Sometimes the harder it is to get to a place, the better it is when you finally get there. Sweetly named Sugar Beach on the West coast of Negros was no different, and the long journey to find it was well worth the time and effort that it took. We made an early start at 8am and the 6 hour trip included a tricycle, three buses and a boat which was tiring, but after a lovely few days here we would do it all over again to spend some time in this special little retreat. We weren't sure if we would have time to make it here but we are so glad we did, even just for a few days, and as usual, we could have stayed longer and when the time came to leave we ... read more

Mystery, magic, and magnificent beaches are amongst the highlights of this incredible island, and as like everywhere we have been so far in the Philippines, as soon as we arrived we knew that we would love it here. Siquijor (pronounced Si-Kee-Hor) is situated between the larger islands of Negros and Bohol, and known for its natural healers and old black magic traditions with Filipino people (some of whom are even afraid to step foot on this island), although locals are sceptical about the uses of such ‘herbal’ remedies, but we loved it for its picture postcard beaches, friendly people and chilled out vibe. It was quite a journey to get here, and as we were late arriving and had not expected to come to Siquijor today, we had nowhere booked, so we quickly phoned a local ... read more

As the title of the blog suggests, Malapascua is a place that we both fell in love with – However up until about an hour before we left, we almost cut-it from our itinerary completely due to all the bad weather forecasts we were reading online and the fact that to get there we would have to contend with a fairly long journey from Cebu. We decided to go with our gut instincts and try it out and if the weather was that bad, we could always move on. We first needed to make our way early to the northern bus terminal on the outskirts of town and board a yellow Ceres bus heading to Maya. This journey took around 4 hours but passed some spectacular scenery along the way, we then had to negotiate getting ... read more

With a few days to spare before our flight to the Philippines, we found ourselves back in Bangkok and after a 5 minute discussion on what to do with our time, we decided to go back to one of our favourite Thai islands, Koh Chang for a bit of R&R. We didn’t arrive into Bangkok until quite late, and as it was a Friday night the area which we usually stay in around Soi Rambuttri/Khao San Rd was packed. We went to 5 or 6 guesthouses and they were all full and we were starting to worry about finding a room when Scott eventually found us one at Bella Bella guesthouse. It wasn’t the best room we have ever had but it was fine for one night and it was cheap, so we checked in, showered ... read more

We weren’t sure if we were going to visit Laos on this trip or not, as we had been before in 2010 and while we liked it, the country didn’t ‘wow’ us. However, we wanted to experience the slow boat from the Thai border and as we were in Northern Thailand with our visa about to expire, we thought ‘why not give it another chance?’. After 2 days on the slow boat we found ourselves in the UNESCO town of Luang Prabang in North-West Laos, and as the sun was setting over the Mekong we wondered around to find a guesthouse for a few nights. We couldn’t really remember where we had stayed before but soon found a nice place close to the main market street which had a friendly owner and was quite cheap so ... read more