After a lovely few days in Sagada we took our leave and headed for Banaue hoping to see the famous rice terraces of Bataad. This trip involved two jeepney's one to Bontoc and from Bontoc on to Banaue. These Jeepney's are surprisingly spacious in relation to the African equivalent and much to my delight we left early yet again and didn't need to wait until the thing was full. Not much to write about from Bontoc other than I spent a good hour sat facing two pig hea...

Our last few days have been spent in up in the clouds of the Cordillera Mountains. From Hundred Islands we took two buses to the town of Baguio, travel here is so cheap, the six hour journey cost less than £6 for the both of us. National express could learn a little from these guys. Baguio was a short stop over for us before heading up to Sagada. We strolled around the market where you could buy absolutely anything from rice, coffee beans, fish, and umbrellas to...

Back on long distance buses we travelled from Manila to Alaminos, a rather nice introduction to Filipino bus travel in an aircon bus with frequent loo stops! Arriving in Alaminos we took our first tricycle the 6k to Lucap on the coast. The tricycles are the Philippines' answer to Thai Tuk Tuks and are clearly not designed to westerners of James' height and particularly not those with giant backpacks. Anyway, we miraculously crammed ourselves in to the side car al...

An ode to Singapore Airlines... currently my favourite airline ever, sorry BA and Virgin. For those of you who know me well then you will know that I love to fly, it is indeed rather more accurate to say that I am obsessed with flying and get ridiculously excited about the experience. Quite beyond the norm of that usual start of holiday feeling, I really ought to be a pilot. Ok so James and I have probably had one of the best flights ever and we weren't even upgr...

The northern Drakensburg is as spectacular as the south and some may argue even more dramatic. The escarpments are longer and cliff's higher. We took a day's guided hike from Sentinel Peak to the Amphitheatre and to the mighty Teluga falls (reportedly the second highest in the world). The hike was pretty hard going and made us realise just how unfit we have become in the last few months. The views were like none other, the San bush people described the place as t...