Living like a Rainbow 有虹的天空: Whale shark trip, Donsol Philippine

Our aim for this trip is to look for Whale Shark 鲸鲨,
Donsol, Legazpi and explore somewhere nearby is our choice for a short trip.

Whale Shark in the family of shark but not harmful to human, known as "Gaint Gentle", the largest fish. Name whale just because of its gaint size. The local Philippine call it "butanding".

100 peso notes

Flight:

~ flight from kuala lumpur to manila and transit to Legazpi airport。

~ For return , there is no more airport terminal fees when you depart from Manila airport.

~ But, for domestic departure from Legazpi airport, terminal fees 150 peso.
~ Legazpi airport have a nice view of Mayon Volcano.

Mayon Volcano - view from plane

Transportation to Donsol:

If you travel in group, you can take van from Legazpi to Donsol about 1700~2000 peso for one trip. But for this trip. We are travelling in two, so we decide to take public transport, a tricycle (50 peso for two) from Legazpi airport to the nearby bus terminal and joint van (UV Express, 70 peso per passenger), with other passengers to Donsol town and additional 50 peso to bring you to your hotel. It is not difficult to use this route and much more cheaper to take the whole van. We only spend total about 240peso for two persons, about two hours from Legazpi to Donsol.

Diving nearby Ticao Island:

Heading to "crab boat" for scuba dive

Since we are going for whale shark for this trip, we make it a try to take the first day scuba diving to nearby dive sites, Ticao Island. Hopefully we will see the "Gaint Gentle" during scuba dive.

Generally there are only few dive sites near Ticao Island and only found one dive centre nearby Donsol whale shark interaction centre. The visibility here is not good and Boon's regulator having leakage though already changed the backup set. We do not have pleasant dive there. So we just dive for one day and switch to take the whale shark interaction for the second day.

We have total six divers in a boat.
4,500 peso per person for 3 dives and equipement rental of 800 peso per day.
It is not cheap to dive here and I will not say it is recommended. If you aim for diving, can skip this!

According to the dive master, it is higher chances to see whale shark during scuba dive, while they coming into Donsol water region during month of February.
Manta ray (said to be almost guarantee to see) at Manta Bowl, and we saw one as in the video.

Whale shark interaction 鲸鲨互动:
whale shark interaction 中心，早上七点开始。first come first serve. 如果你要塔最早的船那就要一早来排队报名和附費。

这活动从报名到回程都很有规律。当凑够了人数，就被分配给特定的船家。游客和船家都照排队。政府也有環境保护費可收。

上了《蜘蛛》船出了大海，spotter 就会单脚站在高峯，寻找鲸鲨的踪影。当船家说準備，一船六人排排坐，一听到"jump", 就要毫不犹豫的跳下船, 才能与它见面。spotter 和驾船的都很有经验。在大约一个多钟头里，我们上上下下大约有八九次。只有一次是看不到它，因为它游向深处了。

费用: 抨船900 peso /人。(第二次，折扣300peso). 这是interaction centre 的定价，有些酒店或代理价钱会有相差。

租借: 水鏡+蛙鞋 300peso. (也可以自備)

ready to jump

spotter

listem to instruction "Jump"

head and mouth

side by side

鲸鲨的到来，让Donsol 从一个不起眼的偏僻小镇成为世界为数无几，可以让人和鲸鲨互动的地点。从发现它的价值到发展成现在这样有规划的旅游景点，可见政府和当地人一定下了不少工夫。

Firefly Watching cruise:

这个活动也是很有规划的，如果你住在whaleshark interaction centre 附近的酒店，可乘搭三輪车tricycle (40-50peso)到 Ogod river, 也是报名，要拼船的，五人就可以出船了。
費用: 250 peso, 5 人一船。

船沿着河边慢慢走着，有好几次船会靠近特定的红树林，整棵树闪烁着，像似圣旦树，有韻律但无声的演奏。

ATV Driving at Mayon Volcano:
ATV四輪駆动车，在酒店或网上出名的公司訂会比较贵。我们拿了两人，350cc 的，3500peso.

给果隔天去了Cagsawa ruins, 也有好几间，价钱大约便宜一半，猜想路缐和路形可能都差不多一样吧！

ATV 很容易骑，不会骑摩托车的也可以试！很不错的体验。

Explore Nearby South Luson, Philippine
to be continue...

Legazpi Town:

to be continue...

Public Transport:

~ public transport are commonly, easy and cheap to use in Legazpi and south Luzon Philippine.

~ majority of philippino can converse in english. there is no problem to ask for help.

~ town nearby are connected by long distance bus, jeepney from town to town.

~ to travel within the town of Legazpi. jeepney are most convenient and can get easily. Price is cheep and honestly charge within 5-10peso. But they will squeeze in passengers as much as possible and travel within thier fix route.

~ tricycle having slightly higher price than jeepney but convenient to bring you to specific location as your request.