Dublin, Ireland

My first trip to the Philippines (and yes it's only a first, there will be more) was cut short by delays, and I was also unlucky enough to get caught in some bad weather, but overall, looking back, there was so much remaining to discover.

I plan to go back there and try to give it another shot over a longer period. The friends I made over there are also a reason enough to go back and revisit for a longer term.

Of all the South East Asian countries I've visited, I think Philippines ranks among the best simply because of the genuine people and the fact there are no language difficulty issues. I also didn't get people trying to constantly scam me or rip me off as they might in those other countries.

Some of the moments I had like paddling around Coron's hidden lagoons and islands with stunning-coloured water and scenery, and then discovering all the hidden beautiful spots around Siargao were only a taster and really deserve another go to fully appreciate what the country has to offer.

So expect a follow-up blog to Philippines soon which will be less rushed 

Cebu, Philippines

Cebu is nice.. as long as you are in the wealthy area around the Ayala mall! 

I met up with Lu today (from Siargao) who came over to join me and we had a lovely relaxing day around the mall (yes you read that right!).

Malls are an institution in Cebu! It's where a lot of people hang out to escape the heat of the day and there are literally 100s of shops and restaurants to choose from. There is also a decent cinema here too and Lu and I went to see Avatar: The Way of Water. A very special occasion for Lu as she hadn't been to the cinema in years, given she is, as she says herself, "just an island girl" 

Coron, Philippines

The night before I wandered around trying to decide what to do after completing the Ultimate Tour. I had seen a lot on the Ultimate Tour that I was keen to revisit and spend a longer time at, but I also wanted to do some self-touring at my own pace if possible.

I had a few options...

Since I had to get to El Nido eventually (in order to get down to Puerto Princesa for my flight back to Cebu, which I had already booked) I could take a liveaboard boat from Coron to El Nido over a span of two days, visiting islands as you go. Normally these would be booked out well in advance, but by chance there was one space available on a boat leaving the following morning on the 22nd Feb if I really wanted to. The thing is, this would have been another group thing and each stop you visit would have been time limited again. Wasn't really what I was looking for if I could avoid it.

The alternative would be to do some activitied in Coron and then take the fast ferry to El Nido which takes about 8 hours.

I left the travel agency letting them know I'd have a think and get back to them in an hour. And just as I stepped out, I popped into a dive shop right next door (what did I tell you, Coron is PACKED with tour shops!) just to enquire.

I hadn't dived in years (maybe since Malta 6 years earlier!), but the guys told me there was space available the next day for some wreck dives and that they would give me a refresher dive too. I was intrigued and decided there and then I'd go for it!

So, on the 22nd Feb I got to the dive shop and crazy o'clock (6am I think). I was still suffering a little bit with congestion in my ears from a flu I had in December but they gave me a tablet and told me to take it. I had no idea what it was but that little drug cleared up my ears no end!!! It could have been an Ecstasy tablet for all I knew, but I didn't want the damn cold stopping me from enjoying myself, and thankfully the gamble paid off!

On board were the usual suspects of Europeans who dive regularly (I always wonder where these people are living that they can do dives all the time... usually places like Germany or Switzerland), and an Italian guy that I actually became friends with for a few days following simply because I had my dive GoPro knockoff with me (always a great ice breaker that thing!).

The first dive was a refresher and it was in an amazing location with a thermocline. I managed to pass the refresher with flying colours (thanks to cramming like a mad thing watching dive lesson YouTube videos the night before!) and followed the instructor as he took me through the hot and cold thermoclines, something I'd never experienced, or even heard of before!

You could actually see where the water separated between hot and cold levels, they never mixed. You could be swimming in a hot level and stick up your arm into the cold layer and it would be freezing! Amazing experience.

Following this dive we were onto the wreck dives. Now these were scary!!! Not only were they 40m down (remember I had barely done a refresher dive 30 mins earlier!), but the instructor I was with actually led me THROUGH the huge sunken wrecks. Actually INSIDE the rusting galleys!! Normally you need to do a PADI course to learn how to wreck dive, but I guess those kinds of rules are out the proverbial  galley port window in the Phillipines!

I didn't have a choice but to follow my instructor as he took me deeper and deeper into the dark interior of the ship, but I persevered and got over the fear and, armed with my torch, I took loads of photos and videos and thoroughly enjoyed myself!

Visibility in the ships was a little murky, which enhanced the scary atmosphere. I also had the nagging reminder that 100s of sailors were killed when these ships were sunk by American torpedoes during World War 2, and their bodies were still down here.

There were 2 wreck dives in all, and later that night I met up with the Italian guy, Luca, for some beers in one of excellent bars that are in Coron (yes apart from hotels and tour shops, bars and restaurants take up the remaining space in Coron!!)

I also managed to arrange my activity for the next day, which was going to prove to be one of the highlights of the entire trip...

Coron, Philippines

I'm not normally a fan of taking group tours, preferring to do self-guided tours at my own pace, but given the limited time I had (thanks to the 2 days I lost due to bad weather) I decided on a tour called the "Ultimate tour".

It was the usual fare targetted at mainly backpackers, but it was a great taster of what there was to see in the lovely island locations off Coron. My thinking was that I would go back and revisit some of the best places later, either on another smaller tour, or perhaps I'd splash out and rent a whole banca (Philippino boat) to myself!

The group I was with were mainly 20-something Americans (seem to be loads of Californians visiting the Philippines for some reason), though there was also an Irish guy with his Brit gf on the boat and the funny thing was he thought I was a yank the whole time too! 

The tour packed a load in (hence the name "Ultimate") and even though the time at each site was very short I got a sense that the locations around Coron are stunning and this is where the true famed beauty of Palawan can be found. It's interesting that the main island has nothing of this beauty though (at least from what I saw in the main town).

We did snorkeling in pristine waters with thousands of acquarium fish, used kayaks to paddle around karst limestone islands jutting out of the sea, had delicious fresh BBQ fish on the beach with beers.

At each stop we were greeted with lots of traders on their small bancas coming up to the boat to sell a variety of snacks and drinks (snacks are a big thing in Philippines, it was hard to find these guys selling anything "healthy" unfortunately).

Despite the weather being amazing today it again started to rain. I made a decision after the tour to stay in Coron a few more days and sacrifice El Nido.

And it proved to be a great decision...

Coron, Philippines

Arrived Coron, with yet more rain. I did seem to be cursed weather-wise, though thankfully that was soon to change in the coming days.

As my only real experience of Philippines to this point had been Siargao island (which I assumed was a dusty backwater), on arriving in Coron I realised that Siargao was actually paradise in comparison!

The town reminded me of Kathmandu. Dusty and chaotic downtown with hundreds of tour shops to visit the nearby islands or to take scuba dives. The beach, if you can call it that, is more or less a port with mudflats. I had previously thought that you could use Coron as a base to take an SUP out to visit the surrounding islands but in reality the islands were so far away you really need to hire a boat or take a tour to visit the islands. Coron itself was purely a base from which to launch from and had little going for it apart from just somewhere to rest in between tours.

In Siargao you could visit surrounding islands via tours too, but at least Siargao itself was a lovely place to be based and had great beaches and you could do activities like SUP and Wingfoil directly on the mainland.

Given that I discovered this new reality, once I was settled into my hotel the priority was to organise some tours, and so followed the laboursome task of first finding out what tours there were (and more importantly where to go as I hadn't got a clue!), then shopping around  to compare prices and finally trying to bargain to get a good deal!

Moalboal, Philippines

The plan today was to get a bus down to Moalboal to see if I could snorkle with hundreds of thousands of sardines which is called the sardine run.

I naively assumed it was going to be a very easy run down in an AC bus with no issues but it actually became a full 3 hour trip and not only that but it's actually started raining heavily in the middle of it. Finding the bus was actually a challenge in itself since we need to get down to the Southern bus terminal once there trying to find which bus was required was a bit chaotic since it's not sign posted easily on how to get to moalboal by bus.

Leaving at 12 was probably not a good idea either since by the time we got there it left us with around 2 hours before we needed to circle back before it got dark and also potentially leaving us with no bus to get back.

Even with the small window I was determined to do the snorkel since it was supposed to be one of the top 10 things to do and also I had planned it for my original itinerary but had thought of going to bohol instead. In the end decided moalboal would just be easier due to the time required to get to Bohol. Of course this was all a result of the cancellations that Philippines Airlines had put on me when I was in siargao due to the bad weather so it was just really unfortunate how it can have ruined my itinerary.

Cebu, Philippines

My flight was due to leave at 2 am later on so it was mostly just a day to relax and get last minute bubble tea and any other souvenirs I could think of!

Istanbul, Turkey

2 a.m. flight from Cebu to Istanbul. The flight from Cebu to Manila was pretty empty so we hoped there were lots of free seats available for the following flight to Istanbul. It wasn't to be it was a packed solid flight and the Turkish Airlines planes are not great for legroom in economy so my knees were crushed up against the seat in front and I barely had any room for my feet because I had the ukulele with me as well underneath!!

Maybe dozed off for 30-minutes in the entire 13 hour flight... ah whatever. Lack of sleep is something I've become used to over the past three weeks!!

I managed to get a second hotel stay in Istanbul to get another 24-hour layover! This time though I was determined to get at least a few hours in Istanbul itself to make the most of the visit. I also wanted to use my good Sony camera which I hadn't yet actually had a chance to use on the whole trip lol! I picked this bad boy up before the trip because I seemed at be needing a good camera but I just ended up using my phone camera and drone etc!

By the time I checked into the hotel and was ready to go into Istanbul it was probably around 2pm but I hadn't factored in the Istanbul traffic so the taxi drive into the city centre was approximately 30 to 40 minutes due to traffic. That left around 3 hours before I then had to get a taxi back to the hotel to have dinner by 8 p.m.. it was going to be a quick visit either way.

Not knowing anything about Istanbul I also needed to find somewhere central to start so the receptionist suggested a place called Taksim. Within 15 minutes I was on the road to Taksim but we encountered some really heavy traffic so I spotted a huge series of mosques straight ahead and I just asked the taxi driver just drop me off there instead which coincidentally was beside the Haga Sofia which is the most famous mosque converted from a church. It was actually a lot better as a location to start rather than Taksim which is really just a shopping area.

I wandered around for a bit I was still in my summer Gear from the Philippines and the temperature in Istanbul was down to around 6 degrees centigrade. I had brought my jacket so I was just wandering around in my shorts with a big padded jacket taking photos with the camera. Even though it was just a short time I got a good sense of the whole east meets west vibe that is famous in Istanbul. The streets themselves look like something you might find in a small village in Germany but then in the background you hear prayer call from the mosques so it's a complete contrast. Everyone is really friendly too.

I had been warned in the lobby of the hotel to make sure that the taxi drivers didn't rip me off so always use the metre (similar to Cebu then) but then I forgot to consider that I might get ripped off in restaurants too! I popped into the first restaurant, Sultan Pub, that I saw opposite the Hagga Sofia without first checking for reviews. Rookie mistake!! I would later read the reviews saying that it was way over priced and some food wasn't as good as expected, but by the time I was reading the reviews I already ordered so was too late.

I was still figuring out the conversion rates for Turkish lira from Euro and I still had the Philippines exchange rate in my head at the time so when I saw the prices I was dividing by 50 when I should have been dividing by 20. As a result when I had ordered the kebab and chips and a beer and a Turkish coffee, thinking I had gotten a good deal, the total bill came out as €29 which is a huge amount considering the same food would probably cost around €11 in Dublin! Additionally if I had gone to any other restaurant on that street I probably would have got the same food for around €6!! I was actually wondering why the restaurant was completely empty I thought it was just a quiet time of the day but then when I passed by other restaurants later they were all packed lol! In my defence I hadn't slept so I was making bad decisions. While the kebab itself was pretty small, it wasn't greasy and the coffee was actually a good experience so wasn't a complete loss and I can finally say I had a real Turkish coffee!! Still though it's pretty incredible that they just overcharge based on their location and are purely trying to rip tourists off. Anyway word to the wise: avoid that restaurant!

Before heading back to the hotel I obviously had to buy a box of baklava sweets. I'll probably munch them in the morning after breakfast while I'm packing up for my final trip back to Dublin!

Coron, Philippines

A perfect day where I got my own boat and I had my own stand-up paddle board and I was just able to go wherever I wanted to go and spend as long as I wanted at each place.

The night before I managed to find a guy renting paddle boards, and then organised my own banca boat with a guide and a captain for a pretty reasonable price (I think it was something like €60-€80 for the whole day, with lunch included!)

Definitely one of the best days because there were some places that were so quiet with not a single person in sight where I was able to paddle and had a lot of Zen moments.

I'll let the pictures do the talking...

El Nido, Philippines

Started the day by taking a very early morning ferry from Coron to El Nido. It's actually a really nice route because you can sit out on the deck and enjoy the sun even though it is quite hot and it's also very exposed to UV rays so I got a little red all right! The islands and scenery that you pass are pretty outstanding though so it's definitely worth it.

Alas I only had one day in El Nido due to all the messing with my itinerary so I had to make the most of it. The only thing you can really do in El Nido apart from taking trips to the islands is visiting the various beaches which are supposedly the best in the Philippines. My diving friend Luca recommended I get a motorbike and then try to take in as many beaches as I could in the 9 hours I had before it got dark and I had to go to bed early. So I checked into the first hotel I saw got a decent price of $1,500 peso for a tiny room I dropped my bags and then got a motorbike all within around 30 minutes of arriving!

I didn't realize my phone battery had only 10% remaining it due to me using it so much on the ferry over so once I reach the first Beach Nacpan which is stunning by the way I had 1% battery left and then my phone died. Alas this meant that I wasn't going to be able to take many photos because the beach was actually pretty outstanding and I spent hours here wave surfing. A nice way to end a series of very exhausting early mornings!!

One interesting thing I encountered was a huge black snake on the road as I was making my way to the beaches. Not only that, but the damn thing made a jump for me and tried to bite my leg as I passed! I almost panicked and the bike wobbled a bit, but thankfully the panic was over quickly.

That could have been very messy indeed 

I grabbed a meal of fresh calamari squid and a banana shake on the beach and then made my way to another Beach called Duli.  This speech was also scenic but it wasn't quite as nice and it even had rocks in under the waves it's more of a hidden away Beach for Surfers and it also had some very dangerously slippy steep hills which were pretty precarious on the scooter.

I did notice that there was a lot more plastic and rubbish floating in the sea compared to somewhere like Coron or siargao, but I guess that's just inevitable in places with more tourists and there are definitely more tourists in El Nido than anywhere else I've been.

Puerto Princesa, Philippines

Mainly just a transport day today to get from El Nido to Puerto Princesa. I had pre-booked a large bus for around 14 euros the day before while I was on the ferry from coron to El Nido. Everyone normally does this trip in a cramped van but I was determined to find an alternative method of getting to Puerto Princesa that wouldn't involve me experiencing bouts of claustrophobia!!

The bus was huge and relatively empty so I don't understand why more people don't know about it because all the Vans were packed solid with other Travelers and they were looking at my bus with envious eyes.

As per usual on my trip something had to go wrong so halfway through the journey there was a car crash on the road that the smaller Vans had no problems getting around but our large bus was delayed for around an hour until the large truck was moved.

The trip down from El Nido to Puerto Princesa wasn't particularly interesting there was just a lot of green trees but nothing really of note to see.

Arriving at the bus terminal in Puerto Princesa I had to get transport to the airport so I was looking to share a ride with two or three other people so that we could split the cost but the taxi drivers weren't having it. They didn't want us diluting the price so they said no only two people maximum even though there was clearly space for four in one Van. Eventually managed to negotiate one van down to 150 peso per person for two of us which is are just slightly under three Euro!! Bargain! Of course I got the obligatory Peter Pan when I told them my name was Peter seems to be a very common thing here and it's happened everywhere in the Philippines!

I'm waiting now to board my flight to Cebu and then that's coming up to the end of my trip. Overall I lost a week due to cancellations and weather related issues but I made the most of the time I had and really enjoyed the latter part of my trip.

This will also be my first time in Cebu proper as I've only actually been to the airport so far.

Siargao, Philippines

Finally getting a chance to update the blog. I'll do my best as the internet connection here is really dire plus it's affected by the weather.

For the past week I've been on the island of Siargao on the East of Philippines. My main reason for being here was to take some wingfoiling lessons at the start of my holiday. According to lonely planet the best time to visit the Philippines is February but little did I know that February is actually the tail end of the rain season in Siargao. My reason for choosing Siargao for wingfoiling lessons was that the school had a nice approach using a calm lagoon rather than the choppy waters that I experienced when I did a lesson in Tarifa. My lesson in Tarifa just ended up with me not being able to even get on the board in the first place due to the choppy waves.

So the plan was to have a nice calm warm lesson environment.

Whoa boy was I in for a shock!

I'll back up a bit. I flew from Istanbul to Cebu Philippines and then after 6 hours I was redirected to Siargao. Due to jet lag I had ended up arriving there pretty much with 30 hours of no or little sleep due to all the mess ups on the Turkish airline side. Still though I decided to power through so even when I arrived at 9:00 a.m. I decided to stay awake until midnight that night so it was probably 3 days I had with no sleep LOL!!

Before leaving Cebu airport I had to take out as much as I could from an ATM although it was a challenge to find an ATM that was willing to accept my debit card and I had a panic attack when I thought that I wasn't gonna be able to take any money out! I had read that there were hardly any ATMs on Siargao but then after arriving there I discovered that there are hundreds! Doh! Still though it was nice to have the security of having cash ready to go.

I checked into a really nice resort in Siargao to help me get over the jet lag and also to mark the beginning of my holidays.  It was called Bravo Resort and was run by Spanish owners though the staff and managers there were actually just local Filipinos who were lovely and polite all the time which is something I found amongst all the Filipinos. In reality I only actually met Filipinos once I got off the plane in Siargao and was greeted with a balmy 28c temperature air.

Of course the first thing I noticed was rain but I assumed that was just temporary and bad luck on my part and it would actually resolve and the sun would come out for the next week that I was going to be there. Nor did I pay any attention to the driver who was telling me about typhoon Odette that destroyed the island 13 months earlier and actually ripped down about 60% of the islands trees not to mention countless lives lost. Little did I know the time but this was actually quite significant since it was becoming the norm on the island due to global warming.

But over the following few days the rain continued and more crucially there was hardly any wind which is obviously one of the requirements for wingfoiling lessons to take place!

I'd already committed to staying for 5 days so there was no getting out of that and deciding to go elsewhere so I had to learn to make the most of it and I actually discovered there was a lot to see and do than i had planned.

The first port of call for a visitor to the island is to rent a scooter so that you can get around. The rental rate is outrageously cheap at 6 euros per day not to mention you could fill a tank with 2 euro of petrol!

Riding around the island is an experience in itself as you explore remote hidden lagoons and beautiful beaches passing through mountainous green scenery with rice paddy fields, and making certain you don't collide with one of the hundreds of wild dogs that run around the roads with gleeful abandon. I've never seen happier dogs than the ones that are here!!

Went to an amazing waterfall too!

Of course it was a bit of a shock when I discovered so many other scooters ride at night without lights which is suicidal!

The people here are also really cool and it was a shock to me how different they are to other people in South East Asia. They have the same sort of subtle humour that we have in Ireland and places like that and they get the jokes and it's all very familiar. Still though they are fantastically generous and very funny while also being very courteous and when I did something stupid like leaving the key in the bike overnight it was waiting for me untouched the following morning in the main car park!!! Have been Ireland the bike would have been nicked!!! I also garnered local friends who would join me for a few meals whereas otherwise I would have been sitting on my own!

In the end I managed to get one wing foiling lesson in when the wind finally returned, the problem being that the wind was actually far stronger than normal and it ended up being just as hard as it was in Tarifa!! DOH!

Still though it wasn't a complete waste and I did learn a lot which I can continue teaching myself back home.

The real Adventure on the island was everything else that took place when I was traveling around and discovering hidden waterfalls and trying to avoid slipping off the bike in extreme tropical rainstorms.

By the 18th of February I was supposed to be flying to Palawan in the west of Philippines and I was looking forward to a complete change because the weather over there is sunny and bright. But alas the weather stepped in and the flights were canceled even though I had gotten up at an outrageous 4:00 a.m. hour to grab the morning flight. Due to packing I had gone to sleep around 2:00 a.m. so really only had 2 hours of sleep!!!

I managed to get the flights to Palawan moved 2 Days Later but that gives me 2 days now to just relax as I'd done pretty much everything I had wanted to do here. The rain still persists though and I am looking forward to finally getting a proper suntan although I have gotten burnt a few times from the few minutes of no rain due to the high UV here!!!

Given that I've now lost 2 days more from the itinerary I'm going to have to limit what I can do in Palawan and also I've had to exclude a few things that I really had wanted to do originally. With the Turkish Airlines cancellations and the cancellations in Philippines flights I've actually probably lost around a week out of the three-week holiday! Ouch but these delays are ironically caused by global weather changes so this could be the new normal with our new world. Food for thought.

Istanbul, Turkey

My flight from Dublin was originally supposed to leave on February the 9th at 11am. I was all set to get up on February the 9th at 4 AM to make the flight. Around 6 PM the day before  I got an email from Turkish airlines saying that my flight was cancelled due to bad weather!! Talk about last minute.com!!

Poor Turkey was having a tough time given that they just had a terrible earthquake on the east side of the country and having blizzards on the west side where Istanbul is situated. 

What followed were many hours of contacting Turkish airline support to try to get my flights rearranged. Eventually I managed to get the flights changed to leave on February 10th but with a 30 hour layover in Istanbul! Ouch! This was a change from my original flight with a TWO hour layover. 

On the upside I was still going to be able to make my flight to Siargo to do my wing foiling lessons, just that I'd literally have 6 hours to rest from landing in Cebu to taking the onward flight to Siargo. This was after having a 13 hour flight from Istanbul!

The downside being that I was going to lose 3 days of the start of my holiday and also I was going to lose the 3 hotel bookings I had already made for Cebu. Granted this time was really just to aid in getting over jetlag before flying to Siargo, but still it would have been nice to see a bit of Cebu City as it has a lot of colonial history.

Cue lots more panic to get my hotel bookings changed to a different date even though they were non-refundable bookings I didn't hold out for much hope. I have to admit the guys at trip.com did an outstanding job contacting the hotel on my behalf and we eventually managed to rearrange the three hotel bookings to the end of February so not all was lost and I didn't have to worry about contacting my travel insurance so a silver lining for every cloud.

Predictably it wasn't going to be that easy and it turned out that Turkish Airlines actually deleted all my pre-booked aisle seats which I had paid €80 for so several more hours on the phone to try to get those back. Lots of fun on my first couple of days preparing for the trip!

Every negative seems to have a positive on this trip and I discovered that I would be eligible to stay in a hotel for the 30 hour layover so that was pretty good.

Though the flight from Dublin to Istanbul was great and the food was very good when I arrived there was around 6 hours of trying to get through customs and also trying to find where my bag was and then also trying to find where I had to go to arrange the hotel! I eventually checked into the hotel at 2am Turkish time!

Jaysis!

So here I am in a 5-star Hilton hotel overlooking a fairly remote area of Istanbul far from the city centre. The free breakfast, lunch and dinner and transport to/fro the airport do make it a nice experience though. I actually think I overate and overcaffeinated myself during breakfast 

The irony of all of this is that I would have never made the original flight because I was literally packing until the last minute even though I was given an extra 2 days after the cancellation so I think it must have been fate!

Anyway, I think it's best that I just relax around the hotel today in anticipation of the 13 hour flight and then I have a 24 hour layover in Istanbul on the return leg so I'll do a tour of Istanbul then instead.

There is some ninja suitcase packing that I need to sort out too because I had to just throw everything into the bag once the taxi arrived outside the door in Dublin 

Dublin, Ireland

Getting Globenotes back working bit by bit.

The map is sort of broken until I get a chance to sort it later, so for now it will just always show Philippines in general

Image upload seems to be back working!

Let's see if I can embed an image...

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It works!!!

Labuan bajo, Indonesia

Timo and I rented motorbikes for the day and decided to do a little exploring among the forested winding roads of labuan Bajo.

We decided to select a location so picked a waterfall as our target destination. The trip there even though it was 20 kilometres away ended up taking about two hours as Flores is Notorious for having some bad side roads! And I mean this was pothole heaven.

The advantage of this though was that we're able to get to some really remote locations that were hardly touristed.

We passed through many local villages where the people were genuinely happy to see us. School kids word try to give us five as we drove by which must have been painful for them!!

When we finally got to a village near our destination with no idea where to go so an enterprise in local took it upon himself to be our guide to the Waterfall. I'm glad we decided to go then as the Trek then went through lots of dense jungle.

I'm finally reaching our destination we are presented with one of the most amazing waterfalls I've ever seen! It was tall girls so powerful and Crystal Clear. Considering the hot weather it was impossible not to jump in! Discovered it was very deep to maybe about 30 metres.

When we got back to labuan Bajo we decided to book a dive trip for the next day with the company that timo had used before: Blue Marlin.

Labuan bajo, Indonesia

Due to the delays in getting to my planned locations I had to go directly to Flores which completely change my itinerary so from here on out i was just going to have to make it up on the fly.

The flight went first to Bali and then we were put on a tiny propeller plane to labuan Bajo. Real Indiana Jones stuff here. Everyone on board were backpackers as the destination is more akin to less comfortable travel and a bit Off the Beaten Track. Flores is an island that has only recently been discovered as a viable tourist destination since a new airport opened up in Labuan Bajo . Normally getting here involves a major trek over a few days on a boat.

On arrival I chose the hotel up near an area called sunset point. It turned out to be an excellent location as it had a bar overlooking the bay with possibly the best sunsets I've seen in years. There was also a downside as the bar stayed open quite late and the Rasta owners tended to blast out the tunes until 2 in the morning!

I found a place that was 250 rupees which is around €14. When you go with this sort of budget you get some really nice single room accommodation so this is this budget I chose to use henceforth. Got a huge room overlooking the bay.

 my next door neighbour was a German guy called timo. We got chatting and it turned out he was travelling solo and looking to do similar activities to myself including diving and visiting Komodo National Park which are the two main draws for Labuan Bajo.

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Kraton tour in the morning and afternoon. This is an area still occupied by the ruling Sultan of Yogyakarta (who is separate to the ruling elite of Indonesia itself it has to be noted). Until the Dutch brought everyone together to be governed from Jakarta, most of Indonesia was made up on small Sultanates. Most of them were defeated by the Dutch, except for the sultan of Yogyakarta who managed to secure himself in a walled off city-within-a-city called the Kraton, which is essentially a palace, and held off the Dutch invaders. Eventually Yogyakarta was given a special status in Java and allowed to rule itself up to the present day.

The Kraton is a great place to start a cultural tour of Indonesia as you get a sample of all things Indonesian such as puppet-theatre (Wayang) and Gamelan musical performances with their Tibet-esque cymbals sound and eerie singing.

There were several museums in the palace which tended to focus on adoration of the Sultan and his family and grew tiresome eventually, but there were other nearb sights around the Kraton that were fascinating to visit such as Taman Sari palace with it's fascinating Sumur Gumuling underground cave staircase system.

One thing I found exhausting though were the crowds. It was nigh-on impossible to take a photo without someone standing in your way taking a selfie. Oh God selfies, they will be the death of photography (unless of course the selfie taker has managed to off themselves in the first place by taking ever more dangerous steps to take the "ultimate selfie", we can but pray).

Went to the backpacker area in the evening and rented a motorbike for a few days! Pretty much essential to get around and the only way to stop the incessant hollers from the rickshaw drivers demanding "Hey boss, where you go?!?"

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Arose from my steel-bench bed (pretty well rested) and took the quick morning flight to Jakarta @ 7.40 am. On arrival, I got a taste of what the traffic was like when I had to transfer between terminals. They tried to cram as many people as possible on to a tiny wagon and this was the official airport transport! Made me wonder what it would be like in the city if this was how "regulated traffic" was handled...

Thankfully my Jakarta experience was cut short as I had another transfer flight to my main destination Yogyakarta.

This was the start of my cultural tour of Indonesia as Yogyakarta is regarded as the best place to get the genuine Java cultural experience and history not to mention the obligatory tours!

I bought a Taksi ticket at the airport for what might well have been a rip-off price of 80,000 INR. I had been pre-warned by my co-worker, Tommy (who had taken an identical trip to Malaysia/Indonesia only a few months earlier!), about how they try to rip you off whenever possible in Indonesia so I was caught a little unawares here as I really had no idea what price I should have paid.

As per usual, I selected a random hotel based on TripAdvisor and my elected price-range of €12 a day. For €12 you can get a full double-room with ensuite bathroom and your own front-porch, and breakfast! And this is exactly what I got in a nice hip area of Yogyakarta. They even had a full pool which was a welcome addition.

I spent this evening just getting general bearings on my location, wandering around getting a sense of the place. Traffic chaose is my first impression as motorbikes rule the road. Sure they even crowded in my poor taxi driver as we headed from the airport. "Gotta get me one of those" was my first thought.

Spent the afternoon lazing in the warm waters of the pool listening to prayer call while watching the sunset turn the sky into a striking vermillion.

Nusa Lembognan, Indonesia

Rain storm last night woke me up so the weather has turned a bit, and indeed its a cloudy morning, so this  provides the perfect time to catch up on some blogging.  i found it it quite hard to keep up with the blogging while doing a lot of activities, even using the dictation software on the phone.but that  depends on having a good internet connection  which hasn't always been the case.

 so first thing today was to get some breakfast and wash the laundry.  i happened upon a resort just around the corner from my cheap bungalow the offered breakfast for sale expensive price of 60000 (a whopping €4),  but they also have an amazing infinity pool looking out over the ocean toward Bali  and they said i can use it after buying breakfast. Score!

 you find this quite often in indonesia that you can use the facilities of expensive resorts if you just buy some food in the restaurant.

I'm off now to get my first Bali massage. I assumed I would have had had loads of these by now but time has been against me the whole trip :/

Maumere, Indonesia

Tbd

Nusa Lembognan, Indonesia

Got up early from my hotel at Sanur greeted to a beautiful sunrise from the balcony of my hotel I'm headed down to the port which was right beside the hotel to pick up a ticket to get to the islands. I found the ticket agents that was selling the tickets about 50 rupiah than everyone else at 350 rupiah return. Seems reasonable enough to me although after paying they took me to a central ticketing office and that's where the ticket was actually issued. I'm not certain but I think I could have gone to the ticketing office directly and perhaps got the ticket a bit cheaper. Live and learn!

The speedboat wasn't actually the fastest boat available but it was packed full of tourists and locals alike. We actually had to wade out to the boat a 

The Backpackers on board the boat seemed a little less experienced than the ones I met in Flores. A lots of young early twenties millennials who are mainly just touring Bali. Thankfully though the island I was heading to wasn't really a party Islands and it would prove to be a pretty good base to have a bit of relaxation after all the trekking  and early mornings.

I chose Nusa Lembognan over (arguably more interesting but difficult to get around) Nusa Penida since I was really just looking for somewhere with a beach. Penida has far less tourists but also has a less developed infrastructure. This would make a great if you were looking for a bit more Adventure though as it has some fantastic hidden waterfalls and hidden beaches which can be a bit difficult to get to.

On arrival on the sandy beaches of Nusa L, I was greeted by the usual gang of touts offering to take you to your hotel on motor bike or some other transport. I didn't have a clear idea of where I wanted to go but I assume there were going to be loads of beach Huts to choose from. I quickly found this wasn't to be the case and most of the beach areas have fairly built up restaurants with adjoining accomodation primarily catering to the hundreds of Chinese tourists that seem to throng here!

So I lugged my backpack around the dusty back alleys trying to find somewhere nice. Thankfully Nusa L is pretty small so it didn't take long before I managed to find a nice spot that was relatively cheap near the sunset point of the island at my usual benchmark around 230 rp a night (about €14). There seem to be a majority of upmarket places to stay where the minimum price was 400 a night . Luckily I managed to find a place with a nice big salad bad and outdoor shower toilet which is quite unusual. Certainly one way to avoid stinking up the place! ;)

 the next thing to do is to find a motorbike because it's really the only way to get around the island. I found one guy that said 70 rupiah per day. Which is ok until he told me that the day ended at 6 p.m. the current time was 2 p.m. so I kept looking. Finally found a guy who said 70 rupiah until the next morning which is perfectly fine plus a full tank of petrol which was a novelty for me;

I assumed also that there were going to be a few bars and general areas where you could meet other Backpackers but it seems the island is mainly caters to couples and the Gilis would be a more suitable place for that sort of arrangement as the place is dead quiet at night! I think one day every week there's a place that plays music. Big difference from the non stop music of Labuan Bajo anyway!

So

Find a great sushi place that night called Oishii which was 3 mins ride from my bungalow. Had some of the best tuna Sashimi I've had since Japan for only around 6 Euro for a full platter! The staff were nice but the service probably depends on who's working that night as I had impeccable service the first night but then the second night my meal didn't come for one hour 15 minutes so I'll be skipping it on my last day which is unfortunate.

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Nusa Lembognan, Indonesia

Just when I thought that my early mornings were thing of the past I had yet another early rise at 7 this morning in order to get on a snorkeling trip to see local coral and manta ray colony at Manta Point !

 my ears were still blocked from the scuba diving but I was able to snorkel as we don't go deep enough to cause any problems.

The visibility wasn't great again but at least this time I got to see around 6 manta rays although they were at the bottom of the ocean around 12 meters below me because we are surrounded by millions of struggling Chinese snorkelers that were barely able to swim!

The manta rays weren't as big as the one I saw at Labuan Bajo but the coral that we got to see as other sites such as Crystal Bay was some of the best that I've seen on the entire trip. As part of the deal with the snorkel company I also managed to get a stand up paddle board rental for one hour but as I left the boat from the snorkel trip I stub my toe pretty badly so much so that I thought I broke it.

So this along with my sore ear made me decide to go to the hospital just to make sure everything was okay. Took a bit of a trek to find the hospital it's near the mangrove forest, but when I arrived hardly anyone spoke English it seemed a very makeshift operation. Nevertheless I persevered and they eventually found a doctor with some broken English explain that my toe was most likely sprained and then he tried to flush out the liquid in my ear but we eventually decided it was water in the ear canal (I had to help him a bit with the diagnosis!) which is pretty unretrievable

I assume this is only going to be around 250 Rupiah which is around 14 Euro, for 5 minutes work. But you can never discount the skills of the medical Department accounting team and I was presented with a bill for 500 Rupiah. Nice that's approximately the cost of renting a room for two nights!

 I paid up but I made sure to get a note for the insurance company as I might be able to claim it back we'll see how that goes. They still haven't responded to my email I sent about the delayed flight over from Dublin at the start :(

I had a weird side effect after the hospital treatment . I went to have lunch at the nearby restaurants on the music playing sounded Out Of Tune it was really weird . It must have been something to do with the water they forced into my ear. Ironically after I got back to the hotel I tried out the scuba equalizing method where you pinch your nostrils and force water out. This seem to actually clear the air better than anything they did in the hospital. D'oh!

After this I was due for some relaxation so just headed to Sunset Beach which is beside dream Beach. It's a little bit more deserted and certainly not swimmable as there is nothing but sharp volcanic rock under the water but at least the sound was white and the sun was out so I almost fell asleep getting burnt. Perfick.

A pretty tame evening of sushi and watching sunsets which is what I'm after at this stage in the holiday.

Plan tomorrow is to use my sup credit once my toe has eased up a bit!

Malacca, Malaysia

I want to check out the town of Malaca which is south of Kuala Lumpur because the history of the place. It was once the center of trade in the whole Malay peninsula including Indonesia and it had been conquered by several different people including the Indians the Dutch the Portuguese and the English.

You can see lots of Old Dutch architecture here related to the East India Company as well as Portuguese churches and all in quite a compact walkable area. I was thankful I had picked up a SIM card in Malaysia airport on arrival as it proved to be very handy to use TripAdvisor to decide on where to go in the limited time that I had. The SIM card was 1 gigabytes of data for 3 Days on cost around 5 euro in total including the SIM so it was a great deal.

The only problem was I didn't realize how far 600 meters was and this proved to be a problem when I decided to walk to the mosque which is on an island a well away from the main Center but it sounded like it was an interesting thing to take in. The thing is I had to catch a flight to Jakarta later this evening and I wanted time to explore Malica before I have to leave. I thought to myself it's only six hundred meter so should be quite easy to get to and I decided to go for it.

At one thing I found it at Malaysia and this is true for Kuala Lumpur and Malica is that cars take the priority under a hardly any pedestrian pavement anywhere so when I decide to head to the mosque it was actually during rush hour and also just went all the schools were closing. So I have to walk among all the cars and kids and I thought I'm almost there. Still no sight of the mosque so I decide to still keep going on a little bit further. After what must have been 1 hour I finally reached the mosque and everyone in the area is very surprised that I actually walked all the way because it's on an island that you have to go across the causeway. Other come this Friday sided to actually stick around the mall for a little bit and take a photo one of the things I have to do which was quite fun was put on a thobe. The mosque itself is very pretty because it's right on the coast line so it was definitely worth a visit although the problem came later when I have to get back to leave the hotel in time to catch my flight.

Prior to heading back though, I made sure to sample some of the local Chinese specialities including rice balls with a full roast chicken! So delicious I had to order a 2nd portion!

I hadn't accounted for the time to get the taxi from the hotel to the bus so when I tried to get the bus from Malacca back to KL to catch my flight I actually missed the bus. Doh!

Then I also haven't accounted for the traffic delay getting back to KL. By the time I arrived at KL train station and onward on to KL Airport I had long missed my flight to Jakarta that was leaving that evening.

Nothing for it I had to book another flight to Jakarta on the next flight was leaving in the morning. This meant I had to sleep in the airport. Two good things came out of this though the flight to Jakarta only cost 30 Euros ( which is probably what I would have spent on a hotel in Jakarta including taxi etc), and Kuala Lumpur Airport is quite good for sleeping in. I even managed to get a free shower by going to the fourth floor airport offices and found free shower facilities in the staff toilets there. I was directed to these by an Etihad staff member when I tried to claim something back for the missed flight (fat chance!). I doubt many people know about this so feel free to spread the word!

So rather than heading to Jakarta this evening I was going to have to take a flight in the morning to catch my lunchtime flight on to Yogyakarta. Plus I didn't have to deal with Jakarta traffic so not all bad.

I wrapped myself up in a fleece and jacket put on earplugs and eye mask and found a bench to sleep on. Peter out.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Because I lost the first day due to Etihad's delayed departure from Dublin I was going to be very rushed in seeing the sights around Kuala Lumpur. I literally had only half a day today before I was heading off to my next destination in Malaysia. Yesterday was really required to get the power Bank and a few items for my cameras which I would need going forward so I didn't really have much time on that day to do any sightseeing. Not to mention the bad weather didn't help.

Thankfully Kuala Lumpur doesn't have too much in the way of tourist sites so the main thing I want to see were the world-famous Petronas Towers and the Batu Caves if I had time. Getting around Kuala Lumpur is really quite cheap so I was able to get over to the Petronas Towers fairly quickly for only about 1 euro. As luck would have it the heavens opened and there was a flash flood just as I arrived at the base of the Petronas Towers. The most of my time there was spent huddled under the entrance-way trying to steer clear of the rainstorm.

I didn't really want to bother going up the lift to the top because the view wouldn't have been good with the cloud and mist anyway but I wanted to get a good look at the Towers from the bottom as they are pretty impressive.

I had to quickly check out of my AirBnB apartment before I made the hasty rush to the Batu Caves so I have to rush around quickly to get back and then pack up and then onwards to find somewhere to drop my bags but thankfully I was able to do this with the restaurant on the ground floor. The must got a lot of people thrown out of the apartments like this because they didn't seem surprised when I asked them could I leave my bags with them (for a fee of course).

The plan had been to head to Malacca around midday but because I was delayed from the first day I'd have to do that this evening instead. I headed to the Batu Caves which again was on the train line and again it was really cheap to get to.

One of the things I didn't know about Kuala Lumpur itself is that it seems to be overgrown with rainforest plants right smack in the middle of the city we're just quite pretty it looks like if it wasn't tended to the forest and jungle would end up taking over pretty quickly. This is also evident when you get to the Batu Caves how quickly you leave the city and enter frontier-land proper.

Let me just say the Batu Caves are one of the most amazing things I've seen and I'm really glad that I actually went to see them. The outside of the caves is impressive size in itself with the stairway leading up to the cave entrance but the main attraction is the cave at the top of stairs which is absolutely huge and cavernous. Statues dedicated to Hinduism dot the area and also the interior of the cave. The interior of the cave must be at least 20 stories high. Light jutting in from the top holes of the cave make for great photographic shots, not to mention the cheeky resident monkeys that have become a firm favourite while also managing to steal any food that you might happen to have in your hand.

I ended up staying here around 3 hours because it was just so cool.

The next destination was Malacca so I have to run back and collect my luggage and then quickly gets the bus. I made it just in time to catch the last bus of the day at 9pm!

On arrival at Malacca at 11.20pm, I booked into a "Hotel Arissa" which had a double room for €22. The transvestite (!) at reception was over the moon to receive a guest at this hour as there didn't seem to be any other guests staying! I was only going to get a few hours kip anyway before having to check out in the morning before exploring Malacca!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

My first day in KL was going to be a pretty relaxed affair as I still had to get over jet lag. I was on a mission to get one of the essential items I would need for the rest of the trip which was a power bank battery. Malaysia is pretty much an electronics paradise so it didn't take me long to find the electronics center, Plaza Low Yat, and I got there are using the superb rail system in the city which is very easy to use. It was funny that the mall I went to had 10 floors as every shop sold practically the same items. These were either mobile phones/cameras or mobile phone/camera accessories: USB cables, power bank batteries and the like. So I was in luck but it also meant I'd have to find the best bargain and go around every floor. Starting at the ground floor entrance prices were similar to what you get in Europe. As you progressed up each floor, the prices gradually got cheaper as the foot traffic lowered. Eventually I found a place on the very top floor that was willing to haggle. On the ground floor they were charging pretty much double what they're charging on the top floor, but I settled on a 21,000 mAh battery for €17 euro. Bargain! Also got an extra battery for my SLR at a decent price.

This power bank battery was primarily for my mobile phone because I was going to be using this to get around the entire trip and it would prove to be very useful in the coming days!

After this I went back to the apartment and took advantage of that infinity pool with a view of the Petronas Towers. The weather wasn't great but it did mean that there was a huge lightning storm which made the visuals very cool. Most of the people in the pool were other visitors that were renting apartments using Airbnb so I reckon that half the apartments in the block we're actually just there for Airbnb customers.

I do have to mention the food. It was pretty outstanding because Malaysia is essentially a mixture of Indians Chinese and Malay. You can see the three distinct peoples that make up Malaysia as you're walking around town and on the train lines not to mention they also have their own distinct areas around town like Chinatown and the Indian Town but the main impact is on the food where they do tend to mix all the cultures into a smorgasbord of feasting opportunities!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

By the time I finally arrived in KL it was midnight as opposed to midday this made it lots of fun trying to get to the apartment that I had rented on Air B&B as I have to get the host to wait up until 2 in the morning to let me in.

Thankfully the apartment that I rented was in an amazing building 38 stories high and had an infinity pool on the roof with a view of the two towers. I didn't get a chance to see it when I first arrived because it was too late but I did manage to get food down in the restaurant attached to the apartment block just before they closed at 2 a.m.

First thing I did, of course, was to purchase a local SIM card at the airport when I arrived, a new thing for me to do. Having a data connection at all times proved to be an essential requirement in this trip moreso than any other I took before and certainly saved a LOT of headaches going forward.

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

The flight from Dublin was three hours delayed so this meant that I miss my connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur and have to end up staying overnight in Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately this meant that I missed the first day in Kuala Lumpur and it sort of messed up the rest of my first few days on the trip

Dublin, Ireland

This is my first trip to Malaysia and Indonesia. It is my first trip back to Southeast Asia in about 15 years so there's a lot of planning involved. I'm going to see if I can write the entire blog just using voice recognition on my phone I'm also going to have a data connection wherever I go so I'll always be connected to the Internet and I will always have my map with me using GPS.

All I can say is it's probably going to be a lot easier to navigate Southeast Asia this time around rather than the way it was before with several Lonely Planet books in tow. Some Might Say that makes the whole journey a lot less interesting but I think it actually makes it easier to get a harder to reach areas that you might have ignored originally

Miyakojima, Japan

Managed to squeeze in some diving today... Going to see some crazy Japanese rock convention on the beach this eve with Junko. Will write up blog properly when I get back to Ireland :)

Miyakojima, Japan

I wasnt going to come to Miyako on account of the bad weather forecasts but I'm damned glad I did. See photos...