CNY 2012: Myanmar - Part 2

Five months after we went to Myanmar and two days before we go off on our summer holidays, I'm finally getting around to finishing the blog. I don't know why this always happens...

So, we left Inle Lake on the afternoon of the 25th (January 25th, that is), arriving in Mandalay just before sunset. As Aisling was still recovering from her Mandalay Rum induced sickness, we just took it easy the next morning, only going to see two nearby places. First, Mahamuni Pagoda which, despite being the second holiest pilgrimage site in the country and one of the top recommended places to see in Mandalay, wasn't that good at all... Not at all! It's main draw is a 4m high golden Buddha statue, and maybe that's what's so great about the place, but we didn't even get to see it! Women aren't allowed into the statue room, so Aisling had to wait outside, and when I tried to go in, I was turned away for wearing shorts! A disappointing visit all round.

Our second stop of the day, to Shwe In Bin Monastery, was much more enjoyable. The building itself was nice enough - an old, carved wooden structure - but we had great craic with a couple of monks we met there, certainly the highlight of the day for us!

They said they watch Premiership, La Liga and Bundesliga matches every weekend, so we were chatting away to them about that for a while. Quite a surreal experience, having a chat about Villa with two Burmese monks in a Buddhist monastery in Mandalay. (They weren't too impressed with McLeish and thought we shouldn't have let O'Neill go. They are indeed wise...).

That afternoon, we rested, regrouped and headed out again, this time to see a few more sights around the city - Sandamuni Pagoda, Kuthodaw Pagoda and Shwenandaw Monastery.

Kuthadow and Sandamuni were much the same, but both equally beautiful. In fact, I have photos from each of them but can't tell which is which...

They were both full of energy too, not the solemn, respectful places of worship you'd expect, with a group of young, female monks (monkettes... monkees...?) playing hide and seek in among the hundreds upon hundreds of whitewashed stupas, and a local boy running up and down the paths flying a kite, which he eventually got stuck in a tree, and then impressively retrieved from said tree.

The next morning we got a boat across the Irrawaddy River from Mandalay to the small town of Mingun, and we had a lovely half-day there. The town itself really is tiny and so you can take your time, have a stroll around and see everything very easily on foot in a few hours. No need for a posh taxi or anything!

It could have been quite a famous place though when in 1790, work began on building the world's biggest stupa, which was set to peak at 150m, higher than the Great Pyramid at Giza. Unfortunately though, it was never completed due to an astrologer predicting that the king would die once the temple was finished. Work stopped after the base was constructed, so now it's just home to the world's biggest pile of bricks, a less illustrious title.

Mingun also has the world's second largest bell. It's just a town full of nearlys!

We also visited Hsinbyume Pagoda, a large whitewashed temple in the area. Mingun itself is quite a strange place as, apart from the handful of temples and pagodas (still don't know the difference between the two), there's actually very little else in the town, maybe a couple of shops, a couple of restaurants, and that's about it! I like it though, it makes a change from towns just being turned into tourist traps to squeeze any money they can out of visitors, at the expense of the town itself.

We got a boat back to Mandalay that afternoon and made our way up the deceptive Mandalay Hill for sunset. I say deceptive as, at least 4 or 5 times, when we were climbing up, we'd reach a point and think 'ok, this must be the top...' only to see another set of steps leading up further. I know it sounds stupid as it should be fairly obvious when you're at the top of a hill or not, but you'd be surprised!

When we finally did reach the top (the real one), we were less than impressed. There are some very nice places around Mandalay and nearby towns, but the city itself isn't that attractive, just an endless maze of identical dusty roads with no real character to the place, so as you can imagine, the view from the top of the hill wasn't really that good. We even left before the sun actually set.

The next day was our most action packed yet, as we got up early to take a day trip to the three small surrounding towns of Amarapura, Inwa and Sagaing. This is apparently quite a popular route to take, so we left it up to our driver to show us the sights, and first on his list was a monastery in Amarapura where you can watch the hundreds of monks have breakfast.

Although I don't know if it can be classed as breakfast, it was about 10:15. Brunch maybe...?

It was actually a really fascinating sight to behold, although the amount of tourists there was horrible. It must be quite annoying for the monks having to put up with this every morning, especially with some ridiculously obnoxious individuals unashamedly shoving cameras in their faces. I did take a few photos too of course... but at a distance! And even then I felt bad about it!

Because of this (and to beat the crowds for the rest of the day), we left early and went to the next town along, Sagaing, and in particular, Sagaing Hill. It was a great decision to leave the monastery early as we had the whole place to ourselves and what a beautiful place it was! Probably the nicest hilltop pagoda we've been to on our travels, shitting all over Mandalay Hill in every respect!

Even the tiled floors were pretty!

We stayed there for a while, enjoying the view, until the crowds started to catch up with us again, so we bolted off to the next town, Inwa, a former Burmese capital. We stopped for lunch before crossing the river and embarking upon a three hour horse and cart ride around the historic circuit.

So, we made our way along the bumpy dirt paths, stopping every so often at temples, monasteries and watch towers. It's hard to believe this place was once an ancient capital, when now it's little more than a village. Well worth a visit though!

Our last stop of the day was where we had started off, Amarapura, this time to see the famous U Bein Bridge, the longest teak bridge in the world and an iconic symbol here in Myanmar. It was an incredible sight too, I've never taken so many photos of the same thing! We arrived there in good time, so we took a walk to the other side and back (1.2km each way) and then hired a boat to watch the sunset across the water.

A lovely way to end the day, or any day for that matter! Every day should end with a view like this!

And that was our last day in Mandalay. The next morning we flew back to Yangon. We had actually kinda been looking forward to the flight back just for the airplane food. You see, the last time we were in Myanmar, we flew back to Yangon with Yangon Airways and got two slices of cake each. This time, we were with Air Mandalay, and all we got was a crappy cheese sandwich, and that was it! So there's my tip for this entry - don't fly Air Mandalay. Ya, they're safe and efficient and everything, if that's what you want from an airline... but if you want cake, fly Yangon Airways!

On our way into the city from Yangon airport, we shared a taxi with a lovely Indian guy named Roger. We got chatting and he was telling us how he was in town looking to invest and that he had found a 200 acre plot of land on the outskirts of Yangon for $60k, so whatever that is, €45k or something. So anyone looking to invest, Myanmar is the place to be!

On our last day in Yangon and Myanmar, we just took it easy and went for a stroll around the city and up to Kandawgyi Lake, as seen above. We also returned to out tiny, tiny room in Yoma Hotel and made a little video diary. I say little, but it was actually anything but! Our video diaries are usually 4 or 5 minutes max, but for this one, I had to cut down 14 mins of video into something more manageable, so... eh... enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQvnKsTY_w4&feature=youtu.be

And that was Myanmar! Our second visit here, and although it was very different from our first time around, it was still a hugely enjoyable trip. We'd love to come back here again someday but who knows when that will be or what state the country will be in...

Anyway, as I said at the top, we're off on our summer adventures in two days so look forward to more blog updates from Vietnam, Laos, China and Japan! Until then, toodle-oo!

CNY 2012: Myanmar - Part 1

Back in Myanmar - the unanimous winner of best everything on our first jaunt around the Orient in November 2010, especially impressive seeing as we actually only spent four days here. An awful lot has changed since then, both for us and the country. It's hard to believe that little more than a year has passed. 

One difference that we weren't too pleased about though - the number of tourists around the place. The last time we were here, you could go days without seeing another white face, but now they were everywhere! We know it's good for the local economy and opening the country up to the international community, but part of us couldn't help feeling like 'Hey! This is our country! Go find your own!'. 

Still, even though so much has changed, it was nice to know that some things had stayed the same.

November 2010

January 2012

That's right, as soon as we touched down in Yangon, our old friend Zaw Hein was there to greet us! It was lovely to see him again, and catch up on what had been happening in the country over the past year. The first time we were here, it was the day after democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi had been released from house arrest, and since then, both she and the country have gone from strength to strength. Zaw had some good news too with the birth of his first child, so it was smiles all round! Rather unlike the first time we landed in Yangon...

Zaw sorted us out as usual that morning; treating us to breakfast, arranging our flights up the country, taking us to get our money changed (which you can now do in banks, instead of dodgy back alleys...) and bringing us to our hotel, the same one we had stayed in first time around! We even got the same tiny, tiny room! It was good to be back.

November 2010

January 2012

After getting all of our business sorted in Yangon that morning (and after a midday power nap), we went to Shwedagon Pagoda - the most famous landmark in Myanmar. I don't really know why we didn't go there last time around...

It was a very beautiful sight, towering over the surrounding area, almost 100m tall and glistening all golden in the sunlight. The whole area was very nice actually, with smooth, tiled floors and local monks walking around in their traditional garb - saying a few prayers and taking some sneaky pics with their digital cameras.

Vow of poverty my ass...!

Even with the large number of tourists in the city, the majority of visitors were locals, there to give praise, and there was no shortage of stupas or Buddha statues for them to kneel in front of. We even found a shrine to C3PO!

She must be a huge Star Wars fan.

We stayed for a couple of hours and as we arrived late in the afternoon, we were able to enjoy a nice, purple sunset there too. A lovely way to spend our first day back in the country.

And the day wasn't over yet! That evening we went out for a nice traditional Burmese dinner with Zaw and his family. We payed of course, it was the least we could do after all the help he had given us.

And that was the end of our brief stay in Yangon. The following day, we flew up to Heho and our next stop - Inle Lake. We'd have another full day in Yangon at the end of our trip, so we had plenty of time to see some more of the city. But for now it was, Heho, let's go!

Just like our last time in the country, we got a free meal on the flight up, despite it being little over an hour long, and as we landed in Heho airport, there was a woman at arrivals holding up Aisling's name. (Those are two things that we always get a great kick out of - free plane food and seeing our names on signs! I hope the novelty never wears off!)

We stayed in the town of Nyaung Shwe, just north of Inle Lake itself, in a lovely place called Aquarius Inn, we were even given fruit, nuts and a cup of green tea as we arrived. As it was quite late in the day at that stage, we just had a walk around the town before retiring for the night. It was a very different way of life to what we were used to in Yangon, primarily as there wasn't the hustle and bustle of traffic, but also because it was frickin' freezing! We weren't expecting that at all!

And the next morning was even worse, we could barely tear ourselves out from under the blankets! Eventually, we got up and active for our day on the lake. We had travelled through floating villages before while in Cambodia last year, but this was just something else. It wasn't so much a floating village, rather a floating city, with some 80,000 inhabitants.

There's two of them anyway...

Our first stop of the day was Nar Baung Market, at the other side of the lake. The vendors were all lined up and ready for us with their souvenir stalls, but it was much more interesting to see the local market, with goods being transported from ox carts to boats, and vice versa - life on the lake really goes from water to land and back again so fluently. It's always nice to get a glimpse at a different way of living.

The most fascinating thing of all though, was just watching people paddle by on their daily routine, whether they were rowing by hand...

...or even by foot!

Leg-rowing is a bit of a tradition here on the lake (although apparently a lot of the locals just turn it on for the tourists). It consists of standing at the back of the boat and, well... rowing with your legs! Needless to say, we didn't give it a go ourselves.

After the market, we went to a couple of temples both on the water and on land. First, the very colourful, Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda, pictured below:

And then, the long walk up to the less impressive, Inn Dein. It was still worth going though, again just to see the everyday life, from locals doing their laundry in the river to carrying bundles of sticks on their heads.

Also, on the walk up to Inn Dein, we bought a little carved wall-hanging from one of the infinite number of market stalls. It's funny, we've no problem when it comes to haggling for goods in countries like Thailand or Malaysia or even here in Hong Kong, in fact, we quite enjoy it! But we always feel guilty about doing it in Myanmar. Just because we love the Burmese and want to give them our money! There's also a tradition here in the market stalls of tapping everything in the shop with the money from your first sale, just for good luck. So, we were extra delighted to give this woman her "lucky money" for the day.

After lunch in a lovely lakeside restaurant, we went to see some floating gardens, and then on to Nga Hpe Kyaung or the "Jumping Cat Monastery", which is exactly what it sounds like. It's a monastery where monks spend their days teaching cats how to jump... and that's about it! It was the thing I was most looking forward to seeing that day, I was expecting to see cats flying all over the place, jumping through fiery rings and everything! We were sadly disappointed. I did take a video, but there are probably millions of better cat videos on the internet.

We did get another picture for our 'monks doing modern things' album though. In Yangon, we saw monks with digital cameras, monks on a motorbike, and now we have a monk texting. Who and what he would be texting, we've no idea - "jst made cat jump, lol jk".

The next day we did some more exploring, this time on land as we went for a morning walk through some hillside villages on the outskirts of the lake. It was a pleasant change of scenery from the day before and a hell of a lot warmer! It was nice to be away from the tourist crowd too, back to just us, the countryside and friendly locals by the truckload, literally!

On the way, we passed a cave with an elderly monk at the entrance. It was pitch black inside and we had no torch or anything so he gave us a candle to light the way. He was so lovely, even offering us some tea and biscuits as we came out. It was quite eerie inside though, feeling our way through the cave, with nothing more than candle light. It felt like a horror movie waiting to happen...

But despite that, it was good!

The rest of the day was just more of the same, wandering through the countryside, from village to village, under the hot sun. The locals really took a shine to Aisling during our time here as well - giving her flowers, telling her she was beautiful, one schoolboy even crashed his bike while looking at her, in typical slapstick fashion! I wish I had taken a picture, although I'm sure he was embarrassed enough as it was...

That evening, we continued our tour of the area, this time hiring out a canoe (equipped with a lovely local woman), to paddle us down small streams, and in and out of tiny floating villages. During the trip, I turned around and asked if I could take a picture of her, to which she replied with a really heartfelt "Thank you". It was quite touching, and I still don't know if she was thanking me for wanting to take her picture, or because I asked, instead of just shoving a camera in her face.

We didn't know what to expect from the experience at all, but it was probably our favourite thing we did in Inle Lake. It was just so quiet and tranquil, and you get to see so much more off the beaten path, or rather, off the... paddled stream...?

I've probably said it before, but it's just such a different world here.

We stopped off at an old monastery just before sunset, and had a good chat with an elderly monk there as we watched the sun go down over the hills.

The next morning and our last on the lake, we hired a couple of bikes, just to round off our various modes of transport. We had already seen the place by boat, on foot, by canoe and now we were doing it on wheels! We were flying up to Mandalay that afternoon, so we only had a few hours to cycle around. There wasn't really anything in particular we were setting out for, we just spent the morning cycling up and down dusty, waterside paths, going wherever the road took us and getting lost, in a good way.

It's amazing what you find when you're not actually looking for anything. The temple above is probably one of our favourite sights form the whole trip, and I've haven't seen it mentioned on any maps or guidebooks. At one stage, we even went down a dead end in some small village, only to find a group of monks playing soccer in front of an old temple!

What will they get up to next?!

We cycled back, checked in our bikes and just chilled out in a cafe. I got a nice, cool banana lassi, while Ais ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, even cheaper than water, a glass of Mandalay Rum. It was really horrible. It may have only cost 30c, but she certainly paid for it the next day...

And on that note, we headed to the airport, off on the road to Mandalay! Part two coming soon!

Christmas 2011: Palawan

"Maligayang Pasko", or Merry Christmas, from Palawan in The Philippines! 


Technically it's not our first Christmas abroad, but it is our first time spending the Holidays, well, on holiday! This year we went all tropical, trading in the fireside for the seaside, Christmas trees for palm trees and stockings for... well, actually we still had stockings... It was a nice change from the norm though. I'm sure every Christmas we'll spend for the rest of our lives will all be from the same mould, just like every Christmas we've celebrated thus far. So this will be a nice memory that we'll always have; the year we spent Christmas on the beach.

We flew out from HK to Manila on the 22nd, but we almost didn't make it... there's always something! We checked in online, got to the airport in plenty of time, went through immigration, baggage checks, grand, everything was fine, until we went to board the plane. Even though we had checked in online, apparently we still needed to check in at the desk... (it makes absolutely no sense...) and they said they couldn't let us on board! And nobody had thought to tell us this at any point before we got to the actual doors of the plane! In the end, we had to use our Irish charm and play the "we didn't know" card (we really didn't know! we still don't!) and thankfully they let us away with it. It was almost the worst Christmas ever...


We spent the night in Manila and got a few hours sleep in a cheap guesthouse nearby, as we were late in and early out the next morning, this time flying to Puerto Princesa on the island of Palawan. Our travelling wasn't over yet though! As soon as we landed, we were off on a 5 hour bus journey up north to El Nido, finally arriving almost a full day after we left Hong Kong. Phew!

El Nido would be our home for the next four days, staying in a lovely little set of cottages called Treetops. On our first day, Christmas Eve, we went to a nice, quiet beach nearby called Las Cabanas. We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves and the sun held out for most of the afternoon thankfully, so we decided to head back there again the next day for Christmas!

Hmmm... I know what you're thinking - where have I seen that picture before...? Oh, I don't know, maybe page 9 of Cork's Evening Echo! December 29th! Bamm! Famous! 


It was funny reading through the article actually. We got a pretty big picture too (compared to those other losers at the bottom...). We weren't exactly in keeping with the other stories either. It talks about these poor students, forced to leave the country to make a living abroad, setting sail from Irish shores to find work... and then there's us frolicking on a beach! No recession here!!


And so, we had a lovely Christmas morning on the beach, exchanging presents and working on our tans. Sure what else would you be doing!? After lunch, we got a tricycle to some hot springs that we had heard about. It was a bumpy 30 minute ride and then a trek through a forest. The amount of crap we had to go through to get there though... and not in terms of hassle, I mean we literally had to wade through tonnes of crap!

Well, it didn't matter we thought, we can have a grand old soak in the hot springs and freshen ourselves up a bit. How wrong we were. The water was absolutely boiling! And I don't mean 'a bit too hot', I mean actually boiling. We should've brought a couple of bags of rice along with us, we could have at least had a meal for ourselves! This was meant to be our plan for the evening, maybe spend an hour soaking in the water, wash the sand out of our pores. In the end we just spent about 10 minutes standing there, looking at it. It was all we could do.

I don't even know why it's a tourist attraction...


That evening we had a lovely Christmas buffet dinner in Treetops, not exactly traditional but still lovely - spaghetti bolognese, noodles, rice, veg, roast pork... There were only two other people staying there besides us, so there was far too much food to go around. The staff had decorated the place up all Christmassy as well, and even gave us all little presents. They really couldn't have been nicer to us during our stay there, especially considering it was the Christmas holidays and I'm sure there were plenty of other places they'd rather have been. All in all, a very unorthodox, but still quite an enjoyable Christmas day.

On St. Stephen's Day (or Boxing Day, if you're into that kind of thing...), we decided to get active again and spent the day island hopping around Bacuit Bay. We had a great old time, travelling around to various beaches and lagoons with a group of Irish, English, Scots, Swedes and Estonians.

Our first stop of the day was to the Secret Lagoon - a sunlit pool, completely surrounded by rocky cliffs and only accessible through a small opening in the rock face.

It was a really beautiful place, and after a quick paddle around, we stopped for food along a nice, quiet beach. 


We hit up another few spots after lunch, the Big Lagoon (as featured in the latest series of Survivor France, apparently) and Seven Commando Beach, where we relaxed with a few drinks, a lovely way to round off the day.

And that was all for El Nido. The next morning we were back off down the road to Puerto Princesa. We were only in town for a day and a half as there was really only one thing we wanted to see - The Puerto Princesa Underground River, recently voted one of the new "Seven Natural Wonders of the World"! It's not every day that you see one of the natural wonders of the world, so on occasions like this, you need to take as many pictures as you can, and don't do anything stupid like forgetting your SD card... 

Yeah, I forgot my SD card. I couldn't believe it. I was inconsolable when I realised. My camera was effectively useless for the day, just a fancy paperweight. And I didn't even need to weigh down any paper, so it was doubly useless!


As I couldn't take any pictures for the day, I felt a bit torn - part of me, obviously, hoped it would be brilliant, truly a wonder of the world, and yet there was another part that secretly thought, actually I hope it's not that good, just so I don't miss out on some amazing photos. Fortunately (or should it be unfortunately...?), it wasn't that great at all! Phew! The picture above of the cave entrance (which I obviously just found online) isn't really that special, and that was about as good as it got! The cave itself was pretty mediocre too, especially compared to the ones we had seen in Borneo.

Looking at the list of nominees, I have no idea how it beat out places like the Grand Canyon or the Great Barrier Reef to become one of the seven natural wonders. Even the Cliffs of Moher are a more worthy winner!

Also, considering we left our hostel at half eight and didn't get back again til after six, it certainly isn't worth spending an entire day just for a 45 minute boat ride through a less than impressive, badly-lit cave. Maybe if you happened to live next door to the cave, then I'd recommend taking a look inside, otherwise, don't waste your time. That was all we did really in Puerto Princesa. The next day we flew up to our final stop, Coron, on the island of Busuanga. 


Being honest, we were two thirds of the way through our holiday and I was a bit disappointed. Yeah, El Nido and Puerto Princesa were nice, but (and I don't mean to sound arrogant or snobbish) we've seen so much of South East Asia, so many incredible sights, that "nice" just doesn't cut it anymore. This holiday was rather unfortunately lagging way behind our other trips away and then, out of nowhere, Coron came along and firmly put The Philippines back on the map!

It was paradise. The town of Coron itself was nice, just a small, seaside town, but it was the outlying islands, the dive spots, the beaches and the lagoons that really made the place so special.


We flew in from Puerto Princesa and were collected at the airport by our accommodation, the Coron Village Lodge. I had made the booking myself, and so I knew there'd be someone at the arrivals area with my name on a board. I know it's just a little thing but I was all excited!

Yep, there I am, Marko Liary... 


And the thing is, I made the booking online. I mean I could understand if they got my name wrong over the phone. On the ride in from the airport, we met the nicest French family too. Unfortunately they were staying somewhere else, but we did bump into them a couple more times over the next few days. 


We had signed up for a tour package, so it was nice to know everything would be taken care for us for our stay here. As soon as we arrived and got settled, we were whisked off to Mt. Tapyas, where we made the steep climb up to the top just in time for sunset. The views over the town and harbour were really lovely.

And our day wasn't done yet. After sunset we were taken to the Makinit Hot Springs. We were dreading that they'd be the same as the ones in El Nido, but they were really beautiful. They were just like a really warm outdoor swimming pool, and all nicely decorated too with trees and nightlights all around. So, we relaxed for the evening with a nice dip under the moonlight (and starlight).

The next morning, we got up for an action-packed day of activities. First off, (after our boat eventually started) we went to the Siete Pecados, or the "Seven Sins", a group of seven small, rocky islands - a great diving spot with beautiful fish and coral.

Next it was onto the Twin Lagoons, where we had a nice swim around. The lagoons are made up of warm sea water and cool fresh water from the hills, so it was a strange sensation swimming around, going from pocket to pocket of hot and cold water. And just look at the colour!

We then stopped for lunch (and another swim) along Atwayan Beach. Sorry, I'm skipping from place to place so quickly, but there isn't a whole lot to say of interest about each one, and I want to show as many pictures as I can!

We did another spot of snorkeling and fish feeding, before ending our day in Kayangan Lake. We had some bread and rice to feed them with, and as soon as you produced it, you were surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of zebra fish, angel fish and countless others that I don't know the name of. It was like being in the middle of Finding Nemo.

That evening we took a stroll down into the town centre to watch a mini parade. All the tricycles were decked out in Christmas lights and decorations, and were driving around the town, waving and throwing out sweets. It was actually really fun!

We went shopping in the street markets too, and got some great bargains for ourselves! Things are ridiculously cheap here! I got a pair of flip-flops for €2, a t-shirt for €5, and all good quality ones too. And this was without even haggling!

The next day and our last, we had another activity-filled day. Our first stop was Lusong, to go snorkeling around a Japanese shipwreck from WWII, which was an amazing experience. The ship is now just part of the underwater scenery, encrusted with coral and home to countless numbers of tropical fish.

We also went snorkeling later on in the afternoon in the Coral Garden, another lovely coral area with giant clams and tiny jellyfish.

We spent most of the day though in a place called Pass Island, not a very exotic name, but it's the nicest island we've ever been (not including Ireland, obviously). Forget all I've said in previous blogs about beautiful beaches, I didn't know what I was talking about back then. Ko Phi Phi, Ko Tao - don't bother with them anymore, all piles of crap compared to this place!

Palm trees, warm turquoise, yet perfectly clear water, a spotless white, sandy beach - and I mean a big proper beach, not just a tiny little strip of sand - it's the perfect desert island to find yourself stranded on! It's only small too, maybe about two acres, and there's even a nice little hill with a lookout point. If I ever become a millionaire, I'll definitely buy the place.

We made a video diary here too (of course, it was the perfect place). Even if you don't to want hear us blabbering on about the holiday, have a look just to see the place.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xei4UlWxL20


That evening, seeing as it was New Year's Eve, we went back down into the town centre to see what kind of celebrations they'd have. We weren't expecting much really seeing as it's only a small place, a countdown, maybe a few fireworks, but we were pleasantly surprised! They had a great big fireworks show, and good fireworks too!

No countdown though... that's two years in a row now that we haven't had a new year's countdown!


And so, just like 2011 our time had also come to an end. The next morning we flew back to Manila and back home to HK. So, after a nice but unspectacular start to the holiday, Coron came in at the death to save the day. Even though we've only seen very little of it, The Philippines seems like a lovely country, and the people are among the nicest we've met anywhere, so hopefully we'll come back here again some time and see a bit more of the place.

As for now, it's the 19th of January and we're flying out tonight to spend the Chinese New Year in Myanmar (it's a tough life...). And so, that'll be the next blog entry in a few weeks time. Until then, peace out for now!