But I don't want to leave

12 hours of trikes, vans, ferries, buses and a taxi later and we're sitting in Manila wondering quite why we need to be setting alarms for 5am. While having to head to Sri Lanka is hardly a burden (I believe others may have it worse), it is difficult to be leaving the Philippines already, and I'm pretty sure we'll be back someday to do all the things we couldn't this time around.

The last two weeks in particular have been just sheer unadulterated fun (traveling around aside), particularly because Norwich have just beaten Ipswich and now I have to work out if I can trick Bec into thinking I've gone to the shops, while secretly flying home for the final. I'll be back before she knows I've even gone.

Right?

First up was El Nido, a small ramshackle town stuck between the sea and some imposing limestone cliffs. The reason anyone makes the fairly tedious journey to get there is for the Halong Bay style rock formations which rise up in the sea just offshore. It's a beautiful place, but could do with a few less boats, and a lot less fat man in budgie smugglers.

Coming into El Nido

Heading into one of the lagoons

Our lunch spot. S'alright.

Just realised none of these really show how many boats there were. Just imagine another 30 lined up to the left of this shot.

While the island tours were enjoyable, the temptation to climb to the top of the (much less crowded) hill overlooking El Nido proved greater. After all, apparently you just needed to be a "good hiker", and while I try to be modest, I would hope we both qualify for this. Now I don't know about you, but I wouldn't call vertical climbs "hiking". In fact I tend to prefer the term "climbing". I especially liked the knife edge tightrope part up near the top. Bec, ever fond of precipitous drops, has just about stopped shaking... Still the view from the top made it worthwhile. Even if it was 35 degrees and 60% humidity. You can see how much fun I found it three photos down. Bec obviously made relatively light work of it (vertigo and numerous bruises and scrapes aside). Still, even she was overshadowed by the guide who did it in flip-flops, until one broke so he went barefoot. Just ridiculous.

One of the many enjoyable "hiking" points on the way up

The view from the top

Look how happy I am

Pretending to smile

After a quiet final day (more food poisoning) the time had come to catch the 8 hour banka ride to Coron, where we were to catch another 8 hour bangka over to San Jose in Mindoro. The first journey was unbelievably calm, and surprisingly enjoyable. My particular highlight occurred when the ten Filipinos on the boat turned out to be part of some church group, and spent a good 5 hours of the journey trying to preach to anyone who would listen (see below). One particularly devout fellow found a captured audience in three Swedish girls who were too polite to tell him to go away. At which point a French Arab decided to get involved, leading to a GCSE level theological discussion that made secretly falling overboard quite a tempting option. On the plus side there was a dog which looked like a leopard. Which was nice.

The boat. Think we got 26 people in...

LEOPARD DOG! Seriously look at the little guy. Best dog ever.

A faster boat and a pair of waterskis and we could've had a great time

I love the contrast in faces. Pretty sure she was trying to remember the English for the less polite version of "sod off"

With one day to kill in Coron we headed up the small hill which overlooks the town. (Old story but I sat at the top dying in a small patch of shade while Bec took photos). The island you can see below had two lakes we were going to visit, until Bec got slightly ill. As a result she decided to have a manicure and pedicure instead. I have no evidence that she was even slightly ill, so could well have been duped at this point.

Anyway it left me at a loose end in a town with minimal attractions, so I thought I'd just sit in and use the wifi. One foot massage and a pedicure later and apparently my feet have never looked better...

I just hope most of you are looking at the photos and not acutally reading at this point.

At least I got my own back by making her stay in a £4/night homestay which included the lovely free service of a cockroach which will fly in through the hole in the wall and straight into the ceiling fan, whereupon it would then explode all over the bed...and bec...

The view from above the town

An attempt to make the place look pretty

Our next boat journey was set to be even more interesting than the last, for two reasons. One, the 8-10 hour journey was across open water, instead of weaving through islands. And two, the boat looked like it had been put together by an amateur airfix enthusiast:

Hopefully you can tell how crap this boat is

Anyway, finding our way to the deck we settled in for the trip, and absolutely adhered to the sign below. Well, as much as anyone else did:

Look how comfy it is!

The woman next to Bec threw up most of the way over which made it doubly fun. Still it saved us 12 extra hours of travel compared to the alternative route, so for that I'm eternally grateful. The fact there was a Polish model traveling with us is neither here nor there...

The reason for these slightly overly long boat journeys was to get to Mindoro, the launching off point for Apo Reef, one of the Philippines top dive sites. After a day walking around the surrounding countryside:

Said countryside

And feeding a monkey:

Despite two months traveling she's still the same Bec you know and love

We finally headed off on a boat journey we were actually looking forward to. Apo Reef is apparently the second biggest atoll in the world, with a beautiful little island forming the focus point. The diving there lived up to its billing, and once again I got Bec to go diving with sharks. The two days spent on the boat were worth every penny, and once the currents got up some of the sites were fantastic:

Apo Island

The view from the lighthouse in the photo above. You can see the rest of the atoll in the middle right of the pic.

Looking the other way over a small lagoon

Bec navigating the sturdy walkway to said lagoon

One of those new hover tankers

Bec not being eaten by a shark

One of the many drop offs in the reef, with fish everywhere

Looking down on another drop-off. No sharks yet.

Bec supermanning it. Still not eaten.

There is a shark here. Somewhere in the middle I think.

More fish. Less sharks.

I made some short videos too which hopefully will work:

Sadly you can't hear it in the above video. But whenever we aw a turtle it was always accompanied by a muffled scream of "TURTLE!!!" from my diminutive diving companion. Strangely said turtle usually then turned and (very slowly) scarpered.

Barraccuda. Once again, apologies for my go pro making everything seem miles away.

Two idiots in a shipwreck

Two idiots in a selfie

In the time it's taken me to get this all uploaded, we've managed to make our way to Kuala Lumpur, and our flight to Columbo is about to start boarding, so I'm going to end it here. To summarise the Philippines: full of surprises, lovely people, pleasantly cheap, full of long journeys, and Bec learnt to dive without getting eaten.

Lets hope Sri Lanka is as successful...

Rob&Bec
xx