It was a 1,5-2 hour car ride from Moalboal to the port in Liloan (South Cebu), and after buying the tickets we waited for about half an hour for the ferry. It took just 20 minutes to get to Negros Island (Sibulan), and from there we took a tricycle through Dumaguete to our hostel/home stay/dive center in Dauin. It was quite a fun ride, with a lot to see on the way. We arrived at Bongo Bongo just before sunset, and were welcomed by owners, dive guides and guests. Such a friendly place. We had a private room in one of the bamboo huts on the property, but again spent most of our time in the common areas.
One of the owners at Bongo Bongo is Danish, and quite a few of the guests and instructors/dive masters were Danish too. But this was also a popular place to stop by for expats from all over the world and quite a few locals. They had a shared kitchen for the guests, but we ordered from the nearby restaurant Cat’s instead, which delivered for free. Very good and quite cheap food. The hostel had a self-service bar with cheap beers, and the owner, Magnus, even managed to get us some craft beer from a Norwegian brewer in Dumaguete while we were there. We also shared some aquavit, but especially the Danes were not big fans. We spent most of the time between and after dives in the common area in the front. We played music, cards, games (tumbling towers was especially popular), learned Danish kids songs, shared info on places to stay/dive etc, cuddled the 5 house dogs and laughed a lot.
Dauin is famous for muck/macro diving. We had most of our dives with dive guide Marvin, who was excellent at spotting all kinds of marine life. We had a few dives just off the beach outside the hostel, but normally drove a few minutes along the coast in either direction. On Sunday we were supposed to go to Apo Island by boat, but the government issued a typhoon warning, and we were not allowed to go. We went by boat to other dive sites along the coast instead. Fredrik still needed to rent equipment, and this was a great place to do so. They had high quality gear, a lot of the same brands as our own gear.
A lot of ferries were also cancelled because of the typhoon warning, so the day before we were leaving we sent a guy to the ferry terminal to buy tickets. They had no availability, but we got tickets for the ferry one day later. Luckily our room was available, so we could stay a day longer at Bongo Bongo. That was a very good idea, because a bit after we originally should have left, Fredrik’s long lost suitcase finally arrived on a motor bike, 8 days after he arrived in Cebu, 10 days after he checked it in in Norway. Happy-happy! We even signed up for two more dives, just so he could dive with his own gear. After checking the labels on the suitcase, we found out that it had been on a little vacation of it’s own to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. 😮
Dauin, Philippines from Gunnhild Bringsvor on Vimeo.