Well we didn't actually plan to go to Siargao for Christmas and New Years. The original plan was to go to Cambodia however the Philippines Immigration Department are fkn useless and couldn't process Jodi's visa in the 2 months they had her passport before xmas. What a joke!!! Anyway, we wouldn't have changed it for the world.

Day 1 - 23rd December
So the alarm goes off at 4am. I'm so sick of these early starts. We leave the apartment at 4.30, & get to the airport 15 mins later. Then stand in line to get into the airport for another 10 mins and then stand in line to check-in for about an hour We finally check-in, get through security, walk directly to the gate and line up to get into the plane with no time to spare. The effeciency of Cebu Pacific (airline) is second-to-none!!
So we get the flight to Cebu, about an hour south, then wait for another hour for our connecting flight to Siargao. As soon as you take off from Cebu, the view from the plane is amazing. You immediately see all these small little islands with surrounding reefs and turquoise water that is really just beautiful. Takes about 45 mins to get to Siargao from Cebu. Upon approach, the aircraft flys low over the island and then banks hard directly over the airport. We can only assume that this is the only way that the pilot can check the state of the airport. With only 3 flights a week to Siargao, the airport is pretty small with no control tower. The runway is reallly short so we brake pretty hard as we land so we don't end up in the bush. It's also as rough as driving on a gravel road so it wasn't the most pleasant landing. We all get off the plane and wait for our bags, which arrives on a trolley pushed by two men from the plane. Everyone just goes up and picks there bag up off the trolley. Jodi gets her backpack, Brenden finds his kitesurf bag but his backpack is no where to be found. Farrkkkk!!!!! It's got all our toiletries, camera, all Brenden's clothes plus the $650 we need to pay for our trip as there are no ATM's on the island. So Brenden fills out the lost luggage forms and the lady informs him that they'll send the bag via ferry from Suriagao and should arrive on Sunday (Xmas day) Yeah right!!!! So that's 3 days with 1 set of clothes. Awesome!! On the upside at least he was wearing board shorts so he can go for a swim.

So we share a van from the airport to the resort with another family staying at the same place. We sat on the back seat with a guy that kept falling asleep and resting his head on Jodi. She kept nudging him away but he was pretty consitent with using Jodi as a pillow. Maybe it's because she smells nice

We're greeted at the Romantic Beach Villas (resort) with coconut drinks about an hour later. Yum!! We get the keys to our room, drop our s*** down and chill out for a while. Travelling in the Philippines can be really stressful, especially when the airline loses you bag. After lunch we had a look around the rest of the resort. It's pretty small with only 3 villas plus the owners residence. There is another family staying beside us, a German speaking, Austrian couple living in Beijing who have 3 kids. There is a pool with an infinity edge that looks out onto the lagoon. The beach is beautiful with clean, white sand and palm trees right along the coast. It really is paradise here.

In the afternoon, we decided to walk up to a place called Cloud 9, a world renowned surfing break. We were told it was about a 15-20 minute walk. 1 hour later we finally arrive, feet sore as fk from walking on the gravel road with dodgey thongs. It was worth it though! Cloud 9 consists of a 100m boardwalk that takes you out to 3 storey structure that looks out over the break. The water is really clear and apparently the sunrises here are fantastic. There is definately a very defined surfing culture here with a heap of bamboo restaurants and bars. After a bit more a look around, we make our way back to the resort, walking the last 15 minutes in the dark. We eat dinner and retire for the night. An awesome start to the holiday - even though Brenden doesn't have any clothes to wear. LOL!!!

Day 2 - 24th December
Mmmm, nothing beats holiday sleep-in's. We both get out of bed at about 8-ish and order breakfast. While we're sitting in the dining area, the wind picks up just enough for Brenden to go kiting. And the tide is out so there's plenty of beach to launch. So after breakfast Brenden heads out to try his luck. He quickly discovers the remaining water in the lagoon isn't as deep as he expected and it's riddled with bits of coral and sharp rocks. He also discovered a hole in his kite so the whole kiting session only lasted about 15 minutes in which he also managed to also cut his feet up on the rocks and coral. Meanwhile, Jodi spent her time taking photos and videos from the shore. Some of the local kids were skim boarding in the shallow water and started posing for Jodi's photos. Filipino's love to have their photos taken and they've got the best smiles.

After Brenden got his kite down and back to the room, he found the hole in the kite but soon realised that he's left the repair kit back at Manila. Murphy's law reigns supreme when we travel............. So after lunch we started the trek back to Cloud 9 where supposably an Aussie is starting up a kite shop. Jodi wasn't too impressed with walking along the road again with her dodgy thongs so we flag down one of the guys wizzing past on mopeds who gives us a lift down there. Apparently they're basically just taxi drivers who travel between General Luna and Cloud 9 giving people rides for about 50c. Awesome, we're gonna do this all the time now. We find out that the Aussie guy is actually back in Australia so no luck on the kite repair kit

Shortly after we got back from Cloud 9, a guy on a motorbike rocked up claiming they had Brenden's bag. Awesome, it came a day early, you would never have guessed. The excitement was short lived as we soon realised that they had sent the wrong bag. So yeah, we guessed wrong........

That night, the resort put on a massive buffet meal for Christmas Eve dinner. It consisted of a whole fish (Mahi Mahi), chicken, pork, beef, vegies and rice. It was so good!!!! We spent the rest of the evening talking to the German speaking Austrian couple from Beijing and consuming a considerable amount of beer in the process before retiring to bed at about 11pm. We could so get used to this lifestyle.

Day 3 - Christmas Day
We both woke up to Nathan ringing at about 7.30am. He'd been at the pub the night before and was still a bit pissed and couldn't wait any longer to ring us, even though there's a time difference. We decided to try and skype and have a 3-way with Jasmine as well but it all failed miserably.

The weather here was pretty terrible, overcast and raining. So we spent the whole day watching tele, playing 500 and calling and catching up with family and friends back home. Brenden had a pretty consistent flow of beer entering his body throughout the day. At 50 pesos a beer, about a $1.10 (pretty expensive actually) why wouldn't he.

We had always wanted to run away and escape the madness that is Christmas and we were finally doing it. We did miss everyone at home though and we hoped everyone was catching up with loved ones and having a great day.

Day 4 - Boxing Day
Well the weather on Boxing day was worse then Christmas day. The wind had picked up to nearly gale force which made the rain even worse. Oh well, the beer was still cold and the resort had restocked the mini bar from the day before so Brenden was running on a full tank. He was also getting cricket updates from Nathan so he was quite content. By the end of the day we both pretty well sick of sitting around the room. Hopefully the weather is better tomorrow. On the bright side Brenden's bag showed up, all in 1 piece and nothing missing. It was like christmas all over again. At least now he can wear clean underwear, it's only been 4 days......................

Day 5 - 27th December
It wasn't perfect but the weather was better then it was the previous 2 days, especially boxing day. Time to get out and do something. The weather did ease late boxing day and we were fortunate enought to organise a surfing lesson for Jodi with one of the locals for 9am this morning. Dominic Gonzales his name was. Tiny little Filipino but fit. Turns out he is black belt in Taekwando and is starting up his own dojo.

So we both make our way up to Cloud 9 on the scooters. Jodi on 1 scooter with the driver and another person. Brenden on the other scooter with the driver, 2 other people and 3 surfboards. Who say's you need a family sedan :)

Well she took to it like a 'duck' to water! Second attempt she was up on the board, ripping it up like a pro. The instructor was pretty impressed. Not sure how impressed he was when her arms got sore and he had to tow her out to the waves. LOL - at least he was fit. Later that afternoon we went to another surfing spot called G9. Was a little bit off the beaten track and we had to get travel by bike to get there but it was really nice. Jodi was absolutely stuffed by the end of the day. An early night sounds good as tomorrow we're heading out to Sohotton Islands with the German speaking, Austrian couple living in Beijing.

Day 6 - 28th December
Sohotton Islands - this place was absolutley beautiful. The owner of the resort we were staying has a boat so we all jumped in that at about 10am for the 1.5hr boat ride. The weather was a bit overcast and a few showers but once it cleared up it was spectactular. We had to wait around at the registration area for about an hour before the tour guide came back. Brenden did some snorkelling to keep himself occupied.

Sohotton Islands consists of a heap of islands that are only accessible through a small cave at the entrance. You have to duck your head as you go through and then there is just a maze of these small islands. It's really amazing. The first stop we made you get out of the boat and swim into a cave that's got about 30cm of headroom between the water level and the top of the cave. About 7 metres in the cave opens up into a massive space. There is 1 rock submerged about 50cm that you can rest on. When you look back outside, the water looks a fluorescent green. It's got quite an eary feeling about it. The second stop we made we got out of the boat and then walked into a cave in about 40cm water. When you're inside you can see all the theodolites coming down from the roof. Then, if you want to, you can climb up a little path, which leads back outside overlooking the water. You then jump or backflip (brenden) off a ledge and get back into the boat. There's no lights on the path either and it's more of a climb then a walk. It's quite slippery as well. WPHS would have a field day if this was back in Australia. The whole tour only lasts about 45 minutes but it's well worth it.

On the way home we stopped in at another place and did some more snorkelling. This place was excellent with lots of different coloured coral. There wasn't a lot of fish though which we're finding is pretty common for some areas of the Philippines. Mainly due to overfishing.

The last stop for the day was Dako Island. Absolutely beautiful. We had a very delayed lunch here, which the ladies from the resort cooked for us in these little bamboo huts. We watched the sun go down over the water which was amazing. We also finally introduced ourselves to the German speaking, Austrian couple living in Beijing. LOL - it had only been 5 days including christmas eve and the entire day on the boat and we hadn't even introduced ourselves. Their names were Manwella and Thomas and their 3 kids were Sarah, ? and ?

We had dinner that night at the surf instructors place along with a heap of his friends and a Ukraine couple, Max and ? The food was amazing and we spent the night sitting around on the concrete drinking cheap beer, rum and talking s***. It really was quite nice and was definately a highlight for Jodi.

Day 7 - 29th December
Our last full day in Siargao. We decided to hire a scooter for the day. 500 pesos ($12) and 100 pesos ($2.20) in fuel for the entire day - Bargain!!! We left the resort and headed back towards Dapa before turning right up towards Pilar. The road was pretty s***, sort of like driving on the Bruce Highway near Tiaro. Lots of potholes and loose gravel. Brenden made the comment to Jodi that lucky he was a professional motorcross rider otherwise we would have crashed by now. No s***, about 60 seconds later we came round the top of a hill and a bloody Jeepney had slowed right down to get through some holes. We doing about 60 km/hr with f*** all time to stop. Brenden went for the back brakes which didn't work as well as he thought and he couldn't use the front brakes cause we were in a heap of loose gravel. So we ended up in the ditch by the side of the road with everyone in the Jeepney looking back at us. We didn't drop the bike but Jodi ended up with a massive burn on her ankle. Murphy's Law strikes again.

We finally made up to Pilar and found some rock pools named Magpapangka. This place was really nice. We missed the low tide when the pools are at their nicest but is was still really good. Definately worth the stop.

We then headed north to San Isidro and then turned left toward Del Carmen. It was really nice up here, off the tourist trail a fair bit. When we rode through the villages, all the little kids on the street would come out and 'high 5' us when we went past. Was really cool and they all had the biggest smiles on their faces. We then turned left again, past the airport, through Dapa and back to General Luna. The weather turned pretty s*** about 30km's from home. We must have look so stupid riding in the rain absolutely drenched when everyone stops and waits for the rain to stop. It also made it worse when we realised we had poncho's in the bag we were carrying. LOL. Highly recommend the trip around Siargao to anyone. So glad we did it.

Our last night in Siargoa consisted at Dom's (surf instructor) place again. When we walked in there was a bottle of Bundaberg OP Rum sitting on the table. What a spin out. We travel to a small tropical island and have dinner at one of the locals place and there's a bottle of alcohol that's distilled an hour from home in Australia. Way cool! As expected the food was amazing and again we spent the night drinking and talking s***. Definately an amazing way to top off a great holiday in Siargao!