5. Malapascua - Mega starry sky and thresher sharks

The alarm clock rings at 3:20 a.m. Off we go again towards Tagbilaran to the ferry. Our guesthouse father drives us in his car. Very carefully and very slowly. Shortly before half past five we finally walk into the ferry terminal building. So we don't have to wait long for the ferry at six anymore.
Cebu was reached without any problems after just over two hours. The port is a bit shabby, as is the part of the city that we see.
We arrange for a private driver to pick us up and arrange a direct transfer to Maya Port in the north of Cebu. A car that is already past its prime drives up. A surprising amount of shaking in the back seat suggests that this vehicle is no longer roadworthy. That's probably what the driver decides, too. After about an hour of torturous city traffic, he puts us in another car with a different driver.
Otherwise we arrived in Maya without any problems after a total of four hours.
So go back to the first station to do paperwork, buy tickets to the second station, wait. For a small surcharge, the tourists present, who are actually too few, are put on a boat that is simply not being used to capacity. There were a few problems starting, the boat was simply too wide to pass through the narrow exit between the other boats. Small crashes with the trailers are explained away, after all it's all just splintered bamboo.
I (Uli) am completely exhausted after the long journey and only have bad impressions of the island, the room and the beach. The 10 hour journey was simply not without it. All nonsense, of course. It is wonderful here. This becomes apparent after a shower, a cold drink and the final arrival under a starry sky that is truly impressive.
In the morning, a motorbike is organized, even if we haven't yet figured out the confusing "road" network, a snorkeling trip is booked, a fan is organized. Nothing stands in the way of a mega stay.
The snorkeling trip shows us the wonderful underwater world, we visit Pipefish Paradise. Normally you rarely see pipefish, there is one spot here that we stop counting because so often the dragon-faced little spaghetti-like things swim in front of our noses.
Corals that you have never seen before, moray eels that you have never seen before, and then finally we swim through a beautiful bay with at least a dozen baby sharks. It's just a blast.
The employees at the accommodation now think we are at least slightly stupid, as I (Uli) was saddened to discover that our old Edeka dirty laundry bag did not come back with the laundry we had handed in. I then explained to the lady that this bag has been with us on our travels for at least ten years and is basically part of the family. Whoosh, we had you again. She now has a name, Pauly Plastic-Bag.
After exploring the island for the first time, we found a good eatery, which is a kind of buffet canteen where you look into all the pots and then say what you would like. Ate some fun seaweed stuff and lentil soup today.
And don't forget the fantastic starry sky. Dozens of shooting stars. It's crazy. Our beach in the north is really deserted in the evenings, no bar is open. You sit on a wide sandy beach surrounded by a few very nice dogs and enjoy the vastness of space with gentle waves and wish it would last forever.
Unfortunately, the first day of diving got off to a very bumpy start, first a two-hour delay from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. due to a strong low tide, and then it was postponed again, to 1 p.m. We were pretty pissed off then. The organizers could have known this beforehand. The diving was fun though, we saw a large seahorse and "extraordinary" anemone shrimp (they're really called that), pegasus fish and neon-colored corals. Great.

But the real highlight was planned for the next day, finally seeing the thresher sharks (Treshershark). Start scheduled for 4:45 a.m.
Things turned out differently. At five o'clock there was a mad knock on the door. Shit, missed it. Despite two alarm clocks. Jump out of bed and pick up your stuff within 5 minutes.
Sascha just ran around in circles like an angry chicken. I threw everything I could grab into a bag and off we went on foot through the night to the neighboring bay. And then the boat won't start. But we made it to the big diving boat on time without having to wait for other divers. Phew. Kick start.
The first dive site (Monad Shoal) was reached after about half an hour and the breefing caused a slight concern that we should not make ourselves a good source of food in the open water. For the tiger sharks. Uahhhhh....
So dive down to an underwater island. But nothing hit. It was more of a dive to wake up after all the stress.
At the second dive site (Kimud Shoal) then keep your fingers crossed.... and right when you submerge.... there you are. Two thresher sharks. First thought from me (Uli): Wow, they're big. And pretty. Very elegant and shiny silver. With this incredibly long tail fin. Thresher sharks accompany us for almost the entire dive. Fantastic. The diving site is also great, good visibility, great corals, lots of other fish. And divers. Pretty much underwater. After the break we go down again at the same place and have direct contact with sharks again. A second gigantic dive. And in the end a thresher shark accompanies me almost all the way home. Memory for life.

Oh, by the way, the alarm clock didn't go off because it's Saturday and we Döspaddel simply didn't take that into account and the alarm clock was set for Mon-Fri during the week. It can happen on vacation that you don't know what day of the week it is.
After a day of diving break (snorkeling with the baby sharks again, exploring the island a bit) we finally found the spot for grilled fish. Delicious. And later Mangodaiquiri on the beach, life is good.

Final summary: I'm really not allowed to play with jellyfish while diving, I had severe netting again. And unfortunately a typhoon is currently passing through the area, all diving boats have to stay in the harbor.

On the last day we did 2 dives and chilled out in the afternoon in moderate weather.

Tomorrow we're going to Moalbal on Cebu.