Overnight buses are the order of the day when getting from Manila to Banaue. 9 hours of twisting roads up the mountain until we are apparently 5000ft above sea level. At least the view through the window was interesting! We arrived in Banaue at 7am and paid the 20 pesos environmental fee then set out looking for our accommodation. After reading a recommendation we decided to stay at Randy's Brookeside Inn about 3 mins walk from the bus stop and about a minutes w...

Arriving in Manila after dark turned out pretty well. The city is so much prettier at night! After being ripped off by the airport taxi (always expected) we arrived at Pink Manila Hostel and dropped straight into bed seeing as it was 1am and was 18 hours since leaving the UK! Sleeping with 16 of us in a room and sharing 1 bathroom it can be a little difficult to get enough sleep! So waking early, we decided to head out into Manila to do some sightseeing. It would...

And there it is. Travel day. Which is made very surreal by an evening flight. For some reason, it feels a lot less real when you have to wait until 5pm to even leave for the airport. You get up, eat your same breakfast, put on your same clothes and it seems like just another day.. Apart from the last minute panic when you realise you have printed neither your flight details nor your accommodation confirmation and where the hell is your passport?! But finally it ...

So after setting aside a fair few hours and preparing myself for tears and tantrums my main bag is now packed. And yes, there were many tears and tantrums. I mean, how devastating is it when you can't fit in that 5th par of shorts because you already have 4 almost exactly the same and your bag is starting to rip at the seam? This may have also accounted for the tears as whilst repairing the rip I managed to stab myself in the leg with the needle and only then rea...

The packing saga continues. I'm still feeling very prepared with my flight still 8 days away. Deciding to start small I've tackled my hand luggage this morning in an attempt to delay packing my main bag for as long as possible! So, the contents of my hand luggage is as follows: Passport Flight Tickets Visa confirmation Insurance Documents Guide books Flight socks Knee support Sunglasses Journal/diary Pens Money belt Camera and charger Video Camera...