We didn't get to see the Big Lagoon on our previous boat trip as the Miss Universe contingent was being shown around it (both random and disappointing as I didn't see a single tiara). Miraculously, Chelsea later informed me that it's on her bucket list to see it and she's always wanted to go there... this of course meant that we had to go on an identical boat tour again just to see it for forty five minutes. That bloody girl. For most of the trip it was demanded...

Brilliant news, we didn't melt in the night. Our hosts at Billabong Bamboo Backpackers took pity on us and juggled around some things so that we could move beds. We had a fan on us in the night, a fan! It was glorious. Waking refreshed and energised I was quickly regretting waking up. Chelsea had a bite on her bum that had become infected and she demanded that I squeeze it and rub lotion on it. The whole experience made me quake and her forceful tone and aggress...

Oh. My. God. Our hostel, Bamboo Billabong Backpackers, offers a great price (£5.10 a night) but my word you suffer at their hands. In the night we were shown to our room which turned out to be a wicker shed around the back of the establishment. Our 'double bed' was the size of a very single bed and had a luminous and holed mosquito net adorning it. The height of the bed left about a foots clearance from the roof, meaning that we had to slide in sideways and look...

With a promising weather forecast we optimistically rented a scooter (for double the price of Bohol - El Nido is far more expensive than anywhere else we have been in the Philippines) and set out for Nacpan Beach, a fifty minute drive North of El Nido. The roads for the majority of the journey were winding though good quality and wide. Filipinos were raking our rice on black netting all along the roads, drying there produce in the sun while the rain was elsewher...

Looking wistfully out from the beach at the fleets of banca boats on the calm water we waited for our crew to give us the green light to board. We ended up being one of the last boats to leave the bay - very annoying. To add salt to the wound they then said - as we were motoring away from the shore - that we wouldn't be going to the Small and Big Lagoon, the two main sites on the tour, as Ms Philippine was having pictures taken there for her Ms Universe campaign...