Al and Lise

Sitting down today, we realised that we hadn’t updated our blog for a long time, and that we have been stamped in and out of six countries since our last update, so apologies in advance if this one is a long one! Our last entry was from Caye Caulker off Belize, just after the hurricane took a diversion away and saved us from having to rearrange our plans. We had a great time relaxing on Caye Caulker, Alex went out snorkelling for the day and was lucky enough that a couple of manatees decided to come and check him out - amazing creatures about 1000kg each and yet so graceful - needless to say that Lise was very jealous! As the tourists began to return and Caye Caulker got busier, we decided to move on - ... read more

We were keen to get to Antigua in Guatemala but we clearly weren’t as keen to get there as the driver of our bus who obviously wanted to demonstrate how well he knew the road between Copan Ruinas and Antigua. It was a six hour journey during which we found lots of handholds in the back seats of the bus. After crossing the Honduras/Guatemala border, and paying the obligatory bribes, we were again having to work out another exchange rate and were constantly asking each other what something cost in ‘real money’. We passed Guatemala City at speed, although through the smog and pollution we were able to catch glimpses of a concrete city built on the hillsides. We were glad that the driver tried to keep his foot on the accelerator through the city and ... read more

Well you’ll all be pleased to know that after we disgraced ourselves with the worlds longest-blog-on-one-single-subject-that-interests-only-the-writers that this blog will be short and sweet. We really haven’t got a whole lot to report from the last 2 weeks. We moved onto Flores full of hope as Lise has been there before and couldn’t wait to show it to Al. We arrived in Labuan Bajo which admittedly has the charm of dog poop on your shoe but it has the redeeming feature that it’s the land base for diving in Komodo National Park (oh, and it was the only destination we could get any tickets to!) When we arrived the same touts who Lise knew from last time found us again and recognised us. They were very excited that they knew Lise until they remembered they owed ... read more

We were met in Kuching by Wesley, one of the owners of a hostel we’d booked into via their website. He gave us a mini tour of the city on the way to the hostel, showing us some great restaurants and giving us local tips- very kind of him! At the hostel we signed in as guests numbers 7 and 8 in their register. The hostel was only 2 months old and we were the only guests!. Wesley gave us the keys, maps of the city (and he marked everything on them we could possibly need) told us he may not be there every day and if we wanted to check out, to just leave our money and keys. Bliss! Our own apartment, virtually! We didn’t have a kitchen but still, the privacy was lovely. ... read more

Our trip to Manila from Coron was quite interesting. We got a bus to YKR airport which is on yolo king ranch in the middle of the island. It is a cattle ranch but we didn’t see much livestock, however it is flat enough to have a dirt airstrip which perhaps is more lucrative than cattle. We went through security (a man peered half heartedly in our bags) and checked in with SEAir which involved paying excess baggage as they allow a measly 10kg check in (although gave us 15kg each on presentation of our dive cards) then weighing us and our carry on together(most embarrassing!). We were waiting for the plane when we were told the plane was delayed, 2 or 3 hours. Another plane bound for Manila from a different airline was there ... read more