Ok, the bus journey to Banaue wasn't as bad as I was expecting despite the cramped conditions and that my window kept leaking. I did feel sorry for the kids that had to sit in the seats down the aisle, they did not look comfortable at all. Anyway at 6am we arrived at a wet, cloudy grey town - Banaue in North Luzon and so began the search for a hotel which we anticipated to be hard as all the ones we had rang from Manila were fully booked. We went into the first p...

Up nice and early on New Year's Eve for our flight to Manila. We got a traditional Palawan tricycle (a bike with a side car but with a car look to them) to the airport and prepared ourselves for airport carnage and delays. But no, it was all a breeze and we even managed to depart early! Crazy. So, Manila, well I had heard only bad things from travellers about Manila and how rough and dodgy it is, especially the taxi drivers. It seemed that arriving on NYE has i...

Time to head over to the Philippines for Christmas and new year and luckily, so far, no typhoons were due to hit. I left the hostel in Bangkok stupidly early and wandered over to the metro in time to catch the first train leaving at 6am. As soon as I got to the airport as I checked in they told me the plane was already an hour delayed. I should have seen that as a sign of things to come. Anyway, I was on my way to Manila and suddenly the stewardess comes over the...