Tagatay was our next destination and an easy transition from Baguio - Manila and then Manila - Tagatay. It was the usual ordeal of not having any idea where we needed to get dropped off when asked by the bus conductor so we got dumped in the plaza and wandered around looking a bit lost until some kind local helped us find our way! For the first time ever we purchased a local country SIM card and were really glad we had on this occasion as the accommodation in Tagatay is spread out along the supervolcano wall in a long line covering about 8km. With our handy phone (the wonders of modern technology!) we were able to call the guesthouse we'd selected to see if they had any rooms before we jumped in a never-ending tricycle ... read more

We got to Sagada on an hour long jeepney trip from Bontoc which snaked up and up into the mountains and cloud with it growing ever colder as we went. The last time we'd really needed our fleeces & hats was at Mt Bromo a few months ago back and could easily count on one hand the number of times we'd needed them in our year in Asia. This time we were very glad we'd kept hold of them as they were very needed up here after getting a little too used to the Asian climate! People rave about Sagada and some travellers stay for weeks and weeks but when we arrived we really couldn't see what all the fuss was about. It was really low cloud so we couldn't really see much past the small ... read more

We made the round trip back to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah from the Philippines because of the 21 day visa limit. Of course you can extend the visa but we'd planned to do this when we returned and flying in and out of the country was a cheaper alternative to extending it twice so it was a bit of tooing and froing but this is the way things worked best for us. Rather than just fly in and straight out again we decided to stay a week and make the short trip across to Brunei.. it just seemed rude not to go when it's only a few hours away! There are a few ways to get to Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei, but we chose to get the bus from KK to Menumbok (RM15), ... read more

Our introduction to the Philippines came as quite a surprise, it started off pretty much as we were imagining with funky jeepneys (converted US army jeeps) running around and typical houses we've seen in most of SE Asia, but as we'd landed in Clark which is about 3 hours North of Manila we were really surprised as we made our approach to this huge capital city. For a country that has parts among the poorest in SE Asia, Manila seems to be bucking this trend with some of the hugest billboards we've seen in our lives lining most of the highways through the city advertising mostly expensive jeans & make up that even in England you would think twice about affording. Add to this the countless huge shopping malls and the massive skyscrapers that you can ... read more

The Sungai Kinabatangan was yet another place we only learnt about on our travels.. we don't do much research until we arrive at a place so only get set on going somewhere if someone highly recommends it.. which is exactly what happened here. This is basically a natural reserve located alongside the Kinabatangan river where you have the opportunity to spot Orangtans, Pygmy Elephants, Probiscus Monkeys, Macaque Monkeys and a whole host of other birds and wildlife so we were keen to go and see if we could see anything ourselves. We'd been recommended the Sakuru Greenview B&B so after hitching the remaining 42km to Sakau from the main road because the minibuses were ridiculously expensive, we checked in and immediately booked ourselves on the afternoon sunset boat trip along the river. Our wildlife spotting started ... read more