Dive Review of Whispering Palms/same in
Philippines/Negros + Cebu

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Whispering Palms/same: "where are the fish", Jun, 2024, by Michael Joest, Kehl, DE ( Top Contributor 52 reports with 31 Helpful votes). Report 12983 has 1 Helpful vote.
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Sipaway Island Whispering Palms, Negros, Philippines (10 nights) Since retirement and a modest pension I have to look more carefully for destinations with good and reasonable rates. Often I waited for special deals or offers from the various dive shows in Europe (e g Boot, Duesseldorf). Once in a while on short notice sometimes travel agents offered slots still available or free due to cancelation or not fully booked. Thus even destinations like Galapagos were sold for savings of 1500 € to the regular price. Same applies to group offers which are interesting. 2 times already I´ve been on such offers to Raja and the Philippines. When I saw the ad “sardines and tresher sharks” I got curious and said yes. It was 2190 € for 2 weeks including flights dives and breakfast, single surcharge was 390 € and 2 places to visit, Negros and Cebu. With 72 I don´t want to share a room with someone anymore, I need my privacy. I opted for this as it would provide calm relaxed dives into warm water. Strong currents with washing machine like conditions, bumpy hard rides on Zodiac are not my thing anymore. I feel my bones when we ride out to the reef, am not that surefooted anymore getting in or out of the Zodiac with full gear even though I´m still in rather good shape. Youngsters often envy my air consumption and I easily still swim away from them when current hits. Last time we flew with Singapore Airlines. This time the travel agent took China Airlines via Taipeh. It seems C A offers good rates for groups and some agents even use it to reach Micronesia. Taiwan tourist board offered a free city tour on return where we had a layover of more than 7 h. 12 ¾ h from Frankfurt to Taipeh, 2.5 h to Cebu, 2,5 h cab ride to the harbor, 1,5 h with ferry, 20 min local boat (Bangka), 5 min with tuk tuk, a hell of a trip to reach paradise, some would call it adventures some would hardly smile any more. For me it was a bit too much. Organization lacked when parts of the group went for drinks, the other for local currency, the rest waiting for the cabs. Thomas the dive instructor of the resort promised, we would reach the 4 o´clock ferry in time. We arrived in time, the scheduled 3:30 ferry was gone. 2 h stroll through the village and market, Mc Donnald´s and bakery. Cute local kids were selling small portions of fresh mango and pineapple, had already learned to say “no change” when you took some. Ferry ride was refreshing after the hours in 34 C and high humidity. Again they had no real plan to reach the Bangka from the ferry terminal. A former guest of the resort knew where to go but was not really up to guiding us there. At this time it was dark already, tide was low, we had to climb across slippery pier to get into the boat. It took a while for all the luggage to get on board. Dead tired on arrival we just grabbed some food, keys and hit the sack immediately thereafter. A general briefing was planned but skipped after 32 h travelling. Well one doesn´t expect a tour guide to play cattle driver but with schedules in mind maybe he should perform his job properly. You reach the dive center via a 300 m paved road through some mangroves which sometimes is flooded on high tide. Paperwork procedures briefing etc went smoothly but some people sometimes need to tell long stories of their dive trips yawn. Did a check dive on the house reef where a rope leads you on a round trip with some toys, pyramid, old car, horse trailer, cross. Aladin showed 34 C so I went only with a Scubapro rash guard overall. Tresher shark sightings were reported even here now so we tried our luck early this morning. It´s not like in Malapascua where you kneel in 35 m in same stage like area and look out over the edge of the reef into the dark blue without moving. Here you swim along a deeper wall and look for the big stuff. One animal showed in the greyish dark beneath us, too far and dark for the go pro to get a satisfying picture. 2 reef dives followed, 30 C in 20 m, vis 15 m, a lovely reef but not much fish around. I enjoyed the variety of coral and color, hard and soft ones plus sponges. Whispering Palms is a huge place with beach, mangroves, massage, swimming pool etc. A lovely surprise was the menu which offers a wide and mouthwatering mixture of dishes, so surprise there as the manager now was a former chef. Meals main course 350 – 700 pesos, salad soup starters 250 – 350 peso, happy hour pina colada 90 p. Alans Place East, poor vis 5 – 10 m in 6 m slowly getting better, temp dropped to 28 brrr. Lovely reef, lots of new coral growth everywhere. Philippines seem slowly to understand the need for protection of the reef. Friends join a 3 month reef survey totally free of charge here. We all agree and miss turtles and moray eels. San Juan Gamai, 8:30 start for the first time we went north of the island. Briefing promised a wall down to 30 m with a special nudi only seen here “tree nudi”.My girlfriend which I had send some pictures complained “where are the fish”, as I so far had send coral sponges gorgonian etc. So this time I concentrated on fish and there were quite a few smaller ones around. Found a small cuttle fish, some nudis of a size my eyes are capable to spot, a salbe of 10 cm which I removed from kicking fins. Melina my buddy, guide, instructor, marine biologist did a great job with the group, checking air when she felt we reached around 100 bar, warned of approaching deco, tried blowing rings with me under the boat with me at the end of the dive. Often she asked and invited us to prolong our dive over the 60 min when a nice coral garden was underneath the Bangka. Vis deep 5 m on the reef 15 m. They could not start the diesel, had to call boat 2 to tow us back to the resort. So the early start at 8:30 brought us back around 3 p m Sipaway Canyon Best dive so far to the north again. A wall reached down to 31 m. Entrance were two huge gorgonian between which we swam down into a canyon. Vis got foggy deeper than 15 m around 10 m it was amazing. Fish life around us and a paradise for the makro lovers, lots of nudis, small crabs, tiny shrimps, ghost pipe fish were waiting to be found. Definitely nothing for my eyes but I enjoyed the pictures of my buddies later on. During surface break they offered tea coffee and some biscuits, everybody told stories of former adventures. 2 days already we had reached 34 C, no clouds, you had to be careful with the sun on your skin, some got badly burned. Camote east south, wouh the first really excellent dive. On descend we hit a magnificent boulder with all the components the Philippines are famous for, hard and soft coral, sponges hundreds of small fish around, a picture postcard motive. Later a bunch of squids around us and 5 big yellowish trevally chasing fusiliers, a fantastic picture. 2 small moray eels, 1 lion fish, 3 puffer, 1 parrot, some trigger and 1 rather shy oriental sweetlip rounded this up. I mean the behavior of the few fish shows clearly, there is hunting pressure from man. Normally you find sweetlips in a bunch floating in the current and allowing you real close. Campolabo, 2 times we did a 75 min muck dive there which I don´t need and don´t enjjoa at all, I´m just not interested in that stuff. I compare this to a dive in a gravel lake at home. I do enjoy a colorful reef scenery, fish life, blue water dives but this not at all. Even when a guide and buddy point out specials like tiny crabs, nudis, cuttlefish shrimp, no thank you. Lucky for me 2 buddies shared this sentiment. The Bangka is ideal for entry and exit, giant stride in, a not too steep stairway going up into the boat. The boat crew is awesome, before you even move one guy already pulls up the tank for you to better get into, he guides you carefully to the entry, same when you come back to make sure you reach your place safely with full gear. Already on the stairway they grab your fins and accompany you up. The transfer to Moalboal was planned as dive trip on a Bangka. Coast guard however insisted on some extra paper which 1 day prior to departure our dive center couldn´t provide. So it was 1.5 h ferry, and 2.5 h cab ride to reach our 2 nd stop, too much of a transfer for me. I wonder if they ever had tried that dive transfer before. Moalboal, Sea View Dive Resort, Cebu (4 nights) + Cebu Fun Divers Talisay Wall, I just love wall dives, the steep drop is tempting to go a bit further than planned, the sight deep into the dark water, the chance of big stuff cruising by, blue water dives away from the wall. A small school of barracuda on entry. A red frog fish waiting for the makro enthusiasts, 100 razor fish swimming vertical of horizontal right before my eyes, a banded snake is slowly worming it´s way up the reef, A truly pleasant and lovely introduction in the sites here, already on 1 dive more fish than on Whispering Palms. Sardines 1000 of them building columns, canyons, scattering out again, I lose my buddy in a cloud of them, an amazing experience. One would expect to find predators cruising through with mouth wide open for an easy meal and full stomach. Nothing of that happens, a wonder what keeps them here all those years. Rumor has it , the hotels + restaurants pour there sewage unfiltered and uncleaned straight into the ocean?! The sardines feed on this, the reef wall looks like it could be true. Most sites are only 5 min away. Looc a recommendation from Renè the owner offers a wall with big patches of pastel colored soft coral in all shades. 10 min straight out you will see a small island and all of us crave to try this as we only have 2 dive days here. We opted to go there for our last dive here. Vis changed between 5 – 20 m, again a wall sloped down to around 40 m. Last dive means for many of us, lose your buoyancy and get a big number into your log as farewell. Well I dropped down to 36 m, the guide was banging on his tank. Fish all around us even some better sized ones, mackerel and trevally on the edge of the reef. A school of these fish which most times approach you with mouth wide open and gills spread white. I can´t stop giggling when I see these guys. A lot of overhangs crevices and small cavern invite my macro fans to spend their time, I kick onwards and practice blowing rings under the Bangka. The guide points into the blue, a turtle is swimming away, the only one for me here. A wall with yellow soft coral around the ascend line. My last day I accompanied the divers to the end of the island and snorkeled all the way back. Jelly fish near the surface was a bit disturbing and ruining this adventure. Altogether I got what I aimed for, relaxed diving in warm water. So Philippines or Indonesia might be future destinations for me. On our last day my Aladin quit it´s job on me showing micro bubbles level 0, this stayed frozen on the display, no chance to delete or confirm it , have to bring it to maintenance.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	worldwide more than 100 destinations, mostly South Pacific and Asia, Africa and Caribbean
Closest Airport	Cebu	Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy	Seas	calm, no currents
Water Temp	28-30°C / 82-86°F	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	5-20 M / 16-66 Ft
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of Whispering Palms/same in Philippines/Negros + Cebu

Whispering Palms/same: "where are the fish", Jun, 2024,

Photos Submitted with this Report

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Whispering Palms/same in
Philippines/Negros + Cebu