Not wanting to squander our last full day in the Philippines, especially when the sun was beating down on us we decided to head to the acclaimed Honda Bay.

On arrival there, there was no beach like we expected just a broad and spacious harbour. It seemed that you needed to get banca boats out to the various small islands that littered the bay. Seeing the price lists for a boat rental looks foreboding but we quickly learnt that you could tag on with other parties and split the costs between you all.

Paying a modest 117PHP each we boarded a boat set for Cowrie Island amongst a host of bikini clad Swedish girls...

Cowrie Island was almost Utopian in fairness, we had stumbled across a gem. The small island had thatched huts on it with clear waters lapping at its white sand. Not wanted to leave the Swedish girls we set up shop on the beach with them where Chelsea chatted and I pretended to read my book with my mirrored glasses.

The highlight of the day was when we (myself and Chelsea) swam out to a pontoon that was quite a way off the shore. After a lengthy swim I clambered up onto it and could hear Chelsea screaming into her snorkel in a manic fashion. Holding my hand out and fearing that there was a shark or jellyfish close by her, she spat her snorkel out and said that there were lots of fish by her and she didn't like it...they were the size of goldfish and there were about twenty. Helping her out of the water onto the pontoon we took yet more bloody photos and headed back to shore.

By midday a considerable amount of banca boats were set about the island as it was a buffet stop for the bancas that did a tour of all of he islands. The colourful bunting hanging from them all, in pastel shades with frayed edges where they constantly flapped in the wind have the impression of fish scales and was quite lovely to look at.

An oddity here is that Filipinos use umbrellas to shield them from the sun and cast them hastily aside when it starts to rain, savouring the feeling of the cool rain on their skin. That couldn't be said for me and Chelsea however as we huddled under the roof of our tricycle on the way back to our hotel.