So we set off from Sabang at 8am headed for Port Barton in an outrigger big enough for 4 people, after persuading the boatmen that 6am really isn't a reasonable starting time. We shared the boat with a nice couple, Steve (from Belgium) and Whitney (from the US). One hour into the boat journey our boat broke down, bear in mind that Palawan is a very remote island and there are few boats sailing these waters and nothing even remotely resembling a coastguard ...we soon began to panic and question if there were sharks in these waters. Palawan isn't one of those places that you see any kind of habitations on the land and where we broke down we were at least a good 20kms from anybody. Luckily though the engine started again and the panic ... read more

Ahhh - exotic Palawan...gorgeous beaches, pristine virgin rainforest, turquoise sea, waterfalls and underground rivers. Only one problem...you have to get there first! Finally we were leaving Manila...yey! Arriving at Manila's Domestic Terminal we were actually smiling but not for long as we were soon reminded of the ridiculously anal security transport measures in the Philippines. Examples of this are listed below: 1.You are not allowed into the airport terminal without a ticket and passport. Our ticket was booked online and the website just said to turn up with passport and booking number to check-in. So before we were even allowed into the airport by boys-playing-at-being-security-guards-with-fully-loaded-guns we had to find the airline office to get a ticket print out. 2.Finally inside the airport we were split into male and female queues for the baggage check, baggage was ... read more

Saigon's airport is one of the worst airports we have ever been to (apart from Heathrow that is!), everything was overpriced and because you cannot exchange your dong (ha ha) outside of Vietnam, you end up having to pay over inflated prices to get rid of a worthless currency. So a packet of banana chips and a Mars Bar later, we were ready to board our flight to Singapore, the international requirement of not carrying liquids in your hand luggage was ignored by the Vietnamese and we could carry whatever we wanted onto the plane! We both managed to sleep almost the entire flight...Donna fell asleep during the safety demo and woke up briefly not even realising we had taken off! Landing into Singapore we were intrigued to see it by air during the day, other ... read more

At this point in our journey through Vietnam, we were very aware and sad that our time in this lovely country was coming to an end, there was only Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) left to visit. Vietnam was a country that really surprised us, we had never had Vietnam on our itinerary, but with the change in visa rules in Thailand and so many good reports from friends we had met along the way we decided to give it a go. We are so glad that we did! Anyhoo...we booked ourselves onto the 1:30pm bus from Mui Ne to Saigon (the southern Vietnamese prefer to call it this rather than Ho Chi Minh City as their little 'rebellion' towards the government!). At 2pm we were still waiting for the bus to collect us from our hotel...at ... read more

What is with the saying 'same same but different' in South East Asia? Everyone seems to say it, hotels and cafés are named it and backpackers wear t-shirts with it printed on...but no-one seems to know what it means. It's a pointless phrase, it's not even funny and as we spend more time in South East Asia, it's annoying us more and more. GRRRrrrrr!! So now we have got that off our chest...our 12 hour overnight bus journey from Hoi An to Nha Trang was 'okay', except for 2 tyres bursting, the air con breaking down and us being sandwiched between 2 annoying Americans in front of us who rudely rammed their seats into our stomachs before we had even left Hoi An and 2 annoying French behind us who kept shoving things into the backs ... read more