Two Backpacks One Couple

After our time in Moalboal came to an end we got a taxi to the east side of the island. Most people do Oslob as a day tour, either on its own or combined with Moalboal. We could tell, as there was not much infrastructure set up for tourism here compared to all of the other places we had been. We saved some money, though, by eating a lot of $1 burgers and 7-Eleven, which were our two food options nearby our lodging. The hotel was right over the ocean, which was nice.

Nick and I rented a scooter and drove ourselves to the Whale Shark Watching area at 5:30am the next morning. People can choose to snorkel or scuba dive in the water where many juvenile whale sharks gather. There are boats that monitor the snorkelers and feed the whale sharks small shrimps. We tend to not like to support activities that involve feeding wild animals. I had read the government looked into it and decided it was doing more good than harm, but it is hard to say for sure.

The scuba experience was wonderful, though. They really go above and beyond for dive service in the Philippines, I got spoiled (and to a lesser degree, so did Nick). The shop set up my BCD for me, they carried my gear to the water for me, helped me into the gear, and even put my flippers on for me. I will miss the princess treatment for diving, that’s for sure. Water visibility was low, but we saw 10-14 whale sharks. It is hard to tell how many were repeats.

There were also many fish and a sea turtle. Nick and I did not see another diver until we were making our way out of the water. It made it feel like we had the whole place to ourselves. There were so many snorkelers we could see at the surface; it seemed like a madhouse. I wondered how the whale sharks felt about it. Luckily it isn’t an enclosure and the sharks could roam freely as they wished. We got to see a few swimming deeper past us to get away from all the craziness at the surface.

Later in the day we scootered to Tumalog Falls, which is a waterfall near the whale shark watching area. The falls themselves had little water coming over, but the water beneath was a milky turquoise color. Nick and I enjoyed soaking in the soft water and watching all the birds fly around the cliff wall. It was not too busy, but there were always other people in the water, too.