Part 92. Jiufen... The hostel Lounge, or common room was really comfortable with its huge sofas, and in Jean the proprietor, we had the perfect host. She was a softly spoken eccentric character with a wicked sense of humour - I liked her straight away. There were a few house rules which we didn't mind, like no shoes and a curfew at night, but this was a great place to just hang out. She would play the cello or piano, and oil paint whilst the guests came and wen...

Part 91: Taiwan time... The cheapest flight I could find to Taipei was at 1:40am. Some people are not that into night flights based on the conversations I've had with other travellers - personally, I prefer them. For starters, aside from being cheaper, there is less traffic on the roads at the very least, and the airport is usually less crowded too. I'm saying usually because this is Manila we are talking about here - nothing is ever that straightforward. Als...

Part 90: The other side of backpacking... As much as I'd enjoyed exploring the mountains, it was nice to be back to some of the comforts Makati offered - like hot showers for instance, and the social vibe of the hostel with all my friends here, plus there was always something going on every night to keep me occupied. From the movie nights, or the games, to drinking out the front with the guitar playing staff, and food we would all take turns to prep in the kitc...

Part 89: The ancient rice terraces of Ifugao.... So far, exploring the northern regions of Luzon had been a great experience - from the very first moment we arrived until now exceeding any of our expectations and was more than worth all of the hassle to get here. I loved everything, from the people, the ambience, the tasty organic homegrown foods, to the scenery, but now it was time to move on to the next part of our adventure. We took an early morning Jeepne...

Part 88: the sea of clouds... We had a bit of time to kill after resting for the early part of the evening, so once more Cy and Viv went shopping for supplies, and came back with fresh local ingredients to make delicious chicken adobo. I felt kind of guilty as they prepared a small feast in the guest house kitchen whilst I lazed around doing nothing, but at least I was assigned to washing up duty afterwards which made me feel better. It was also a good opportun...