18th – 23rd June

To get from Camiguin to Siargao took a full 2 days of travel and many different forms of transport. We had to return the bike back to the port we arrived in, and as per usual we weren’t leaving from the same port so had to get a trike 20km to the next port along. The boat to the mainland was really nice, we were sat on the upper deck outside. We travelled past all these beautiful islands, thick forest. Just stunning.

Once on the mainland we had to get another trike to the bus stop and work out which bus was the right bus to take us to Butuan, where we had to swap onto another bus to Surigao City. Each bus ride was about 3 hours. No breaks but lots of people kept getting on and off, so it was very stop/start.

In Butuan we arrived just as the sun was setting, and we had to find food before the next bus. There was a shopping mall so we went to the food court. It was the most built up place we had been since Singapore. It took us a moment to adjust to the dizzying array of shops and lights.

Crazy sunset whilst also raining!

The bus to Surigao city was not too bad but we were starving hungry by the time we arrived. We had chosen a hotel and went to EJ’s bar for food. Of course, they had live music and singing. So much singing.

The next day we got a ferry to Siargao Island which was another short hop. We had a pizza for lunch in the port town, then had to go through the motions to rent a bike.

Now, on all the islands the most we ever had to pay per day was P300 / £4.50, so when an elderly gentleman told us that we would be paying at least P500 per day for a bike, we weren’t having any of it. After an hour or so of threatening to just get a taxi to General Luna, and telling the man we were quite happy to go somewhere else (though looking back I don’t think there was anywhere else), we finally got the man down to P300 per day, and instead of handing over his passport as insurance (erm no no) the man accepted Andy’s Indian tax card. With a little bit of patience we got exactly what we wanted. This island did not value safety as much as other islands so my helmet was too big, Andy didn’t even get a helmet and no one else seemed to be wearing one anyway. Right- well if we are careful we can do this! Andy is an excellent driver, and I was in good hands.

We found our hotel along the main strip out of the small town of General Luna, and went for a wander. It’s a chilled out island. Lots of hippy types of travellers and backpackers were about so there was a big night scene and every other shack was a bar. All the people we saw were wearing ankle bracelets and baggy trousers, with perfect surfers beach bods, clearly not been on the San Miguel Pilsens like we have!

We spent the next few days eating tasty waffles for breakfast from a really cute roadside shack which had an upstairs lounge area. Cushions on the floor and rope railings, really good coffee and loads of strawberry jam! So tasty. For lunches we would test out the various sandwich places, or whatever we could find.. and then for dinners we found an awesome Italian for really good pizza, a nice beach side restaurant which we watched prepare meals one at a time, and a fancy bar for a burger that was definitely overpriced but worth it. on the island we made lots of dog and cat friends. They were all so friendly.

Cloud 9

On the first full day of our stay on Siargao we went to see the famous cloud 9 beach where the surfing competitions are held, in August, each year.

We went swimming in shallow pools in low tide that were so salty and hot, almost like the hot springs in NZ.

The sea was as calm as a pond – the surf shops were not cheap for lessons so we decided to give surfing a miss, though it would have been fun to have a go.

Magpupungko Rock Pools

The next day we decided to go to a little bit further afield and see some deeper rock pools. Armed with our leaky snorkel masks we set off and an hour later arrived at the Magpupungko rock pools. Low tide allowed us to walk over the slippery sea bed to these huge pools.

Plenty of people! There were amazingly some fish in the pools so we had lots of fun diving down to watch them swim about. Trying to cling onto our diving experiences as long as possible!

It was beautiful scenery.

The moped bike ride to the rock pools was an experience. It decided to rain half way so we got drenched. We stopped for cover with lots of other people and waited for the storm to pass. We did go past a look out point and stopped for a photo before being harassed by children selling bamboo.

Del Carmen and Tona Island

Around Tona Island you can swim with harmless jellyfish. This sounded like a really good idea so we got on the old moped again and set off to Del Carmen. From there we had researched you could hire a boat for about P1800 and go over to the island. The boat would come and pick you up after about 3 hours so plenty of time to see and do everything.

Off we went and again it decided to tip it down. We sought shelter under the porch of a house on the road side. There was a family inside watching the tv, but we didn’t want to go in and disturb them, how rude – they didn’t even invite us in…!! so we waited outside. The rain was heavy for about half an hour. A little girl came out and put a water cooler tank underneath the drainpipe and very quickly it filled up. By the time we got to Del Carmen the sun had come back out and we went for a coffee and some lunch near the port.

These umbrellas were along the sea front streets. A colourful addition.

We then chartered a boat to take us to the island. It was again very noisy and we couldn’t talk much but it was fascinating to watch the two sailors steer the boat around the shallows. The water was black and you couldn’t see the bottom, so it was pretty impressive!

When we arrived at the lagoon pontoon for swimming – it wasn’t quite what I had imagined. There were some kayaks and there was a platform to jump from, but aside from that it was quiet and fairly peaceful, aside from the tourists of course!

We rented (by mistake) a bamboo platform which we pulled out into the middle of the lagoon. It was attached to a rope so we could pull ourselves back ok! We only saw the jelly fish after we had swam for a while. There is definitely something disconcerting about swimming with an animal that could sting you, if you got in the way. Supposedly these were harmless but I was suspicious!

After a couple of hours hanging out we got the noisy boat back to Del Carmen and biked back to General Luna. It was a fun day, but after all the waterfalls and pools we have seen, I don’t think it was our favourite.

Manila

From Siargao we decided to fly straight to Manila. It was going to be easier than getting a bus there (which would take 3 days solid). Siargao has been a lovely peaceful island, fully chilled experience and we definitely enjoyed it!

Manila is so big and sprawling that we didn’t do much for the one day that we spent in the city before an outward flight to Siem Reap. We went to the cinema to see Toy Story 4 (laughed so hard I cried, amazing film) and ate a rather pricey Indian meal. Andy got a hair cut and that’s about all we did in Manila. I am sure it has more to offer, but perhaps for another time on another trip.

The Philippines has been incredible. What a place.

The trip from Jagna, Bohol to Camiguin was very straight forward. A 4 hour ferry ride during which we binge watched all the episodes of Black Mirror. Time goes fast when Netflix is on.. Once we got off the ferry we quickly found another bike, the same model and make (Honda Beat) as all the other islands but this time it had a working speedometer and best of all, proper helmets. The guys who lent us the bike were super friendly.

And this is how we travelled. Andy’s bag in the footwell and mine on my back. Not the comfiest way but saved us having to get a taxi!

Off we went to the main town of Mambajao to find somewhere to stay! We found a plaza to sit in, just to take stock for a moment and research on booking.com app, and a couple of Americans came up to us and started chatting to us. They were Jehovah Witnesses. Very kind. Said that they knew a couple of cheap places, so we thanked them and followed their directions to the cheapest most basic place we had stayed in the Philippines! Nippa huts are basically bamboo houses on stilts. The setting was idyllic but there were so many cockroaches and lizards scurrying around. No curtains or AC either. And there was definitely karaoke happening somewhere close by. What did we expect for only £7 a night! Setting was pretty idyllic though.

The next morning whilst we were having breakfast this dog came to make friends. Was sweet until we learnt that he had bitten a man before who had gone to hospital! The daughter of the Liverpudlian guy who owned the place was telling Andy all this whilst he was playing with the dog. Yes, perhaps we should be more wary of these animals!!

We had a ‘tip-the-bucket-over-your-head’ style shower because the water pressure was non-existent and banana pancakes for breakfast. It was more like a sponge cake than a crepe. Before we checked out we went to visit a few other resorts and finally settled on one called Casa Roca, recommended in the LPG, and it was much cleaner and nicer. We booked in for 2 nights. Jim the owner was lovely, and when we checked out he told us all about how he’d bought the place, lived there and then made it into a hotel. The back was held up by trees, really cool, but being so close to the ocean had its downsides.

Next we decided to explore the island. It’s not big, we could have circled it in about an hour, but we wanted to see the volcano and waterfalls, so we went on an adventure taking the uphill roads as far as we could. We love getting off the beaten track, and the bumpier the ride – the better it is!

We did have an end in sight: Katibawasan Falls. A 70m waterfall with a really cold pool for swimming, was delicious.

Afterwards it was time to find some lunch and we had looked in the book. It recommended Checkpoint which was a bar, the meal deal options had run out, so I went for a teriyaki chicken not realising that it would be a full half chicken. Unfortunately it was raw – so after that experience we didn’t feel so wonderful!

Later we chilled out at the hotel and ate there in the evening, much nicer food. We bumped into the spanish couple who had been staying in the same hotel in Loboc, it is so funny when that happens. How ever much you think you are alone on your travels, there are always others going the same way!

Black water dives

For our final dives of the trip we decided to go with Black Water – a German guy called Axel ran the shop and had only just opened. All the equipment was brand new. You received a bag at the beginning that had a towel, a bottle of water and soap for your mask, that you could take on the boat. It was cheaper than Alona Dives and the equipment was much better. Our dive master was Romeo. In the group there were also 2 other guys and a girl, all Chinese. They went for a muck dive first but our first dive was to ‘Black Forest’.

We went out on a very loud boat, had to wear ear defenders it was so noisy! We entered the water with Romeo and, unlike our other dives, this time we couldn’t see the bottom. We followed a rope down and down and down, it was just a little bit scary, but finally we reached 18m and the black coral. Under water it isn’t black, but if you brought a piece to the surface it would change colour. It was really cool, we saw lots of sea slugs and a couple of lion fish inside this huge piece of coral, looked like a big plant pot, in a spiral shape, and the fish were in the middle just swimming about! After about 50minutes (we are good at not using up air too fast these days!) we resurfaced and went back to the dive school for our break.

We had a coffee and biscuits and the Chinese joined us. They chain smoked the entire time, and we found out that they had just done their PADI too. The girl had all the gear though, some wetsuit long stockings, a wetsuit skirt, a mini mouse head band, she looked very cool. One of the guys was clearly not keen on doing another dive so he sat the next one out. We, all 4 of us, plus Romeo and Axel, went to Old Volcano. Now, this was awesome.

It had begun to rain but no matter when you are underwater! We first went to around 5m then over a huge canyon and down over a ledge. It was beautiful. The colours were bright and there were more slugs, some interesting coral shapes, lots and lots of fish, and of course turtles too! The Chinese couple were getting on our nerves though.. they were swimming all over the place zipping about.. Andy and I hung back and watched them bump into themselves, bump into the coral, get told off, it would have been funny but I just wanted them to calm down a bit so I could concentrate on what was around me! We followed the bed back up to the shallows and this was my favourite part, just looking at all the amazing colours and fish. I think aquariums are going to be ruined for me for life.

Kurma lodge

Kurma is a hotel that offers everything – free diving (where you don’t have a tank on your back, just hold your breath and go..), yoga, hiking and treks. It also was rated as one of the best restaurants! So we went twice in one day. If we could have we would have stayed but it was fully booked.

First thing in the morning we went for yoga. My goodness I haven’t sweated like that in a while. Literally pouring off my body. Andy and I had a private session with Lady the teacher. She was good and laughed at our discomfort !! It was a good work out and felt amazing afterwards.

We had to leave Casa Roca so moved all of our stuff to July’s Haven jut down the road. The room was fine and had air con with breakfast included. it was on the beach so we went for a swim.

Later in the evening we went back to Kurma for dinner and it was delicious. I had a pearl barley salad with salmon and Andy had a deconstructed beef pie. Yum yum yum! Great end to a perfect little island stay.

9th – 14th June

Travel Siquijor to Bohol

To get over to Bohol there is a short boat trip from Larena, but we had to get back to Siquijor city to return the moped. We had extended our rental by 2 days and had (in fairness to us) told one of the guys at the port when we went to get some cash out that we would return it later. This message wasn’t passed on however so we were not asked for more cash for the extra days, and we had forgotten! A very grumpy Charlie followed us all the way to Larena and demanded we pay him and extra for his trouble. Oops. And fair enough!

When we docked at Bohol we were immediately accosted by people (you want motorbike, hire motorbike?) and they put us in a taxi to take us to their shop to rent another bike. We booked our accommodation while we were waiting for it to be sorted. They wanted a 1500P deposit! Crazy. We decided to stay on Panglao which is another island just off Bohol, but connected by road. The hotel has a pool, so we were able to chill out for the afternoon. We went out into Alona Beach for a drink and may have booked a couple of dives for the next day!

Pool days

We did want to be productive but…

The pull of the pool was just too strong.

We went for a walk in the evening and caught night-rise over the beach. Lots of dogs on this island again.

Balicasag Diving

We booked dives with Alona Divers. They had really excellent reviews on Tripadvisor so I was confident we would be in good hands. It wasn’t cheap but sometimes you get what you pay for! We had to be there bright and early, and got suited up. Our dive master was Manny. He was an excellent photographer and looked after us really well. Andy and I were buddies and no one else was in our group so it was just us and Manny!

We got on the boat to the dive sites and would stay on board for the break between too. There was a French family and a couple of guys who were also French. One of them was an instructor. There was also a Taiwanese girl on the boat too. It was a good mix of people.

The first dive was called cathedral. It was a cliff dive. We swam down initially to 5m and then across the sea floor to the edge of the world. The floor dropped to 40m and it was blue. Bluest of blues I have ever seen. It immersed us and if you only looked out into the ocean it sucked you in, was quite disorienting. We went down to 18m. The other groups were swimming under us and their bubbles kept blocking our view. We hung back and waited for them to go a little way forward. we saw a turtle on a ledge, having a snooze and the Taiwanese girl was so keen to take photos, her buddy had gone ahead and had to come back for her. We are so careful to stick together. The more we learn about diving and about other people, we realise we are very careful!

Looking up you could see all the coral ledges and overhangs, looking down you could just see the bottom but the coral disappeared about 10m below us. I really enjoyed facing the coral wall, and just drifting along, watching the movie of the underwater world unfold before me.

Manny was great, showing us all the sea slugs, frog fish, all sorts. He wanted to take lots of photos and we even have a film of our trip. It’s stunning! The best bit for me though was when a shoal of Jack Fish swam near by and we swam into the middle of the shoal. We have a video of this too, it was amazing. So many fish, hundreds, all moving together swirling around us.

The second dive was called Diver’s Paradise. The landscape was completely different, more sand with outcrops of coral. There were so many turtles the second time. Lots of crazy underwater creatures. No idea what we were looking at but it was all fascinating!

It was an absolutely amazing and breathtaking day.

Afterwards we found a new Mac Donald’s had opened on Panglao. Hit. The. Spot. Big Macs all round.

We left our hotel and biked to Loboc.

Chocolate Hills

Our new hotel was set along the river and was very nice and quiet. We had a room overlooking the pool.

The moped is not good for long distances. Bottom is not used to sitting on it yet, and because I’m sat in a kuala position behind Andy, everything aches. We took a very scenic route to see the Chocolate Hills. They were very green and very impressive!

The roads through the Sierra Bullones to Jagna were epic, and I know I was thinking, wow this would be awesome to cycle. They were windy, not too steep, just perfect. And because we were quite high in the mountains it wasn’t quite so hot.

But sitting on that bike for over an hour was turning me grouchy. We stopped in Jagna and found some food from this homestay place and there were different dishes to chose from (dirt cheap, a couple of quid for a lot of food) and it looked a bit dubious, but so tasty! Was much happier after that.

Tarsiers

We had to check out of our hotel and move closer to Jagna for the boat over to Camiguin tomorrow, so we had the morning to go and see the little Tarsiers. These are the smallest marsupials and there was a recommended sanctuary on Bohol.

There were 5 Tarsiers inside a large gated area but there was a constant stream of people. Even though there were signs all over the place people were not approaching quietly. I wasn’t completely convinced that these nocturnal creatures were able to rest during the day.. hey ho. Hopefully the money goes to conservation.

They were very cute though.

Look at those little fingers!

We returned to the hotel, packed up, and took the bike back to Tagbilaran. Not sad to say bye bye to that bike!! We got our deposit back and hopped on a bus to Jagna. We stayed in a small hotel near to the place we got food from.

3rd – 9th June

Siquijor was recommended to us by Vicky in KL. We were toying with the idea of learning how to dive and Vicky had suggested this island would be the best place to test it and learn. Thank you Vicky 🙂

Travelling to Siquijor

The journey from Moalboal to Siquijor was a full day’s effort. We woke up early and saw two really large turtles on the floor of the sea just off the shore, just chomping on the grass! It was amazing, but our snorkels were so annoying that we gave up quite quickly.

We got a trike to the bus stop, waited on a corner with some others for the bus no timetable, or bus shelter, dubious that this would work. A non-air-con bus showed up! We squashed on and were stood up for the first half hour. We got a seat eventually and after a couple of hours arrived in Bato. Very glad to get off – so stop-start I felt a little sick!

We realised we were at the wrong port so had to get another trike, which was bumpy and loud. The boat took us to Dumaguette. Another trike through the city to the other port, and another boat later, we were in Siquijor! Immediately we hired a moped from friendly Charlie, and off we went to a cafe to sit our wary bones down and find somewhere to stay. The bike doesn’t have a speed gauge. It is a little bouncy. It will do the trick..

We finally chose a cliff edge hotel, called Emocion, which was on the south of the island, a little far away from the main strip but close enough to bike around easily. We were the only people there, and it was very luxurious. We had a 4 poster bed, mosquito nets and a semi-outdoor bathroom.

In search of Waterfalls

Last night 2 cats were having sex under our room, and we are in a bungalow hut on stilts so this was not what I was expecting to hear in the middle of the night!

We had a leisurely breakfast and made the plan for the day. First stop was Cambugahay Waterfall. It was the end of the dry season so unfortunately there wasn’t a waterfall. Just a big hole. This didn’t stop us going on an adventure though. We found some concrete pools, which didn’t look very inviting, and went for a walk upstream to see if there were any other falls.

These bamboo bridges were not fun to cross over, and then back again when we didn’t find any waterfalls. Very precarious!

Back on the bike! Other falls to see!

on our way we had lunch at the Get Wrecked bar and we stopped off at Sea Pearl Dive school to enquire about a try dive. We organised one for the next day, both of us excited but slightly nervous.

We headed to Lazi at the south of he island to the Lugrason Falls. These actually had water flowing and people. Lots of people. There were swings and Andy took advantage of them!

Came back to the room to discover a big lizard hanging out above the loo. Perfect.

Try Dive

After a nervous breakfast we set off to Sea Pearl and met our dive instructor Riika who was from Finland. She had a great sense of humour, gave us enough information but didn’t bog down on the details for this first dive, and overall she was an excellent teacher. We signed our life away on the very intimidating and scary forms declaring we were fit to dive, and got suited up. Full neoprene wet suits with boots, a buoyancy control device (BCD), 4kg of weights around my waist and air tanks. It was all exceptionally heavy and just walking down to the sea edge was effort. Of course when we got into the water we could put air into the jacket and float easily. Next came the tricky bit. Breathing into the regulator under water! It’s actually not bad, the same mouth piece as a snorkel.

I let out all the air in my jacket, and with the weights around my waist, sank to the sea bed about 3m down and sat on my knees, waiting for Andy. He was having a bit of trouble. He was struggling with the BCD – it was too tight and caused him to breath too deeply, which meant he was too buoyant! After a couple of attempts and loosening of the jacket, he made it down to the floor. We kneeled on the sea bed for a little while whilst Riika showed us how to get water out of our masks by blowing air out through your nose whilst looking up, which we copied, and then we set off to explore! We had to keep equalising our ears, and we went down to 10m. It was awesome. We saw a scorpion fish, a snake, lots and lots of small fish and even clown fish in the anemone:) beautiful. I looked up a few times and the distance didn’t scare me after a while, there was so much going on around me! It was amazing.

Afterwards we were buzzing with adrenaline- it was such a wonderful dive, we were keen on the course. Sensibly we decided to go for food and decide by the end of the day if we were prepared to pay £300 each for the course. It was a lot of money but we thought it was worth it. We had to pay a deposit and the only ATM on the island was in the main town to the north.

When we returned to Riika later that afternoon she handed us an iPad and a book and told us to complete the first 3 sections out of 5 by the next dive, which we scheduled for the next afternoon.

We went to a pizza place for food, and couldn’t eat it all so brought it back in a paper bag for later. We began to watch the video for the first section. At the end of each section was a test, and at the end of the 5 sections was an exam. Each video was about an hour long and the book had all the tests in, so you could practice before filling out the answers online. It was a lot of work!

The first video showed us everything we should have done on our first dive. I felt scared, but in a good way. We went to bed and there was a huge storm. The electricity was cut off for a few hours so the room got very warm, and we heard a mouse going after the pizza!! Argh!! Not a good night’s sleep.

Dive 2

The next morning after breakfast we did the next section. We got scared again, there were a lot of techniques to cover. I didn’t eat much before the dive and I had a mild headache from worrying about all the skills. Of course as soon as we got to the school, and we were in our suits, I didn’t have time to be scared. I manned up!

We had an addition to our lesson, a French Canadian guy called Felix, who had done 2 try dives, and was now doing the course. Riika showed us how to put the BCD and the tank together, letting the air through to the regulators and checking it was all good to go. So much to remember! Then we went into the water. She had briefed us before on everything we would be doing. We walked down to the beach again, and did so many skills it was insane:

• Half filled mask
• Fully filled mask
• Mask off
• Regulator taken out
• Lost regulator
• Sharing regulator
• Buoyancy exercises

Wow! It was a lot to do! But afterwards we went for a swim, only kidding, we did more exercises! Swimming together on our buddy’s regulator was a bit of a faff, I am not the most agile under water!

Next we swam a bit deeper down to 10m. By this time we had all forgotten what was next in the brief. Riika intimated we were going to do another mask exercise, and Felix went first. He fully flooded his mask and took it off, waited the required couple of seconds and then put it back on, clearing it through his nose. All grand – I copied him, had a slight panic when putting the mask back on because my hair was flying about and I couldn’t secure it properly. Anyway, unbelievably I remained calm and kept breathing. I eventually got it back on. Then Andy did it, except he had been watching us two go, and he’d also seen Riika look baffled, we were only supposed to half fill our masks!! Oops. He did the exercise correctly. We all made it to the surface in one piece. I felt ridiculous ha.

We then did a controlled ascent on the surface, which I didn’t get at all; it was meant to be done from 5m down but we were just practicing swimming forwards on the surface. Got there eventually!

After the dive we went for food, drank lots of water and watched section 3. Even more terrifying.

2 brown outs over night, very warm in the hotel room.

Dives 3 and 4

Breakfast was a muffin from the shop, I couldn’t have a big breakfast again, too much food and it wasn’t sitting well!

We also moved hotels yesterday, closer to the strip and to the dive school. It is on the sea, but there wasn’t a beach. Ah well. Cheap and cheerful! A short bike ride later and we were ready for the first dive of the day.

We got a boat to the dive site and we practiced first getting into the water with mask and snorkel and flippers on, then putting on the BCD, which required some nifty lying back on top of the inflated BCD, whilst doing up all the straps, then finally the weights. This was the tricky bit. You had to lean forward and breath through the snorkel, whilst getting 4kg over behind you, and doing up the strap at the front. Goodness – took some effort. Anyway, got there in the end, and we were off.

At 5m we all stood up on the sea floor, and one by one took off the BCD, then put it back on again, then we took off our weights, and put them back on again, sodding weights, they are my nemesis! Then we had to do a fully flooded mask (no taking it off!) which was fine. Afterwards we did an alternative air source ascent. I went with Andy. Not the smoothest. You are supposed to go as the same speed as the smallest bubbles coming out of your regulator… We went slightly too fast. Science bit, as you rise to the surface, pockets of air will expand, causing you to go even faster, so you have to let out air all the time, so that you don’t go too fast. This is of course the most important aspect of diving. Keep breathing. Never ever hold your breath, if you change depth you could burst a lung. What a lovely thought.

On the video we had just watched we knew we had to ‘sip’ air out of a constant stream of air from our regulators. It looked impossible. I was worried I would breath in water, but actually doing it was so much easier!!

After all those skills we just about had enough air in our tanks to go for a little swim. We saw turtles, lots of fish and we followed the reef wall. Stunning.

We did an emergency ascent one to one with Riika, Andy had to do it twice, but I rocked it 🙂 we then had a break! The break is very important – it allows all of the nitrogen in your body to dissolve and then you won’t be at risk of getting the bends! Or decompression sickness. To give it the official title!

The second dive was really fun. We had to navigate with our compass and take off our masks at depth, all easy! We could then enjoy the swim without any more exercises!

We saw an octopus – just coming out from under a rock. So amazing to watch it change colour, it was just awesome. We went down to 18m depth and all the fish – breath taking.

After the dives we had to get more cash out to pay tomorrow and get the final two sections done. We were keen to finish it all this evening, so amidst brown outs and the heat, we finished the course and took the final exam! Woop!

Dive 5

All last night I had dreams of rising to the surface too fast and getting decompression sickness. Totally irrational! I know how to control my buoyancy!! plus we would never get to our limit, and Riika was awesome. So silly.

We did our final dive with Sea Pearl Divers and it was great. Saw so much reef life including a frog fish (took me a while to recognise it!) and turtles, and we didn’t do a single exercise!

Felix’s girlfriend came with us, she was already an advanced diver. Felix used his air a bit too fast so he went up before us, and we got extra time under water. We passed the course and got our certificates! Back at the dive school we met a couple and they gave us tips on where to go diving next! All very exciting. Get such a high from it, it’s so wonderful.

We celebrated a week of intensive learning by going to Charisma Beach and chilling out with some friendly puppies.

29th May – 3rd June

Cebu City

We were finally in the Philippines and started our island hopping adventure on the larger island of Cebu. Famed for white beaches, sardines, and some questionable ethics when diving with whale sharks at the southern tip: we flew into Cebu city and stayed in a colourful but basic hotel recommended in the Lonely Planet Guide for a couple of nights. The lift was not working but the signs on the way up to the fourth floor told us how many ‘steps to fitness’ we were getting.

The one full day we were in the city we were determined to cram a lot in. First stop a library which I thought was a tourist office, but no, actually just a library. It was a very pretty library though!

Next to the downtown basilica. It was lovely inside, nice and cool. As always I feel a sense of calm when entering all spaces of worship. It was good to get out of the heat for a few quiet moments. We didn’t stay for mass, just in case Andy burst into flames.

We then walked to the fort and found out all about the history of Cebu and the Philippines. The take over by the Spanish, and then later, the Americans. The Fort has many buildings inside its walls, some with art works in, others with old photographs.

We researched where to get lunch and found a pork lechon stand inside a supermarket. It was a dubious setting but my goodness – it was the tastiest thing ever. The pork was succulent, the rice came squashed inside banana leaves and we were given plastic gloves and dug in. Messy but delicious. Topped off with a coke.

Next on the LPG agenda was going to the Carbon Market. Folks, I don’t recommend going if you are easily queasy – lots of fish guts, lots of rats. Quite disgusting, unclear why the LPG recommended it.

We had to buy more sun cream and who knew that this would be such a faff! Instead of SPF rated creams the Filipinos use ‘whitening cream’. Hmm! After several trips to several pharmacies we eventually found some suncream but blimey- very expensive.

We went out for food and cheap beer at a roof top bar, over looking the city, with a Beatles cover band randomly playing. Odd but fun.

Journey to Moalboal

The next couple of months would be broken up into days of doing the tourism stuff, days of relaxing by a pool or more oft watching YouTube or Netflix videos inside the hotel room escaping the heat, and days of travelling from one place to the next.

Today was a travel day. We had nothing booked. Reading LPG seemed to suggest hopping on a bus was very easy and there were no websites for booking anyway. So off we went. We got a taxi to the bus station (Cebu city has Grab!) and asked people wearing yellow where the bus to Moalboal was. We got on a bus, and then got off it again when it was decided the air con wasn’t working, then we all stood squashed together whilst the bus reversed out of the plaza and another came in. I was worried we wouldn’t get onto the next bus, visions of us having to wait longer in the heat was causing me some dread, but all was fine and we squeezed on. We managed by some miracle to get a seat, and waited to see what would happen. I think this whole experience took around 45 minutes, just to get on a bus!! Anyway, we finally set off and then the ticket man came up the bus and gave us punched pieces of paper with the the date and cost of the fare. The next time he came round we paid him. It was a slow process. The bus stopped a lot, and took about 3 hours or so, no toilet breaks!

We made it to Moalboal and got a trike to our hotel. There is sort of air con, and it is on the sea front but we can maybe find something better and cheaper tomorrow! What a journey.

I have to say, sunsets are incredible here.

Kawasan Falls

We had breakfast free at the hotel and went for a swim in the sea. Beautifully warm water. Clear and inviting.

We looked around for another room just down the road, and found one in a smaller hotel, tiny room but in our minds it would get cooler quicker! And it was P1000 cheaper (approx £15). We moved all of our stuff over and then hired a moped for the day for P300 (£4.50). On the agenda was Kawasan Falls.

The falls were busy and full of tourists canyoneering into the water. It looked fun but we decided we were ok just going for a walk instead. We hiked all the way in flip flops to the tipity top of the multi layered falls. It was cool water, very slippery to get in and out but ahhh lovely for a cool down. Andy did some jumps off the cliff edge, I wasn’t feeling the need for danger so watched from a safe distance!

We got back on the moped and drove back. Had sun downers overlooking the sea, magical.

White beach

Yesterday we bought some fairly heap snorkel kits with the intention to save cash and do some underwater exploration! Turned out that they weren’t very good. They had to be on super tight to stop water getting in around the sides of my face and the snorkel was utter crap. It let all the water in. We kept hold of them for the entire time we were in the Philippines but what an error. You get what you pay for!

We hired another moped and went to white beach, there was very little shade and a lot of people. The summer holidays were coming to an end (apparently) so there were a lot of local tourists everywhere. We walked away from them to a quiet area.

We went for a nice dinner for our 6th anniversary and made friends with another couple. Andy and Welsh Paul hit it off, and vibes were flying all over the place. They bought us far too many beers and when they left at midnight we felt quite bereft! We ended up going to a club (in the same shop where we hired the mopeds from) and had a good ol boogie session. It was such a fun night. But oh so sweaty!!

Next stop, Siquijor!