Got back to Siargao yesterday and had my stitches out.  Then I found out that there’s a huge typhoon coming straight to where I am.  I’m trying to get a flight out tomorrow as my room is only about 20 metres from the water and a metre above it … oh dear. This is the copy from a web site:

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.

They call it the region of Catalonia, but it is always called the Basque country, which stretches from Biarritz in France, into Spain, taking in San Sebastian and Bilbao and a lot os coastline in between.  They speak a completely different language to French and Spanish and they are very patriotic.  See the photos below:

This was in the town of Zarrutz

Here are some more photos of Asturias, it’s a great place as you can see below.

Luarca, a great working fishing port that looks like Cornwall of Scotland

Luarka

Clean waves

Apple store … again :)

Waves in Gijon

Great farm building with the harvest hanging up to dry.

Llanes .. another fishing village perched on a hillside.

This could definitely be Scotland.

and the mountains overlook the beaches.

I Spend a lot of time on Gijon .. it has everything you need and is easy to get around and has several surf breaks within walking distance .. Excellent!

City Centre

Lovely camping spot .. nice and quiet, just as I like it.

Amazing statue/sculpture on the seafront, looking out to sea. It is called “The mother of Emigrants”. Beautiful and haunting.

A statue/sculpture dedicated to their sacred Cidra.

Cool steps

And everyone goes out walking in the evening.

Gijon (pronounced hehon)

Oviedo is the capital of Asturias, but the city I always come to is Gijon.  Gijon is built on a peninsular on the coast with the sea on 3 sides.  It has 3 beaches, with one long curving bay in the middle of the city.  There are several surf breaks.

Gijon has a university and although modern, it has a lot of culture i.e. book stores, museums, art galleries etc. There are also a lot more bars and restaurants in the city than anywhere else I have ever been, by a multiple of at least 3.  Many are Sideria’s and all of the seem to be trading well.  There doesn’t seem to be any economic downturn at all in Asturias.  The city has a lot os cycle lanes and they run alongside the caminas, which are specially made paths for people to walk and run along.  They have them in all of the Spanish towns and they are very busy.  In Gijon, every morning, the locals power walk along, generally in pairs, whilst chatting loudly.  In the evenings at about 6pm, it seems that everyone in Gijon comes out, dressed up and walk along the promenade and caimans, before going to a bar or restaurant.