Whale shark interaction in Donsol

Travel dates: 24-25 February 2011

Budget: 

• Airfare Manila-Legaspi-Manila or bus to Legaspi and back
• Transfers: P1500/van per trip if hiring a van from the airport. Approximately P200 for a Legaspi-Donsol-Legaspi trip if taking public transportation  
• Overnight stay at Vitton Beach Resort: P2200 for a room for 4. P1800 for a room for 2
• Whale shark interaction: P3500 for the boat (maximum of 6) + P100/person; P200 for the use of a mask, snorkel and fins (we brought our own)
• Firefly tour: P1250 for the boat (maximum of 5) + P200/tricycle
• Meals: P100 to P300 per person per meal

Travel mode: Plane from Manila to Legaspi, land trip from Legaspi to Donsol

Donsol is an unassuming town 1.5 hours away from Legaspi. It gives you the classic Philippine scenery of  fields, cows, mountains and nipa huts. Tricycles are the only mode of public transportation. But as charming as it is, it is no match for its gem of a tourist attraction: swimming with the whale sharks!

Whale sharks are huge as they are the largest living fish specie -  the ones we encountered were at least as big as buses. But they really are so gentle and I can really believe the statement that humans can swim with them without risk, apart from unintentional blows from its large tail fin (which fortunately, didn't happen to any of us!) Swimming with them was such an awesome experience. It was so exciting that for our first few whale sharks encounters, I would always forget that I had a camera with me. Since the whale sharks swam slow, we were able to follow some for at least 10 minutes. We would only lose sight of them if they choose to swim deeper into the waters. We really got a high from swimming with the gentle giants that we never felt tired until we got back to the boat.

Another attraction in Donsol is their firefly watching tour. It's not as awesome as the whale shark interaction but it was interesting to go boating in the dark and to find trees lit up by a colony of fireflies. The tourism officer also gave a good introduction to fireflies and their mating habits.

Travel tips:

• Best time to visit is from February to May when the chances of swimming with whale sharks are high.
• There are a lot of choices for accommodations in Donsol. Some offer homestays for as low as P150 per head per night. Some resorts offer more luxuries. We chose to stay in Vitton Beach Resort as it was right next to the Butanding center. Vitton's rooms were clean but very basic - they have airconditioning, hot water, soap and towels. They only had small flat sheets for blankets. They also have a couple of restaurants, a bar and a pool. The manager, Annie, was also very easy to deal with. I would stay there again.   
• The Butanding center is open from 7:30 to 5:00 PM. Be there as early as possible. They only allow a maximum of 6 passengers per boat and only a maximum of 30 boats are allowed at the Butanding area at any given time. If you arrive late afternoon, you can still register and watch the training video so that you wouldn't have to do so the next morning.
• If you don't fill up the 6 slots, you can invite people to join your group. We chose not to and we thought it was a good decision since the Butanding Interaction Officer (BIO) was able to take good care of me. I'm not a strong swimmer so he held my hand the whole time and pulled me along.
• You don't need to be a strong swimmer to swim with the whale sharks. You don't even need to know how to swim! You can swim with a life vest and if you swim slow like me, the BIO would just pull you with him. You just need to be brave enough to literally jump into the dark waters of Donsol.
• Most resorts would charge a pick-up fee of P1500 from the Legaspi airports. That's the same rate that taxi drivers in the airport gave us. (Yes, there are now a lot of taxis in Legaspi.) Since we wanted to keep our costs low, we took a tricycle to the van terminal and took a van from there (all the tricycle drivers know where the van terminal is). The tricycle ride costs P50/tricycle. The vans charge P65/person but if you want more room, you can pay for the whole row. In our case, we paid P780 for the whole van. What's nice about doing the tricycle+van route is that there's a SaveMore at the van terminal where we had snacks and bought some groceries.
• There are 2 options for the firefly tour, one in Donsol and another in Ogod. People say that the tour in Ogod is better as there are more fireflies and the trees are lower.
• For our firefly tour, we just hailed a tricycle on the road and asked the driver to bring us to Ogod. He waited for us and charged us P250 (other tricycle drivers charged P200).
• There are no ATMs in Donsol. Bring cash.

More photos taken in Albay are here.