hire me as a dive guide if I get my dive master cert, so it's something to think about for me b/c the borneo explorer also does trips around the visayas, micronesia, and palau. The trip was totally worth it as it was definitely the best diving I've ever done, i improved my diving skills tremendously, had a lot of fun, and quite enjoyed living on a boat.