Swimming with the Sharks

by Jim Ngoh (Australia)

A leap into the unknown Philippines

It started innocuously enough. My wife and I took our youngest son Jordan on a trip to the Philippines as a special treat, and ended the very first day sleeping with the fishes. Then it got worse. Jordan had just graduated as a marine biologist, and we looked for an appropriate holiday to celebrate. It began with a short stay in one of world’s most crowded cities – Manila. Population, 1.8 million, which may not sound too impressive, but the population of the total of 16 cities which make up Metro Manila would be nudging 13 million. With a rich indigenous and Spanish heritage before its more recent history under the Americans. We can confirm that there were certainly lots of people in Manila that day as we fought the busy traffic in its teeming streets. I think I bumped into most of its population in just one afternoon. It certainly felt that way. As we gingerly weaved our way around numerous motorbikes and the iconic Jeepneys - the converted old American Jeeps which have found a special place in the heart of the city – we barely made it to our hotel in one piece. Finally arriving at the appropriately-named H20 Hotel, conveniently located just next to the Manila Ocean Park, we had almost to fight our way through the crowd milling around the aquarium on their day visit, but we knew we had something special lined up in the privacy of our room. We had booked ourselves into one of their Aqua rooms which feature the glass side of a huge aquarium instead of windows on one wall! As we slept, or tried to, we were being entertained by an assortment of colourful tropical fishes frolicking among the corals in the sparkling water. It was particularly soothing, and after a while we nodded off. It had already started out famously as a holiday with a difference! But that was just the beginning. After a few days, we took a short domestic flight to the seaside town of Donsol. Sleeping with the fishes was one thing – now we prepared ourselves to actually swim with them! And not just any fish, but sharks! Not the type we might be more familiar with from the movies – of the Great White variety – but something even bigger! In fact, the absolute largest fish in the world, the Whale Shark! But completely harmless, or so we have been assured, as it feeds mainly on plankton. Be warned, though, that Donsol is a small fishing town, and there might not be the amenities you might be used to in other tourist spots. In our humble Bed & Breakfast (remember this was before the era of AirBnb) we did not even have Wi-Fi. Not that we missed it! But we had good cooked Filipino breakfasts, and that, to me, was more important. When the appointed day came, we boarded a small boat and when a shark was spotted, we all jumped into the water. We made an almighty big splash, but the gigantic whale shark did not even seem to notice. It just swam on unperturbed. As I was not a very confident swimmer in the open seas, I was given a body board to hang on to. And this I did, literally clinging on to it for dear life, as the giant whale shark swam languidly just metres below me! I could see its huge open mouth scooping up the plankton along the way, and could almost count the number of large white spots which were one of its distinguishing feature. It seemed to be a fully grown specimen, about 9 metres or 30 feet in length. Huge. It lingered below us for awhile. Then, with a swish of its mighty tail, it was gone and soon disappeared into the murky distance. Like a ghost. It left us open-mouthed and wondering whether we did actually have that fairly close encounter with one of nature’s living treasures. If I had not literally made a leap into the unknown waters off the Philippines, I would not have had the most amazing experience of swimming with one of earth’s gentle giants.