possibly the most beautiful place in the world??

so the last part of our trip in asia was in palawan...its such a gorgeous part of the philippines, made up of 1000 islands, with stunning blue sea, endless beaches, roads are few and far between, loads of deserted islands. amazing that such a place stil exists!

we flew down to puerta princessa - the capital, where it was pouring with rain- not the most promising start to a region! spent ages trying to get somewhere decent and cheap to stay before deciding that the nicest one was the first one we'd been to, and beginning to learn that palawan isn;t the cheapest part of the philippines to travel to really. we were pretty exhausted as we'd been traveling overnight from the north of the country on the bus, spent the night at the airport, and caught the plane in the morning. so even though we finally managed to arrive in a place where they were having a festival we werent really up for a party! looked great though- it was a streetdance competition with everyone in bodypaint and dancing in a tribal manner!

we set off the next day for a very bumpy, dusty and long jeepney journey, to sabang. but when we got there it was worth the journey- a long stretch of beach, palm trees the whole way along and hardly any houses. we stayed at the very far end, in a lovely hut with our balcony right on the beach. such a beautiful spot with the hills coming right down to the sea. spent a nice relaxed few days there, the last few weeks had been pretty non-stop.

vsited the underground river, which was amazing. apparently ts the longest one in the world - goes on for 8km through the mountain. we went in a little boat for about 2k, whch felt like a long way. of course they always manage to spoil these things by pointing at the staligmites and -tites and saying things like 'this one is 'the carrot', this one 'the mushroom', this one 'the 3 kings', and you're just like 'what?'...think its better just to admire them the way they are. anyway, it was very nice!!!

palawan looks pretty much like this!!

ph_pa_17
Originally uploaded by SD-05.

mouth of the underground river in Sabang

Underground river in Sabang, Palawan, Philippines
Originally uploaded by SD-05.

here's a photo of sabang beach

Sabang - Palawan (Philippines)
Originally uploaded by hittischolz.

up north in the philippines

quick catch-up..been becoming very slack with this lately!

so we spent about a week oop north in the Philippines, where its a bit wetter and actually gets cold at night! very different to manila...we went to a few places where they had a real fire going, which was nice. well, they almost got it right. mostly they only had about 1 log burning at a time, which doesn't really constitute a fire, i don't think- maybe a candle? anyway, the thought was there!

we had a few very hairy journeys up there- winding bus journeys, with steep drops and only a few metres visibility with the fog. too scary! we visited baguio- a little student town which was strangely like one from home. there was actually a main street, with shops and bars and things. most odd! then we headed up to sagada, and did some lovely walking in the hills, and went to see some hanging coffins, which are suspended in the air and hung on the cliffside. also some caves with river running through. after that we went to banaue. its gorgeous there. they have rice terraces, which are up to 2000years old- they stretch along and up the mountains and valleys as far as you can see, and everything is so green. you can walk in amongst them as well which is beautiful.

Here’s a picture of banaue. Its just a bit hard to get an idea of the size of it all!

er, yes mel- it's just like that. everywhere we go.

poor old marc. he does live in his own little dream world doesn't he? ; )

grr- i just wrote lots and the computer crashed. grrr! will have to do it again next time. basically we're in the philippines- last 2 weeks in asia, till we go to australia. aw...and yeahy!

anyway, we managed to get a mobile number going, but bit pointless as we have practically no cash on it. anyway, if you'd like to text hello, the number is +63 9204121034

till next time....xx