Day Nine + Ten – Going to Donsol

Checking in process at the domestic airport in Manila was simple enough and we had plenty of time til our flight so we sat down with some brownies and started to read once again! We were having such a  great time that we didn’t notice that our flight had boarded already, it wasn’t until we checked the board and saw FINAL CALL on the television set that we knew we had kinda fooked up a little bit. Running to the desk we made the check in and handed them our boarding passes and went out onto the strip to get onto our plane. We were flying with Zest Air this time round and they were actually pretty cool, we got free water off them in the terminal for flying with them and they had “The more refreshing airline in Asia” as their slogan.

So we arrived in Legazpi and met some Israelis that were headed to Donsol as well, so naturally we shared a van for the 45 minute van ride. During this ride, I can safely say I’ve been witness to some of the most craziest driving ever. I can remember driving at excessive speeds in this van, going blindly around a corner on the wrong side of the road while trying to pass a truck that was going almost as fast. It was during this point the Israelis turned around to us and asked if we were praying and you can bet your mum’s kettle that if I thought it made a difference I would have been, the driving was that horrific. I was almost certain of my death.

Finally, we make it to the Tourist Centre in Donsol in one piece, somehow and we sign up for what we came for. Swimming with the Whale Sharks! We secured a boat (with the Isaelis) and paid some registration fee and watched an educational mandatory video about what will happen and some history behind the whole affair which was basic stuff we already knew. Seriously, if you know about Donsol you know about what to do and what not to do but I digress. Asking the people in the Tourist Centre for recommendations on where to stay they told us to go to place called Shoreline Beach Resort which was a great place! Right on the beach, 5 minute walk from the Tourist Centre and really cheap and excellent rooms with hot water and the best little restaurant you can imagine (for the area). We loved the place and two nights we spent there.

That night we found yet another bar on the beach and ate some delicious food and talked the night away while drinking a few drinks. Knowing we had to be on a boat at 6:30 in the morning we packed it in early around 10. The next morning, we got up around 6:15 and basically dressed ourselves and walked over to the Tourist Centre to meet with our BIO and the rest of our group. By 7 we were equipped with all our gear, on the boat and in the middle of the bay looking for whale sharks. The weather was a bit shabby and there wasn’t much light at that point during the morning but that didn’t stop our spotter from finding a whale shark! Quick as rain everyone jumped into the water and followed the BIO to the whale shark, it lasted all of 30 seconds and I didn’t even see a thing!

Ange was wided eyed and gleeful with the fact that she just swam with a whale shark. I guess I could say the same thing after all I DID swim with a whale shark, I just didn’t see it! I was told it was a small whale shark, about 5 meters long and that I would see much bigger during the next 2 and a half hours. 30 minutes went by without a sighting on our part although we saw some other boats engaging a whale shark and because of the strict rules regarding swimming with the whale shark, we weren’t allowed to swim with it at the same time so we kept on looking. Eventually, we found another whale shark and it was humongous! I saw an actual whale shark and it was amazing! It was even a tad bit scary seeing as it came out of the murky water and headed straight for me and Ange! We swam beside this one for a few minutes before it descended into the depths a little too far beyond our sight before we scrambled back into the boat to find more.

Fortunately the weather had vastly improved and we saw whale shark after whale shark for the rest of the morning, in total we saw about 6 whale sharks with two of them being really really big. Being satisfied with the entire experience we returned to shore with a certain smugness about us and made it back to our room. Realizing it was still really early in the morning we lounged around for a bit before contemplating what to do, it was around now that we decided we needed more money and after consulting the manager of the resort (some fat old lady) we concluded that we needed to go to Pilar.

How we got there is the fun bit though! First off, we took a tricycle into the centre of Donsol and jumped onto a Jeepney. A Jeepney!! Since seeing them for the first time in Manila on our first day, I had always wanted to ride in one and this was my chance. The 15 minute journey to Pilar was pretty ordinary except for the fact that we were sitting in an awesome looking Jeepney, we arrived there and paid 15 pisos each (30 cents).  The entire point of being in Pilar was so we could withdraw some money from an ATM because it makes sense that the only ATM in an hour’s distance was 15 minutes away. Well, guess what! It didn’t work and we were short on cash yaaaayyyy, luckily we found some money stashed in Ange’s diary that we had forgotten about so we were good until we got to Legazpi City.

Annnyway it was the ride back to Donsol that was full of life, death and epicness. We rode on TOP of the Jeepney! It was awesome lol, imagine flying around corners and going through a jungle on top of a car except that car was a Jeepney and it was pimped out better than that black dude from Pimp My Ride. We rode on top as the Jeepney was full and no one said no so we just held on tight and off we went. It was so fun I felt as if I should give the guy more than 30 cents because it was just like some wondrous theme park ride. Back in Donsol we revelled in the fact that we were still alive and wondered what we should do next, taking our finances into consideration it was decided that Fire flies were the way to go.

Donsol is home to an environment that is accommodating of Fireflies that apparently only exists in two other places in Asia so we had to go and check it out. Before long we were in a really dodgy boat if you could call it a boat and were drifting out into the middle of the night and sure enough we saw Fireflies! It was pretty cool, don’t know how else to describe it, they flew and were constantly lit up. They reminded me of Christmas tree lights the way they blinked and moved. It was absolutely brilliant in a way but that ended eventually and we were up the next morning to pack ourselves into a van with two other people.