Swimming With The Whalesharks - Oslo, Cebu (Philippines)

Oslob, Cebu

The Route

It was exciting to see my family again last July. The last time I visited was when my Mom passed-away in the beginning of 2015. This year, got my plane ticket online and found out that the most reasonable route was to fly Qatar Airways since they have a short layover and have up to 33 kgs luggage allowance. Qatar Airways as they claimed, has been the world´s nr. 1 airline for some consecutive times including this year. I have been flying with them everytime I visited the family in Manila and Cebu City. It takes about 4.5 hours flight from Vienna to Doha which is for me a convenient Airport. When its airport was still under construction some 12 years back, I have experienced a long layover of 12 hours so I got a voucher worth 25 EUR when I bought my plane ticket. I had access to their Oryx Lounge, slept in their comfortable sofa-chair , ate at their 24 hour buffet, and there was internet and one could take shower with free shower gel, shampoo, bath towel.

On My Way To Manila

I slept during the flight which was around 9.5 hours and when I arrived in Manila, it was already midnight of July 4 and my younger brother and nephew were already waiting at the airport. Man, it was good to be back in the country! The airport is not that far away from our place, I am used to the whole area of the present terminals since my brothers (5 of them) and I grew up there. My dad had been the construction supervisor of the first Manila International Airport in the ´60s. The old Airport was accessible to the public during those times until it burned down mid ´70s and they constructed new ones which are now known as NAIA Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. I had fun time with my family and then the following day we hired a van to spend the weekend in Quezon Province, the home of my sister in-law´s family.

The Cebu Visit

My ticket for Cebu City had been booked at home before my journey to Manila commenced. The flight from Manila to Cebu is less than an hour and the ticket is cheaper than I thought because Cebu Pacific has always promo flights all year round. I think I paid 3.5K Php for a return ticket and which was around 67 USD. I only stayed 4 days and my purpose was just to visit relatives.

It has been in my bucket list to see the whalesharks in Oslob, Cebu and to swim with them. Although I was scared of the idea of nearing the sharks, it was a now or never decision. And I was glad I went. The car drive from Cebu City to Oslob took us 3 hours and we left the house at about 3 AM. We had to be there at around 6:00 AM since the whole place was jumpacked with japanes tourists that usually came in buses.

The Oslob Experience With The Sharks

A guy who was to be hired as guide helped us get the ticket so we didn´t have to fall in line, he was a local of that place and he really helped us a lot gave tips, what to do and everything. He also arranged for the underwater shots so we could have some souvenir photos of us underwater. This underwater shots and videos cost around 1000 Php (around 20 USD) and were uploaded in our smartphone for the shots after the tour. We then gave tips for the guy for guiding us, the tip included an arrangement to bring us to the next island.

The tickets were classified into two, if you want to swim, the ticket costs 500 php /around 10 USD and if you stay on the boat and just enjoy watching the feeding, it´s around 6 USD. There had been an orientation that we had to undertake, giving us hints on what to do when the sharks were nearing us.. The most important thing was that we were not suppose to touch the big fish, it was prohibited and punishable by law.

We were given life jacket + snorkel mask and were brought to the area by boat batch per batch in the sea where the fishermen were feeding the big fishes. The boat is secured with poles or bamboo attached to the boat where we could hold just in case we just want to dip underwater. The camera man gives the signal when the sharks are nearing the boats to get their shrimps. Yes, the Butanding , that´s what the whalesharks are called are fed only with shrimps(!) and feeding time was between 6:00 AM til 11:00 AM only.

And then we saw the big fishes around us. I was determine to dip underwater, even removed my life jacket in order to swim and then I saw a couple of sharks near me. Oh yes, that was an amazing experience to remember and if I would have the chance again, I will go back and will do it again. When we were done with that thrilling experience, we were all stinking with the smell of the shrimps because the water was "polluted" with them en masse.So we needed to shower to get rid of all smell. Lol!

And so travelling friends, that was my story and hope you got some idea if you plan to go to my home country. Go to Oslob and experience the thrill and fun.

GIF courtesy of @gremayo

Disclosure: Posts on TravelFeed may contain affiliate links. See affiliate disclosure.