It's more fun in the Philippines!

That’s the tourism tagline here in the Philippines and we can confirm it’s pretty true! Our fun started before we even set off from the UK with a great trip down to London. We participated in one of the best and most surreal birthday events I have ever been to. Tim, my friend from London, had spectacularly co-ordinated a team based puzzle search/ world saving mission around the V&A museum. I cannot begin to do it justice by writing about it here but it was genius and a lot of fun, plus our team won! It was lovely to meet up with some old friends, Liz and Alex, do a quick trip to Harrods food hall and even squeeze in Chinese New Year fireworks in Trafalgar Square, before we flew off to Manila on Monday 30^th January.

We arrived in the capital of the Philippines pretty exhausted so found our hostel and had our first Dim Sum experience...mmmm. Predictably at 4am the next morning I was wide awake and for the next two days I was a jet lag zombie! We spent the first couple of days exploring Manila. It is a crazy and exciting city- the traffic and mental driving surpasses even Ghana, which is saying something. The roads are packed with Jeepneys which are shiny steel, open backed minibuses, decorated in bright colours, that people jump on and off into the moving traffic. The Philippines itself is a strange mix of Asian and American cultures, due to their history. They love anything American here and every street is dominated by fast food chains. They also emulate the American customer service tradition and refer to Jonny and I as ‘Mam-Sir’ all in one breath.

On our first day we ventured to an area called Intramurous. It is a small corner of Manila dating back to their Spanish colonial times. There are a few old Spanish buildings but the most enduring ‘leave-behind’ of the Spaniards has to be Catholicism. Large churches dominate every area in Manila and there are a couple of very impressive big churches in Intramurous. We learned about the national hero, Rizal, who was imprisoned and executed by the Spaniards as he was considered a revolutionary. As far as I can piece together, the Spaniards colonised the Philippines; the Americans then took it from them; the Filipinos and Americans had a war as they tried for their independence and lost; the Japanese took the Philippines during the Second World War and then America took it back; and finally America gave the Philippines its independence in 1946. After all that history we went to do what we do best: eat!

We have learned that Filipino food isn’t that great. Their main dish is roast pig on a spit with a barbeque sauce. It sounds nice but the meat is mostly fat and not that great. This is evident in Manila by there being relatively few Filipino restaurants compared to every other type of Asian food you can think of. Whilst in the capital we have gorged on Korean food, sushi, sashimi, Dim Sum and noodle soups each time for less than £5 each!

We have also been really lucky that I have a friend in Manila, Sarah who I met at the Home Office. She is now working in the embassy here and shares the most incredible apartment with her boyfriend Ash. We met up with them on Thursday and they took us for a few drinks in the local party/ladyboy area, P. Burgos Street. Sarah made the mistake of mentioning to Jonny that there was a nearby bar where you could watch midget boxing...the damage was done and within minutes we were making our way towards the bar called Ringside. It all went downhill when we found out you could referee a boxing match and before I could even try to protest Jonny was on his knees in the middle of the ring holding two boxing midgets apart! I say no more.

The next day we took a short internal flight to the island of Palawan. We stayed in the capital, Puerto Princessa which had a totally different, much more relaxed feeling than Manila. On the first day we went on a trip to an underground river. The lagoon around the cave we were to take a boat through was absolutely crystal clear. We were ushered into the boat and taken into the massive cave. We had to wear hardhats which, we were informed, were to protect our heads not from rocks but from bat poo and wee! Every other minute of a 45 minute tour the bats let rip and not one drop hit my hard hat but instead hit me on my legs, my arms- everywhere but the hat! The cave was pretty interesting; even if I couldn’t see Jesus’ face which the guide assured me was in the rock formations. That night we tried a restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet, called KaLui. We had the most amazing feast of seafood dishes for under £13- I love how cheap it is here for good food.

The next day we took the day trip island hopping. We took a boat to the first island which again, had crystal clear sea and a white sand beach. For some reason, Western tourists haven’t really discovered the Philippines so you don’t see many. It is surprising as many of the islands in the country’s archipelago are paradises and it is very cheap to exist here. The contrast between us and the Asian tourists was quite humourous. Jonny and I couldn’t wait to don our swimmies and start snorkelling in the clear sea. Of the Korean, Japanese and Filipino tourists, very few of them would swim and if they did they remained fully clothed in the water. Like in many Asian countries it is highly valued here to have light skin and so everyone does what they can to avoid the sun on their skin including using many whitening products.

That day was my first time snorkelling and I loved it! After a few panicky minutes of thinking I was drowning, I spent the rest of the day in the water looking at the amazing fish. We saw thousands of starfish, puffer fish, parrot fish, angel fish and barracuda amongst many others. The day after I could not sit down due to the sun burn around my bum which made the natural hot springs we visited less than fun for me but I dangled my feet in J!

Four days ago we flew back to Manila and have been staying with Sarah and Ash since then. They have an apartment on the 36^th floor of a posh block in the city; the view is incredible and it’s helped us out loads to stay here. On Wednesday we took a trip to Taal volcano, around 2 hours away. We took a boat across the fresh water lake at the bottom of the volcano. After a hot, half hour hike we reached the top of the active volcano. The view was incredible with steaming rock and a large lake in the volcano crater. You can actually see the water bubbling and boiling in some areas. In classic Filipino tourism style, you can hit a golf ball into the crater. We declined the offer and made our way back down and back to Manila.

The next day we went out to Corregidor Island which has been very successfully transformed into a WW2 tourist attraction. The island was used by the Americans as a strategic position to fight the Japanese following Pearl Harbour. There remains bombed out barracks and military buildings along with artillery and a network of tunnels under the island. It was interesting to learn about the surrender of the island and the whole of the Philippines to the Japanese and the following retaking of the island by the Americans. We came back to Manila to have some final drinks with Sarah and Ash before they flew off to New Zealand, very kindly leaving the apartment to us until we fly on.

Yesterday we searched out a non-dodgy spa and massage place. We had to shop around to find a spa which did not insist that you were totally naked throughout the experience! For around a tenner each we both had a 45 minute foot massage and then an hour long full body massage. I say massage, it was a bit more like being beaten up! These tiny Filipino ladies have some seriously strong hands- I winced a couple of times as the lady kneeled on my back and dug into my shoulders but by the end of it I felt pretty well worked!

Today we’re going off to a Manila market and spending a quiet day to save some money before we fly off to Kota Kinabalu, Borneo tomorrow. A new country, new adventures!