Tomorrow I will be leaving the Philippines, so wanted to record a few final comments.

The trip from Boracay Island back to Manila started with a tricycle at 4:30am to the port to catch the first 5am boat across to Caticlan on the Panay mainland, and then the 6am bus and a 6 hour journey to Iloilo City. The scariest part of the journey was probably the tricycle ride. The Philippines is full of these 125cc motorbikes with skinny tires and home-built side-cars into which they load anything and everything. I saw one tricycle on the road to Iloilo which I swear had 9 people on board. Fortunately, my tricycle journey was on my own, but I still felt very exposed.

The weather in Iloilo City was wet and the hotel nice and cool, so I didn't do much exploring. I did get to a couple of shopping malls. When visiting shopping malls in Manila, I was struck by the number of phone shops, and wondered if it was one of those artefacts of the "capital city", but having seen Iloilo I can see that it really is a thing here in the Philippines. The only difference seemed to be that as well as dedicated mobile phone shops, Iloilo sold mobile phones from just about every other shop; Fashion, Ladies Accessories, Newspapers, Minimarts, everywhere. I had the feeling that if I ordered a McDonald's, I would be offered some fries and a mobile phone on the side (for a small extra charge).

On several occasions when eating in the Philippines, I've been surprised to find that my starters and main course all arrive at the same time. Indeed, for one meal, my starters tool longer to cook than the main course and so arrived after it! I think that courses are optional around here. On the other hand, service is done with real feeling. In one restaurant, every waiter thanked me as I made my exit. There was "Sur, Thank You Surr" coming from everywhere. And when they do know my name, they still call me "Sir Steve".

The imaginatively named "SuperFerry 21" sailed from Iloilo at 8:45am. I had splashed out on a "Stateroom", and was glad I had done so. Most of the passengers were in dormitories with shared amenities, but I had an en-suite double room all to myself. I had a quick wander around the ship, but since my room overlooked the bow, I got the best seat in the house from the comfort of an air-conditioned room.

On my ferry journey back from Iloilo, I had to surrender my Penknife at security, and was told that it would be returned to me at security in Manila. In fairness, they didn't say when it would be returned, I just assumed that it would travel on the same ferry and I could pick it up as soon as I landed. Instead it took 3 days, and I finally recovered it this afternoon. I don't think that there was anything malicious in this, merely a bit of incompetence.

If I had lost my penknife, it wouldn't have been the end of the world. Apart from the tool to remove stones from horses hooves, I got backups for most of the tools it contains. Also, I've always felt that so long as I've got a money, I can always buy a replacement. However, when I went looking for penknives, I struggled to find a suitable shop. Initially I looked for camping shops, but I just couldn't find any of these at all. I guess people don't but tents or sleeping bags around here. I looked in the gadget/phone type shops, but they only stock things with batteries. (I started wondering why someone hadn't come up with a superfluous reason for putting a battery in a penknife as they have with the safety razor and air fresheners. Perhaps this was a hole in the market where I could make my millions? But then found on the internet a knife with a clock in it.) There was a store called something like "Strategy", but the knifes it sold looked more appropriate for carving body parts than for whittling sticks. Anyhow, I got my knife back, so I'm ready for the first stone in a horse hoof that I come across.

The Philippines, like many countries, has tried to find a compromise for the demands of a religious holy day, and the insatiable desire for shopping. In the UK the compromise is the restriction to 6 hours of trading on a Sunday - which in my humble opinion sucks. In the Philippines, they have simply moved the church inside the shopping mall. On the top floor in an open area, they held their service. It was sort of odd, but also kind of works quite well, though being fairly atheistic myself perhaps I am not a good judge.

Today I visited Corregidor Island that guards Manila Bay, in the same way that Gibraltar guards the Mediterranean. Indeed, the are also both often called "The Rock". Corregidor was the stronghold of General MacArthur in the second world war. He only retreated from it after a command from the president that he move to Australia. Famously, he said "I shall return", which he did 3 years later. Now, the whole island is a memorial to the battles that took place, and as such many of the blasted building have been left untouched. Sometime the damage was done by the Japanese when the took the Island in 1942, but it is equally likely that the damage was done by the Americans when the retook the Island in 1945. In any case, it is one of the more moving sights that I've seen to show the powers unleashed in war; reinforced concrete shattered and twisted with just shells of buildings remaining. A fascinating place and well worth a visit.

You may have notice that I've tweaked the very last stage of my holiday. The plan had been 1 week in New Delhi, 1 week on the train from Delhi to Mumbai, and then 1 week in Mumbai. However, the things I read and heard about Mumbai have not been great, and someone mentioned that they were surprised that I wasn't going to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Once they'd mentioned it, I was also surprised, so I've fitted in a short side trip to Dubai, sacrificing my time in Mumbai. I still expect to return on the 7th February, but I will get to send about 5 days in Dubai.

Singapore next...