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This is my first time to go to Philippines, a country with amazing people, crystal clear sea in most places, lovely beaches and natural beauties…I stayed in Sampaguita Dive Resort for 5 days and I fell in love with the nature that surrounds the resort and creates a peaceful environment…As you know I live in Shanghai, whenever I travel, I am always amazed to see fluffy clouds, the tone of green and blue…
Now let’s take a closer look at where I stayed and how it turned into my home in Moalboal…
ON THE WAY TO SAMPAGUITA DIVE RESORT
Roger picked me up from the airport and it felt great to be welcomed right away. We were going to pass 9 cities and it was a great way to see the differences between the cities of how they look and to see people in their daily lives. Roger normally smiles a lot but here it was his first time meeting my camera haha.
After a 3-hour road trip and passing 9 cities, I was very tired and before that I didn’t sleep for 24 hours so I really needed a rest. We passed a fishing village and arrived Sampaguita Dive Resort around 3pm.
I was welcomed by Ednalyn with a warm smile and a glass of orange juice that gave me the energy right away! I immediately felt like home…She helped me to move into my room with a great view and she told me the meal hours and also reminded me that there would be snacks around 4pm, cakes and tea. I was very hungry but I needed a nap more than ever. I thought 30 mins would be enough but I slept till 7pm, of course missed the snacks. I had my amazing dinner, probably I ate like a monster, but a cute one haha. I had to finish the night early that day.
THE SUNRISE AT THE PIER
The next morning I woke up way early to catch the sunrise. I went down to Sampaguita Dive Resort’s pier to have a better view which took me only a minute to get there. Literally my jaw dropped when I saw the soft pink clouds with lovely colors in the sky, what’s more to come was the rainbow! It reminded me how looooooong it has been since I saw one, haha it is all about timing I guess, finally nailed it.
You can read more about the sunrise and sunsets at Sampaguita from here with more pictures with a video: Sunrise, rainbow, sunsets & storm at Sampaguita Dive Resort
After all the magic happened in front of my eyes, it was time to jump into this amazing water…
THE SEA
Every morning, I was waking up and running directly to the pier ( took me only a minute) to start my day with the sunrise and afterwards with this amazing sea!
It is simply a sin not to soak yourself in this water…In the mornings it is so calm and clear that you can see amazing colored fishes, sea stars and more…
This is my first time to see a sea star that big and beautiful, they are very soft by the way hahah, yeah I touched it.
When it is low-tide, you can literally walk into the sea.
Let me show you the view from the pier
The source of income of the people living in the nearby villages is fishing. You can see them fishing together with their small boats.
It is so hot that locals cover themselves to protect their skin.
GANGGA DIVERS AND MY FIRST SCUBA DIVING EXPERIENCE
As Sampaguita is a diving resort, you should absolutely have at least one dive a day, at least! If you are not a diver, do not worry as I wasn’t either. You can start your discovery tours or open water course here. If you don’t want to dive at all, again no need to worry cause you can swim, snorkel, sunbath or spend time in Moalboal city center or around.
I used to be afraid of being under water that deep for long, thinking of what if I breath from my noise or what if I have to cough or what if, what if….Haha just finding excuses not to do it. It was high time to get rid of this fears and start experiencing a new world. I was lucky to do my first discovery tour with Gangga Divers.
The story behind Gangga Divers is: a couple, years ago came down here and loved the nature and cancel their following plans and stayed here. That’s how Gangga Divers came here. Gangga Divers Center is right at the beach of Sampaguita Dive Resort.
Mario is the operations manager and the chief instructor in the Gangga Divers Center. He has been diving since he was 12 years old. Thanks to him I felt very comfortable and safe under water. Besides, the beautiful world under water got my attention so much that my fears faded away immediately.
Check out my first time scuba diving experience and the beautiful world under the water with more pics & videos: Discovery scuba diving with Gangga Divers
THE RESTAURANT
This is the view of the restaurant from the pier. As Sampaguita Dive Resort is a small and cozy resort, everywhere in the resort is within short walking distance like 1-2 mins.
This is one of the lounge areas in the restaurant to read your book or watch the view, have a rest…
Here are the dining tables. Most people here are from Europe and they are divers. The quality of the chats are amazing about scuba diving. There are no loud people. Everybody is respectful and say good morning, good evening, hi, hello to you.
Breakfast
They have musli, cereal, milk, teas, coffee, orange juice, eggs, toasts, cheese, jam, honey and chocolate sauce for the pancakes, yogurt with fruits and many more…
Lunch and dinner
It is self-service here. The buffet has many different food but all the food is prepared considering the calorie needs of a diver. There is a salad bar and a soup as starters.
I love tomato soup by the way, so I am lucky haha.
You can find vegetables, chicken, meat, sea-food with rice or pasta. The food changes everyday and you’ll get to have delicious food everyday.
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The last touch is made by fruit bar.
When I travel, I sometimes forget to eat and skip meals but here I felt healthy and full of energy. The best thing was one of the staff was blowing to a giant sea-shell to let people know that dinner was ready. I loved it haha.
You might ask where are the snacks you mentioned at the beginning? Well, every time I found myself running to the restaurant for the snack time, “taking pictures” just went out of my mind. Till that time I was spending a lot of energy so till “taking pictures” came back to my mind again, the cake was already in my stomach haha. Besides, the cakes here reminded me of my mom’s cakes….Seriously, when I am back to Shanghai, I’ll get an oven and start working on my baking cakes skills.
LIBRARY
Don’t worry if you do not have a book with you or if you have finished your book cause here there are a lot of books in Enlish, Italian, French and German but as Italians are coming a lot so there are more books written in Italian.
THE MASSAGE THERAPY
You wanted to have massage, here is the place close to the restaurant, peaceful and quiet. You need to book your massage therapy in advance.
MY BUNGALOW & MY ROOM
I stayed in one of the most beautiful bungalows.
I had a king size bed with aircon and fan. Inside was really big. The bed was super comfortable. There were plugs everywhere so that I can charge all my cameras and computer easily. They had mosquito sprey as well. That was very helpful as I am Brh+, I sometimes feel like they are eating me alive and moqquito spreys are life savers for me.
You can do your own tea/coffee in your bungalow as well. They give you towels for the beach so no need to bring your own towel. The great thing was the yoga mat that was on the table to keep you active and healthy and fruits of course. They have an empty envelope for raising funds for the poor kid’s education if you are willing to contribute. They have a safety box and a small refregirator and hangers for your clothes, awesome!
They have towels for the shower as well and shampoo and body lotion (big bottels not like small ones) too. I never carry a towel or a shampoo when I travel, either I buy when I arrive or if they have it in where ever I stay, then that’s awesome. They have 24 hours hot water in the shower.
This is the veranda of my bungalow. Whenever I came to my room, this was my first stop to relax or to work from here. You can hang your wet clothes right outside of your door.
Besides, I had a buddy right behind the couch either to protect me like a bodyguard, probably from the mosquitos haha or playing hide&seek with me but he never came close to me unless I approached him so he was respecting my space haha.
There is even an umbrella in front of your door just in case as it was the rainy season but it rained only once when I was there and it was for 5 minutes only.
THE OTHER BUNGALOWS
When you come here alone like me or with your significant other, you can stay in a bungalow like mine. If you’re travelling with another friend or a group of friends there are different type of accomodations and here is two of them. With a group you can even stay in one bungalow with two floors and it would be so much fun haha.
The second floor of the big bungalow.
SUNSETS
The sunset in Sampaguita Resort is in my top 5 the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. It is magical, the colors and fluffy clouds, the way they move and even watching the storm after the sunset was unique…Check out the sunrise and sunsets video and the article about my experience.
WHY SAMPAGUITA DIVE RESORT FEELS LIKE HOME TO ME?
As you have just read, it is surrounded by an amazing nature. Sunrises and sunsets are magical. I felt healthy and energetic thanks to the delicious food. It is peaceful and quiet. My room was absolutely comfortable and free of mosquitos. Kawasan Waterfalls or White beach is max 30 mins away by car . The fishing villages around are unique in terms of culture and people. But what’s more important is:
What makes a place beautiful is the people!
Here is a picture of me and Mr Gaspare, the CEO of the resort and also a diver. He is an amazing person and he gave me so many precious information about diving as well as about Moalboal and the resort. I felt very welcomed and surrounded with amazing people here.
Mario with his kind and friendly attitude, I felt that scuba diving was a piece of cake haha, of course sometimes he was holding me from my oxygen tube or one of the cables so that I don’t go after the giant turtles haha. His experience and patience played a big role on me getting rid of my fears under water.
Ednalyn and Maricar from the management were with me when I was going out to experience the food in the city center or experience the White Beach. These two ladies are wonderful.
Here is the staff in the restaurant. They were always similing and asking me about my day by calling my name, that really makes a big difference. When I was going out to explore Moalboal, the driver was friendly and patient with me cause I was taking like 2872920 pictures hahaha.
The lovely Angel and her shy friends. We met them at the pier while watching the sunset everyday. They told me a lot about their lives. On my last day, they were late and I was packing my camera and ready to leave the pier thinking that they couldn’t make it but then I heard Angel’s voice coming out of the dark with a flower necklace on her hand and shouting that “Eva I made this for you!”. Now these kind of things make me so emotional. She asked me “do you have to leave, are you leaving for good?” and I said ” This is not a goodbye, this is see you next time.”
I will absolutely come back to Sampaguita Dive Resort to check out my Moalboal family and improve my scuba diving. If you’re thinking of where to stay in Philippines, I highly recommend this place.
Good news for my readers!
As I loved this place so much, I wanted you to see this place feeling special and I was able to get a discount just for you guys. Starting from October you will have 20% off on accomodation, only for you! If you like to claim your discount, please follow the steps below to be connected with While Travelling Blog on social media, share this article and afterwards send me a screenshot of it.
1) Follow, Like & Subscribe on : instagram, facebook, youtube
2) SHARE this article on “Where to stay in Moalboal” on your social media channels.
3) Send me the screen shots of the above as a message from one of them and you’ll get your private discount code.
If October is not a good timing for your schedule, then let me know, as I will have different discounts just for you for the following months as well.
Don’t forget to share your experiences with me afterwards, it would be great to hear from you.