Well, it's been raining on and off 4 days in a row...so really I have no excuse not to start my travel blog!!!

If I start babbling on, I won't be offended if you just skip this part & look at the photo's ;)

So, obviously I arrived safely in one piece the Philippines!! It was a very long flight, and I think I managed to just about keep going for 34 hours straight after soon discovering I am immune to sleeping pills..even the strong one's!!

I arrived in Manila on the 7th Feb, and as I located my luggage and saw the chaos outside, I had a mini 'freak-out moment'...what on earth was I thinking?!?!.....nearly 2 months travelling round this country on my own...what if I get lost?!?! Anyone who knows me well enough will know how bad my sense of direction is...say no more!! Before I left England I was like, oh I'll be fine, it's no big deal...blahhblaaah!! Reality check over, I jumped in a cab to my hotel, and pulled myself together, I know I'll be fine!!

I looked a right state rocking up to my smart hotel with my backpack and scruffy clothes! Had a fare number of stares from the other well dressed guests with their designer suitcases!! I was so exhausted, that it was nice to have a descent bed and a 'hot' shower ( something I know I'll be lucky to get for a while!!). Even though it was getting dark, I headed out for a quick walk around so I'd be able to say, other than the traffic, I atleast saw a bit of Manila...well about as much of a busy city as I needed!!

That evening I blew the days budget on a well deserved large V&T & room service...of the food variety I mean!! I also gave the sleeping another shot!!

The following day I headed back to the airport. I thought it would be a good idea to chill out for a few days in Boracay. According to the Lonely Planet 'It rarely disappoints'. Just 9km long & 1km wide...it's the place where everyone (apparently!) goes to holiday!! A good place to start!!

The plane was pretty small and I think there was only about 10 of us onboard. The aircon was busted, and it was a bumpy ride...I think that's the norm here! We landed at Caticlan airport..it was all a bit chaotic, having to then be squashed on a bus and taken to the ferryport. I had no idea what was happening at that point :/ I just tagged along with a bunch of Philippino's from Manila who were on vacation, and hoped for the best!!

Once on the boat away from the chaos, and checking the boat was actually going to Boracay..I breathed a sigh of relief!! Getting on the boat was one thing..getting off with my backpack was another!! I was sure I was going to fall in the sea as I did my best to wobble along a rickety old plank with nothing to hold onto!!

Atlast I'd made it to Boracay!! From there I had to take a moterbike taxi to my resort. It's the quickest way to get about the island, and ridiculously cheap!! I was staying at a place near the beach called Frendz resort in a sort of native style hut. It's located, as I soon find out, at the 'party-end' of the beach!! Great :)

I stayed at the resort for 4 nights. A couple of days chilling on the beach, I soon found myself partying with the other people at the resort!! It was fun for a bit...but when you're trying to get to sleep and the music's still blaring at 3,4,5 & sometimes 6 in the morning, the novelty soon wears off!!

The beach is beautiful, but quite busy as it's the high season. Boracay has a bit of a Bali feel to it, only the beach is much more stunning and cleaner!! The beach front is lined with an abundance of restaurants, stools selling fruit, jewellery, clothes..infact everything you could possibly need and more!! Unlike Bali, you don't get hassled to buy stuff every 3 seconds, they only ask you the once, and don't hound you too much when you are sunbathing. There are umpteen places to get a massage... take your pick!! In total so far I've had 4 massages in 1 week :) At between 4 & 5 quid an hr....I'd be mad not to!! Manicures and pedicures are equally as cheap!!

Before my 4 nights at Frendz were over, I tried to book a flight out of the island. Well, that's a challenge in itself! Being the most popular place to holiday, flights out were all fully booked :( I wanted to spend a couple of extra days on the island anyway, but not a couple of extra weeks!! I didn't want to stay at Frendz any longer, lack of sleep was starting to take it's toll, and it was pretty expensive. So I decided to move to the other end of the beach where it's really quiet and chilled out. I found a great place to Stay called Orchid's, run by an american who was incredibly helpful about getting me a flight and transport off the island. For a mere 17quid I would be able to get a special promo flight from Kalibo airport, a farely easy couple hrs drive from Caticlan ferryport. From there I planned to fly to the city Cebu, which is smack bang in the middle of the Visayas. From there I'll be able to get to most of the other islands.

Flight sorted, I was able to enjoy my last couple of days on the island. Well, sort of. It rained 'alot' during those last two days. When your stuck on an island and it rains, you can either go get 'another' massage, find a decent coffee shop, watch the world go by & read a good book...or embrace the rain and go diving!! I highly recommend the lot :)

It was the 1st time I'd dived since last June, so I was feeling a little rusty and out of practice. Only intending on 1, maybe 2 dives on the day, I ended up doing 3!! For my first 2 I was the only 1 diving, so I had 2 dive instructors and a whole boat crew to myself...just a little spoilt!! The 1st was at Yapak II, a wall dive. Trust me to opt for the hardest dive entry 1st...backward roll head first descent...no surface stuff. Never done it before, and my belt didn't have enough weights to get me down well enough...so ofcourse I popped straight back up..gutted I stuffed it up :/ Eventually made it down...checkout the pics taken with my new camera..I was so worried the underwater housing was gonna leak... ofcourse it didn't. Unfortunately as we came up to do our 3 min 5 metre safety stop we were surrounded by jellyfish..thank god I'd opted for a full wetsuit... the boys were wearing shorties. We all got stung though :(

A quick hot drink to warm up, an hour later we went to Friday's Rock, a really pretty coral dive, although the current was a bit hard going. For the last dive of the day I joined another couple to do the wreck dive. I'm really glad I went. Saw my 1st Scorpion Fish inside the wreck...checkout photo! It was a great way to end my stay in Boracay....totally knackered me out...so ofcourse I went for another massage to sooth my sore legs ;)

The next day, which I was reminded by roses & hearts everywhere along the beach, it was Feb 14th..valentines day...definately time to leave I think! But this time I paid a few extra quid to make sure I had someone to carry my backpack all the way along the beach, get me on a moterbike taxi to the ferry port, and have someone meet me at the other side to put me on a nice comfortable air-conditioned bus instead of a local jeepney for the drive to Kalibo...it was worth the extra 3quid ;) Once we finally arrived at the tiny airport, there was nothing to do for a few hours except sit in the tiny packed out lounge. Tucked away in the corner I noticed a couple of girls having manicures and pedicures. So to kill an hour, yep I had another massage :)

That was yesterday. I arrived in Cebu...not much to say really...traffic, pollution and more traffic!! 1 night was more than enough!! Being in Cebu though means access to pretty much most of the islands in the Visayas. So today I made the journey by boat to Dumaguete..although it was s'pose to take 2&1/2 hrs...4&1/2 hrs & a wet choppy ride later I arrived a couple of hours ago. It's pretty late now. But I like it here already.

The more I talk to people, the more I keep changing my mind about where I want to go!! I'm mostly sticking to my original itineraryy, but intend on avoiding as much time stuck on a bus or boat for hour to get somewhere. I'll try not to leave it so long until my next enty..until then :)