Bottom Trouble in Paradise

Good grief it's been a while since our last blog.

Here goes the update...

From Kuching we flew to the Philippines. The flight took 2hrs and the journey on the coach through the traffic into central Manila took 3hrs. I forgot I had any legs. They'd become numb. The traffic is mad and progress is slow, there is lots of honking of horns but it's all very good natured and people just accept that that's the way it is. Very wise.

We stayed in Ermita for that first night. Was an eye opener. Most of the western men have a young lady on their arm. There don't appear to be too many of us 'regular' tourists about in comparison. We walked to JollyBee, a chicken and spag bol combo fast food place. The food was as awful as it sounds. Never had worse chicken in my life. We picked our way through the streets, over mothers and babies lying on cardboard on the pavement; children and smaller children begging; things sticking out of the pavement, like pipes; and big holes. If you end up in the road you have to be aware of the taxi's and jeepneies flying past. Organised chaos. Manila is grubby and loud but the people are great.

Security guards are everywhere. They are heavily armed and open the door for you when you go into a shop or restaurant. Some of them even appear responsible for a spot of light cleaning duty.

We flew the next day (Thurs 25 Feb) to Cebu. An island in the Philippines with Malapasqua at its northern tip, where we were aiming to end up. For the first time we hadn't booked any accommodation on the island in advance.

We stayed that night in a lovely B&B in Cebu City and crashed on the next morning to get the 4hr bus to Maya, at the north of Cebu island. We were on a bangka boat by 17:30 and on the island by 18:30 just as the sun was setting.

Seesan met us straight off the bangka and helped us find somewhere to stay. He described himself as a sort of unpaid unofficial tourist guide, he had a boat and we could go out on it snorkelling if we liked.

We stayed at Dano's for the 6 nights we were there. The food wasn't great but everything else was spot on. We had our own beachside bungalow with bathroom, 2 single beds pushed together and even a cupboard to put our clothes in (a luxury!). It was bang on except for the first 4 days I had the squits. I reckon we probably saved ourselves a bit of cash but it wasn't pleasant.

The last 2 night James and I went out for some great meals and on the last night made the most of the cheap San Miguel and rum. We went to a 'pub' during happy hour. Our 8 drinks came to 3.50 pounds!

Coming back to Manila we did the whole journey in reverse. Today we are at the Mall of Asia. I have been soooo excited about coming here. We've splashed the cash today on needles and thread, pens and moisturiser. Oh, and some funky undercrackers for James. We've just been to Starbucks and soon we're off to the cinema to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D. This mall is enormous. It's got everything you'd ever need

The more I am away the more I miss England. We were watching Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall in telly this morning. He was making elderflower champagne. How British.

We have 2 more nights in the Philippines and then it's back to KL to meet up with the Ma and Pa Peebles!

We'll try not to leave it so long next time.

xxx