Anilao - a diving paradise a stone's throw from Manila

Mabini Bay

The area is extremely rich in marine life. Here there are good chances to experience and see many strange animal species that are rarely seen in other places. Possibility to do country tours and an hour or so away and also possibility to visit shopping malls etc. The area is large, so even though there are many resorts, it certainly does not feel crowded here and the diving is very varied. 

Mabini Bay is located in the province of Batangas, on the southern part of the main island of Luzon, just south of Manila. Batangas is a well-known name to divers who have passed through here over the years on their way to the popular and rewritten Puerto Galera on the island of Mindoro. Now, after a few years, it is even easier to get to really sharp diving and you don't have to wait for a boat or ferry and can instead go directly to Anilao/Mabini in just a couple of hours directly from the airport.

Today, several resorts of varying standards are located here. Many attract divers from Manila who come here on weekends to escape the big city noise and get a few days of fresh air and relaxation and experience the amazing diving that is available here. I was here on a short visit to one of the resorts. A wonderful resort with high standards and amazing food and with magical sunsets on the menu and got a taste of a real paradise and for groups with divers this is a resort I can really recommend. 

Our diving resort

Immediately when we arrive at the resort, we are welcomed by the staff and the resort's manager, Pernilla from Sweden, and we sign in and get to our room. Almost all rooms have a view of the sea, there are only a few that do not, but in return there is a nice patio outside these with sofas and peace and quiet.

We open the door to our room and the feeling is immediately "wow, how nice!". Tiled floors, modern design, sparsely furnished, TV, aircon, coffee maker, a really fresh shower room that offers fragrant towels, shower cream, soap, shampoo and giant mirrors. 

The bed is king size in all rooms but all rooms can be made into two single beds. A large TV in the room with lots of different channels on offer, several international news channels, movie channels, music and of course a large selection of Filipino soaps and more.

The balcony offers a lovely view of the sea, chairs and a table offer comfortable relaxation and all the rooms have this. The slightly larger suites at the top have a slightly larger area and larger balcony, but otherwise the standard is the same and consistently high.
Some of the Filipino guests who had been there before us had complained about the view because there was a big tree in their way and they "couldn't see the sea"......the tree standing here is what gives the resort its special character and contributes to harmony, offers nice shade and to take it down would be a disgrace but but ... the taste is different and the sea was more than visible up close.

The restaurant

When we arrived it was time for lunch. The restaurant is very inviting and super fresh, most of it is under the roof, glazed with flowers on the ceiling which will probably become a small cozy jungle before long, padded tiles on the ceiling which blend well with the interior make the sound effectively muffled and slamming from the kitchen, talking guests, and other things that can sound or disturb are effectively screened off and the feeling of total relaxation washes over us like a nice warm wave. Through the glass panes we see the pool and the large Acacia tree and on the other side is the diving center and the dive bar.

The outer part of the restaurant has no roof, but here you sit and enjoy the same view and also out over the sea. The visibility in the water when the sea is clear is enticing and I can see the bottom quite a bit..... mmm the feeling of snorkeling or diving here to see what appears is already taking hold of me and I long to get out into the sea. Inside the dining area, two large TV screens capture the attention and slide shows with diving. Also pictures from the sister resort in Indonesia or one of their two super nice liveaboards are shown. They really attract more travel. Sometimes you play music and that also makes the relaxation total.
 

The food is very good

The food then... wonderful! A menu with starters, salad or soup, main dishes of various kinds, both Filipino and more international dishes and then a small dessert menu to go with it. Wine, alcohol, soft drinks and more are on the drink list. There is enough food here for everyone. If you have special requests for vegetarian, vegan or allergies to think about, they will solve this. If you tell them before you get here, they will be even more prepared. We soon sit down and enjoy a fantastic shrimp salad with pomelo that refreshes and waters the taste buds. After that, a creamy and tasty chicken quesadilla and then the view of the sea and after a while that really nice holiday feeling comes.

The menu is available both in print and as a QR code, so it is easy to take the menu to the room and decide in advance what you want for each meal. The fact that it was developed due to the current pandemic, where all forms of contact are tried to be minimized, does not matter. After the meal, it's time for a nap after a long journey and food in the stomach.

A visit to the diving centre

The diving center is really good. The compressors are located near the entrance to the resort in a completely soundproof room so they are not even heard there. The compressors are modern and they have pulled the air lines down to the diving center and there are four giant tanks as air banks. They can fill a bottle in 60 seconds and when you work with air filling, you don't hear a sound here. Plenty of bottles, both air and nitrox are available and you can also choose INT or DIN. Some equipment for technical diving, rental equipment, lights, computers and other things are also available and everything is in very good condition.

Directly at the diving center there are a couple of showers, large spacious sinks, plenty of space to hang up equipment to dry and about ten steps down a flight of stairs is the beach and here the boats are "parked" to quickly and easily get out to the dive sites.

On the other side of the pool is a camera room, maybe not just a camera room but "THE CAMERA ROOM".
Large workspaces, plenty of space, electrical outlets, air conditioning sufficient to dry the entire room, even a drying cabinet is here for, for example, wet lenses and more. Directly by the camera room there is a camera lounge, where you can sit on comfortable couches and watch TV, your newly taken photos, here you hold briefings or show photos from the day's diving.

Here, for example, the children can wait and watch children's programs while you look after and care for your camera. You will also find a small library, Of course with books about marine life but also ordinary books for loan/exchange which is so common nowadays in the world.

Breakfast, the start of a good day

The next day it's breakfast, good breakfast where you can choose from many different options. So many that you can try them all in just over a week and not have the same one for a single day. Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, western style, omelette, pancakes, fruit and more. I just have to recommend their eggs benedict which was really good. Fresh vegetables which in themselves were so good that the eggs were hardly needed. Then eggs with hollandaise sauce and I had the luxury of salmon instead of ham. A fantastic start to the day. Immersed in the sound of waves lapping over the beach, the sea breeze and the smell of coffee and well-cooked food. Hard to start the day better before it's time for diving.