After making the mistake of returning to KK from Kinabatangan (after leaving our luggage here) we decided to fly to Semporna to save some time. The flight was meaningless and hardly got off the ground before landing but it served a purpose, so it wasn’t meaningless. We hadn’t organised anything here so we managed to hitch a ride from the airport to Semporna. The bus dropped us off outside some stilted huts hovering over the sea. This place is full of them. Some of them HUGE. Anyway – this seemed like the tourist hub and there was a queue of people trying to book accommodation and trips to Sipidan and Mabul. We were not expecting this and this brought on a bout of panic in Laura especially after being told there was no accommodation left and ... read more

We had been recommended Lucy’s guesthouse by Andy and Emma (who we stayed with in El Nido) and so we had formulated a very simple plan for when we exited the airport: 1. Find a taxi 2. Tell the driver the address of Lucy’s guesthouse 3. Reserve our room at the guesthouse and enjoy our first night in KK. The plan sounds tough – but part 1 and 2 were simple, which is a credit to the transport system here in KK. However, part 3 was a failure. Lucy did not have a room until tomorrow – so we reserved that. Every other place we tried was full until finally we found a nice enough place (albeit quite expensive) pretty much next to Lucy’s. By this time it was getting late and we were tired – ... read more

To get to El Nido is not too hard from Sabang. We caught a Jeepny from the docks at Sabang that took us about two hours to a junction. At this junction you can either carry on back to Puerto Princesa or turn left and go up to El Nido. We got dropped off at this very quiet junction where there were a couple of strange locals hanging around – including a dog who was constantly “Excited.” “Where you go to?” a local sitting on his motorbike taxi asks, “We are going to El Nido,” “I will take you.” “How long?” “errr maybe errr 7 hour” We continued to wait for the bus. You have to keep an eye out for it because it will whizz past if you do not make it clear you are ... read more

Well we tried to leave Manila but the typhoon wouldn’t let us. Our original flight was booked to Coron and then we would work our way down through Palawan and then fly back to Manila from Puerto Princesa. However, the typhoon meant no planes could fly to Coron but we managed to get on another flight that same day going to Puerto Princesa. This ended up being a bit of luck really because the route was now much more natural - heading up Palawan to finish in Manila again. Cebu Pacific didn’t charge anymore for this longer flight either, so it wasn’t all bad! We fly to Puerto in what can only be described as dense, black cloud – the whole way! It wasn’t a comfortable flight but you’ve got to hand it to Cebu Pacific ... read more

I hear the Philippines calling my name! So I’m going to have to go. Flights with Airasia are really cheap to Manila from KL and it only took 3hours. As this was a new part of Asia for me and I had heard of the dangers of Manila, I was a bit apprehensive. It didn’t start well for me because I hadn’t booked an outbound ticket from the Philippines. If you are UNLUCKY enough to get asked to show your outbound ticket at customs (they ask on a random basis) and you don’t have one, they won’t let you through. After about an hour booking a flight using the very slow laptop that the airport provided me with we managed to get out of there. Then we realised we were three hours out of Manila because, ... read more

“Shall we stop off in Kuala Lumpur before the Philippines?” my girlfriend asks, “Yes, yes we shall.” This was a silly question. I have been to Kuala Lumpur twice already in the last year and it is one of my favourite cities. I would always recommend trying to have a day or two stopover in this place - it is worth it. We decided on the overland route to Kuala Lumpur so this meant getting to Hat Yai in the south of Thailand. This wasn’t difficult from the docks at Krabi (we caught a boat from Phi Phi to Krabi). We got off the boat and there are people (and a cat) there waiting to sell you your onward journey. We had a comfortable mini bus journey from Krabi all the way to Hat Yai. We ... read more