HELLO

So its been a while so here goes...

The philipines rock! Expanding on this statment..they really rock!

In our first week we visited Legazpi (southern Luzon) and Mt Mayon. Mt Mayon is said to be the most beautifully shaped volcano because it has a perfect cone. It really does look like a volcano! If you looked at a peice of land as flat as a pancake then draw a huge green triangle on it with a plumb of smoke coming out the top.. that is exactly what it looks like! It last erupted in 2006 and we went up to see the lava flow that that eruption left behind and it was massive. It was a wall of black rocks about 20 meters wide and about 10 meters high (thats a rough estamate.. my meters may be different to yours) and you can see its path all the way down the side of the mountain like a moterway.

Next we went to Donsol on the southern coast of Luson and went swimming with whale sharks! It was the most amazing and exciting experince of my life! You get taken out on this little boat and and wait untill all the Filipinos on the boat go mental and tell you to jump in. You quickly don your mask and snorkell and leap gracefuuly into the water and follow you guide (or in my case are taken by the hand and uncerimoniously pulled along) swimming as fast as you legs will propell you. As your looking down thinking so weres this so call shark then you turn you head and realise the bloody great thing is about a foot away from your face! We saw 2 sharks, one of which was about 18 meters long (thats real meters not the meters in my head). We must have swam with them for over an hour. They have the most beautiful patterns on there backs and are so gracceful in the water i could have stayed with them all day!

Next we flew to the Palawan province. First stop Puerto Princessa and island hopping in honda bay. we spent the day hopping from beautiful beach to beautiful beach snokelling untill we had very fetching rings around our eyes! We spent a day going to see the under ground river wich was very differnt to the one we saw in Laos but sadly not as impressive.

After that we got stuck in Port Barton for quite a few days. Port Barton is a stunning and very quite beach side village with very little to do apart fom sit in a hammock and read. so that is what we did! It was fun getting there as it had been raining for a few day and the dirt track had turned into thick deep mud which our jeepney had to be towed out of at times.

Now Jeepney are our new and favoate for of public transport. The americans left behind loads of milliary jeeps after world war 2 which the Filipinos made big enough to put loads of people in and painted them the most awsome colours. They are massive, load and very exciting to travel around in but probably not very good for your carbon foot print!

After a long a very uncomfortable bus ride of about 10 hours we arrived in El Nido. Its a lovely bay and the perfect place to catch a boat around the Bacuit Archipeleago. Kinda like Halong bay with massive limestone cliffs and islands but with only a handfull of tourists most of which are Filipinos. We had an amazing day out on the boat and saw the most fish filled coral i have ever seen and a increadible lagoon which you had to swim though a small hole in the rocks to get to. I also managed to fall though a hole on the boat and get my leg stuck so i screamed like a big girly until the captain rescued me. (edit: until chris rescued me)

After an overnight ferry from El Nido we are currently in Coron at the very northen end of Palawan. The ferry was surposed to take 8 hours and in true Filipinno stlye we arrived in Coron 8 hours late! Chris was hoping for hammocks to sleep in over night but what we got was about 50 skinny camp beds crammed together.. it was a fun trip! We were rewarded for our patience when we got here by taking a dip in some hot springs whilst the thunderstorm raged above us.. bloody brilliant.. i felt like one of those little monkeys that sit in hot springs with snow on their heads!

So far the phillipines has been abosolutly stunning and increadably difficult to discribe. Chris cant stop comparing the senery to Jarassic park.. the rapters are everywhere! As for me it makes me miss work alittle (only a little). I think it might be all the singing and giggling they do here.. its just like medical short stay.. only warmer and with less poo and wee!

We only have a few day left here in Coron before we fly to Singapore and the end of our south east asia jount.. im definatly going to miss asia!

much love

hannah and chris xxx