Swimming with whale sharks in Bohol is a must-visit experience

itinerary planning

This whale shark trip is through a local travel agency Seashine Travel and Tours As booked, the Lila whale shark ticket in Bohol is 1,500 PHP per person, and the chartered driver will arrive near Alona beach at 7 a.m.Hotel Sebastian PanglaoWe picked up the rich man's family and drove for about an hour to reach Lila Whale Shark at about 8 o'clock. Compared with the Oslob Whale Shark, the rich man felt that it was more suitable for families with children. There was no need to travel long distances. The road conditions along the way were pretty good and the speed was good. Not too fast, recommended!

common problem

At what age can you join a whale shark swim?

At first, I was a little worried that the little rich man was too young to go into the water. Finally, when we arrived at the whale shark swimming scene, because the little rich man was required to sign a certificate of ownership if he wanted to go into the water if he was under 7 years old, the commentator specially warned those under 7 years old during the promotion. It's okay to "swim with whale sharks" in the water, but parents need to take care of themselves. When I was doing homework before, I didn’t find much information about the children, but there was some Klook The itinerary even states that you need to be over 7 years old to participate. Before going abroad, I was really worried that the little rich man would not even be able to get on the ship, so what I can confirm for you this time is that,

In fact, people under seven years old can swim with whale sharks!

What equipment should I bring?

This time, the rich lady wisely prepared snorkeling shoes, snorkeling sticks, waterproof bags, quick-drying towels, and children’s snorkels. Most of the equipment was purchased from Decathlon (laughing). The rich man felt that the snorkeling sticks were very helpful to the children. The little rich man just grabbed two and stabilized himself, so he was not afraid at all.

Are there lockers?

Each tent only has simple shelves (without locks) to store personal items. If you are worried, it is safer to leave important items in the car. The on-site staff did not check passports or documents.

Introduction to Whale Shark

Whale Shark (Whale Shark) is a huge shark, the largest shark known so far. They are a kind of shark rather than whales, but because of their huge size and similar shape to whales, they are called "whale sharks".

Whale sharks are gray-brown in appearance, with many large and small white spots on their bodies, and have obvious striped textures. Their mouths are very large, and their way of eating is to use a suction pipe to directly swallow their prey together with seawater (laughs). They mainly inhabit tropical and warm ocean areas.

Whale sharks can be seen in two places in the Philippines: Oslob in Cebu and Bohol. But Oslo requires a long haul of 3 hours, so the rich man’s final choice was Lila Whale Shark in Bohol.

Swimming with whale sharks

The Lila whale shark in Bohol that everyone is talking about is shown on Google Map as TAUG WHALESHARK WATCHING AND SNORKELING, and the rich man doesn’t know why. We arrived at the entrance of Lila Whale Shark at 8 o'clock in the morning. There are many people who want to see whale sharks! The security personnel at the door told us that we could not park. After the driver let us off the car and helped us buy the tickets, he had to park the car in a parking lot far away.

After buying the tickets, the rich man’s family was in the waiting area of the basketball court. It took a long time to wait. When they arrived at Lila Whale Shark, the staff’s name was 46, and the rich man’s family was number 86. We waited for 40 minutes. numbers. The rich man asked several travel agencies before and they all suggested departure at 7 o'clock, so the rich man felt that if he could arrive earlier, he should be able to stagger with the crowds and save some time.

The brown house in the lower right corner of the picture below is the ticket office, followed by three white tents. The tents are "Other Country Tents", "Korean Tents" and "Chinese Tents". "(laugh). This time I came to Bohol Island, I met many Korean tourists and saw many Korean restaurants. No wonder there is a special explanation in Korean.

The process of participating in the whale shark swimming is that the tour guide will first pay the ticket and get a receipt, and then take the receipt to the tent to receive the number plate. The number plate is shared by the three tents, so the staff of each tent will also allocate the numbers. They ask each other what the last number is, and then add one more number. It’s a pretty artificial number card drawing mechanism (laughs). The staff will write the number on the visitor's wristband, so that the queue begins.

You can wait in the tent or the basketball court next to it. Then there will be a staff member on site who will call the public number loudly, so pay attention.

There are many tourists from China and South Korea in Bohol Island, so there are special explanations in Chinese and Korean. The explanations for "Chinese Tent" are in Chinese, "Korean Tent" is in Korean, and "Tents from Other Countries" are in English. There is a pre-departure explanation, which only lasts about 5 minutes. It is explained with a poster at the back, so it is not difficult to understand, and you don’t have to worry about taking the exam after the explanation (laughs).

While waiting, you can walk around but there is not much to see. There are only a few small vendors and there are three waiting areas in total. I waited for about an hour and a half at the Lila Whale Shark site, and it was finally about 10:40. The rich man specially reminded me that the life jacket must have crotch buckles, so that when snorkeling, the life jacket will not float on the water and cannot dive underwater, interfering with watching whale sharks.

The white boat circled in green in the picture below is the whale shark feeding boat. correct! As you can see from the picture below, there is still a short stretch of uneven and slippery road from the shore to the boat. The rich man strongly recommends wearing river shoes or snorkeling shoes to avoid foot pain. Those with elderly people at home should also be especially careful. , don't slip.

The boatman rowed to the whale shark feeding place, which was not far from the shore. It took about 5 minutes to arrive. There was a circle around the whale shark feeding boat to prevent people from accidentally swimming out.

Recommendations for Bohol Experience Activities

Klook.com

When swimming with whale sharks, the waves are actually quite big, and it’s not very comfortable to go up and down. There are about 30 people in the water at one time, and you can swim with whale sharks for 30 minutes. While waiting on the shore, someone will ask if you want to swim with them. Don’t rent fins (150 PHP per pair). They say it’s easier to swim in fins because of the big waves, etc. But the rich man thinks that because the fenced area is not big, he doesn’t feel the need to rent fins and there is no room for improvement. Then People will kick each other around when they are crowded, so be especially careful if you are bringing children.

I just took this opportunity to verify that the little rich man has learned to swim for more than a year. The little rich man is really good. When he arrived at the feeding area, he immediately jumped into the water after listening to the boatman's instructions and swam around there without fear and kept screaming. I said I saw a killer whale (wrong), wow~ it’s all worth it if the kids are happy. Friends who dare not go into the water can also sit on the boat and watch whale sharks, but the distance is relatively far.

The smart whale shark swam to the feeding boat to beg for food, and then the smarter rich man pulled the wooden pole on the side of the crab boat on the right side of the picture below to watch it eat. The mouth of the whale shark is really big enough. It should be big enough to kill a person. It's no problem if you swallow them. Fortunately, they mainly eat small plankton, crustaceans and small fish (laughs). When you look up close, it really feels a bit like looking at a Jaws movie poster. When swimming with whale sharks, we are really very close to them, and with the ups and downs of the waves, there is really no way to keep a distance of more than 5 meters from whale sharks as mentioned in the pre-trip briefing. The rich man also accidentally kicked When it comes to whale sharks, I can only say that the scene is a mess (laughs).

The rich family held the wooden pole of the whale shark feeding boat and waited beside the boat, and the smart whale shark came to the door automatically.

The boatman's underwater works (excerpted from the rented GoPro video) are really hard work. Remember to give the boatman some tips at the end. I don't know how many whale sharks there are, but I must have seen two or three.

It's really spectacular. The whale shark is very big. It swam past the rich man. It should be at least 5 or 6 meters long by visual inspection. Hello gentle giant, humans are really too small!

The man in the red dress is the rich man himself, so lucky to be in the picture with two whale sharks at the same time!

The 30 minutes of swimming with whale sharks was tense and exciting, and it passed by in a flash. After watching the whale sharks, everyone returned to the shore and disembarked from the boat. The photo was taken at 11:15. The white chair in the picture below is the final waiting area. The rich man’s waterproof bag was left here and was not taken on board. There is a free washing area near the tent at the ticket office (the environment is ordinary). After washing the body, it is about 11:30 and ready to leave Lila. Whale shark lunch is Rio Verde Floating Restohello.

rich man experience

Swimming with whale sharks in Bohol really did not disappoint. It was an incredible experience to be able to watch such a behemoth up close. Highly recommended!

The rich family rented a GoPro at Lila Whale Shark. The price was 1,500 PHP (forgot to bargain). The fee included the boatman taking photos and taking photos in the water for 30 minutes. At the end, the memory card was pulled out and taken away directly. Remember to check the GoPro shot before paying. Photos and videos (hey).

Bohol Island whale shark swimming information

further reading