I’ve always been a beach person. We’ve been going to San Juan, Batangas ever since the 24 km road from the Bayan to Laiya was still all dirt and not even gravel. I also remember just taking a bath at the river because there weren’t any structures at all, as in nada. Despite all of these though, we always felt bad going home. Even as kids, time at the beach wasn’t always enough.
I also had my first foray into the underwater world at Laiya. We would go snorkeling near the rocks when the corals were still alive and diving (the holding your breath kind) at Napayong. And that was the beginning of my love affair with the beach. Since then I’ve been hooked and have gone all over the Philippines to see more of the amazing corals, and reefs, and the beautiful underwater life. But also since then, I’ve always been curious what it would be like to swim with the bigger residents underwater, the shark kind, the whale kind 
Well, my curiosity just ended this week, because now I get to know and to share how awesome it was to swim with the gentle whale sharks of Donsol, locally known as the Butandings
Our BIO (Butanding Interaction Officer – naks ) briefed us before the encounter. We were supposed to sit at the ledge of the boat and wait for him to yell “jump!”. After which he told us to be mindful of the butandings because they were shy creatures. The moment they notice that someone is with them, they will dive deep and we will loose sight of them. And he also reminded us to never never touch these gentle giants.
Well apparently, one of the baby whale sharks that we swam with (all 5 or so meters of him) wasn’t shy at all 
Not only did he keep on swimming inches from under me (notice the panicky noise coming out of my snorkel) but he would dive down, turn around, and swim towards me. It was just amazing…
So many many thanks to my friend Cuki Pendor and his brothers Caloy (our BIO) and Arlon for arranging this trip for us And to those who are interested in going, you have until June before the butandings leave Donsol, I’ll be more than happy to share how we had this fantastic adventure.
As for me, that’s 1 down 3 to go of the 4 new things I want to do this May So… what’s next?
Wow… I envy and admire you at the same time
… so adventurous! 
@ellen you should try it sometime!
start with snorkeling, laiya is just about 3 hours away from manila and there’s so many nice places to stay there now 
Congrats Chay! galeng, did the kids go with you? been waiting for the boys to be old enough to do this! And now they’re nagging me about it already. Maybe will target next summer…. : )
yup they did! let me know when you guys are going and will share with you our itenerary
[...] last post swimming with the sharks, literally was done back in May. I already had several articles written after that but it was all [...]
There’s noticeably a bundle to find out about this. I assume you made certain good points in options also.