We were up early and off to the airport, next destination.....the Philippines! A few hours later and we arrived in Manila the capital. We had only heard bad things about Manila so we decided to book a connecting flight south to Cebu.

We didn't arrive in Cebu until quite late in the evening so we grabbed a taxi and headed to a hotel. We weren't sure what to expect the Philippines to be like, our taxi journey was an eye opener. It reminded us a lot of India, people living in shacks, a lot of people hanging around the streets, people sitting and praying to shrines and kids playing basketball in the street, it was pretty rough!

The next day we were up early and off to the ferry pier to get to our next destination Bohol. We had read a lot of stories about the boats in the Philippines being over crowded and occasionally sinking! The country is made up of over 7,000 islands so as you can imagine, boat is the main transportation. This boat though was fine, we were surprised when we found out we were given seat numbers. The journey was pretty smooth but a hot one. We arrived in Tagbilaran in Bohol and jumped in a mini van to Alona beach on Panglao island which is connected to Bohol by a bridge. We eventually found somewhere to stay that was affordable, it seems the Philippines is very expensive compared to its neighbours across the sea.
Alona beach (like most places in the Philippines) is a diving town. Due to diving being expensive we have planned and limited our dive sites, Alona beach wasn't one of them. However there are above ground activities. That night we went into town and indulged in a few San Miguels, brewed in the Philippines and dirt cheap (about 40p about bottle).

The next day we took our complimentary motorbike out and went to a Tarsier sanctuary. The drive was pretty bumpy as roads where non existent. We drove through loads of little villages, people waving as we went by, it was great. There are lots of old ruins of churches which looked lovely, the sides are all open to stop them getting to hot. We finally made it to the sanctuary. Tarsiers are the worlds smallest primate, but have unbelievably huge eyes, they look a lot like Gollum from lord of the rings but cuter. Whilst walking round the sanctuary Pete pointed out a snake which scared the hell out of our guide who legged it!

From there we headed to the Chocolate Hills, unfortunately the roads where really bad and we got a flat tire, luckily we had just entered a village and found a garage to fix the tire. People at the garage were very friendly and were intrigued by Pete's roll up cigarettes. They were all keen to try one, it was very funny. We are very impressed by the English of the Filippinos, out of all the countries we've been too, here they have spoken the best English, suppose this is the American influence.

Anyway before long we were on our way to the Chocolate Hills. Luckily we got there just before the heavens opened. The chocolate Hills are made up of 1268 near-identical hills with sizes ranging from 40 meters to 120 meters. You can see them for miles, it's impressive. Unfortunately the clouds opened up and torrential rain was upon us. Not wanting to get drenched on the bike we waited it out.

We were soon back on our bike and headed home chasing the sunlight.