This morning I had quite a slow and lazy morning, and after I woke I noticed that I’d gained a number of bites all over my body, so after treating them, by 10:30 we’d hired a bike/scooter type thing and we were heading up to Nagkalit-kalit waterfall. After about 20 min ride up through the villages and beautiful countryside we got to the start of the trekk, a local asked if we wanted a guide for P400 (6 pounds), we decided to save our pesos and try and find it ourselves. It was beautiful jungle with all sorts of different trees and bamboos, rivers streams and bogs, all sorts of wildlife that you could see and hear. And of course we got very lost for about an hour taking the wrong route. After backtracking and taking a few different routes we finally found the waterfall, it was really pretty (unfortunately my pictures didn’t take correctly), it is dry season so there wasn’t that much water coming down it, but it was nice and cool and we’d only seen about 6 tourists in our 2 hour trek to find it and get back, so it was nice secluded and ours for a moment as we had a lovely dip.

After walking back we biked further off to Napcan beach. As we biked along, the road suddenly went from smooth new concrete to dirt and rock road, so we went a lot slower and more cauciously. But when we got their our breath was taken away as we saw this huuuuuuuuuuuge beach that just went on and on with such beautiful sand too. We stopped and had a meal in the only restraunt on the beach and enjoyed the view before wondering down the beach before we decided we had to start making our way back so we’d get there before the store closed.

We then went off and had a quick street curry, now I’m exhausted from all the heat and very much need my sleep.

Yesterday we booked a sunrise climb of the Tawal cliffs, so I woke up at 4:30, dipped in the sea to cool off the sunburn, filtered some water and packed for the climb.

We started the climb at 5:30. The day before we’d heard that a guide had fallen, and was now in a coma… That didn’t install confidence, but neither was it to put us off.

We walked through the back streets of the town, surrounded by sooo many roosters crowing all around. Then got out to the start of the jungle that we were to climb through. It swiftly became apparent that this was definitely a climb and not a trek, everything was jagged limestone rocks, everything was at least 45 degrees, it was intense, we were all dripping with sweat (the guide, my Canadian buddy Nick and I) by half way, it was also 28 degrees and very humid, our hands were getting a bit cut up too. After almost an hour’s climbing by torchlight (I got to use my Pretzl e-lite head torch, it was perfect, exactly what I needed, thank you mother :)) we got to the top, to see the incredible view before the sun started to rise over the other rocks. But the sun was blocked by clouds as it had been raining for the last quarter.

After going a little higher we decided to head down. This was a lot harder as the rocks were now getting slippy from the rain. I did slip and one point and bashed my shin pretty solidly on the edge of a rock, got a good cut and a lot of brushing. We also saw all the gawes packaging and a lot of blood where the guide had fallen. We also crossed a couple with a guide going up, they were much more sensible, with climbing cloves and helmets (well the couple at least). After a long dripping wet decent we got back to town and went and had a well deserved breakfast of tampori I think it was called, sticky chicken, rice and eggs (everything here is meat, rice and eggs).

Then we both went back to our dorms to shower and nap, as we were tired and it was still tipping it down with rain.

I booked at 7:30 to go on an island hopping toor around some of the local islands and lagoons.

Tour starts at 9:00 so I went and had some breakfast and the like with a chap from my dorm that I bumped into and also then signed up to the tour (A Canadian called Nick, I always seem to hang out with Canadians, they’re all so nice).

There are so many stores that offer the tours! Loads of people have boats and take you out, they are quite officially done so that they’re all about the same price, include the same sites etc. Everywhere on the first road off the beach is either a bar a diving shop or a tour booking place. Loads of people have tour boats, it’s good money for those who can.

The tour started with a long boat ride out to one of the other beaches on this island only accessible by sea: there was loads of coral there and thus loads of great fish to see. Oh yeah we had snorkels and masks on the boat, I’d never done it before so I got as involved as possible. It was amazing! I love it so much!

Then next stop was called the big lagoon which was in an island, there was loads of amazing fish their too, but to get to the lagoon you had to walk over shallow broken coral areas, it was soon sharp! I cut my left foot up. I should have taken my flip flops and in, or invested in one of the kayaks. But it was cool when you got to the lagoon, very very deep, I didn’t think to dive down, but it was very warm too. Then I had to come back to the boat for time reasons.

Then we went to the small lagoon, this was much quieter, and we hired a kayak for here, it was beautiful! The water was so clear that you didn’t need to snorkel, you could see all the fish from their surface! It was a great place!

Then we went back out to the boat and had a feast of a lunch! 🙂 Fresh fish, pork, chicken, rice, cucumber, egg plant, water Mellon pineapple, mini bananas, it was amazing! I finished everything off (of course).

Then we went to the secret lagoon, the lagoon was okay, it was through a tiny cave, but the beach there was absolutely amazing!!! 1 small hut, loads of amazing sand, incredible views, breathtaking.

Then we went off to other places, but I forget where, so many beautiful places! Then we had to go back, but it was all so amazing! Unfortunately I couldn’t take photos in most places, due to fear of water damage.

Then when we got back to the beach, after a shower we went to the beach on the other side of the island and watched the sunset, it was so beautiful! Then got some street meat and an early night… Well when I got back I found out that when diving I had got some sunburn, even though on the boat I always stayed in the shade and wore lots of sun cream. But none of it was too bad, but I treated it all well.

Another amazing day.

I decided to go a more direct route than normal to El Nido on Palawan island, I’ve got a direct flight from a plane company that doesn’t come up on any web search and I had to email them directly to book the flight. It’s a 40 person plane, I’ll see how it goes…

Today’s big outing was climbing Taal, an active volcano in the middle of a lake that was formed from a huuge volcano exploding.

Woke up at 5am to have a big breakfast and make the most of the day.

Journey out: Started by getting my first ever uber across to coastal bus station and catching the bus to Tagatay town: coaches vary a lot, this one had a widescreen tv, surround sound and live to channels, so some terribly low budget action films were playing. Even though the leg room was by no stretch of the imagination suitable for anyone 6′ tall, I managed to sleep for probably about 3/4 of the journey, which was a shame, because what was flying past was very interesting. An interesting thing about coaches here is that people hop on and walk down the isles selling things at every stop, mainly peanuts around here, they also walk down the middle of the streets where the traffic is slow, which is almost everywhere. After getting off a town too late we got a jeepney back to Tagatay: a jeepney is an old WW2 long jeep made for quickly manovering soldiers, they are generally done up with shiny metal and slogans, mainly christian ones such as “God loves you”or “God is love” etc. They are only tall enough to be sat down in, but almost every journey is 10 pesos (15p).  Then we took a tricycle to the edge of the lake down a road with the most number of warning signs I have ever seen! Mainlywarnings about dangerous corners and landslides. Once at the bottom we grabbed a boat with 3 other people and hired a guide to take us to the top. The journey on the water was wet 😛 The waves were huger than the hull of the small boat, luckily we had large stabilisers and nothing that was too sensitive to a bit of water, but it was a lot of fun 🙂

Once on the island we walked through the small village there, up a well used path amongst others climbing up and down on horses, stopping for some of the group to catch their breath and for us to take in some of the breathtaking views.

Once we got to the top and could look into the volcano we could see the water boiling, lots of pilmbs of sulphur and there was even an island in the lake in the volcano island in the lake in a volcano crater on an island. We waddled off to a slightly less well trodden area to take in some views without so many people around, it was really amazing… Appart from the smell, which was quite pungent.

Then the journey back was pretty much exactly the same in reverse, but this time the coach didn’t have a tv, but was playing classic rock all the way.

Got back to the hostel, had to do my washing and managed to get my washing stuck in the machine, the staff said I should let them sort it all out, I just hope it’s dry by the time I leave for my flight tomorrow. Another 5am start. Now of to bed for me 🙂 A day well spent.

It’s quite hard to get stuff organised here as it’s mind meltingly hot, all you want to do is sleep, Internet is intermittent and most stuff in the Philippines isn’t advertised online, it’s mainly all, be in the know, book by email or phone (email in my case as my phone line doesn’t seem to want to work and the error message that I get when I try and make a call isn’t in English and the numbers that it mentions to call are also blocked… Smooth.

I have managed to book flights to El Nido on the island of Palawan, and a trip to the volcano island of Taal (which is a volcano island that has exploded inside the lake that is a crater of a much larger volcano that exploded ages ago).

I also in the two days, I made good use of the pool and had lots of fun with the other residence. Also took the took took-esk things that are prevalent around here simply called tricycles, a 5 min journey on one of those is about 15p, although they’re definitely made for people of max height 5.5′. 

Today is a simple day, I woke up at 5:00 on the floor in the kitchen of the hostel (they had over booked 2 days running and I offered to sleep on my camping mat in the kitchen that no one uses (because it has no WiFi or cooking facilities) for the two days and I got a refund for those two days, I was happy, they were happy, everyone wins, especially my travel fund) to catch a plane at 10:10 to Manila and I land at local time of 22:10… Yep, the 8 hour flight takes up all the hours of the day, smooth.

I currently have absolutely no idea what to do in the Philippines or where anything is or anything booked, so this will be an interesting 4 weeks…

 I landed and got a sim for mobile internet (very cheap out here), then got a taxi to my hostel (that I booked on the plane, prepared), taxis are crazy here, it’s not like a London taxi, only 1 sort is metered, the others are pre-pay. The cost is entirely dependent on your bartering skills… Entirely. For my trip apparently someone paid 1300 pesos, you should pay about 200 pesos… I paid 750. I didn’t do very well there. So taxis should be cheap. The driver also didn’t know the way at all, was on the phone (actually on it, not Bluetooth or anything) for half the journey, I had to find the place on google maps and direct him from the back, luckily I had bought the mobile internet sim otherwise I would be completely lost somewhere, before he asked me to use Google maps he went the wrong way for 20 mins, making the 10 min drive take almost an hour. I was very tired when I arrived so went straight to bed.

The hostel I’m at here, for two nights, is really nice, it’s got a nice pool, everything is new and shiny, there are fans everywhere… Oh yeah it’s mid 20s at the coldest point of the night and early 30s at the hottest, and very humid. And as this is so close to the airport you have planes flying over very low about every 15 mins.

I’m planning to relax the next two days and organise some flights around the islands (domestic flights around the Philippine islands are very reasonable).