Lucy and Rikki

Lucy and Rikki

Lucy and Rikki

Here is our travel blog to keep you all updated on our South- East Asian Adventure!!



Asia » Indonesia » Java » Bromo Tengger Semeru June 28th 2011

Asia » Singapore » Geylang June 28th 2011

Coming from Malapascua island in the Philippines, where there were no ATMs, no cars, and the only business revolved around fishing and diving, you can imagine the extreme contrast of Singapore. We were hit by this the moment we stepped off the plane into Changi airport; it was an attraction in itself and we could have stayed there for ages! There were computer stations dotted around everywhere for free use of internet, entertainment boards,. shops galore and even free sweets and water!! After we had finished wandering wide-eyed around the airport, we took the very user-friendly MRT train into the city where we located our pre-booked (rather pricey) hotel. For such a small country, Singapore has hundreds of sights and attractions. Due to our slightly tighter budget compared to your average Singapore tourist, we spent our ... read more
DSCF9004
DSCF9021
DSCF9017

Asia » Philippines » Cebu » Malapascua June 28th 2011

Our final week in the Philippines was spent on Cebu, an island that is part of the 'Visayas' in the middle of the country. But first we briefly stopped over at Bohol, a tiny island next to Cebu that is home to the Philippine tarsier, one of the smallest primates in the world. This was our primary reason for visiting but we incorporated it into a day tour of the island where we also went to see the 'chocolate hills' and a local butterfly sanctuary. We hired a tricycle for the day, complete with a very moody driver! He seemed really nice to begin with but we soon realised he was taking us to the wrong place! We wanted to go to the tarsier centre (a centre dedicated to protecting the tarsier and establishing a breeding ... read more
DSCF7008
DSCF7061
DSCF7019

Asia » Philippines » Palawan » Puerto Princesa June 28th 2011

Next on our filipino adventure was the island of Palawan! We flew from Manilla to Puerto Princesa where we stayed for a couple of nights. Puerto Princesa is the main city in Palawan, it's capital if you like, but it's only the size of a small town and still has that 'local' feel to it. We found a great little guest house called Manny's and based ourselves there. We also found an amazing little vegetarian cafe that conjured up all kinds of meaty treats out of tofu for under a dollar so this soon became our local hang out! From PP we went to see the 'underground subterranean river' - a very popular tourist destination, especially with local Filipino tourists. The river basically runs through a cave (underground) and is supposedly the longest one of its ... read more
DSCF6727
DSCF6728
DSCF6729

Asia » Afghanistan June 28th 2011

Next on our filipino adventure was the island of Palawan! We flew from Manilla to Puerto Princesa where we stayed for a couple of nights. Puerto Princesa is the main city in Palawan, it's capital if you like, but it's only the size of a small town and still has that 'local' feel to it. We found a great little guest house called Manny's and based ourselves there. We also found an amazing little vegetarian cafe that conjured up all kinds of meaty treats out of tofu for under a dollar so this soon became our local hang out! From PP we went to see the 'underground subterranean river' - a very popular tourist destination, especially with local Filipino tourists. The river basically runs through a cave (underground) and is supposedly the longest one of its ... read more

Asia » Philippines » Donsol May 24th 2011

Our trip to Donsol began with a 25 hour bus ride! We took another freezing cold night bus from Banaue to Manila (10hours) which arrived at 6am. We originally planned on spending the day in Manila and then taking another long bus ride to Legaspi (the main town near Donsol) the following day. However, because we were so tired from our first journey we didn't feel up to exploring the chaos of Manila and so decided to power through and take a local bus to Legaspi (13hours). The bus journey was great but VERY long, we left at 8am and got to Legaspi at 9.30pm so if you add that to our night bus we were traveling for over 25 hours! On the bus we were crammed into our seats (with 7 people squashed across one row), ... read more
Photo 3
Photo 4
DSCF6702

Asia » Philippines » Banaue May 23rd 2011

After an incredible few weeks in Borneo, we didn't think anything could beat it... but the Philippines have come very close. Not even on our itinerary originally, after hearing some amazing stories, we decided that it couldn't be missed! We flew into the capital, Manila, and were bombarded with the chaos of the over populated city; taxis, buses, tricycles, people, dogs and jeepneys everywhere! Although very hectic, and at times grotty, compared to many other southeast Asian cities, Manila did have a lot of character and we had great fun traveling around it in our new favorite form of transport; the jeepney!  Now the 'jeepney' deserves a blog to itself! They are absolutely brilliant! They are converted army trucks and each one has it's own unique touch and design determined by it's owner, some even have flashing ... read more
DSCF6526
The road to the junction....
The Jeepney!

Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Mount Kinabalu May 12th 2011

From the depths of the ocean to Borneo's highest peak..... it's been a very busy few days!  After 2 days diving and an overnight bus, we arrived at 4am at the park HQ of Mount Kinabalu. We managed to catch a quick nap on the office sofas before trying to organise our paper work, a guide and a way of paying! It was all rather rushed as we only decided the day before (whilst diving at Sipadan) that we wanted to climb the mountain, and a difficult phone conversation with the park headquarters then proceeded! We wanted to climb a couple of days after diving to give ourselves a rest but the only space available was for the next night which meant a long day of travel and then an overnight bus to get there! We ... read more
DSCF6328
DSCF6330
DSCF6336

Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Sipadan May 9th 2011

Sipadan!! We have both done some incredible things on our trip which we will never forget, but our two days in the underwater world of Sipadan were the best yet.  Known as one of the best dive sites in the world, Sipadan is (now) an uninhabited island off the east coast of Borneo. Due to it's magnificent reputation, the government imposed a permit scheme, where only 100 divers per day are allowed to visit the island and it's surrounding reefs, therefore protecting it from overuse and development. Because of this, we had to book our permits in advance and after a long period of sending emails, we  managed to secure a days diving in Sipadan along with a days diving off the nearby island of Mabul. The company who we booked with were the cheapest we ... read more
Photo 62
P1050187
P1050215


Borneo! The past 2 weeks in Sabah (Malaysian Borneo) have been our best yet. We are now extremely tired and have spent far too much money but it has been completely worth it! From the depths of the ocean  to the highest peak we have seen some incredible sights and some amazing wildlife, it really has been unbelievable! We have so much to tell you and so many pictures to show, so we will split Borneo into 3 separate blogs: 1. Orangutans and the mighty jungle 2. Sipadan diving 3. Mt Kinabalu  ......... Enjoy! Orangutans!!!!!! The first stop on our route was Sandakan, a town on the east coast close to Sepilok where the Orangutan rehabilitation centre is situated. The town itself didn't have that much going on but it did have an amazing seafood restaurant ... read more
DSCF4174
DSCF4181
DSCF4185




Tot: 0.156s; Tpl: 0.007s; cc: 14; qc: 88; dbt: 0.086s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb