“All of oceans are all lush of wonders” – Old Sean
Traffic Evasion
During the wee hours of a strange morning, I called a car to take me to the Cebu South Terminal Bus Station for a 4 AM bus ride to Moalboal.
After a week or so of fighting Cebu’s intense waves of traffic, the ride to the bus station was a novel blessing. There was essentially no traffic, making it my swiftest and most painless transition through the urban sprawl since my arrival.
The only thing akin to traffic was found in front of churches due to Dawn Mass. The Dawn Mass of the Philippines is also known as Simbang Gabi, which is a nine-day series of masses held before Christmas Day from December 16th to the 24th. It is a significant religious celebration in the Philippines that has been around for over 600 years, originally observed during the Spanish colonial period when priests held early masses for farmers who couldn’t leave their fields to attend Christmas Mass.
But beyond the glimpses of 4 AM church congregations, the rest of the city was surprisingly quiet. I was able to trundle myself aboard the bus and begin snoozing, taking the long trip to my destination of Moalboal.
Now, one might assume that getting outside of the city finally allows travelers to escape the urban sprawl. But that’s not exactly how the Philippines are designed. Roads are the superhighways of the rugged island-jungle terrain, so wherever a road goes, low, cheap concrete buildings follow. There were very few moments where I looked outside the weakly lit window to see anything but another line of cinderblocks and rebar.
Hut Life
When I finally arrived in Moalboal four hours later (around 9 AM), I was immediately swarmed by people offering me motorbike rentals. However, since all of the locations only accepted cash, I needed to make a detour for a withdraw before I could afford a bike. Once I’d finally gotten aboard a motorbike, I took a long and meandering jungle road to my campsite, Asia-Archery.
There, I was introduced to a tiny laydown hut too small to adequately stand within. It was comfortable enough with a charging port, light and roof fan, but it wasn’t ideal for long stretches of time. I did some work with my laptop on my belly before getting restless and planning activities for the rest of the day.
I remember once when I was staying in Ecuador in Puyo, I left my socks outside after hiking. When I went to put them back on, butterflies had clustered around them, attracted by the scent. It had taken a long time to gently remove them. This time, a different critter made getting my shoes back on difficult. About three dozen roly-poly pillbugs had clambered inside my boots, necessitating a solid half hour of shaking bugs out.
White Beach
Once I was finally done with rescuing pillbugs from their underfoot demise, I went out to White Beach, a gorgeous stretch of white sand leading to low coral tides. There, I floundered in the morning waters after caking on a few layers of coral-safe sunscreen. Shimmering walls of pivoting sardines rose and pulsed in the distance, just beyond the reef shelf. Bulky reefs sponged along the nearby ground and I overhead other foreigners talk about sea turtle sightings, though I hadn’t personally seen any.
I kept swimming until I started getting a sunburn. After which, I hopped back aboard my motorbike and zoomed off to find lunch. I was very fortunate to find a place called Okeanos Bistro, which not only offered payment through credit cards, but also had WIFI and air conditioning.
I had a bit of a hiccup when trying to pay, of course. Power cut out to the entire street due to construction, leading to a lot of WIFI hotspots being necessary to complete payment. But once it was done, I took a walk through the bustling downtown area, propping an umbrella over my head to stem the occasional drizzles.
The rest of my day was spent chatting with strangers and enjoying little snacks. I booked a tour the following morning to Oslob to see the Whale Sharks. As such, I made a point of going back to my campsite early to get some rest.
Blue Reach
The following day, I took a white van with several other foreigners to the opposite side of the island, where we were given life jackets and snorkels in the first speckles of dawn. We took a boat into deeper waters roughly fifteen minutes away from shore, where we started paddling around looking for the whale sharks.
We almost didn’t see any. The tour is limited to about an hour of time in the water, with only half an hour around the whale sharks themselves. To our enormous fortune, we managed to spot two of the vast giants during the last ten minutes of our swim.
The whale sharks aren’t kept in that part of the ocean, they just visit because fishermen would often toss small schooling fish to them. Now they hang out in the hopes of snacks. One of the whale sharks was enormously close while the other we spotted stayed a fair distance away.
That essentially concludes my time in Moalboal. The rest of my visit was spent snoozing on White Beach, rather exhausted by the rapid number of activities. Fairly soon, I’ll be returning to Manila, where I’ll be celebrating Christmas with family friends in that portion of the world.
So until then,
Best regards and excellent trails,
Old Sean
Written December 25th, 2024
Unique Activities to Enjoy Around Moalboal
