Philippines with Mike

On Saturday 6^th November, after 24 hours and 3 different flights I finally made it to Manila, capital of the Philippines to start my 3 week “holiday” with Mike. We planned to work our way down the Philippines through the Visyas islands in the middle then get a flight back from Cebu, though it didn’t happen quite like that… The first 2 days we spent in Manila.

Crazy Jeepney in Manila

Had a look around Intermuros and Ermita park, then explored the bars and nightclubs (?not sure what to call them, maybe “live music venues”?) near the hostel in Malate.

Night club/bar/music venue...

Good fun, though very strange to see so many young Flippino girls with old Western men…

Monday we journey down to Lake Taal to visited the volcano. We stayed in a tiny village, Talisay, right on the lake’s shore. Had to do the old 'point and hope' for dinner, but ended up with fairly nice noodles and meat. It was nice to see the Flippino way of life in the village and it reminded me a bit of Indonesia.

"It's a long way back!"

We took a boat trip across to the volcano on Tuesday and spent an hour or so walking up to the top in the sweltering heat! Was a good view from the top though- you could look down into a lake of boiling, bubbling water in the crater!

View of the volcano crater

We left Talisay and headed to Sabang, Porto Galera on Mindoro, via our very first Jeepney ride and a boat across the sea. Sabang was unfortunately another place full of old men and young girls, also lots of divers, but no beach to speak so we had a brief stopover and moved quickly on. One great thing about Sabang though was the room we stayed in had a kitchen, so I got to cook for the first time in 5 months! From Sabang we got Jeepney and the most cramped minibus I’ve ever even seen let alone been on to Roxas for the ferry over to Caticlan and Boracay.

We ended up spending the rest of the holiday in Boracay. It was an awesome island. We stayed on White beach –a 4km long stretch of beautiful soft white sand and clear blue sea! We spent a great deal of time lounging on the beach and in the sea, and possibly even more time sitting on the beach drinking 2-for-1 cocktails and watching the sunset.

Something usually done at our “local” bar – Armina where they had beer for 25Pesos and cocktails for 69Pesos (around 35p and £1) – can’t beat that!! Boracay’s a very touristy place which meant we had any type of food we could want for dinner! So plenty of mexican’s for me, and a great Indian – I’d missed proper Western food!

One highlight of the island for me was the Bamboo bar at night… mainly because they had fire dancers and me and Mike were invited to join in! :o) Spent many nights spinning away with my fire poi, and several days practicing to try not to be quite so bad compared to the professionals! On Sunday night we headed over to the Jungle Bar for a Full Moon Celebration! Was a tiny random bar on the other beach, with ridiculously strong drinks and at around 2am a performance of tribal drumming!

We also managed to do a few activities on the island; Mike did his Open Water Diving course and I went along with him on a couple of the dives. We did a Windsurfing lesson over on Bulabog beach. The beach itself was nasty – covered with seaweed and drift wood etc. as was the sea – knee deep a long way out and so murky you couldn’t see the bottom, but it was covered in weeds anyway. However, there was a constant wind that meant the place is a haven for Kite surfers and a few less daring windsurfers! It was really good to be back on a windsurf-it’s been about 7 years since the last time! I remembered bits of it though and enjoyed sailing up and down the beach, need more practice really! We also went on a horse ride up to a viewpoint where you could see all of Boracay. Our ponies were tiny for us and mine had the largest mane I’ve seen! Very good fun though.

Shame we didn’t make it anywhere else on the Philippines, though Boracay was great fun, I’ll have to head back at some point and travel around it properly.

Rantepao, Tana Toraja

I arrived in Tana Toraja early morning on Wednesday on the night bus from Makassar. My first thought was of sleep as the bus ride, although the best bus I’ve been in by far (seats that went right back and had enough room that you weren’t squished by the person in front) and the fact I had 2 seats to myself and a massive pillow (courtesy of the intrigued local bus boys spoiling the foreigner), travelled along the most bumpy roads I’ve ever known! I don’t think I had more than 5 minutes with my eyes closed before I was jerked awake going over a bump or pot hole! But I guess that’s to be expected in rural Sulawesi! So I went straight to the hostel recommended by my old hostel owner and didn’t take in much of the town. Except the lively food market just down the road from me in an alley between 2 houses where it seems the whole town had collected to get their fresh veg!

After a few hours much needed sleep I was woken by the hostel owner’s son practicing very loudly on his keyboard so I went out to explore the town of Rantepao. My first impressions weren’t good. The main high street just reminded me of a slightly smaller version of Makassar, with hundreds of cars and motorbikes and everyone beeping everyone all the time. The noise was deafening. Added to that were the local people shouting “Hello” and “Hello Mister” all the time (they don’t seem to know “Miss” or “Mrs” very often) and just blatantly staring wherever I went. The street looks like it could have come from the middle of a city instead of a small town in the middle of the mountains. There are puddles and mud, rubbish and bits of rubble along the pavements and side of the road. The pavements (and in fact the road in some places) is full of pot holes and missing bricks. So as you can imagine I was quite disappointed.

But then, I wandered across a small bridge, and suddenly I was in a different world. The view on the other side of the river was of green fields and mountains and in the distance a tiny Torajan village with the traditional boat-like roofs showing through the trees. As I crossed I saw two young boys standing in the river washing two Buffalo – apparently the Torajans are quite attached to their Buffalo. On this side of the river there were no more cars or people staring rudely. There was miles of farm land and tiny lanes with a backdrop of beautiful, tranquil mountains – this was the Tana Toraja I was expecting!

I my way back to the hostel I got caught in a sudden downpour and ducked into an internet café to hide. During the storm the power went down 3 times, apparently a normal occurrence here as the owners started up the backup generator and went about transferring the power cables so we could get back online.

That evening I went to Mart’s Café to meet Adchuk, a guide again recommended by Reena my old hostel owner. Adchuk easily persuaded me to join his group of Spanish people on a 2 day trek through the mountains with an overnight stay in a hilltop village starting the next day. At that point the ever present guitar came out and we all proceeded to spend the evening drinking Bintang and singing along to the hundreds of songs Adchuk has somehow memorized! In English, Spanish and Torajan!

Malaysia Part 2

We left the East coast on Sunday 26th Sept and took an overnight bus to Langkawi. We’d heard good things about the night life here and the really cheap beer. However I think we were ahead of the season as the bars were pretty empty.

Found a good Reggae one, again on the beach and they provided me with petrol for my fire poi. So we went back there every night! Had a bit of a chill on the beach the first few days then decided to be energetic and rent some mountain bikes to explore the island. At the time we didn’t realize quite how hilly the island came be! We headed north to the cable car which took us up to the mountain tops.
Saw a little of the awesome view before the clouds came in and hide everything from us! Then we went down the road to the 7 Wells waterfall and cooled down in the cold mountain water.


We then had to race the sunset back to the hostel so we could still see where we were going! This meant going even harder over the massive up and down hills! Was a tiring day!


The next day we moved on to Penang, famed for it’s good food we thought we should try a bit! And the food there is very good, and cheap, though I still think the Banana Leaf curry in Singapore was the best!
We tried to do some sightseeing and go up Penang Hill, but the train up the hill was closed when we got there after an hour in the bus! Still got to see some of Georgetown and wandered around Fort Cornwallis too. Only spent 2 days here then went straight across to the Cameron Highlands.


The Cameron highlands reminded me a lot of England and made me miss home :o( I don’t know whether it was the bus ride in when the light was fading and the rain was falling and it felt like a cold autumn day! Or the fact that the area has British influences like the tea plantations started by an Englishman, or the bright red English phone box, that I didn’t see but is apparently a tourist attraction! I think it was probably the colder weather and the real grass on the ground!
We did a day tour of the sights that took us around; a tea plantation – amazing views of green tea bushes growing everywhere across the valley and up the hills on the other side, a Butterfly farm – like a big green house full of plants and lots and lots of butterflies!
We tried out our photographic skills trying to get artistic shots, and there was also some random insects that the boys enjoyed holding! We also went to the highest peak, ……, and climbed through some “Mossy Forest”.
We saw a hyrophonics strawberry and fruit farm and I couldn’t help but buy some juicy red strawberries – so tasty! The afternoon was a bit more random; an hour minibus ride to a tiny little waterfall, and a visit to the Ogmi tribe. It was a good experience but wasn’t so much of a tribe as 2 guys that were very used to putting on a show for tourists! I did however have an awesome shot with the blowpipe :o)


Our last few days we spent in KL, probably not enough time though really. We went up the Petronus towers and wandered through park.
I spent an hour or so doing some Batik painting in a little craft village, quite proud of my painting!
On the Friday we went for a curry with a local guy we met and he showed us the great view of night time KL from his apartment! On the Saturday we went back to his again for a pool party!

Now I’m in Makassar, Sulawesi in Indonesia. Spending just one day here, as the city itself isn’t very attractive, but tomorrow I’m going to head up to Tana Toroja…

Singapore & Malaysia Part 1

I jumped on a plane to Singapore on Tues 7th Sept, and headed straight for the cheapest area – Little India. Due to being silly, me and James miss-timed our flights and I had one day by myself before he arrived. So I went to sample the amazing local curry! I had a “Banana Leaf” which had all the veggie dishes and some chicken piled onto a banana leaf around a massive helping of rice – very tasty!

When James arrived we again tried the awesome curry before venturing out into main Singapore. We spent a day wandering the streets, saw some Hindu temples and others, found a very nice park and ended up on Orchard Road in the big shopping malls.

Esculator up to the Park...

Crazy big mall in Orchard Road

We left Singapore pretty sharpish to save some cash so got a bus (very luxurious one at that, as all buses in Malaysia seem to be!) to Melaka. We arrived in Melaka on Friday 10th, which happened to be the start of a 3 day festival celebrating the end of Ramadan. So the town was pretty packed with party go-ers! We spent the first evening squashed into the nightmarket in Chinatown and enjoyed the crazy party atmosphere.

Tasty "meat on sticks" in China Town

Did a little sightseeing in the town then met up with Kat and her friend Josh, for a few drinks and a catch up (I met Kat while on Koh Tao).

Sights of Melaka

They kindly took us to a nearby waterfall the next day and a very random crocodile park! Trekking up next to the waterfall

Poor little crocs in the Malaysian "zoo"

After Melaka we moved across to the East coast and started a few weeks of island and beach hopping that were awesome fun and very relaxing. We started on the Tioman island, off the coast from Mersing. I think the best thing about this island was the cats… also the stunning beaches and clear blue sea I guess.

2 of many many cute cats!

We wanted to do the 3 hour trek across the island through the jungle to Juara, but just as we were preparing to leave the rain came down so we had to give up on the idea. After Tioman we stopped briefly on Cherating beach. It was very quiet here, I think it must be really good in the wet season when the surfing starts though!

A bit of swimming in the beautiful sea

Then we got to the Perhentain Islands and stayed on long beach.

View towards the "posh" end of Long Beach

Here we did our Open Water Dive course with Nic at Matahari divers. This was great fun as I thought it would be! Saw lots and lots of fish and coral, and some blue spotted stingray. I took part in a Project AWARE cleanup dive on the Saturday (25th) which was basically litter picking underwater! But was useful for me to get straight back in the water after the course and practice my newly learnt skills!

Matahari Dive school - spent a fair bit of time here!

The nightlife on this island was the best in Malaysia I think: Lounging around on mats on the beach with a cup of monkey juice and coke (Monkey Juice being the cheap rum sold only on the island), playing with fire poi and listening to some chilled out Reggae music!

Doing a bit of snorkelling and practising our dive signals!

Southern Laos

I spent another 2 weeks in Laos after Vang Vieng. I briefly stopped in the capital Vientiane which, despite everyone saying otherwise, I actually quite liked. There wasn’t a great deal to do, but I went to the very random Budda Park and spent an evening bowling.

Some of the interesting statues in Budda Park

After Vientiane I headed to Savannakhet and I noticed the difference from Northern Laos immediately. Landscape wise Southern Laos is completely flat, and people wise I saw only 6 other Westerners in the 3 days I stayed in the city! I went for a bike ride around the surrounding countryside which was exactly how I pictured rural Laos to be; Paddy fields stretching for miles, goats grazing at the side of the road, locals fishing in the lake, no cars, about 5 mopeds… perfect!

View of the countryside around Savannakhet

After my chill out time in Savannakhet I decide to join a tour in Pakse to take me down the Mekong to Don Si Pan (4000 islands). Our guide took us on a long boat across the Mekong to a local Buddhist temple on top of a massive hill.

Hundreds of steps I climbed to the Buddhist temple, good view over the Mekong though

We then went onto the main attraction; the Khmer ruins of Wat Pou. I thought Wat Pou was awesome. The ruins climb up the side of a mountain and I was very surprised how much is still intact as it was built in the 7^th century. The view from the top level was really cool, you could see right over to the Bolavan Plateau (I think!).

View from the top level of Wat Pou

We sheltered from a sudden rain storm over lunch then headed to Don Khon, one of the 4000 islands and linked to Don Det by an old French railway bridge – no tracks any more though. In the morning we cycled across the little island to a massive waterfall - Tat Somphamit, made all the more impressive by the vast amount of water in the rainy season.

Waterfall 1 - Tat Somphamit off Don Khon

We headed onto another waterfall - Khon Phapeng, later in the afternoon which was just as awesome and is apparently the largest waterfall in SE Asia.

Waterfall 2 - Khon Phapeng

Had a brief stop in Cambodia for half an hour of Irrawaddy Dolphin spotting, surprisingly we actually saw the group of 12 dolphins several times! The next few days I spent chilling on Don Khong the largest of the 4000 islands before heading back to Bangkok.

If you look really closely there are a couple of dolphins there somewhere...

I really enjoyed exploring Laos and I’m glad I took the extra time to make my way leisurely through Southern Laos. It was the first time I’d really been travelling alone (as there were so few westerners to meet) but it meant I spoke with the locals more (or attempted to) and it felt like I was slightly off the typical backpacker trail!

Giant stone jars & Tubing

After Luang Prabang, Levka and I travelled along a windy undulating road to Phonsavan to see the mysterious stone jars. The jars are 2500 to 3000 year old structures carved out of massive pieces of rock. They range in size from way above my head to about up to my knees. No-one really knows the purpose of the jars though we were told a few theories and came up with a few good ones ourselves: Giants having a massive party and using the jars as shot glasses for Lao Lao! Cauldrons for a huge coven of witches… The more likely one is ceremonial burial jars.

The stone jars at Site 3

A particularly big jar that I could climb inside

We visited sites 1, 2 & 3 which are the only ones of about a hundred different sites that have been cleared of UXOs for people to look around. Site 3 was the best; we had to walk across tiny pathways through rice paddies to get to a small hill and the jars were all hidden in amongst the trees.

Rice paddies on the way to Site 3

A jar broken apart by the tree growing through it

We just spent one night in Phonsavann then headed straight off to Vang Vieng for some partying. We experienced the wonders of tubing down the Nam Song River on Tuesday. Bascially involved floating along on a giant rubber ring, then stopping off at some bars and getting free shots!

Me, Natalia and Levka at Bar 2 I think

Awesome day and the night was just as good; following the crowd of drunken Westerners to the 3 bars in town! The next 2 nights were essentially the same thing. I somehow managed to make it up in the morning on Sunday to spend the day kayaking and tubing in a cave. This was very cool, surprisingly I even enjoyed the crawling through small spaces in the mud to get to the other spaces!

Laos

My journey in Laos started with 2 days travelling down the Mekong River on the Slow Boat. The river winds through hills covered with lush greenery; sometimes farmers’ fields and rice paddies, sometimes a wildness of trees and plants. It was amazing to see such beautiful scenery all around. Occasionally there were tiny villages of bamboo huts and people travelling across the river in long boats. We spent 7 hours on the river on the first day before we got to the overnight stop at Pakbang. There was another 8 hours on Monday, the beautiful scenery exactly the same as the day before. I’m really glad I took the slow boat though I was also really glad when we finally arrived at Luang Prabang.

View of the Mekong from the Slow Boat

I’ve been in Luang Prabang for 5 days now, and I really like it here. The first day we hired some bikes and cycled around the city. I say city, it’s more like a good sized town. We visited some temples and cycled over the old bridge to the other side of the Nam Khan River, there we found a hidden away bar with views over the river. We climbed the Phou Si hill at the centre of the town in the evening to watch the sunset, unfortunately it started raining just as the sun was going down! Still the views from the top were amazing.

View of Luang Prabang, across the Nam Khan river towards the airport

We went to the Khong Si waterfall on Wednesday to go swimming in the river, however, it started raining again as we arrived which made it too cold to go in. The rain made the waterfall very impressive though!

Me in the rain at Khong Si Waterfall

There is an awesome night market in the town with hundreds of stalls and so many different handmade Laos items. Also a night food market nearby where you can buy really good food cheaply, my favourite so far is the Luang Prabang sausage! I’ve also looked around a big local market which had everything you can imagine in, and tasted different varieties of local tea.

Local Lao market

I plan to go kayaking down the river to the Tad Sae waterfall soon then I think we will move on via the Plain of Jars to Vang Vieng.