Malapascua Island Warnings Or Dangers

My warning is to completely ignore the nonsense written above by whatever his name is about TSD. I think the guy has some intellegence issues. How on Earth could they fix it so people only see the sharks or Mantas on their last dive when many people on the boat will have done different amount of dives? Not to mention the fact that however good Andrea, Trevor and Mike are even they can't determine what time the fish come for cleaning. How this guy got scuba certified when he can even figure this out baffles me!

My other warning is that most places on the island seem to take an hour or so to cook your food. TSD seem to have solved this problem and you can get a good meal there in around 15 mins or less.

I'm sorry to say this, since I really like animals, but on the island there are a lot of deseased dogs roaming about on their own.
When I say "deseased" I do not mean rabid dogs, but a very severe skin desease (I'm not sure about the translation of Italan "rogna" but I found this in the vocabulary) that to me seams to be mange.
As I know that this desease can be transmitted to a human, I would not reccomand to play with them.
Some of them are in a really bad condition and I felt very sorry for them as they could scarsely move.
So it seams to me a good idea to pay attention!

The water in there is salty. It's like taking a shower with sea water. I think that's what they do - siphon the water from the sea which then go straight to your friendly little beach house. Cleaning my contacts needs mineral/distilled water. Your 'concierge' knows where to get one. Better if you choose the 6galllons or something. The big barrel costs us p80. The price was really p60 but we paid extra to the man who carried it from far, far away. On our last day, there was a lot of water left so I used for bathing.

I'd ignore muddybok's inaccurate, unsubtle advertisement for his favourite dive shop. I've seen Thresher Sharks and Mantas with the people he criticizes. And it depends more on luck than on what time you get there. (I've seen thresher sharks at 2pm, for example.)

The posted prices for the two operations are so close - you're better off going and looking, and deciding which group you feel more comfortable with. Oh, and since thresher shark sightings are becoming rarer, no one on the island is offering a guarantee!

My dive buddy & i were having dinner at Ging Ging Restaurant and we chatted with Italian diver couple who are in their fifties who are diving with Thresher Shark Divers. We were asking them whether they have spotted the thresher sharks and the reply was they were out in the sea (to Monad Shoal) 3 days in the row and they have not spotted any thresher shark yet. And the dive centre (Thresher Shark Diver in this case) told them there was no shark sighting for the last 5 days. This is totally bullsh!t because i just dove the day before (i spotted 3 on my first dive) and on the day of my arrival, Angela (boat buddy) sighted 3 thresher sharks and one manta ray. The very day i dine & chat with the Italian couple, two divers from our dive centre have an encounter with thresher shark swam as close as 1 meter above them.

Apparently, TSD purposely bring their divers out to the sea 1/2 hour later and decent at Monad Shoal around 6:25am where most of us from Exotic Island divers would have pack up and ascend to our dive boat. So, don't believe the TSD's Thresher Shark Guarantee assurance because you will miss thresher shark in your first 4 dives and final got the see them on the 5th dive because TSD finally asking you guys to gather in the boat 1/2 hour earlier and descend the Monad Shoal at the right time.


6th free dive not qualified and you still have to pay for the 5 dives and multiply them with USD 23 and you do the math yourself.

What about extra nights' accommodation and foods?

If you catch a taxi and look like you don't know where you're going, the taxi driver will probably go the 'long way' to get more money from you.

They also 'round up' your change. So if the fee is 350pesos, and you give them 500pesos, they will keep the change and speed off!!

Always make sure the meter is running.

Some taxi drivers can't read maps!! Or can't read English. And some don't even know their way properly around the city! Make sure you carry a map with you at all times and try to get your bearings, so you're not driving around aimlessly with the taxi meter clicking up and up!

Keep a hold on your luggage when loading it into cars or buses!! If you don't, the person who lugs it on for you will expect a tip! Or, even if you let them get one hand on your luggage, they will tell you that they 'helped' you and want a tip!! Michael had to practically wrestle his luggage from an over-helpful man trying to put our things into the taxi boot! They are really desperate for some money.

People will blatantly lie to you. We had ladies telling us that there were no air-con buses at the bus terminal (because they wanted us to use their bus company)... so we ended up catching an open-air bus, which ended up a bit of fun actually. But, I didn't like being lied to.