I swear that the following is a true story. It sounds made-up but I do have a witness. (Adrienne!)

It was many years ago, when my Malaysian-American friend, Adrienne Low, came to visit me in Siargao. We were getting ready to go to Sohoton Caves and I kidded her, “Maybe we’ll see a whale shark!”

At that time, I had never seen a whale shark and I didn’t even know if they were ever seen in the area. Well, okay, MAYBE someone had mentioned that they had been seen, but it’s the same way people claim to have seen Big Foot. I never paid it any mind or given it much thought. And in the ten billion times I had been to Sohoton, I certainly had never seen a whale shark.

At that time, the resort only had a wooden outrigger boat. It was a massive one though, as Nicolas had designed and built it himself, and we all know that Nicolas is incapable of building anything short of massive.

The boat hadn’t gone too far from the resort when I spotted some birds circling the sky then diving into the sea. I pointed this out to Nicolas and he then excitedly jumped on top of the boat to see what was in the water.

“It’s a manta ray!” he cried out. He scanned the sea some more. “No, it’s a whale shark!” He shouted for the captain to stop. “It’s both!” He and Jerome, his right-hand man at that time, scrambled for their snorkeling equipment, told us to wait on the boat and await their signal, then jumped into the water.

Adrienne and I donned our snorkeling gear and sat at the edge of the boat. We looked nervously at our feet, dangling over the water. We had been diving together in Palau and had seen all kinds of sharks and rays. Yet, for the first time, we were scared.

“It can’t be both a manta and a whale shark,” I said, breaking the silence. “That’s just ridiculous.”

We snapped out of the thoughtful contemplation of our toes by Nicolas yelling for both of us to get into the water. “Hurry!” he insisted. We exchanged worried glances, took deep breaths and, with hearts pounding, plunged into the water.

I had never been snorkeling in the blue before. There was always something I could see. Some coral, maybe, the sea bottom… This was just… The Blue. My heart was beating so loud that I was sure Adrienne could hear it.

As we neared Nicolas and Jerome, I could hear Nicolas shouting, “It’s a whale shark!” Mother of god. “Be careful what you wish for…” I started to think, “What if National Geographic was wrong and whale sharks don’t only eat plankton…”

Before I could finish the thought, a large gaping mouth emerged from the blue, heading straight towards us. Under the water, you could hear gargled screams as Adrienne and I shrieked into our snorkels.

After our initial shock, our nervousness dissipated into laughter and Adrienne and I quickly got over our fear. We started following the shark. Of course, none of us could outswim it. We should have followed the krill instead. That way, we could have kept tracking the shark. But we didn’t and, eventually, lost sight of the giant fish.

Our friend, Mia Trinidad, described seeing a whale shark as “a religious experience” and, right there and then, I had to agree.

The next time I saw one, it was many years later. Nicolas had already built his 40-foot fiber glass boat and our Siargao neighbors had borrowed it for a trip to Sohoton and invited us to join them.

On our way back, I was recounting the whale shark story to Gary Cases, one of our friends who runs a dive shop in Malapascua, when – lo and behold – there it was. The birds diving down from the sky. Gary jumped up to scan the ocean. “Shark!” he called out. I didn’t even wait to hear what kind of shark. I marched up to the first person who was the same size as me and asked rather forcefully, “Do you need your snorkeling gear?” She looked terrified and shook her head, as if I had just demanded that she jump into the water. I practically tore the gear off her, put them on and dove straight in.

And there it was. Big. Beautiful. Magnificent. It was much bigger than the first one I had seen. Gary said it was a mother and that there was a baby swimming underneath it, but because my freediving skills suck, I could only admire the whale shark from the surface. It swam alongside our boat for a while so everyone was happy, including the girl who was so rudely yanked out of her snorkeling gear.

Years later, I took my friends, Indian actor, Parvin Dabas (- you’ll know him as the groom in “Monsoon Wedding”) and my Spanish BFF, Teba Orueta, on a whirlwind month-long tour of the Philippines, and one of our destinations was Donsol. While that was exciting, because there were so many whale sharks in the sea, because those sharks were feeding on plankton, the water was murky and visibility was poor.

Parvin, me, and Teba get ready to see some whale sharks! May 2006.

And it’s funny how easily spoiled we get. The next day, none of us were interested in seeing any more whale sharks. Been there, done that. The novelty had quickly worn off.

That was six years ago. Almost to the day. (Parvin had gone back to India while Teba and I continued on to Boracay, Cebu – for my birthday, and then Siargao.)

Today is my birthday and Nicolas and I decided to check out the strange goings-on in Oslob, in southern Cebu. Whale sharks are no strangers to Oslob but, about eight months ago, the fishermen there started to feed these gentle giants and, as a result, the whale sharks have ceased to be pelagic and now live in the shallow waters of Oslob, approaching the fishermen’s outrigger boats for food – like very large pets.

“Here, fishy, fishy, fishy!” A whale shark approaches the boat for food.

It’s a very strange sight. And kinda reminds me of this Ernie and Bert skit on Sesame Street:

Of course, the environmentalists are not amused. With their migratory pattern disrupted, the whale sharks might lose their instinct to hunt on their own, they say. Plus how can a small town sustain feeding all these whale sharks? There are reports that the fisherfolk of Oslob are now sourcing krill from nearby towns just to feed the giants.

One whale shark was speared not too far from Oslob and the tree huggers are blaming this on the sharks getting too used to human interaction in Oslob.

It’s all very controversial. Which is why we thought that we’d better check things out for ourselves, before the environmentalists win out and the whale sharks are shooed back to open sea.

Now, I am neither a marine biologist nor a whale shark, but I’m not convinced that the whale sharks will ever lose their instinct to hunt. They were hunting way before they got to Oslob. They just got lazy. But when the krill runs out and they start getting hungry, maybe then they’ll start swimming away.

And I’ve always heard that whale sharks are naturally friendly. Lacking any predators, they fear nothing and therefore have an innate curiosity for everything.

But what do I know? All I know is that I spent my birthday swimming with these fantastic creatures of the deep.

If you’d like to check them out yourself, you can hire a car from a travel agency (- I was quoted P6800) or you can get a taxi to take you (- the meter came to P3300 round-trip, including waiting time, but I suggest giving around P4000). If you need a cab driver recommendation, let me know. Travel time from the city to Oslob is 2.5 to 3 hours. We left at 4:45 AM and were in the water by 8 AM.

We paid the following fees:

• Entrance fee – P50
• Local snorkeling fee – P500 (Includes masks and snorkels, although we brought our own.)
• Foreigner snorkeling fee – P1000 (- I got Nicolas the local fee because he has a resident’s visa and a local driver’s license, plus he speaks Visayan so he’s more local than me.)
• Fin rental – P100 ( – Nicolas brought his; I don’t have fins.)
• Parking – P30

You have the option of staying on the boat and just watching the whale sharks from there, but then you’d be a complete wuss if you do. Get in the water! You’ll be glad that you did.

You also have the option to dive, but I think that’s completely unnecessary and will only set you back P1000 more.

You’re only allowed 30 minutes with the whale sharks but, trust me, that’s more than enough time. With a few stopovers, we were back in the city before 1 PM.

A whale shark and me.

Today’s a weekday and, at 8 AM, there were already a lot of boats out there. I hear the weekends are a nightmare. If the whale sharks are around when school hasn’t let out, then the best time to go would probably be on a weekday from June to March. But then, you’d have the rains to contend with. Just go on a weekday and make sure you’re there early.

On the way back, drop by Carcar for some chicharon and the Talisay market for lechon.