Malapascua & Bantayan Islands So here we are, almost 9 months into our trip, happier than ever and celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary… in amazingly beautiful Philippines. Yes, we did plan this anniversary to be spent in the Visayas and we worked and planned very hard (by hard I mean, skipping some places, rushing through some other amazing places etc) so that we could be there in this particular time of the year. Our honey moon was not a romantic gate away somewhere hot and tropical but historically rich and romance infused trip to Paris so we wanted the BIG 5 to be in one of those places. We planned our stay in Philippines to be slow and mellow without rushing and island hopping every 2-3 days. We decided to visit a maximum of 4 places ... read more

The way to Cameron Highlands was stunning – lush green scenery of partially preserved jungle and palm tree plantations. When we got closer to Tanah Rata Town it suddenly got very crowded and we quickly understood that this place was also a very popular place for locals. The two of the guesthouses that we had in mind were full so we had to walk a little bit further on to finally find a room in KRS Pines Guesthouse (40RMB/13$ per room). It was still relatively close to the center so we did not mind. We left our bags and went to check what options of activities we had in this place. Of course we wanted to do some trekking but also we heard bout the amazing Mossy Forest and Prime Jungle so we wanted to check ... read more

Arranging transport to cross into Malaysia was very easy, as everything in Thailand. We knew we would miss that convenience for sure but also we were excited about some challenges we may encounter when traveling around Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. It is extremely easy to get lazy and let other people do/plan things for you but it takes the excitement out of the journey a little bit, I think. We were taken directly to Georgetown in Palau Penang and dropped just at the corner of a famous Love Lane. There happened to be a guesthouse just where we were standing, together with a Burger Stall which made amazingly looking and smelling sandwiches and they offered us a room with AC and Wi-Fi for 30 RMB/10$ only. It was late evening and we were tired of whole ... read more

Ko Tao & Ko Pha-Ngan After all the warnings we received in BKK we were not planning to travel to Ko Tao with any private agency and we simply went to the bus terminal and got on the overnight bus to the port of Chumphon. Well you could say simply as the terminal is really far from the downtown area (30-45min on a bus) and you have to find a local bus to take you there if you want to save some money on taxi fare etc. Well we made it, so it is doable ;-) We were dropped at some crossroad at 5 am and told to head right but we had no idea where the speedboat terminal was. We got stopped by a guy at motorbike who said that the employee of Songserm Ferries ... read more

We had only one more place to visit in Burma – Yangon and we only managed to save 2 full days in town but according to what we had read it should have been enough. We arrived very early in the morning (took overnight bus again) and took a local bus to Sule Paya, downtown (bus 59, 500K, 45 minutes ) in search for some budget accommodation. We walked around and checked many hotels/guesthouses but prices were never below 25$ and still most of them were full. We finally managed to find Smiles Inn Guesthousewhere they offered us double room with a bathroom and breakfast for only 15$ so we were happy. It is located near the bustling Muslim and Indian Quarters that are just such pleasure to wander around. We did not have any major ... read more