Summer 2013 - 4th Stop: Mongolian Tour 1

Two and a half weeks in the Mongolian wilderness - living the nomadic dream! Strap yourselves in, because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover, both figuratively and literally. When we first crossed into Mongolia, we had a feeling that it could end up challenging in the best country stakes. And now that the dust has settled on our time here, it’s not even a contest anymore. It was one of the most incredible experiences of our lives.

As you can imagine, we encountered an awful lot over these 17 days so I’ve broken this entry into four bitesize chunks for your reading pleasure. I just hope I can do it justice. When writing the blog, I usually try to give a somewhat accurate summation of our stay in the opening paragraph, but for here, I won’t even try. There’s too much to say. It was absolutely phenomenal. Let’s just cut to the chase. Mongoliaaaa!!!

I had lined up the tour a couple of months beforehand with a company called Golden Gobi (I’ll give you a full recap on them at the end). When we were negotiating the terms, we were told that most likely it was going to be us and a few other tourists grouped together for all, or part, of the journey, which was fine with us. But for whatever reason, when the first morning rolled around, there were no other travellers to be seen - we had just lucked into our very own private tour!

We were introduced to our driver, Baaji, and our guide/chef/translator/everything we could possibly need over the next 17 days, Una. (And I just want to say right off the bat, they were amazing!) So, we loaded up, got settled and hit the road - first Ulaanbaatar’s tarmacked surfaces, then bumpy dirt tracks, until it got to the stage of simply driving across the open terrain.

Roads?! Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!

That afternoon, we stopped for food. Where? I couldn’t tell you if my life depended on it. I can’t even say it was in a random field as there are no fields here. No fences, no right of ownership, nothing. As soon as you leave the cities and towns behind, the whole landscape is everyone’s to enjoy. You see a nice spot? Set up your ger, it’s yours! You want to move down south? Just pack up your things and go! It’s a really nice way of doing things, and of course the nomadic way of life couldn’t exist without it. And I guess that was our way of life now!

Before lunch, we went for a little wander up to the top of a nearby hill, with a grand view of both everything and nothing as far as the eye could see. And with it, not a single trace of human life. Except for our van of course, which at this stage was a mere speck in the distance, and at that moment, looking out over the endless green steppes, I couldn’t help but think – if they drove away now, we’d be fuuuuucked!

Thankfully, they didn't, and we had a lovely lunch before driving off again, this time, coming to a halt outside our first ever ger – the traditional nomadic dwelling. I guess with anything in life, it’s natural to have preconceived ideas about things you’ve never experienced before. And obviously, for us, living on the Mongolian steppes certainly falls into that category. But we were ready and excited to embrace this simple, traditional way of life.

As it turned out, there was no need for our condescension - we walked in to find them all there watching TV, with a satellite dish on the roof, and a solar panel outside generating their electricity! Boy, did we feel embarrassed… we don’t even have those things in Hong Kong!

The whole experience was very surreal from start to finish – we came in, were served up a bowl of goat’s milk tea, watched an episode of Mongolia’s Got Talent or whatever, our driver, Baaji, slaughtered one of their goats for dinner and we were off on our way again… Life on the steppes!

That night we had dinner and set up camp by the holy mountain of Zorgol Khairkhan – day 1 done!

The next morning we upped sticks and drove on to the rock formations of Baga Gazariin Chuluu on the outskirts of the Gobi Desert. Before leaving though, a group of Mongolians who were passing through the area, stopped to give us some horse milk as some sort of friendly social offering.

It was absolutely rank.

At first I even thought the whole thing might have been a joke, kind of a ‘give the foreigners something disgusting to drink and see if they pretend to like it out of politeness’. But no, they were genuinely proud of their gift to us and looked on expectantly as we drank it.

(Fun fact - Genghis Khan’s father was actually killed with such an offering, although it’s unknown whether it was the poison or taste that finished him off.)

In the end, we just had to choke it down while holding back the tears. We had similar experiences over the course of the trip with camel and yak milk, and let’s just say, Irish cows won’t be finding themselves unemployed anytime soon.

We had a few hours of driving each day, which sounds like a lot over the course of the trip, but it was something we never got sick of. There was always so much to see and an endless assortment of landscapes to admire. Today’s landscape of choice would be best described as Spaghetti Western, as the grasslands started to merge into the desert.

We walked along, admired the scenery, saw a natural spring buried deep in the rocks, visited a former monastery built into the landscape, and even passed a cave that we weren't allowed enter because a pack of wolves lived inside. Nature!!

After our walk and a quick lunch, we took the short drive to our next nomad family. We got the usual milky welcome and were then shown to our own private ger, our home for the night. We’re really moving up in the world - our first steppe on the property ladder!

They even have an outhouse here – no pissing behind a bush for these lads!

We were given a few hours of leisure time before dinner and the sun had just started to come out in force for the first time on the tour, so we went for a big long walk across the open terrain. I just want to apologise in advance as my words and even my photos can’t do justice to the surroundings here. The beauty of the countryside cannot be captured in a single frame because it’s all around you, 360 degrees. And each way you face, you’re given something new.

We had a lovely afternoon, but as we got back, panic struck! I was getting my bag ready for the next day when I realised something wrong… where was Frankie?! We checked all around the ger but he was nowhere to be found! He must have fallen out of my bag during the walk, but where…?! It was just coming up to sunset, so we raced out to find him. We knew he wouldn’t stand a chance out there alone in the dark. Especially with wolves around!

We retraced our steps as best we could (retraced our steppes, I know, I know), but it was tough going in such a wide open space. We called his name but there was no reply. Then, when it looked like all hope was lost, I saw his little black and white head peeping out of the rocks. He was safe.

The next morning, we moved on once again, moving further into the Gobi and stopping off along the way at a tiny cave that burrowed its way underground and back up again. We’ve been in a lot of caves throughout our travels, big and small, but this one was a little bit different in that, you’re crawling on your hands and knees the whole way through. The other thing about the caves we’ve seen in the past was that they were all properly certified; this was just a natural hole through the rocks, in the desert… On reflection, it probably wasn’t the safest thing we’ve ever done. In fact, a couple of times as I gripped the cave walls for guidance through the dark, large chunks came off in my hand… Any potential visitors out there, maybe you should give this one a miss.

And it’s a good thing we survived our potential desert burial, as afterwards we jumped back in the van and made our way to the cliffs of White Castle - one of the most amazing views I’ve ever seen!

These huge cliffs rise out of a sea of rolling sand dunes, and any sense you had of realistic colour schemes goes out the window. From cream and yellow, to violet and maroon, the whole landscape needs to be seen to be believed. When I pictured a desert in my head before this trip, I had a pretty definite view of what it would be like. After just two days and countless different permutations, that assumption has been torn to shreds.

We drove back over the dunes and high above the rocky land to our next ger for the night. On arrival, we were greeted by the head of the family – a man of at least 80 years with the leatheriest skin you could possibly imagine from a lifetime working under the hot Gobi sun. If ever there was a perfect image of your typical desert nomad, this was him. Apart from the Chelsea tracksuit he was wearing…

That night, we settled in for an early one, and as our ger had extra room, Una and Baaji said they would join us. After a while, I heard some people coming in, setting up camp on the floor and leaving again. I rolled over, puzzled to see a mat laid out with some sleeping bags on top. I thought this was strange as the ger had two extra beds; why were they setting themselves up on the ground? As my eyes began to adjust to the darkness, things started to come into focus – that wasn’t Una and Baaji, and those aren’t sleeping bags… THAT’S A DEAD GOAT! Don Corleone has got nothing on this family! Never mind waking up to a horse’s head in your bed, how about a fully dismembered buck on the floor?!

Pictured: A different goat

And the funny thing is, that wasn’t even the most horrifying thing I encountered that day – the following morning I saw an old woman taking a shit in the desert! How about that for a double whammy!? On the plus side, that’s one more thing ticked off my bucket list - elderly Mongolian lady taking a crap on a sand dune – done and done!

After that early morning eye-opener, we headed off to the valley of Yolyn Am, getting ever deeper into the Gobi. Strangely enough, it’s awfully ungobi-esque in appearance, in that it’s green and lush, and wouldn’t be out of place in the Irish countryside (unlike the shitting Mongolian woman).

Before all that though, we stopped in some small provincial town for a treat that would prove to be quite rare over the course of the trip – a hot shower. As showers go, it admittedly wasn’t the best, but after 4 days of rough living, it went down an absolute storm! 

In other shower related news, when leaving the washroom, Ais got electrocuted trying to turn off the light! She’s fine obviously so it’s the funny kind of electrocution. I guess she didn’t realise that the lights came at an extra… charge! Maybe she should have checked the… current prices! Ok, I’m done. 

Anyway, we had a grand old time at Yolyn Am and it was a nice break to get out of the desert sun. Apparently, there’s even an ice gorge that runs through the valley for most of the year, however we just missed it by a couple of weeks. Ah well, you win some and you lose some.

We drove on and set up camp for the night by a small stream. Baaji had bought a ball in the town earlier that afternoon so we finished up with a game of volleyball by the water’s edge; a nice wholesome end to the day.

Day 5 and we were up and off again to our home for the next two nights, right in the heart of the desert. As I mentioned earlier, over the past few days we had been travelling deeper and deeper into the Gobi, with the landscape slowly becoming more harsh and arid, but it still wasn’t matching up to my preconceived image – where were the rolling orange hills, the bright blue skies and the hot white sun? We had been getting closer and closer to my vision as we worked our way south - the vegetation becoming sparse, the soil loosening, and then, in the distance, there it was.

We were finally getting our just deserts!

As usual, we entered the family ger and supped away on our milk tea while Una and Baaji chatted to the nomads. Of course the family’s English is about as proficient as our Mongolian so there isn’t a whole lot we can do except smile and nod at each other. So, we just sit quietly and let the adults talk, until we’re finally told we can go out and play.

Once Una gives us the go ahead, we’re off towards the great sand dunes in the distance. And it’s just as I had imagined, well, except for the blue skies… and the sun… I guess that’s the curse of Irish weather – the rainclouds even follow you into the heart of the desert! We keep walking anyway, until we reach a small, sandy river blocking our path. I try to traverse it barefoot with Ais on my back, but we soon start sinking fairly quickly. Foiled by the smallest of streams!

I’m sure somewhere in the world right now, there’s someone stranded in the desert who would sell their soul for a flowing river or a heavy downpour, meanwhile, we’re currently being inconvenienced by both!

We sadly had to admit defeat for now, but we did return later on when the skies had cleared up and made a video diary in the process:

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

All that was left to do that evening was to lie back and enjoy a complete, untainted sky full of stars, falling down to the horizon on all sides. Day 5 done and I’ll pick up from there next time around. Stay tuned!

Summer 2013 - 3rd Stop: Ulaanbaatar - The Beginning

New country!!! And even though we've only completed three days of our three week stay here, we could potentially have a new contender in the best country stakes! That prediction may be a little premature as we've actually experienced very little in our short time here, but from the little snippets we've seen, we may have something very special on our hands. Tomorrow, we leave for the main part of our Mongol adventure - a 17 day tour into the wild, journeying along the Mongolian steppes, trekking across the Gobi Desert, and all the while staying in traditional 'gers' with the local nomads (is that an oxymoron?).

Ulaanbaatar itself has been great (surprising really, considering our distaste for capital cities), but the main source of our enthusiasm so far came as soon as we crossed the border. Our first day in the country was spent almost entirely on the road for our 12 hour long bus ride down from Russia. And although it sounds like a chore, it was anything but. On the Mongolian side at least. It was ridiculous how the landscape instantly flipped into endless, green rolling hills, stretching as far as the eye can see in every direction. I'll cut short the descriptors for now as I'm sure I'll need every one I can get over the next 17 days. I don't want to waste them all on our bus ride in!

But how about that for your run-of-the-mill, roadside piss stop!?

So, as for Ulaanbaatar - to sum it up in one word, I'd say... surprising. For a country with a population of less than 3 million, a lot of whom still live the nomadic lifestyle, I wasn't expecting UB to be anything special at all. But to give it credit, it can stand tall over the majority of capital cities we've visited during our time in Asia, both in terms of tradition and modernity.

I'll keep this entry quite brief because, as I mentioned, we've only had three days here - one on the road, and the other two were half spent preparing for our big, big excursion. We did get up to a few things though in our free time. The above picture is from Sukhbaatar Square, the centre point of the city and as you can see, we caught it at a great time. The Naadam festival - the major celebration in the Mongol calendar - is starting in a few days time, so all of the city's youngsters were out in force, donning their traditional costumes and practicing their dance routines.

We'll be out in the back of beyonds during the Naadam celebrations, which will be extra special as we'll be able to experience a much smaller and more intimate festival where the locals will be competing in the three traditional Mongol sports - archery, horse racing and wrestling. That's something I really can't wait to see!

And if Sukhbaatar Square couldn't get any more awesome, at the far end (I forgot to mention there's a big statue of Genghis Khan on a throne at the top end) there's a big dinosaur exhibit! Apparently, Mongolia has a huge history of dinosaur findings and at the moment they have the skeleton of a Tarbosaurus Baatar (a relation of the Tyrannosaurus Rex) on show, just until they finish building their own dinosaur museum. It of course brought back memories of the last dinosaur museum we went to in Savannakhet, Laos which was laughably shit. At least now we finally got to see a real dinosaur!

                 Savannakhet "dinosaur museum"                       UB actual dinosaur museum

In other Mongol news, I know I joked about it in the last entry, but we actually have been trying the local food quite a bit while in town. It's hard to go wrong though seemingly with Mongolian food, their national dish seems to be... lots of meat! Admittedly, one of the evenings we did pay a visit to an Irish pub but we've been very restrained while in town. We've seen at least five of them already in the city and that's without even looking.

I think it's a great name too, a nice blend of Irish and Mongol ways of life - "That Genghis now, he was a grand Khan. Ah ya, some man for one Khan!".

We also paid a visit to Gandan Khiid Monastery, twice actually, since it was pretty cloudy the first time around, and it's right in the city centre anyway. And we never realised that you had to buy a ticket to get in! Twice!

There were some amount of pigeons too in the area, and you could buy seed to feed them. It was nice and relaxing in a way, listening to all of the cooing, until every so often they'd erupt in a hurricane of dust and feathers. Not fun if you're caught in the middle of it...

And here's where we made our latest video diary, so have a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TziFiJQ8xt4

That's about it for Ulaanbaatar, for now at least. We'll be back here for another two days at the end of our tour, and we've still left ourselves plenty to see in and around the city.

Now, I've been very on the ball so far this summer, keeping up to date with the blog at regular intervals, but I'm afraid this is where I drift off, as electricity will be hard to come by on the road and I'm not sure the Gobi is fitted with wifi... I'll have a lot of catching up to do, so please be patient and we'll be back soon! :)

Summer 2013 - 2nd Stop: Ulan-Ude

Well, Ulan-Ude is lovely! A really nice town, small enough to walk around quite easily, but still plenty to catch your eye; beautiful buildings, big open areas and they've even got a Subway! What's not to love!? Another interesting thing about the place is the diversity of the population. For example, in Irkutsk, everyone looked very... well, Russian! I know that probably sounds like a stupid thing to say, but it's strange for a city that's certainly Asian in terms of geography, over 4,000 km from Moscow, to be filled with your typical blonde hair, blue eyed, Aryan race. In Ulan-Ude however, it's definitely more of a cultural melting pot with a large portion, even possibly a majority, of ethnic Mongols. I don't know if it's because of this reason, or because it's a lot smaller than Irkutsk, but there just seemed to be a much lighter atmosphere around Ulan-Ude. Anyway, in conclusion, it's lovely!

So, continuing on from where I last left off...

We were up extra early the next morning as we had to catch a minibus to UU and, as it was quite hard to find any information online, we wanted to make sure we were at the station in plenty of time, just to be ahead of the game. Although, our early start was undone right away as we got on the wrong bus to the station - disaster! We had no idea where we were and so had to continue on until the bus had finished its route, wait for it loop back around, and then ask the driver (who was very helpful despite any English) which stop would leave us closest to our goal. So, off we got and plodded along in the direction of the station.

On the way, we passed a tourist office and decided to pop in to make sure we were on the right track, only to find that it didn't matter what direction we were headed as the bus to Ulan-Ude leaves from the train station, not the bus station (obviously...!). So, we had to jump on a tram to take us to the other side of the city, in the hopes that we hadn't missed the last bus - and we hadn't! Our early start hadn't been in vain after all.

When we arrived, all of the bus signs were in Russian, so we just had to look out for a minibus with a *4 symbol* *hyphen* *3 symbol* combination (and hope there weren't any other towns similarly phrased). And we found one! Off to Ulan-Ude finally!

It took us close to 7 and a half hours to get there in the end, although, over an hour of that was probably spent on needless toilet breaks in the middle of nowhere. Having said that, we did stop off at a nice lookout point over Lake Baikal. It was good to see it again now that we had a bit of sunshine to better enjoy the view.

We arrived at Ulan-Ude train station that evening, greeted by pouring rain. I had walking directions to our hostel but it's never much fun searching around a strange city, soaked to the skin and dragging your luggage behind you, so we found a taxi. And after initially being quoted 500 Roubles, we brought out the good cop / bad cop routine once more, and haggled him down to 200. (Poor negotiating from the driver though, I must say - we were standing in the rain, clearly not knowing where we were going - not exactly the strongest position to bargain from)

At the hostel, we got settled and waited for the rain to die down, but we still got to have a general wander before sunset. And that's another point to note, and the same goes for Irkutsk - it doesn't get dark here until at least half 10 every night! It's great!

As it's quite a small town, and as we had over two full days here, we could afford to relax and take our time - so no Russian around! We also had the pleasure of experiencing Ulan-Ude's unique international claim to fame. Last year, if you remember, we saw the world's biggest wooden spoon in Miyajima, and of course we thought nothing could ever top that. But then came Ulan-Ude with, ladies and gentlemen, the world's biggest... Lenin head!

 

He certainly changed a lot after leaving The Beatles...

Apart from the above, there aren't a whole lot of other major sights in town. Across the road from Lenin's Head, there's the opera house and a lovely fountain, and then down at the other end of the main street (named Lenin St.), there's Odigitrievsky Cathedral, which is very pretty and similar in style to some of the typical Russian churches that we had seen in Irkutsk.

That evening, we went out to sample some Russian cuisine. We always make a big effort to be adventurous wherever we go as it really helps you to understand the local culture. In fact, we found a lovely, quaint little restaurant on Lenin Street to experience some unique Siberian delicacies...

Lol, jk! We went to an Irish pub, which was creatively named, "Irish Pub"!

And it didn't disappoint! Not so much the food which was only so-so, but the menu, that was clearly put together by someone who only had the faintest grasp of Irish culture. Dishes included the "Generous Leprechaun", the "Belfast Mystery" (which sounds more like a homemade car bomb), the Gaelic this, the Celtic that etc. etc., which all bore no relation to the actual dish.

But far and away the best they had to offer - from the streets of Mayfield to the tables of Ulan-Ude...

I don't even understand the concept of 'garlic toast and peanuts' as a meal, never mind its relevance to Roy Keane!

On our final day, we wandered further afield and got a bus to Rinpoche Bagsha Datsan, a Buddhist monastery about a 15 minute bus ride from the city centre, which is situated on top of a hill with a great view over the surrounding area. Unfortunately, there was major construction work going on while we were there which kinda killed the 'meditative Buddhist vibe' of the place, and also meant that the view was littered with JCBs and bags of cement. We still had a laugh though!

And also made a video diary there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SOHwRgjAfo

The next morning, in fact, tomorrow morning (I'm actually writing this in real time for once!) we'll be ending our short but very enjoyable stay in Russia, to hop on a 12 hour bus to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia - a new country, and undoubtedly a new adventure! 

Summer 2013 - 1st Stop: Irkutsk

And we're back for another summer of fun and frolics across Asia! Where does the time go? It feels like only yesterday that I finished my last blog entry... 

Our first stop this time around is the city of Irkutsk in southern Russia. We've come to the stage in our travels where we've been to pretty much every country in our immediate vicinity, therefore we've had to broaden our search a bit this summer, and so we headed north, and kept heading north til we reached the frozen tundras of Siberia! 

I guess it's a lot less snowy in the summer...

We flew from HK to Russia (we just asked for the Edward Snowden special) on the afternoon of July 1st with Korean Air; our first, but hopefully not last time flying with them. They were far and away the best airline we've travelled with in our time in Asia - great food, lots of leg room and the whole entertainment package too. It was a better set-up than what you'd get for an intercontinental journey, even though we were only taking a pair of 4 hour flights. Major love for Korean Air.

Need I say anymore?

We touched down just after midnight, marking a new country for me, but sadly, not for Aisling. In terms of places visited, Irkutsk is just another pin in the map, but if you want to go by country, that one little footstep on Russian soil means that my total land area covered just increased 100 fold!

Seriously though, how big is Russia! 

I meant that rhetorically, but do you know how big Russia is? Bigger than frickin' Pluto! That's right, it's bigger than a (former) planet!

My previous image of Russia was Moscow, St Petersburg... and then the rest was just an icy Siberian wasteland. So imagine my surprise when Irkutsk turned out to be a normal functioning city! And quite a beautiful one too. It's also the first place we've been to on our Asian travels where we can actually blend in with the locals! People actually spoke to us in Russian thinking we were from here. That sure as hell didn't happen in Japan or Vietnam!

On our first day here, we just walked around to several different sights, most of which were just pretty buildings - the nicest of all being Our Lady of Kazan Church, which is probably one of the nicest buildings you'll see anywhere.

It's not the biggest city so you can walk around and see everything you want in a day. There are several nice churches here, including the Raising of the Cross Church and the Epiphany Cathedral; as well as having a selection of modern structures, classical European architecture and an array of old wooden buildings that look like they've been lifted right out of the wild west!

We only really had a day and a half in the city itself, with another half-day spent in the small town of Listvyanka, an hour away on the shores of Lake Baikal - the deepest lake in the world. On the morning of our visit, it was absolutely freezing (well, by our pampered HK standards. For Siberia it was probably quite warm), so we didn't test the waters ourselves to see how deep it really was. We just spent a few hours walking around the town before returning to Irkutsk for the evening.

Here's the first video diary of the summer, from stay in Irkutsk:

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

And staying in Russia, next up will be the town of Ulan-Ude, so stay tuned for that!

CNY 2012: Boracay

For this entry, I should just cut the chat completely and make it into a slideshow, cause we got some absolute belters here! I don't mean that in an immodest way, it's just such an insanely beautiful island that it would be nigh on impossible to take bad pictures. With its clear turquoise seas, bright blue skies, a shimmering golden sun and warm orange sunsets, it's a cliché writer's paradise! Take all of that and mix it together with a few colours that I've never even seen before; and that was Boracay!

In the weeks after Christmas, we were desperately trying to find a suitable spot for the Chinese New Year holidays. Boracay was our first choice but flights to either of the nearby airports, Caticlan or Kalibo, were too expensive for us. We turned our attentions to some other possible destinations, but each one failed in comparison to Boracay. We had to go there, it was just a case of how.

We trawled airline after airline, fruitlessly trying to find a way around, and then, after hours and hours of research, a little loophole appeared. Although the two above were the main entry points to Boracay, there was another airport on Panay Island, although it was on the complete opposite side to the Boracay ferry port. Still, the flights were much, much cheaper and it only took 5 hours by bus to make up the ground, so that's where we flew! Off to Ilo Ilo! (That's actually its name by the way, not just binary code).

That's Boracay again, not Ilo Ilo... I just wanted to put in another picture...

The only thing about the flights though was that they were at quite an awkward time. Awkward in the sense of night flying, but great for getting the most out of our holiday. After Aisling finished work on the Friday evening, we got packed, got food and headed to the airport for our 02:15 flight to *spit* Manila. Thankfully, we didn't have to spend any time in the city itself, just the 4 hours waiting for our connecting flight. From here, I’ll do a bit of fast-forwarding (if only we could’ve done this at the time!) - landed in Ilo Ilo, taxi to bus station, bus to Caticlan, ferry to Boracay, and tuk-tuk to hostel. All in all, about 8 hours from Ilo Ilo airport to the front door.

The next morning, we got our first taste of Boracay's pristine beaches. In fact, when we first walked out onto the sand, I couldn't stop the tears from running down my face. I hasten to add, it wasn't a case of being so overcome with emotion because of the beauty of the island, but rather, the sun was so bright and the sand was so white that I literally couldn't keep my eyes open! I quickly invested in a pair of sunglasses.

The place we were staying, La Bella Casa, was nothing special at all (they lied to us... in Italian!), although having said that, it was quite well located just off White Beach. The main problem was that we had booked a  private room for ourselves, but on arrival we learned that we would be sharing with another couple. We were assured though that it would only be for the first two nights, so we were very Irish about the whole thing, "Ah sure it's grand, don't worry about it...". However, after the second night, another couple moved in. It was getting ridiculous at that stage so we kicked up a proper fuss, and by that I mean we politely complained. And it worked! We were upgraded to our own double room for the rest of our stay! I guess the squeaky wheel does get the oil.

The other thing about the place, and this goes for The Philippines as a whole really - they're very religious. Actually, I'll rephrase that - they're very Catholic - and it's a funny distinction. All countries around here are very religious, whether it's Buddhism, Islam, Taoism etc. but we often go to see and admire their relics, statues and places of worship, and I always find it quite spiritual and enriching. And we've stayed in accommodation before, decorated with such ornaments, and it's great.

But they had the same thing in La Bella Casa, except with portraits of Jesus, crucifixes and the like, and being honest, I found it quite cheap and unpleasant. Maybe it's different when it's "your" religion (and I use that in the loosest possible sense). I just thought it was a bit tacky and in your face. Give me a chubby, Buddha statue or a Muhammed cartoon over a Virgin Mary statue any day!

We spent most of our days here on White Beach so I won't go into too much detail about that. I'm sure you can gather your own impressions from the pictures. At night, there was a lovely promenade along the beach front filled with nice restaurants, shops and bars; always with a great atmosphere; whether it was fire dancing, live music or fireworks.

One night they were even showing a Villa match! (a 2-1 win over West Ham in case you're wondering, what what!!)

We took a couple of mini-trips during our time here too. First off, up to Mt. Luho, which had a nice viewing deck that gave you a 360 degree view of the island. It also had a little zipline through the trees. We hoped it would go all the way down to the beach below, but alas, we had to settle for the short hop from one platform to another. It was still fun though!

The following day, we deviated from our usual routine, and headed to the other side of the island to the much quieter and more secluded, Puka Beach.

It was very different to our local spot, but equally as beautiful. The place was a lot more rough and ready compared to the seemingly manicured White Beach, and it had a nice cool breeze to take edge off the heat, which I found to be just too much some days. A minor complaint, I know.

We also made a video diary there, so check that out!

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

And I'm up to date! Yes!!! So, I have one day to relax, safe in the knowledge that I'm ahead of the game, before we fly up to Russia (not Sri Lanka, as the video predicted) to begin another summer of travels. I'll really do my best to write as we go this time, so stay tuned for (somewhat) regular updates from a whole host of new countries! Watch this space and peace out for now! :)