Dumaguete, Negros

All the guide books said this was a nice place. And we have to agree. Our standards are questionable after Siquijor though. In any case, compared to other towns we saw on Philippines Dumagette was nice. Not too small, not too big and with the nice promenade next to the harbour. And a proper ice-cream parlour! First frozen yoghurt after Bangkok. Deadly!

We also hooked up with the local who took us diving around Dauin the local way. Pretty much the same around the world – grab some tanks and weights and drive to a nice location and just plunge from the beach. It was good, some nice coral, but again fish life is just... well... fished out. We also did a trip to Apo Island, one of the prime spots. It is better, more fish, turtles, sea-snakes, but again no big stuff. And it is in Dumagette, out of shear desperation and after a few beers that we took the credit card out and bought tickets to Palau – one of the prime world shark destinations. Yes baby, here we come!!! Reality may strike back in Europe, we are on hype now...

After 5 nights (we initially planned to spend only one) we are on our way to Cebu again. This time with a bus.

Some more pictures here.

Siquijor

That we even can’t put a town’s name where we stayed next to the island’s one says it all. Not our thing. You can call it unspoiled, real Philippines or just dump. We chose the last one. A little piece of info about the island – you can’t buy milk anywhere! Had to work really hard to get some beer.

Also, no diving there – we did a bit of snorkelling, but biggest fish we say was one on the plate in the restaurant. Felt like Adriatic. It wasn’t all bad though – we saw a harlequin shrimp snorkelling off the beach. Now, that was amazing!

After 4 days here (couldn’t leave earlier – no ferries) and one of the weirdest New Years Eve’s ever (resort bar closed at 9:30! Thank God we stocked on booze ourselves...) we bought a ticket for first available ferry in 2009 to Dumagette on Negros.

Some more pictures here.

Alona Beach, Bohol

Next stop is one of the best known dive sites in Philippines – Balicasag, a small island off the Alona Beach. This place was a runner-up on our first trip 8 years ago, and now here we are. Diving is good, nice coral and fish, but still feeling is that this country is overfishing. No big stuff at all.

But Balicasag has much more to offer. We rented a scooter for a day and went for Chocolate hills in the island interior. No, we’re not losing it from good cocoa deficiency. These small hills are results of erosion and at the end of the dry season reminded someone of chocolate (our kind of soul).

Also saw smallest primates – tarsiers. Now, imaging something unbelievably cute and the size of your palm. Just amazing. And as usual, endangered. Felt really, really sad...After an eventful week on Bohol it was time to move on. A jeepney, tricycle and a bumpy boat ride away was Siquijor.

Some more pictures here.

Moalboal, Cebu

Our first Visayas stop. Moalboal is one of the first dive destinations on Philippines. And was it a surprise! We were expecting Philippines of 8 years ago on Coron, but this was completely different. Nice resorts, restaurants, zillions of dive shops... nice surprise. We dove Pescador, small island off Moalboal. Nice walls, solid coral and fish life and even a shark. Yes, a shark. Well, we liked it anyways. Our stay was not long, only 3 nights.

Next stop Bohol, Alona Beach.

Some more (few) pictures here.

Manila

We added AirAsia to the list of customer friendly airlines we use. As usual they leave at ungodly times and use airports that are not in the same post code as the destination. Ah well, we have time.... Felt very proud as well – managed to dodge payment for extra weight. Guys are still not on the RyanAir level – we just took extra weight on board. We are the pros after touring Europe with RyanAir after all.

And then Manila. Again – fourth time in eight years. You would think we like the city. DEFINITELY not the case. But diving on Philippines is just amazing. And Manila is a port of entry. This time visit is a bit different. We are staying with friends we met on our last dive trip in Philippines. They kindly offered us to stay at their place and we snatched at the offer – real flat with kitchen and satellite TV. Yes, baby!

They also took us to their usual diving spot 3 hrs outside of Manila – Anilao. And Philippines did it again. Clear waters, abundance of sea life. Just amazing. Only thing water is not that worm as in Thailand – it even dropped to 26 deg Celsius on one dive site! Officially, we have become wimps. It is going to be an interesting sailing season back in Ireland next year...

We also did a tour of Manila that our friends organized. Really, really good. The guide was hilarious!

Next stop, Cebu. And some awesome diving!

More pictures here.

Kuala Lumpur (again)

Back in KL. This time with the purpose. Well, several... To get visa for Philippines, see all the latest movies and gorge on western food and sushi while we can... Did it all. Got visa on Thursday afternoon (flight was Friday morning) – plenty of time. Saw 4 movies (more that in the last year in Ireland). Had enough good food to last us through Philippine cuisine (yum!). And did a bit of sightseeing as well. So we are proper tourists after all.

We stayed in China Town. Only place with cheap hotels this time. We were in the middle of bustle and hustle. It was, well... interesting. Best thing was a direct metro line to Suria shopping center and cinemas. Guess what, Christmas has also arrived to Muslim dominant Malaysia - at least in shopping centres!

Time just flew buy... Next stop, Philippines.

Langkawi

And we are back in Malaysia. This time in style – on a speed-boat from Ko Lipe to Langkawi. After 3 months travel we completely lost track of the fact which day of the week it is. So we landed on Langkawi on Saturday. And Malaysia not being your regular 3rd world country everything was packed with DOMESTIC tourists. Not something we counted on at all. After 3 hour zigzag through the town we finally landed a hotel room. Last one. And boy we upgraded. I’m not talking only concrete building here, but proper sheets (yes, baby!) and - yes, believe it or not – tiled bathroom, with warm water. And not only that, we had the best sea view from our balcony. Add fridge in the room and fact Langkawi is a duty free zone and you can guess how we spend all those warm nights...

As for the island, not the best place for water sports – no diving or snorkeling and swimming turned out to be this game of how to avoid jelly fish. In 5cm visibility. Not to add the sea lice (for ones who are not acquainted with these delightful creatures they are like mini jelly fish you can’t see but can definitely feel). Almost like an adrenalin sport... Beaches are nice, but we are not really beach people (saying that we managed to stay on the beach for two and a half hours one day; must be a record). So we did the other stuff, and there is lots of it on Langkawi. Island is big, so there is plenty to see on a rented scooter. Inland is still very traditional and Malaysian, really nice. Not to mention a cable car to one of the highest peaks, really good aquarium (spent almost a full day there) and go-kart. Yes, we tried it all...

More pictures here.