I thought it would be a good idea to go to manila for a long weekend, as I can’t surf and have had enough of sitting around …. what an adventure!

We had a tropical storm for 2 days and all of the boats off the island to the Island where planes go to Manila from have been cancelled.  I got up at 4am this morning to get the 5am ferry.  As there were no boats for 2 days, both the 5am and 6am ferries were fully booked.  The next ferry was at 10am, which was too late for me to catch my flight.   Therefore, as I had paid for my return flight and 3 days in a swanky hotel in Manila, I wanted to go.  I had to hire my own private boat, which took me to a different port than the ferry, from where I got a van (minibus that runs as a bus) and had to pay the driver not to stop to collect anyone, so I would make it to the airport in time.  He pelted along the road hooting his horn and screeching around the bends, I was shitting myself.

However, I made it and am now sitting in departures … I hope the weekend is worth the effort … we’ll see!

I went out for a surf this morning and head butted the reef when diving through a wave.  I’ve just got back from the hospital … Loads of internal stitches and the doctor said it is too deep for the external stitches at the moment.

Not very clever

I lost and the reef won

They had me in stitches

I finally made it to the island of Siargao last Wednesday.  It is pretty underdeveloped and the locals haven’t yet been corrupted by money and are very friendly and seem very happy. The surf here is great and there are lots of breaks, as the Island is surrounded by reef.  I get a boat to the breaks and the boatman waits for me until I have finished surfing … it’s great.

The only downside is that the Internet is soooo sloooow here.  It is sometimes impossible to download a single web page.  I have work emails coming in and am finding it difficult to respond.  This is also why I haven’t made any posts to the blog until now … it is working faster right now, so I am taking the opportunity to do as much as possible.

One of about 50 little islands I flew over on the hour and a half flight from Manilla. They vary in size and I am sure that tourism will spread to them at some time.

I’m glad that firearms had to deposited by passengers before their flights

A man giving each passenger a parasol for the short walk to the terminal when we arrived in Surigao. I took a ferry from here to Siargao Island.

Jo at a little market by the side of the road buying lunch … Yes Jo, it is a tomato.

For the purposes of completeness, although I am now in Asia, here are some photos of Italy –

Beautiful vineyards of Chianti

Florence

Hooray … I arrived in Manilla 21 hours after leaving Brighton.  I felt crap when i arrived in Dubai (which is halfway) for a 3.5 hour plane swap, but luckily I had a few hours sleep on the next leg.  Touched down in Manilla at 11pm and it was 29 degrees.

Drove 2 km to a hotel I had booked and it took about 35 minutes, but it was great …. I love SE Asia ….. there was people everywhere, cramped into jeepnees and other public transport, all cutting each other up and going nowhere.  Along the site of the road were people walking sitting, working, cooking and eating and it was like watching a film.

I got to the hotel at about 1am absolutely knackered and asked for a 7am knock to get back to the airport in order to fly to Siargao and go surfing.

I spent 2 days driving through France to Italy and stayed in a very wary town.  I have never really understood what people mean when they talk about bad energy, but this place had ‘bad energy’.   I had a bad nights sleep listening to things getting blown up and down the street and woke up ill.  I just wanted to get out of France to Italy ASAP.

I spent a day on the coast in a beautiful town before my friend Jo arrived.  I picked her up from the airport and we’ve spent the last 10 days in the most beautiful towns, cities and countryside imaginable.  I’ll post some photos as soon as I get a chance.