Thresher Shark at the cleaning station at Kemod Shoal, Cebu, Philippines
Whale Sharks at Oslob, Cebu, Philippines.
Huge schools of Sardines near Kasai Village, Cebu, Philippines.
The above three experiences were promised and delivered. The best of those experiences from my perspective was the 10 early morning dives with Thresher Sharks. We saw multiple individuals each and every dive. Oh and each of those dives were about 1 hour per. That's almost 10 hours underwater with these magnificent creatures.
Kemod Shoal is the only place currently (world wide) that can guarantee sightings of Thresher Sharks. We were lucky to see them on every dive.
With gratitude and appreciation.
BUT, we did have to pay the price. The travel to get to Kemod Shoal and the other two place was extreme and grueling.
For example this is the itinerary of our trip back home:
Saturday 5/27/23
I did my practice in the room before we left on Saturday 5.27.23
We left Kasai Village on the west coast of Cebu at 11 am on Saturday, by van for Lupa Lupa City and the Cebu International Airport. We had to be at the front office with our luggage by 10:45. It was a 3+ hour van ride to the airport. After a long wait, we checked in our 4 bags of luggage and went through security. Our gate was closed because our flight wasn't until 7 pm. We waited and walked and waited some more. The original flight was Cebu to Doha, Qatar but the airline added a stop in Davao, that added 3 hours to our 10 hour flight. We had to stay in the plane on the tarmack during the lay over in Davao. The really weird thing was that they LOCKED the restrooms!!!! Oy! I told the stewardess' that locking the restrooms was "not resonable". They eventually unlocked the bathroom doors. Yay! I also had to ask for lower cabin temperatures on both flights and the crew did so and even checked with me later to see if I was satisfied with the temperature. Yay again!
We finally made it to Doha in the wee hours of Sunday 5/28/23
We had a shortened lay over in Doha and spent 3-4 hours in the Al Maha Lounge which was very comfy with good food, bathrooms and showers.
We gained 5 hours
We left Doha, Qatar mid morning for Boston, Ma, USA. It's a 12 hour flight and we gain 7 hours. We arrived in Boston mid afternoon on Sunday. (Early Monday morning in Cebu).
Bus ride from Logan airport to Norm's house in Amherst 2 hours. We arrived at Norms around 6 pm.
We loaded our bags into the 4-Runner and headed towards Greenfield. We stopped at Big Y for some provisions. Got to Leyden a little past 7 pm on Sunday.
We gained 12 hours on the way back. We actually left Kasai Village on Saturday at 11 pm and arrived in Leyden on Monday just after 7 am. I count that as 40+ hours of travel, including lay overs.
I'd add 'grueling' travel.