Final Reflections...

Hey guys and girlies,

The last thing my Mum said to me when I left crying was, "Go and have the time of your life and I will see you in 3 months". That I did...I had a brilliant time... I have absolutely no idea where the time went, it seems like yesterday I was crying my eyes out saying goodbye to Alex, who is not yet forgiven for leaving me to do my dissertation all by myself! A lifetime of flowers and jewelry will solve that. Although I have only been gone for 3 months I feel like I have achieved a great deal and become a real traveler...my friends and family would never have guessed that I would do some of the things I have done. Either would I...In fact I have done everything I said I would never in a million years do. I have endured grotty accommodation, revolting toilets and bathrooms, shared bathrooms, a tent, and even walked through a jungle! The only thing that I haven't done on this trip is share a dormitory with other people, and that's just common sense. I am seriously looking forward to chatting to my girls (Cav and Steph in particular) and explaining to them some of the stuff I have done...I have their exact faces in my head, the face I pulled at the thought of doing these things before I came out here...complete horror.

I am so excited about seeing my family for Christmas and my dog who I fear may have a heart attack when she sees me. I am also excited about the luxuries of home, getting to hug my dinosaur in my big double bed, having a nice bathroom, eating a roast dinner, and drinking PG tips! I am also so excited for Alex and his family who I know must miss him a lot! Eeeeek, let's hope we can get home in this snow. My hair is truly a nightmare, embarrasingly so, and if I don't make it home for my hair appointment the next day I will be truly gutted!

Everyone says that when you travel you will learn a lot. Whether it is how lucky you are to live in a developed country with everything you want on tap, or general knowledge about the rest of the world. I will therefore sum up my blog with my final reflections and some of the things I have learnt over these 3 months...

1) I have learnt that Alex and I can live in each others pockets, 24/7 for 3 months without arguing (which bodes well for our future).

2) I have learnt things I never knew about Alex- like his inability to stop biting his nails no matter how many pinches or hair pluckings he gets. Like his body and weight obsession (you would think he was a girl). Like his need to do his Mark Saleme impression at least 5 times a day.

3) I have learnt that Alex thinks he can get away with murder...and I generally let him. This entire trip he has constantly led me into a false sense of security and then pounces and makes me do something I swore I would never do...luckily for him this has made my trip more memorable.

4) I have learnt some skills like diving!

5) From China I have learnt that I am incredibly lucky to have a Dad who lets my Mum have the heating on whenever she wants.

6) I have learnt that I am incredibly lucky to have a Mum who wants the heating on 24/7.

7) I have learnt that I am incredibly lucky to have hot water on tap...no matter how warm the weather, cold showers don't cut it.

8) I have learnt that England is not the only country that gets constant rain...it is constantly raining wherever I am in Vietnam and the Philippines as well.

9) I have learnt that I can use any toilet in the world...squat, covered in shit (literally), or even a hole on the beach...I am invincible.

10) And finally...I have learnt that no matter what people say, no matter how many times you are told by the ones you love that it can't be done, with a bit of hard work, perserverence, and determination, I can watch 3 months worth of Eastenders whilst traveling the world...Bring on the Christmas special!

xoxo

Puerta Princessa...El Nido...Sabang...Manila...

Hello to you all for the penultimate time!

Palawan didn't exactly go as Alex had planned, but we still had a brilliant time with some of my most memorable experiences here. We flew from Cebu into Puerto Princessa where we changed some money and extended our Visas. It is very annoying that I didn't extend my Visa in the UK because it turned out to be very expensive. That is defo one of the downsides of the Philippines. They seem to charge you a lot of money all over the place for silly reasons, like paying a mandatory express fee for our Visa extension although we were quite willing to wait; or charging you to enter the airport; and even charging you to leave the country. Alex has been particularly annoyed about this, but never mind. Alex also had plans to visit several places over Palawan, El Nido, Corin, Port Barton etc. but we have been unable to do them all due to the expense of transport. However, we still managed El Nido and Sabang...

I did not hit it of with El Nido at first. It was raining the entire journey and my bag got soaked on top of the van. I ended up having to do some washing the second I got here. The accommodation was also pretty expensive and not even that nice. Alex searched in the wet and eventually found somewhere which was OK. The staff were lovely, but the room and bathroom were very basic. Luckily the weather picked up. The next day Alex and I hired a kayak and went on a mammoth trip. I'd like to say I got a bit of a work out here but I probably contributed about 400 strokes during the 5 hour trip. The scenery was very beautiful but the stress of Alex potentially asking me to help him row was quite exhausting and I was glad when we arrived back on land!

The most memorable part of the Philippines so far, and perhaps even of my trip was our camping trip in El Nido. There are many trips you can go on here to explore the many islands surrounding El Nido. Alex keen to be different decided he would like to do the tour where you stay over night on one of the islands, and continue another boat tour in the morning. With our limited funds this meant camping in a tent rather than spending lavishly on a nice expensive beach hut. I was certainly not keen on this idea at first, but agreed that if the boat was OK and the toilet satisfactory I would do it for him. The next day I was horrified to discover that there was no toilet or shower on the boat, but not to worry because "there is many trees to go behind and the driver can dig you a hole". None of this seemed to bother Alex at all who argued that, "it's not unreasonable for me to ask you to crap twice on a beach". Hello, what planet is this boy living on? I am a lady, and ladies should not be expected to go to the toilet amongst spiders. I knew straight away that I was going to be guilted into this trip. I decided that Alex wanted this experience more than I didn't, and if one day I wanted to be on Shipwrecked this was a good opportunity to test whether I could do it. The most camping I have done in my life was at Brownies, but Brownie Camp did not prepare me for this experience in the slightest. There was not a toilet to clean or potatoes to peel in sight. As per usual Alex was right and I had a very fun time in the end, but under no circumstances does this make his request reasonable.

Our tour guides went out of their way to create an amazing experience. The tours themselves were as I expected, amazing scenery and amazing snorkeling. We saw sooo many tropical fish, all of which I recognised from playing fishville on facebook (and some people say those games are pointless). I even got attacked by a fish that I had reared and sold on fishville- and I am not kidding. Alex told me I was being stupid when I told him this fish was attacking me, until it started attacking him. We must have been stood very close to her nest or something. During the evening the tour guide and boat drivers created a romantic scene, bonfire, candles and dinner. We didn't expect them to go to this much trouble at all. Although the sleeping part was pretty exhausting, the time spent on the island during the evening made it worthwhile. All in all we had a fab time in El Nido. We were very unlucky with the weather as it was raining most days we were there, but luckily not during the 3 day camping trip!

With limited time left in Palawan Alex and I decided to spend a couple of days in Sabang where you can visit the Subterranean Underground River. Getting there was interesting, having to sit on the top of a very big bus (like a double-decker) for 3 hours, ducking for trees and wires. Most of our time in Sabang was chilled out due to rain, but we managed to see the river on a reasonably good day! To get to the river you have a choice of walking 5 km through part of a jungle or taking an expensive 15 minute boat. Most tourists take the boat which I think is pretty pointless. Admittedly the average older person would not be able to do the walk as it is very steep and exhausting in places. However, considering the cave trip itself lasts less than 10 minutes it is nice to prolong the experience by walking. Inside the cave was spooky and amusing. The boat driver came up with all sorts of explanations for the developing stalagmites, "This is what we call Jesus Christ, the Three Wise Men, The Virgin Mary", pointing at lumps of rock! It was particular amusing entering the fruits and vegetables section, where it seemed that 1 stalagmite looked like a mushroom so they desperately searched for any other piece of rock that vaguely resembled another fruit or veg! At least it was funny to listen to. I was certainly in pain the next day though, from the walk and I have only just recovered! I was horrified whilst listening to an older (very old!) English guy and his young Filipino wife's conversation, that they were planning on doing the trek that day. This guy could barely walk! I never saw him again, and I must admit I was a little worried!

Alex and I are now back in Manila waiting for our flight tomorrow. Fingers crossed it all goes well as I hear England is snowy! I guess all that's left to do now is sum up my trip with some final thoughts and reflections...CRY!

xoxo

Final accommodation



Lara Prior!





Arnold!





Cave



Playing hand puppets









Our ride on top of the bus...



Had to duck for wires and trees







Foreign Jen and Jemima





































Our boat was called Princess Pinky- I don't think it could have been more perfect!









Alex's head injury

Cebu...Malapascua...

Howdy all!

Firstly and most importantly...Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Stepho, happy birthday to you! Hope you had a fab day and enjoyed our birthday chat! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 23 birthday kisses!

I am totally relaxed and ready for the final 2 weeks of our travels :-(. Cebu City itself is hardly worth mentioning. The plane journey was interesting. I had my camera ready to record the safety dance but they didn't do it which made me very sad! They did however play a couple of games where passengers could win prizes! Other than that Alex has been able to make some scrambled eggs which made him very happy. The day after we arrived in Cebu we took a 4 hour bus journey to Maya and then a 20 minute boat ride to Malapuscua. The men at the dock in Maya were pretty amusing. As soon as we arrived they were trying to get us to pay 600 pesos for a private boat across to the island as oppose to the 50 pesos advertised. We said we would wait. A bit later they came over and basically whispered to us that they might cancel the boat but if we paid 200 pesos each they would take us. Again we said we would risk it. Literally 2 minutes later everyone was called to say the boat was ready. They still tried to insist we paid 100 pesos each, even though the sign next to the dock said 50 pesos. I would be so embarrassed if I was them, but they felt no shame!

Malapuscua was sooooo relaxing. As our flight to Palawan was postponed by a day we ended up spending 7 nights and 6 days on the island. Everything in Malapuscua was a lot more expensive then we thought it would be. Luckily we found a nice enough room with bathroom 10 seconds walk from the beach for 600 pesos a night. Pretty much everywhere else we looked was over 1000 pesos. Food was also pretty expensive. We ended up eating breakfast, lunch and dinner in the same restaurant every day we were there, bar 1 evening meal, just because it was the cheapest place. Yesterday night we decided to treat ourselves, but I felt like I was cheating on our regular! The first 3 days we decided to just chillax. On the 4th day it was time to face my fear and go diving again! Malapuscua is famous for Thresher Sharks, and most tourists go there purely to dive. We had to get up at 4:15am to ensure we got to the spot early enough- welcome to my Dad's sleeping world. Seeing the sharks didn't really scare me...how good my mask was did! The dive itself went well. We had two dive masters who were very friendly and sensing my nervousness took extra care of me. We also went to a depth of 23 meters which isn't technically allowed with our qualification...so again the dive masters wanted to pay more attention to us. Apparently my eyes went really wide at one point, so he decided to hold on to me! Unfortunately I was the only person not to see the sharks which were right next to us! I think I was probably concentrating so much on breathing through my mouth and not my nose. Alex did though which was fun for him. I did see some cool fish though, and no sea urchins...my kind of dive. We also took a boat trip around the island and did some snorkeling. We were both surprised at how small the island was. We thought we were half way round when we spotted the flags near the starting point. In places the coral was amazing, and it has got me excited about Palawan where snorkeling and diving is supposed to be amazing.

On the last day I fulfilled one of my traveling wishes and had my feet eaten by fish! I wanted to get this done in Vietnam originally but didn't come across anywhere to do it. It was quite expensive in Malapuscua, but like Alex said, my trip wouldn't be complete without my feet being eaten by fish. I even got to put my hands in the tub as well. It was so tickly, my mum wouldn't have been able to hack it.

Other than that there isn't much else I can tell you about Malapuscua. The Filipinos are all so friendly, perhaps a little too friendly at times. The massage ladies were constantly chatting to you trying to persuade you to have a massage...and the children were constantly chatting to you trying to sell shells or Christmas carols. Two little girls in particular became a little frustrating. After swimming around with us and playing with our masks and snorkels they followed us back to our hut and then even out to lunch. Alex had to tell them to stop following us...meany. We were lucky enough to have amazing weather as well so have both been tanning nicely. Apparently Palawan should be even hotter...the tanning war continues!

xoxo




Happy Birthday Stepho

Well deserved cup of tea.



A grave that had been dug up.



One of the annoying kids whilst they were still cute.





Our regular.























Alex snorkeling.