The truth is that we had only heard about this sleepy lit­tle town 2 days before arriv­ing while inves­ti­gat­ing what places are good for whale shark watch­ing in the Philip­pines, and were look­ing for­ward to see­ing these crea­tures as well as the tur­tles that are sup­posed to abound in the area. To get there from Cebu city we opted for the quicker van ride (100 pesos p/p and takes about 2 hours) and enjoyed the great scenery the drive had to offer. Mind you the vans are very crowded, but you should be used to this by now!

In the Philip­pines this costs about 40 cents of a USD. Wohoo!

Right before get­ting on the van an Amer­i­can expat rec­om­mended Anthony’s Beach Resort for accom­mo­da­tion, and it is where we went. Sim­ple, well priced and in a great loca­tion we dumped our stuff as soon as we got there and went for a walk. Moal­boal has many beach resorts  to choose from though

Ini­tial impres­sion is that unless you are a diver there is not much to do there (and if I was one I would go to the Per­hen­tians or Sipadan in Malaysia) and thought we’d leave in a day or two. But the fol­low­ing day we  enjoyed the snorkelling right in front of our place, although truth be said it is not spec­tac­u­lar. Mike showed up and lent us a cam­era, which pleased us greatly because we could finally take some under­wa­ter pic­tures. That night we had a great din­ner cooked at his place and the fol­low­ing days were spent snorkelling, enjoy­ing the lovely nearby White Beach (needed a motor­bike to get there)and sim­ply chill­ing out.

This is what Moal­boal is about

We ended up stay­ing 4 days and only left because we ran out of money and the clos­est ATM was an hour away. All in all 4 very pleas­ant days despite never see­ing a tur­tle or whale shark. Our nest des­ti­na­tion was Alona Beach in Bohol Island, rec­om­mended by the staff at Anthony’s, as a stop-over on our way to Cloud 9 in Siar­gao, North­ern Min­danao. It ended up being a great recommendation!

Friendly locals