Puerto Princessa, Philippines

Palawan is a big island but only has two main roads; one going north and one going south - I like this simplicity! The capital, Puerto, is in the middle and is a fairly big city, but nothing on the scale of Manila. I stayed in a place called the Badjao Inn - recommended on wikitravel. There were, however, no other western tourists here - as soon as they land in Palawan they're whisked off in minivans to the beaches. I'd decided to spend a few days here - how bad can it be? Any westerner here seems to have a young Filippino girl on his arm - I looked particularly out of place not having one. I went to a busy restaurant hoping to meet some people. It was an odd place, staffed by hundreds of people with a projection TV showing the comedy show "Just for laughs" - everybody was staring at it while eating. They had a DJ supplying the (very loud) sounds. While eating my pork adobo my ears were treated to the song that goes "my neck, my back, lick my pu... and my cr..." - no-one in the restaurant batted an eyelid. At 8pm a band came on containing 3 Filippino dudes and their instruments and 4 Filippino girls dressed in pretty much nothing. They were bad, and I left as soon as they'd finished the first song!

I wanted to go to Sabang, and the UNESCO underground river. If you don't do it in a tour you have to go to the office in Puerto and get a permit. Then I hired a motorbike for the fantastic 70km trip. The roads are winding up, down, in and out of hills, through smiling villages and along mangrove beaches - truly beautiful - I have about 10 minutes of great video! Once there you're assigned a slot (they limit visitor numbers) - mine was 9:30am the next morning. I found a cheap beach hut and threw my bag in, then the rains came - HEAVY! There's nothing to do when it's raining in Sabang (there's not much to do when it's not raining!), so I read, and played sudoku. Eventually they stopped and I had another lonely dinner on the seafront - most people just come here for the day in groups, then go back to Puerto.

I was woken at 1am by a cockroach walking on my face! Oddly this is the first time this has ever happened to me, in all of my travels - or at least the first time I've woken up. I'm not sure how it got in, as I was under a mosquito net! I brushed it off and away - I actually don't mind cockroaches, anything that doesn't bite me is fine by me. I killed two mosquitoes who were also inside the net (wtf) and went back to sleep.

Next morning I went to the registration place and showed my permit. I paid the 400 Pesos fee and the 40 Pesos tax - then had to pay 200 Pesos as I wasn't in a group - they then bolted me onto a group of Filippinos. Getting on the first boat is crazy! Imagine 20 boats, all with outriggers, trying to get to one little badly made concrete dock, while rough sea waves are battering the dock! Tip: wear flip-flops - you get very wet just trying to get in the boat. I was wearing my walking boots as I was on the motorbike and they were socked through in seconds (they're still wet now). One on the boat it's a rough ride around the coast to a secluded beach, when you walk a little through the jungle, then get on another boat (more feet wetting) that takes you into the cave.

The cave is a monster - you can go 1.8km on the boat (it goes 8km in total). I sat at the front so had to hold the torch with the camp Filippino man shouting where to point it, in not-very-understandable English. Thankfully the Filippino girl behind me could see I was struggling to hear and translated. I wanted to point the torch at what I wanted to look at (cute hanging bats mostly) - but was told to move it, and point it a the rock that looks like "Sharon Stone" or the one that looks like "Jesus" or the one that looks like "Mary" or "the last supper" - seriously - can we have some useful information? Does anyone care that that rock looks like a carrot?? Tour over, my feet got a little wetter and I got on the bike and made the lovely rolling journey back to Puerto.

On my last day in Puerto I still didn't meet anyone. Traditional Filippino food is ok but just essentially just seafood or meat, in a sauce with rice. Vegetarians would have a nightmare - on one menu, under the "vegetables" section there was "vegetables with pork". Unfortunately American style diners selling burgers, fried chicken, hot-dogs, shakes, pizza and all that jazz are taking over, and it's not even good junk. I ordered some fried chicken and chip from a major Filippino chain, and got a tiny piece of dry chicken with five (count 'em!) undercooked chips!

I'm going to sound like a moaning tourist git now (and I probably am, especially as I'm a little travel weary at the moment). The people are friendly, the diving and snorkelling is world-class and the beaches are amazing - but I just don't get a spark from this country like I have with others, something's missing for me - that cultural high that gets inside you and makes you feel fuzzy and excited about a place - it's just not there for me - however there are another 6998 islands to explore :)

I'm now in the airport, drinking an Americano from "Seattle's finest", while the latest news and basketball from the US is on the TV. I await my plane to Borneo.

Luang Prabang, Laos

I woke from my top-tier front bed on the overnight bus to an incredible sight at 5:30am. We were above the clouds and I could see peaks for miles; I reached for the camera but as soon as I'd dug ity out and set it up we'd dived back into the clouds. We reached Luang Prabang at about 6am. I got off the bus and hooked up with Alfonso the Italian; grabbing a tuk-tuk to the town. No dorm's here so we ask around and are recommended a lovely little guest house called Sivilay (80,000 Kip for a twin).

The town is a UNESCO heritage site is wonderfully nested at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. French colonialism is rampant; walking around the quiet old part you feel like you've actually stepped into the past; mentally aided by the old cars that seem that they were placed on purpose. I couldn't help myself but switch the camera to black and white for a few shots.

The town was very quiet when I was there, due to low season; a lot of the restaurants were closed but there's still some great places to eat. One small outside cafe on the Mekong side (I don't think it had a name) seemed popular with the locals, and did an all-you-can-eat cook-it-yourself BBQ where you get a metal dome with a moat around it, over some coals. You cook the meat on the dome and the noodles and vegetables in the moat - most satisfying! You can do this at other restaurants like the Lao Lao garden also, but they're more expensive, and not all-you-can-eat!

Wat Xleng Toung is lovely and peaceful and well worth a visit (I went there twice). It's 20,000 Kip to get in and you can sit and watch the Monks repair or paint the Wat and surrounding buildings. The Laos lonely planet cover was shot in one of the smaller buildings so you have to re-create it!

We decide to do a multi-trip (150,000 Kip) to the Pak Ou caves, the whiskey village and the Kuang Si waterfalls and bear rescue centre. The boat took about an hour to get to the village against the mighty Mekong current; I think we were moving at walking pace max. The tiny village produces a super-cheap cheap super-strong (50%) whiskey called LaoLao and it's packaged in cute little potion bottles; I bought one as a present for my friend Anna who I will be meeting in Thailand. The village also sells fabrics and clothing and dead animals in jars of liquid; of particular note were the baby bears feet. Further back is the village Wat, containing a massive durian tree and some bizarre sculptures of animals with red lips and baseball caps!? Leaving the temple and back on the boat lots of kids came down and entertained us with backflips and fighting.

Fighting the current

LaoLao

Bears feet

Another 20 minutes upstream are the caves. They don't go particularly far underground but they're large and decorated with what must be over 1000 statues of Buddha, from 1cm to 10m tall! The caves are maintained by the villagers over the river and you have to pay extra to get in, on top of the price for the tour which is basically just a water taxi. I'm sure you could source this cheaper, but for convenience it's good.

The journey back took half the time it did to get there, whizzing down the river with the current at an amazing pace. At one point the engine cut out and the driver looked concerned as we continued towards a bank at a great pace with no control; but he managed to get the engine started again and you could hear a collective sigh of relief!

Occasionally flying past us were longtail speedboats which take people to and from the Thai border in seven hours. I considered this as an option but bail out for five reasons:

• 1 - It's twice as expensive as the coach. 
• 2 - You're on a bouncing speedboat for 7 hours. 
• 3 - There's no shelter from the sun. 
• 4 - There's no shelter from the rain (for you or the bags). 
• 5 - The Mekong is an angry river and bubbles and boils with rocks under the surface, and every so often you'd see a massive log floating down! I'm getting sensible with my age :-/

The caves and village took up the morning, then we had just enough time for a baguette and we're picked up to go to the waterfalls. Not what I expected at all; they're quite small waterfalls (you can climb up them) but there's lots of them, and there's lots of pools to swim in at different levels. There's even a rope swing into one of the pools. The water is an emerald green and cold. We spend a couple of hours here before having a quick look at the bear rescue centre on the way out. I don't think I've ever seen a bear do anything but sleep, and here is no exception! They were all lazing about but one was lying on it's back, in a hammock! You can't see from the photo too well but it was quite a sight.

Spot Alfonso Buddha?

Bear in hammock!

The night market is one of the best I've seen since India; selling all sorts of clothes, bags, shoes, souvenirs, antiques, fridge magnets (which gave us an amazing business idea!) and tasty local food. You could easily spend many hours (and Kip) here. In all Luang Prabang is a beautiful place to spend a week relaxing. I met several older couples who've been coming here for years. This is my last stop in Laos and I have an overnight bus booked to the Thai border.

Here's a final picture, of a ridiculously cute cat that owned us for an hour in Lao Lao gardens;

 You can view all of my Luang Prabang photos here