Cebu has an excellent bus service running throughout the island, and what makes it fun is that you simply flag down a bus whenever it is coming towards you. For a very reasonable fare, you get an automatic seat on the bus, a helpful conductor, and if you have managed a lucky flag-down, a bus that proudly boasts a loud 80s pop playlist up on the TV screens. We noticed this last year and we are seeing it again: this country is playing 80s songs, everywhere, all the...

…sang TLC, and to finish off that phrase we will add, "unless you have properly researched your island ATM situation" which we did not. We arrived at the port in southern Cebu after a pleasant, slow shipping boat ride from Siquijor and assumed that we would be withdrawing some much needed cash from the port, because, well, it's a port, right? Ports have practical amenities! This port however did not, and although we had enough money to get a tricycle to ou...

After another smooth as glass boat ride (hurray for crowded archipelagos), we arrived at Siquijor ("See-kee-hor") for 4 nights, primarily to check out the beautiful beaches on what is supposed to known as a very quiet and only lightly touristed island. We were a little more strategic with where we stayed this time in terms of amenities, and so managed to get around mostly by walking and the odd tricycle ride. We frequented our favourite beach, Paliton Beach, dubb...

The proper way to insert an ear plug is to hold your arm over your head and insert it into the opposite ear, to get the right angle. This technique has been practiced several times in the last few days as our current accommodations consist of bamboo huts complete with night time barking and crowing from our fellow animal neighbours. As we look to budget around $20 CAD per night on accommodation, this means partial outside living, forgoing air conditioning, and em...

So less than a year later, we are back in the Philippines; a country we had never even had on our travel list before. Hurray for new discoveries! Our spontaneous 2 weeks last April only allowed us to visit Manila and one other island, and so this time we are doing a bit of island hopping around the island of Cebu, for the next 4 weeks. It was an extra long journey from London to Cebu which began on February 19th, and took us via Warsaw and Singapore before event...