Port Barton, Palawan, The Philippines

29th March - 3rd April 2012 The last leg into Port Barton was rather bumpy and plagued by wheel problems, we arrived in one piece and set about combing the tiny Port town for budget accomodation, the last place we looked at was the best and cheapest, so we stayed in Angela's Bungalows while we were there. We had a stroll along the beach and had a beer and a sandwich from a trumped up Jambalaya place on the waterfront. There were only three tables and two of them weren't taken, we'd decided to try it because they'd gone on and on about how wonderful they were, Djalma wasn't that much impressed and said so in their guestbook, I was mortified especially when the waitress read our comments just round the corner.

From Port Barton, Palawan, The Philippines

We spent the next few days mainly relaxing, I didn't feel like doing much, I'd lost my yoga mat in El Nido – it had blown off the balcony where I'd left it to try after washing it – and so I stuck to reading and taking afternoon naps. Both of felt much the sma eway we had when Kate left Nepal; we're done now, what's the point in doing more? Djalma went snorkelling with a diving company and met some nice people and we had a couple of nice evenings together making the most of extended happy hours and generally cheap beer. On the first day of April we loaded ourselves onto the 9am Jeepney back to Puerta Princesa, it was along dusty ride and at the end of it we and our bags were covered in a not-so-fine layer of orange dust. Back in the main city of Palawan we had lunch and then found a nicer place to have a second lunch and use the internet, killing time before our flight left for Manila. We arrived in Manila and went straight to our hotel room which we'd booked and paid for before leaving Manila over a week ago, we were up bright and early the next morning for our flight to Auckland. It all felt rather un-real, New Zealand was to be our 21st and final stop on our extended honeymoon and reaching it felt rather final. Exciting though. We had a stop over in Kuala Lumpur and had lots of food before boarding our plane and finishing the final leg of the journey. I managed to snooze with my legs up, for most of the flight, Djalma moved over the aisle to some free window seats and stayed there for the flight, I made sure we were sitting together come landing time though, getting to be a bit of a nervous flier. Getting through immigration was fine and as we weren't carrying any illegal biological weapons, like an undeclared apple, we were through in no time. Grandpa and his new wife Fran were waiting to meet us in the arrivals lounge and took us back to Catherine's for a cup of tea.

El Nido, Palawan, The Philippines

24th - 29th March 2012 We spent much of our time in El Nido just chilling out, the day after we arrived we had a gorgeous vegetable curry and G&T for dinner and it was a restaurant that I returned to when I wanted to write. Both of us worked out which wasn't much fun without a fan, the electricity came on around 2pm and lasted until the evening. We read and watched films and took walks along the beach. It rained solidly for one day, the day that we'd planned to join a boat trip around some of the islands so we decided to put it off until the following and what turned out to be our last day.

From El Nido, Palawan, The Philippines

The boat trip was okay, I really think that the success of these trips depends a lot on who you're spending the day with, we had a few very Americanised Filipino's, a young Russian couple, a Dutch couple who were friendly and a young Filipino girl with a much older (and rather annoying) American man. You could say it was a mixed bag, the islands were quite nice but because I didn't want to get my burn wet, or at least as little as possible, I declined the snorkelling into “secret” lagoons and stayed on the boat. We stopped for lunch on one island and listened to half blind cat perched on the roof of a hut constantly meowing for food, I gave in and delivered up some fish careful to keep my distance – it looked a bit bonkers. We stopped off at the last beach and had a coconut to drink before killing some time swimming (Djalma) and sitting on a quiet rock at the far end of the beach (me). I was quite relived to get off the boat and back to the relative quiet of our hotel room.

From El Nido, Palawan, The Philippines

We had steak for dinner at a French restaurant that night - it was gorgeous although I was told by the waitress that I couldn't half my particular steak cooked medium because it wouldn't be good, I had it medium rare and swapped it with Djalma's medium cooked steak when the blood became a little too much. We left early the next morning and got a bus going to Roxas where we changed and got a Jeepney to Port Barton, a much quieter town that was definitely more suited to doing absolutely nothing.

Talisay, Luzon, The Philippines

21st - 24th March 2012 Having arrived in town and fed ourselves Kate and I decided to explore the town so we headed out together and bought some rather tasty drinks in the form of a buko (coconut) shake. We saw a sign advertising a cock-fighting and pigs and piglet farm so on a whim we decided to visit it. It just so happened that it was up a very steep hill and the road wasn't very short. We had fun though and plenty of rest stops, the views going up the road from various points, was beautiful we looked out over Lake Taal and it's resident volcanoes. Just so you know the general attraction of Talisay is it's proximity to some rather spectacular and occasionally active volcanic landscape, we had hoped to make a day trip to one of the volcanoes but it was off limits due to seismic activity, better safe than sorry!

From Talisay, Luzon, The Philippines

Having walked up much of the long steep road that was still long and steep for much farther than we cared to walk, we saw one cock-fighting farm and went in to have a look and asked for directions. The guys didn't speak much English but one young guy with a few words took us round his farm and tried to explain things as best he could apologising the whole time for the gaps in his English, basically half the cocks that he breeds go on to be winners, a 50/50 split between that and a loser. The views of the volcano in Lake Taal from the edge of his farm were wonderful and an older guy soon joined us and gave us directions to the pigs and piglets that we were hoping to see.

From Talisay, Luzon, The Philippines

We continued on up the road and after a while we saw another sign and followed that, all we saw was some cockerels sitting on their separated perches and some rather hungry looking guard dogs. We heard some pigs but we never found anyone to show them to us and decided to leave the barking salivating dogs to it. The walk back down was much easier and quicker and we arrived back before dark.

From Talisay, Luzon, The Philippines

The next morning we woke up bright and early for our boat across the lake to the volcano. We met some German guys over dinner the previous night and had arranged to share a boat (and the cost) with them. The ride over wasn't particularly long ad the waves were quite small although we all got rather wet coming back. We arrived on the island in the lake and realised that we didn't have enough money to pay the park fee and have breakfast, fortunately the Germans were better prepared and lent us the cash, we followed our skipper's directions and started up the dusty track dodging horse poo and kicking up dirt. I was rather mortified to find that I wasn't quite as fit as I thought I'd come to be since Kate last visited us in Nepal. With all the yoga and the working out I thought that I'd be leaving them way behind eating my dust, ha!

From Talisay, Luzon, The Philippines

If only. I did manage to squeeze in a few more rest stops using the excuse of taking photographs and we made it further on and up – taking about twice the amount of time that the guy at our hotel had told us it would take. The views were gorgeous and there was a delicious breeze that swept the long grass flat and kept us cool on the hike up to the crater rim of the lake in the lake. There were a few houses and some people selling coconuts but we were the only people there, we got to the edge and looked out at the dark green lake that was ringed with hidden vents letting out steam.

From Talisay, Luzon, The Philippines

Kate had stayed to wait with her gasping elder(ly) sister and we walked up a ridge to join the boys, the view from there was even better, they had found a spot on some hot rocks to sit down on and enjoy the view from, avoiding some of the steaming vents we joined them and took photos of the lake in a volcano in a lake in a volcano.

From Talisay, Luzon, The Philippines

The whole place was beautiful and we killed a fair amount of time sitting around and taking photos, just as we were about to leave a couple of guys with golf clubs strolled up and invited the lads to a few puts, they brought some golf balls and did their best to get them into the water, no-one even came close but Djalma did manage to get the furthest (that's my boy!). We climbed back down kicking up huge streams of fine dust blinding the people who weren't quick enough to be in front. We located our skipper and got in the boat to be taken back across to mainland and were royally wetted along the way. I am too old for this.

From Talisay, Luzon, The Philippines

Back in our rooms we had a nap and then once again Kate and I headed out. This time we decided to head about 9km up to Tagatay where there were supposedly some good views of Lake Taal, I say supposedly because we only really saw one view and couldn't be bothered to walk the 5km odd into the centre of town to find out more. Instead we stopped off at a coffee shop selling art and talked over coffees, cake and chips. I did manage to get Katie to one lookout point but the views weren't that amazing so we headed back, at one point I realised that I'd lost my watch and we spent the whole way back searching the ground for it – it turned out that it had dropped off in the tricycle ride up to Tagatay and the driver had left it with a group of drivers who spotted us when we got back into town.

From Talisay, Luzon, The Philippines

The ride back was fun, I really tried hard to negotiate a cheaper fare particularly as they wouldn't drop us off at our hotel but the guy was friendly so after much umming and ahhing Kate and I clambered in a were whizzed downhill to a drop off point and walked the rest of the way into town. We left Talisay early the next morning on a Jeepney, at some point we got on a bus, much more comfortable, and then on another Jeepney to the right part of town. We spent the whole afternoon in one of the largest shopping centres in Asia, Katie treated us to pizza, we strolled round the shops, I treated Kate and myself to enormous ice cream sundaes and then we watched the Hunger Games. Aside from food and some duct tape (to fix Kate's bag) we didn't buy anything else. We caught a yellow van back to town and had a very early night. Kate's flight to Cebu left early the next morning and we'd managed to book flights to the island of Palawan shortly after hers left, so after dropping her off at one terminal we jumped in another taxi and went to ours. Our flight was delayed and I spent most of the time twiddling my thumbs debating whether or not to get a coffee. By mid-morning we had arrived in Palawan and had sorted ourselves a couple of seats on private minivan, it took it's time to fill up and we ended up behind some Italians with their Italian speaking Filipino wives who were clearly more used to European ways than Asian. We were travelling to the Southern tip of the island, El Nido which took us about five hours. We spilt up for our usual hotel search and for the first time managed to lose each other. We eventually found a room that we could afford and wouldn't set off Djalma's allergies/asthma and settled in for a few days stay.

Boracay to Palisay, Luzon via Mindoro

19th - 21st March 2012 We settled in to wait for the next ferry to Roxas, Mindoro at a restaurant in the port, I took the opportunity to write a few more postcards and after stocking up on dressings for my leg, Kate and I went to watch the sun set from the harbour.

From From Panay to Luzon via Mindoro, The Philippines

Time for the ferry rolled around and we got out tickets with the help of some charming and hopeful Filipino guards, the ferry to Roxas, Mindoro took about 5 hours and to our surprise Kate and I got rather a lot of sleep. We woke up just after midnight and walked off the boat to be met by the owner of the hotel we'd booked rooms in and were taken direct to bed. Heaven. The next morning we had a lay in, as Djalma told me quite grumpily, he'd not had any room to stretch out and fall asleep. After a sickly sweet pork breakfast with rice and a fried egg and something from the bakery for Kate we piled in the back of another minivan for the ride up to Puerta Galera. Just before left some guys strapped a goat to the front fender to be delivered at some point between here and there, I didn't stop thinking about that poor goat the whole way there especially when we drove roughshod over unmade roads and when it started to really pelt it down. We dropped the poor little thing off, which was fine, a couple of hours into the trip none the worse for wear, physically anyway – I'm sure it now suffers from trust issues and traffic.

From From Panay to Luzon via Mindoro, The Philippines

We were dropped off at a junction in some town and crammed into a Jeepney going past some waterfalls on the way to Puerta Galera. Both Kate and Djalma love waterfalls, and they were beautiful unfortunately for me, I was a little too grumpy to enjoy it much. It was raining and I was hot and sticky, sometimes I really am not the best travel companion. We had some cold drinks and snacks, Kate and I wandered off to take photos, there were some great water droplets on leaves and the views were beautiful. We caught another Jeepney going into town, Kate and Djalma had lots of fun hanging off the back of the truck, something they weren't lowed to do later on in Manila.

From From Panay to Luzon via Mindoro, The Philippines

We arrived in the main attraction of Mindoro, Puerto Galera, well the town proper and not the beaches. The weather was awful so we ate in our hotel and afterwards, still not satisfied, I dragged Kate around in the rain to find some good chocolate. We spent the afternoon watching Made in Dagenham, a film to make a woman proud of her sex (and of being English). The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel again and then rushed off to the jetty where boats for Tagatay, Luzon left from, only to find that the next one wasn't for more than an hour. So we cooled our heels and chilled out, the boat left early anyway and we were in Luzon in under an hour. The ride was nice, Djalma spotted some dolphins but the boat was too fast and we'd them behind before Kate and I had a chance to see them.

From From Panay to Luzon via Mindoro, The Philippines

We spent most of the ride playing squares on a grid that was too big to be interesting for much of the game. Once on Luzon we navigated our way through the greedy tricycle drivers and found one who wasn't such a cheeky bastard. He took us to the drop off/pick up point for Jeepneys going to Talisay and we hopped on cramming our bags into the tiniest possible spaces to make enough room for all the other passengers going the same way. It was about half an hour and we were let out in town. We bumped into a traffic policeman who gaily abandoned his traffic direction to help us find a place to sleep. We got a couple of rooms right in the lake and said goodbye to our traffic directing friend, actually Kate and Djalma said goodbye to him, I found him a little strange. We walked around and found a small Filipino place serving up good food, complete with some banana flower salad so we ate until we were about to pop.

Boracay, the Philippines

17th - 19th March 2012 We had the whole afternoon to ourselves, so after a pork lunch at a local fast food joint in the mini concrete jungle a little further back from the beach, we went our separate ways; Kate and Djalma went snorkelling while I did the washing and worked out. In the evening we walked down the beach to find a cheap place on beach where every hour is happy hour, we sat back into plastic chairs facing out to the sea, palm trees behind us and the sand between our toes while we drank cold beers and pina coladas. Kate seems to have turned into something of a pina colada fanatic since I saw her last and she was determined to find the best version of the cocktail, selflessly dedicating herself to this task sparing no expense, whenever it was on the menu, it was ordered.

From Boracay, The Philippines

Having arrived in Boracay and finally seeing it for ourselves I think we all felt a little short changed in quite a big way. It was a very expensive place to stay/eat/do anything. Djalma decided against learning to kite-surf, something that he's been really wanting to do since Vietnam (and three consecutive days free of wind) which was a big shame, consequently Kate didn't do any of the water sports she wanted to try out either, what happened was that we got rather drunk both nights and ate very well. I think that it's important to be clear about what you expect from a place before you arrive, that or go with a completely open mind. I must say that I didn't find it all that bad, it would have been a great place to buys souvenirs and clothes except that being on baggage lock down, I didn't. The town/tourist centre near White beach was very concrete, there wasn't anything cute or tropical bamboo about it, it did have electricity all the time though. You win some, you lose some. We awoke the next day feeling slightly hungover, the huge sandwich specials that we'd had just before hadn't done much to soak up the two beers that we'd drunk, I know – only two beers (not big ones either) and we woke up feeling a bit grotty. Katie did a wonderful sister thing and took me out to breakfast at the Pancake House, I over ordered and three truly wonderful blueberry pancakes – two would have been plenty and a Viennese coffee, Kate got down and dirty with a huge waffle. It was a great start to the day and we had a really nice chat while we chowed down too. I love sister time.

From Boracay, The Philippines

We took the last pancake and some noodles back to Djalma who didn't want to get out of bed and made plans for the rest of the day. It's a wonderful thing when the man you love and your sister have lots of things in common. While Katie was out with us Djalma had someone to talk to about free-diving, climbing and other things which I really struggle to stay awake to listen to let alone participate in a conversation. The two of them checked out the wall in D*Mall while I took myself off for coffee and some blog writing at a swanky restaurant we'd passed several times. There is something about a good coffee in nice surroundings with lovely people to wait on you that I just adore, I also find it the best kind of place to write, it's usually quiet and being somewhere else focusses the mind. That said the second coffee of the morning wasn't sitting too well in my delicate stomach and I decided to have some tomato soup to help things calm down, it arrived with some toasted home-made bread and the most gorgeous fresh pesto I've had in years. I got a little writing done and then went back to the hotel to use the wifi and upload what I'd written. I also used the time to look on Ebay and order some fabric, naughty naughty. I was obsessed with (and still am) making my own clothes when I get to Brazil. They arrived back just as I was working out what I would need for some harem pants and a top and a dress, after a minor reprimand from Djalma (he can be such a tight wad about some things) I decided to order it, the peacock pattern and the bright pink butterflies were just too fabulous to pass me by, I kept my eye on some newspaper print style linen (I will be getting that very soon).

From Boracay, The Philippines

We decided to open up the bottle of coconut flavoured Boracay rum that we'd bought back in Caticlan, actually Djalma had to practically force it down my throat, I was glad he did though, we all got very pleasantly tipsy and sat and chatted and ended up drinking the whole bottle, I think the rum cost less than 2 USD for 700ml, excellent value for drunkenness in my opinion. Leaving it late again we decided to try and find somewhere to eat, by then it was about 10pm and there weren't many restaurants still serving. While we were passing one café the heavens opened and so we sat in that and had some pasta and sandwiches to soak up the alcohol before heading back to bed, all of us very nicely buzzed.

From Boracay, The Philippines

We made the most of our last day and went back to the Pancake House, another treat from my very generous little sis. Kate stuck with her waffle, I went for a farmers breakfast with lots of crispy bacon and Djalma had a stuffed pork thing with mango chutney, it was delicious and seriously fattening. We left cholesterol heaven behind and went in search of a tricycle to take us to the local bat cave. Our tricycle managed to get us most of the way there but failed halfway up the last hill so we got out and walked the last bit. The route involved a fair bit of guesswork, we made our way down to a near deserted beach and then back up a different track where we saw signs for tickets but no-one to point us in the right direction. It started to drizzle around the same time we found the track to the cave, we followed it getting quite damp and came to the mouth of the cave. We met some guys coming up when we were on our way down and were told by the guide that we would die without a guide, charming. We didn't die but did get covered in poo, I was quite happy telling myself that I was just dirt but Kate was quite clear when we got back up just what it was all over my hands and the back of my trousers. We didn't go all the way down to see the bats something which I was very grateful for, the stink was nasty, it smelt strongly of burnt coffee poo and was rather unpleasant. We went a little way stopped, saw a few bats flying around the top of the cave and then clambered back up and out. We washed our hands on leaves wet from the rain and walked back to the road a different way. We haggled with a good natured tricycle driver who liked to drive fast and got dropped off near station 1 and walked out to see Willie's rock.

From Boracay, The Philippines

I expected something much more but it was just a small set of rocks with a statue of Mary near the front, the water was clear and shallow so Kate and Djalma waded out while I stayed put, still thinking of my burnt leg. We walked back to our hotel along the beach which was lined with coconut palms and sun loungers to one side and mounds of seaweed on the other.

From Boracay, The Philippines

We got back to our hotel, showered packed and checked out. We decided to go back to Christina's, the same place I'd had my coffee and soup and after a little umming and ahhing we decided that it would be the perfect place to have a lunch on my wonderful Nan. Djalma went to change money so Kate and I got stuck into some cocktails, I tried something with a funny name and Kate had her usual. We sat and chatted while we waited for Djalma, we waited for so long that we ended up ordering our starters, of course he walked through the door two minutes after we'd placed our orders. I had a Caesar salad, Kate had Salami bruschetta and Djalma went for a salad, it was all delicious, then the mains came. Djalma and I had surf and turf, a delicious steak wrapped in bacon with a couple of large shrimp and mashed potato while Kate had grilled shrimp with risotto, I washed my meal down with a glass of truly appreciated Shiraz, thank you Nan! We were stuffed afterwards, well us girls were but Djalma still had room for more (he's a walking gut that one), it was Kate and I who went out for Italian ice-cream though.

From Boracay, The Philippines

After a few more photos of the beach we got our bags, said goodbye and went in search of a tricycle to take us back to the port. We got on the next boat to Caticlan where we found that the next ferry to Roxas was cancelled and we had a 5 hour wait until the next one.

Apo Island, The Philippines

13th - 17th March 2012 Having found our rooms, both incidentally with spectacular sky views from the outdoor bathrooms (night wees were the best – the stars were incredible) we went back to the first hotel we stopped at and had some lunch. After a small wait Kate and Djalma went snorkelling, my rather juicy looking burn kept me on dry land despite persistent nagging from my sister and husband to join them in the water.

From Apo Island, The Philippines

I didn't do much in the afternoon, it was hot so I read on the balcony and listened to a small group practising percussion – they were really very good which was just as well because they were very loud.

From Apo Island, The Philippines

After Kate and Djalma had dried off we set off together to the beach to find a nice place for sunset. The beach was lined with the same small, long armed boats that we'd come across in and children were playing make believe dinner parties with bottle caps and seaweed. We stopped to talk to a guy who was thrashing a net of sea urchins to get the poisonous spikes off. We asked him what he was doing and he gave us a taste of the urchin, Djalma was the only one brave enough to actually eat the salty tasting snotty looking brown goop, I licked it but decided that sea urchins weren't for me. We carried on down the end of the beach, the late afternoon sun was beautiful and everything was bathed in the warm soft light. We walked to the end of the beach and climbed across the big boulders to find a place to set the GoPros down for some time lapse videos and then we just sat and watched the sky change. The sunset was spectacular (I seem to be using that word a lot!) and it was really nice sitting down to watch a beautiful show with two people I love very much. We watched until the first stars came out and then headed to dinner.

From Apo Island, The Philippines

We got up nice and early the next morning and took ourselves off for a two hour stroll up the hill for some gorgeous views. After a quite a few steps and a short walk through some fields and past the odd goat we made it to the top of the hill and some aerials that we climbed for a good breeze and the best views of Negros. It was beautiful and after the exertion getting up the steps the rest was perfect. We took several photos and then decided to leave out names on one of the cacti and on the side of an abandoned building. After a little exploring we decided to leave an annoyed lone cow in peace and started back down. We didn't get far before Kate and Djalma were distracted by a big tree and they were half way up it before I knew what was happening. We tried to find another way back down but decided against getting lost and took the steps down instead. It was a perfect start to a day that got even better for Kate and Djalma.

From Apo Island, The Philippines

When we got back down they took their snorkelling gear and had a morning and an afternoon full of turtles. I kid you not they didn't spend more than a minute in the water without seeing one either swimming by or more often than not, having lunch on sea grass and algae. When they came back for lunch they were popping with excitement and I must admit I was a little jealous but it was nice to see them both so enthusiastic. While they were out I continued to read Fried Green Onions at the Whistle Stop Café, a brilliant book it didn't quite take my mind off the fact that it was hot, there was no electricity and that frequent showers were off the menu because water was in short supply. They went back out in the afternoon and saw zillions more turtles while I worked on photos, read and grumped the afternoon away. We had dinner the same place that we had lunch, at a small local restaurant that we had to pre-order, the lunch was good with gorgeous pumpkin but the evening vegetable was boiled cabbage and it didn't go down quite as well.

From Apo Island, The Philippines

We had decided to leave the next day, Kate and Djalma persuaded me to join them for a little snorkelling and after Djalma did a great job of wrapping up my burn with a plastic bag and a good kilometre of selotape we hit the water. To avoid moving my leg as much as possible Djalma wore the fins and dragged me along while I tried to keep my sarong down to keep the sun off my back. I can't say it was the nicest swim/snorkelling ever but just at the end we saw a turtle and got quite close just watching it having breakfast, it was the closest I'd been to a turtle before and I was surprised at how big the head was, it looked enormous. Tired of being pulled around in the water I decided to get and de-salt myself, but not too much because the boat ride back to Negros would be wet as well.

From Apo Island, The Philippines

And it was, having packed up and checked our room we trudged along the beach saying goodbye to the little slice of the Philippines and got on the boat. For most of the ride I stayed huddled in my poncho and avoided the worst of the sprays (Kate and Djalma didn't try and fight it, enjoyed the boat trip a lot more and got dripping wet). My pants were dry right up until the moment I climbed into Djalma's arms to be carried to shore and then big swell caught me right in the backside. I was sorely unimpressed. We waited just a few minutes at the end of the road necking down the equivalent of orange Fanta and dried off in the hot air waiting for a bus going North.

From Apo Island, The Philippines

Having left Apo Island behind we now had along trip ahead of us to get to Boracay. Our bus didn't g us very far, we wanted to try and get as far as Bacolod but didn't even make it to Sipalay, we stopped at a small dusty town called Bayawan where everyone save for small children got around in tricycles. When we asked the ticket/information guy at the bus station we told us that it would take twenty minutes to walk to the nearest, cheapest hotel, we followed his directions, end of the road and round the corner – it took us less than three minutes, literally. We bunked up together in a small shared room, it was a place that was cheap enough for lorry drivers to sleep there and so there were plenty of middle aged guys sitting round watching the T.V. There was even a super old and very deaf guy who sat a metre in front of his television on full blast watching an unfolding trial of a corrupt government official, the same one everyone else in town was watching.

From Apo Island, The Philippines

We walked back to the bus station and sat down to the best meal that we'd had in the Philippines, it even included vegetables! Having eaten to bursting point we headed back for showers and then Kate and I went out to get a plastic bag full of baked things – chocolate biscuits, banana loaves and some sesame seed covered fried dough balls (sounds gross, tasted delicious) for breakfast the next morning. We had decided to get the 3am bus to Bacolod which ended up taking a good 7 hours. We rolled out of bed just after 2am having gone to bed at 7 the previous evening. We crept through town and arrived at the bus station early which was just as well because the bus left ten minutes early.

From Apo Island, The Philippines

We slept most of the way there, we picked up noisy passengers along the way who didn't quite appreciate our early start but they got off soon enough. We had a coffee stop around 6am and I decided right at the last minute to have a coffee myself, after two minutes of mixing my 3 in 1 sachet (coffee, creamer and sugar) with piping hot water everyone started getting on the bus, the lady in the shop had a good chuckle as she watched me trying to drink as much of my coffee as I could before leaving. As it turned out I could have had a least an extra minute, when I walked back to the bus I passed the driver taking a leak on his right front wheel, charming. We pulled up in Bacolod and got tickets for 12.30 which was a stroke of luck because the main passenger carrier had sold out all of it's tickets for the whole day – not a pleasant feeling. We had time for sweet spaghetti and coke's and then killed time in the waiting lounge for our ferry to Iloilo on the island of Panay. The ferry was a couple of hours long and we slept on that too, we pulled up in town and then wasted time in an air-conditioned shopping centre trying to find a place that organised climbing and rented equipment. It turns out that the owners of the climbing shop that we had details for had moved to the USA and renting equipment from a local climber was about 100USD, extortionate. By the time we'd found this out we'd spent a good hour there, valuable travelling time. I have to say that it wasn't completely wasted because Kate and I freshened up on the ladies 'comfort room' and had some chocolate cake.

From Apo Island, The Philippines

We got directions to the bus station and took a couple of Jeepneys to get there only to find that it was the wrong terminal and the last bus North to Kalibo was at 5pm. Just our luck, it was rush hour, we took a taxi and asked him to put his foot down, we were stuck in a long line of traffic and we walked the last few hundred metres (the taxi driver told us it was 50 metres?!) and made it just in time for the last bus. We got on and it pulled away.

From Apo Island, The Philippines

The bus ride wasn't that long, just a few hours and somewhere near the end a guy got on selling hot buko (coconut) pies, we all had one and then decided they were so delicious that we should have another. That took care of dinner and when we pulled up in Kalibo we took a tricycle directly to a hotel that we'd called from the bus. I think it's fair to say we all slept rather well that night. The next morning we took it slowly had some rather dodgy Filipino food for breakfast, we found out later that Djalma was noshing on brain (he thought it was small intestine) mine was mainly fat and bone. We got in the back of a cramped minivan and arrived in Caticlan the last port of call before Boracay. Kate and I queued up at the various counters buying 3 different tickets just to get there, the 25 peso boat ticket was the smallest part of the cost to get there, we had to pay a port fee and an environmental tax as well. We bought some more water and a bottle of rum to take with us and then got on the next boat. The ride took 10 minutes and then we were there, the Philippines biggest attraction and possibly the most expensive place to do anything.

From Boracay, The Philippines

We met a tourism guide who took us straight to a hotel in our price range complete with wifi and we settled in.

Dumaguete, Negros, The Philippines

11th - 13th March 2012 Arriving in the town we got a tricycle to our hotel and then promptly went in search of dinner. I have to say that in the culinary department the Philippines disappoints, unless you nurture a preference for everything fast and sweet, most of the meat is served injected with sugar or some kind of sweetened sauce. We went to Jollibee's, a fast food chain specialising in burgers and fried chicken. Kate and I ordered the only burgers that came with some salad and were pleasantly surprised, Djalma ordered one too after polishing off his first dinner. There wasn't much to keep us up and we were all in bed and asleep by 9.30.

From Dumaguete, Negros, The Philippines

The next day we made our way to a place recommended in the LP, more often than not we are disappointed when we arrive in these places, despite the smallish portion sizes and lack of soy sauce (almost unheard of in the Philippines) we had great coffees and iced teas then went for a walk around town. We stopped by the tourist information centre to find out about getting to the twin lakes, a hike around which was the main reason we were stopping in town for longer than a bus change. It turns out that the hikes I'd read about were actually just a stroll around the lakes and you had to drive up there first.

From Dumaguete, Negros, The Philippines

We wandered into the local church which has awesome blue and green sky lights as well the usual numerous depictions of Christ suffering horribly (what is the Catholic obsession with pain and suffering?!), on the way out of the church we bumped into a short chatty lady who greeted us with 'hello tourists' like she'd been expecting us. She was like a well meaning bossy Auntie and when we replied no, we hadn't been up the bell tower, she stopped a young guy and told him to take us up the bell tower so we could have a look out over town, with that she was off. We followed this cheery lad past the candle sellers and up the winding steps to admire that much graffitti'd walls of the, rather short, tower and look out over the town and the surrounding mountains.

From Dumaguete, Negros, The Philippines

The bells were pretty cool although there was a microphone which sent out horrible electrical buzzing sounds ready at any moment to broadcast the ringing bells in a 20km radius. After a suitable period of time admiring the rather average and very grey town we descended and went in search of some scooters to take us to the lakes. The sun was baking by then we'd managed to kill most of the morning and we didn't get under way until 10.30. Sorting out scooters was fun. Not. Actually the scooters were fine but getting an extra helmet was a pain, only one was included per scooter rental so I was sent down the road to find one. I was handed something that didn't fall into either a category for head protection or fashion statement, it was a major fail on both counts. *Writing this reminds me of some of the dodgy helmets I've worn, in particular the glittered and beribboned spectacle, complete with sun visor no less, that I was given when Djalma and I rented out a scooter in Kampot (home of the worlds most wonderful black pepper)

From Kampot, Cambodia

When I flexed the helmet in my hands and told the guys that I rather needed my brains to live and that head protection was no joke they had a chuckle and we all had a good old laugh while I fervently hoped that the traffic wouldn't be all that bad and that we wouldn't have an accident that day, at best the roots of my hair would suffer least.

From Dumaguete, Negros, The Philippines

We set off and spent a good while riding in several wrong directions and up dirt paths that nowhere but to peoples houses before finding the right road out of town and up to the lakes. The road was just gorgeous we passed rolling hill after rolling hill covered with green. The drive up took about two hours because we kept stopping so I could lots of photos. The last few kilometres up were on mainly unmade road and were slow going, we were overtaken several times by the local guys who took tourists up on the back of their bikes, they roared past while we slowly puttered on. We pulled up at the ticket office where we paid our entrance and parking fees and I burnt my leg on Kate's exhaust pipe. Having avoided any kind of burns during the whole of our trip I was royally pissed off that I'd managed to do so then with a only a few weeks to go before returning home. It also hurt like hell and I will confess to a few tears and feeling very sorry for myself. Luckily for me I'd packed Berna's wonder cream, a propolis cream that has excellent healing properties. I slathered that on and kept an eye on it all afternoon. My day rather spoiled we continued anyway, after one last stretch on our scooters we reached the starting point of the little walking trail and decided to have a couple of light refreshments and some more of the snacks we'd picked up along the way. After a little prompting from Djalma we indulged in some San Miguel shandies which put a proper spring back in my step (if I look a little tired/drunk in the photos that's because I was). We ended up renting out a kayak for an hour and Kate and Djalma paddled us across the lake to where there were some short paths to lookout points.

From Dumaguete, Negros, The Philippines

We tied up the kayak and climbed the loose mossy rocks, as per usual Kate was miles ahead and leaving me gasping behind. I had hoped with all my working out that I would have improved enough to keep up with her on this visit (our energy and physical tolerance levels were too mismatched in Nepal) but it seemed that all my effort had been for nothing. We reached the little hut that looked out over the lakes and had little rest. The lakes were pretty but nothing spectacular and we climbed back down after a few minutes, after taking plenty of self shots. The ride back down was a lot quicker and much to our collective relief we weren't stopped by the police at any point, when we'd rented the bikes out the guy giving them to us explained that we should have our drivers licences with us otherwise we could have big problems with the authorities. Say what you like about corrupt traffic officers but you can get away with a lot more for a lot less hassle! That Djalma and I went around a couple of pharmacies trying to find suitable dressings and cream for my leg, between two places we found what we needed and then we went for dinner. We ended up in a lively Mexican place and while Kate went her usual pina colada, Djalma and I had beers, we all had delicious food and then trundled back along the coastline to bed.

From Dumaguete, Negros, The Philippines

The next morning we went back to the same good coffee place and then got the bus down further South where we were dropped off at a small jetty. We arranged a small boat to Apo Island which was a 45 minute boat ride away, I tried to keep my burn dry but failed miserably, the boat ride was choppy and very wet, it was one of the boats that have a thin body with long bamboo arms either side that stabilise the boat. We pulled up, Djalma carried me ashore, and set off in search for affordable accommodation. We found it at Mary's House, a light and airy home stay with lovely people, it was also home to several pairs of small birds possibly swifts/swallows that had built themselves nests in the corners of the living room.

Sumilon Island, Cebu, The Philippines

11th March 2012 Having cooled our heels at the swanky little jetty on very comfortable chairs, we set off into the gorgeous view that we'd been looking at waiting for our boat to turn up and take us to the island. It took a few minutes and then we were mooring at the shifting sand bar and jumping into impossibly fluffy white sand and making our way to the resort on the other side of the island.

From Sumilon Island, The Philippines

As first impressions go, it was pretty damn amazing, the water was crystal clear, the fine sand was bleached white and the sea shifted colours from turquoise to marine blue with plenty of other shades in between. It took a few minutes to cover the interior, Sumilon wasn't all that big, we paid our money – I think it was 3000 pesos each (you pay more on a weekend) and set about exploring this little slice of tropical gorgeousness.

From Sumilon Island, The Philippines

While Kate and Djalma faffed around I wandered off and took some photos of the scenery, the infinity pool, one of several jacuzzi's a cute little jetty that wasn't used any more and the swathes of brightly coloured bougainvillea that lined the walls separating the island from the sea. It was all just gorgeous.

From Sumilon Island, The Philippines

We left our bags near reception and went down to one side of the island where there was snorkelling and kayaking. After a few wave photos I left my camera bag with two guys working a quiet counter and hustled into my mask, snorkel and fins. Getting into the sea was a bit of an issue, the weather was windy and drumming up a good amount of chop on the surface, we made it in with minimal salt water intake and not too much dignity lost, my bikini bottoms don't put up much of a fight when it comes to staying up. We stayed in the water for less than half an hour, the waves kept us rocking to and fro not really allowing for any good photos. The coral was sporadic and there were some fish but nothing jaw dropping – I have been spoiled I admit.

From Sumilon Island, The Philippines

We got out when the rain started coming down and decided to have a kayak race to warm up. We each jumped in our own kayak and raced off down the small mangrove lake, well I say raced, I headed straight into the trees while Kate sailed on past with ease. Even with a good head start I didn't do that well but we did warm up and had plenty of fun tying each others kayaks to trees, juvenile but funny.

From Sumilon Island, The Philippines

We trekked back to the moving sand bar where I waited with the sarongs, flip-flops and my beloved camera while Djalma and Kate went for a snorkel along the drop off. A group of three Filipinos including a very charming halfway there lady boy were having a grand old time with a bottle of rum, I started to feel a bit silly standing there by myself and so wandered round the tiny little sand spit and took several photos.

From Sumilon Island, The Philippines

I love beaches but as a photographic subject I find them kind of limited, mountains and lakes are much more interesting. The sun came out and I decided to head back up to the buffet to wait for the others while stuffing my face, they saw me leaving and left the water, Kate managed to leave her mask and snorkel in the water and we stood in the shade while Djalma went back down to retrieve them. We left the turquoise waters behind and went for lunch. It was pretty good and but I was more interested in the cakes. I had loads, it was a good thing they were all bite sized pieces.

From Sumilon Island, The Philippines

We decided to chill out, literally, in one of the jacuzzis. We mucked about, creating whirlpools and stuff and then decided on some cocktails. The jacuzzi looked out over the sea and we had a great view of the black clouds rolling, time for a tropical storm. We rinsed off the chlorine and had our cocktails back in the pavilion where Kate and I played pool and then darts, neither of us were terribly good but Kate still managed to beat me at everything. We got the last boat back to Cebu and waited for a few minutes on the roadside for a bus going North to Lilo-An and then got the next ferry to Dumaguete on Negros. We were lucky with times, we hardly waited at all for the next boat or bus and arrived in Dumaguete just after dark.

From Sumilon Island, The Philippines

Oslob, Cebu, The Philippines

10th - 11th March 2012 We pulled up in a little town about 8km before Oslob, we asked for the whale sharks and the guys on the bus dropped us off at the right place, we had a great time trying to find a room near the beach, it was the weekend and everyone had travelled down to snorkel with the whale sharks. We eventually a place to stay with a family, I don't think they were an actual home-stay or hotel but they let us have the rooms in a stand alone building with a plywood sheet separating our bed with Kate's, a couple of fans and the use of a tiny bathroom outside. It wasn't the Ritz but we were relived that we didn't have to go into town to sleep. Getting food was the next big challenge, we were repeatedly told to go the 8km into town and get something there but we persevered and found a place selling pork on sticks – mini kebabs. They were marinated in soy sauce and vinegar and it was the tastiest and most tender meat I've ever tasted, we asked for rice and a lady who'd helped us find a place to sleep went back to her house and came out with a container of rice for us. Aside from the drunk boatman, who kept on trying to form sentences without much luck, it was a lovely meal.

From Oslob, Cebu, The Philippines

We slept well and the next morning I woke the other guys up with my work out, grunting and panting a sweating like a real lady, we donned out swimming costumes and then walked down the road to pay and register for the whale shark boats. We had a little briefing, don't touch the sharks, keep your distance, be respectful to the boatmen etc. etc. and then our 30 minutes of fun began. We got into the little boat, having carefully wrapped my camera bag in a plastic bag and we were rowed out the 50 or so metres to where there was a whale shark swimming around eating tiny fish. We waited until our guy saw the shark and then we jumped in the water with our mask and snorkels to get a closer look.

From Oslob, Cebu, The Philippines

It was amazing. The whale shark wasn't as big as I'd expected it to be and it was also a lot more beautiful. Kate and Djalma had both been looking forward to it while I was a little apprehensive, it was nice to see that it would have had great difficulty swallowing me without realising it.

From Oslob, Cebu, The Philippines

One time while we were waiting for it to circle back round, we were all just bobbing in the water and it swam right behind me, almost on top of me, I caught it out the corner of my eye and nearly wet my pants (not exactly a big issue in the sea).

From Oslob, Cebu, The Philippines

The skin was grey and speckled and looked like velvet even though it was close enough to touch several times, we kept our hands to ourselves and just watched.

From Oslob, Cebu, The Philippines

It was amazing, at one point it came up to the side of the boat and was fed by one of the boatmen. We spent most of our time bobbing round in the water, Kate and Djalma did a spot of free diving but there wasn't much else to see except the shark, our boat man found us and I rather inelegantly hauled myself back into the boat taking most of the paint with me, Kate and Djalma did a much better job of it.

From Oslob, Cebu, The Philippines

Back on dry land we ditched the life vests and had coffee and barbecued pork belly and chicken for breakfast, it tasted delicious and along with the beautiful view of the beach, the boats in the water and the palm trees (of course!) it confirmed a beautiful start to a brilliant day. We were done by 8am and headed back for showers before paying up and leaving. We walked about a kilometre to another jetty where we waited for a boat across to Sumilon Island.

From Oslob, Cebu, The Philippines