El Nido, Philippines

Manilla's a bad introduction to the Philippines. It's severely under-developed for tourism, most people spend a day or two there before hopping on another plane or boat. I caught a flight for Puerto Princessa, on the beautiful island of Palawan - the last frontier of the Philippines. At first I wasn't exactly sure where to go from Manilla - there's seven-thousand one-hundred and something islands to choose from, with maybe 100,000 beaches - if combined they would form the longest beach in the world! El Nido seemed to be the quiet haven I needed after being in big cities. From Puerto (as the locals call it) I get a minibus (600 Pesos) up to the northern tip of Palawan. It takes six hours and the roads are barely roads in sections! I read that El Nido can be inaccessible in the monsoon rains.

The town is a tightly-packed and spilling onto the beach. It's surrounded by the same karst limestone formations I saw in Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam - they sit on the same fault line. This is where Alex Garland gained inspiration for "The beach" - but told everyone it was Thailand so they wouldn't flock here. My instant thought is with Ton Sai (Thailand), but there's no rock climbing here - and the beach (and food) is better in Thailand IMO (grilled chicken and papaya salad ANYONE!?) The local vibe is extremely laid back - if you're doing nothing you're doing too much! After diving and snorkelling I did "nothing" as much as I could handle, but then had to do something as I'd booked two weeks here - as Cebu pacific airlines decided I needed an onward (or return) ticket or I wasn't getting on the plane (I had to quick-book something in the airport - how much time do you give yourself in this situation, knowing nothing about where you're going!? I'd also like to add that this isn't a government requirement, and I've never done it anywhere else in Asia yet (I hate planning ahead - who knows what you might want to do?? So it's put me on edge a little - I've planned the next three flights!

I now have a daily routine as follows: After breakfast I hire a kayak for three hours and find some deserted beaches (it's easy). Back for lunch time in my favourite cafe "The Sanctuary". They serve a delicious red bean salad and the best coffee in El Nido (none of this 3 in one instant shit - c'mon, what is this stuff???). After lunch I hire a mountain bike for a two hour sweat-fest punctuated by diving into the sea at various beaches. I'd also like to run on the beaches but, sadly, as with most Asian beaches, there's some litter with occasional broken glass and tin-can tops. To counter-act this daily goodness the evening is spend stuffing myself with an incredible local dish called pork adobo, which is fatty pork stewed in vinegar and garlic, and served with rice - I'll be cooking this when I get home, guaranteed! Beer is stupidly cheap at 40 pence a bottle (San Miguel) so it's rude not to have one... or two.

My beach :)

Live blog from Hong Kong!

I'm *almost* up to date with the blog, just a few more items to add to Korea. And I thought I'd treat you to a live update, which has never occurred before! It's not going to be particularly interesting as I'm just sitting here doing nothing; I shall go out after posting this - I'm not really a sad individual!

So it's now 8pm Hong Kong time (1pm UK time) - I'm in the Causeway area on Hong Kong island and - how can I put this - it's like hot London with lots of Chinese people. The double-decker buses are here, the pavements, the tree-lined streets, the signs and traffic lights... you get the idea. The most noticeable thing though is the lack of overhead spaghetti wiring everywhere; it's tidily underneath the streets - where it should be!

Me, live now! Notice the odd cat pictures

Halloween weekend - this weekend

Childish I know ... but funny ... c'mon!

Everest trek - Day 9 - Labouche to Gorak Shep

4940m to 5170m (+230m)
4.0km - 5 hours

Despite the gradient being gentle out of Gorak Shep the lack of oxygen and the cold morning make the first half an hour feel heavy. The weather cleared a lot though and we're surrounded by mountains, with only the summits hidden. Today's dog is George, who likes to eat yak dung. He's quite well known on the route has many names and has been seen as low as Thukla and high as Everest base camp! We take the left fork past a Sherpa carrying a ridiculously long pipe and onto the Italian research pyramid. The scientists are only here in the spring, at the moment it's only Nepali caretakers, but they show us around. Inside it's tiny, with little rooms full of interesting boffin gadgets you want to touch!

Back to the main path it runs up a little valley parallel to the Khumbu glacier. Ton, Verena and Martin carried on ahead as they were going to attempt EBC that afternoon. All around were little (I think they're called) Picas, curious little furry mammals the size of chinchillas skipping around the rocks making funny noises. At the end of this little valley is a short but killer climb - my lungs were heaving and heart thumping when I got to the top, my blood crying out for oxygen, my head feeling light. After a little rest to let a yak train past there's a small walk to a ridge - when you reach the top you're treated to an indescribable first view of the mighty Khumbu. This is the worlds highest glacier, its source is at 7,600m! It must be over 1km wide in places, tearing its way through mountains on its way down the valley. It's picked up millions of tons of debris at this point and looks like a river of rocks, but looking closer you can see bottomless crevasses, ice caves and emerald green lakes dotted about the surface - truly an awe-inspiring, natural wonder - impossible to depict in photographs, but here's some anyway!

The gigantic Khumbu glacier - gobsmacked!

Looking north to Everest base camp, Lhotse up to the right in the clouds

After we closed our mouths and gathered our thoughts we started back on the path to Gorak Shep. There's a second, smaller glacier joining the Khumbu from the left which you have to cross. The path now is just some lightly trodden stones between boulders as you head down onto this glacier. There's a loud waterfall noise coming from a big gorge ahead. The path leads you to the top of this gorge, just under the end of the glacial ice wall, where you cross the melt-water river. To the right, looking down the gorge, the water disappears off into a Khumbu abyss; to the left a huge dirty wall of ice drips and occasionally dumps its rocky cargo into a pool next to the crossing. The crossing itself is just big rocks and looks sketchy; we wonder if we'd strayed from the main route. We hadn't seen anyone else for ages. We hang about for a while trying to decide what to do when three Sherpas come, and skip across the rocks. They can see we're unsure and come back to offer a hand across - we gladly accept and I give them Rupees for the help!

Exhausted we keep on going but it feels like a never ending sea of rocks. Just when you think you might see Gorak Shep there's another ridge of rocks! Finally we pop out on top and there it is. We follow the ridge and head into the Buddha lodge for some black tea and a rest to gather energy. The owners ask if we want a room too; we tell them we're going to look about and they say that if we don't accept the room now they will charge us more when we come back! Of course, we now have no intentions of staying here and head up to the Himalayan lodge - which turns out to be the highest sleeping establishment in the world! The rooms are basic but clean, with blankets. The restaurant is big, warm and friendly. The family are lovely - I would highly recommend this lodge, it was my favourite of the whole trek (and I thought the lodges would get worse the higher you were!)

Gorak Shep - perched on the side of the Khumbu

The monks from Tengboche were there, and had set up a Puja in the restaurant, playing drums, cymbals, gongs and pipes, and chanting for hours and hours. On a table they had offerings of food and drink and occasionally took things out and brought things in. They were very kind and brought us offerings of biscuits, chocolate cakes, nuts and fruit to our table. Apart from the monks (and our three friends on their way to Everest base camp) we had the lodge to ourselves. We had word that after our plane arrived the weather was bad at Lukla and no more planes could land for 5 days, and after that there was a 2 day pilots strike - which would explain why nobody else seemed to be up here in the mountains! Spaced-out and feeling an odd pressure on the forehead we tried to relax with digestives and milky coffee. Looking out of the window with the Monks playing their medieval sounding instruments as the soundtrack a man in a large puffa jacket appeared on a horse - the whole scene was reminiscent of Monty Pythons Holy Grail.

At 4pm the three returned from Everest base camp. Martin wasn't good, he had developed a pounding headache and nausea on the way back. He said he'd "never had a headache like this before" - he looked extremely ill. It was now getting dark and there was no chance of descending now. We gave him some diamox and paracetamol and told him to drink as much water as humanly possible. We also got him some garlic soup but he couldn't eat, so he went to lie down on the opposite seats. With pure comic timing the Monks suddenly piped up again - he then went to bed. Exhausted, we went to bed soon after. I got into bed in my trousers, t-shirts, fleece, beanie hat and had three thick blankets - it was extremely cold!!