Paradise (Coldplay)

The Philippines that I have experienced so far is part heaven, part dystopia. But I love it and will certainly be back!

After my all of night travel I cheated and got myself a private car from Cebu City, where I flew in, to Moalboal. Not even sorry - I was exhausted! I was shook by how rundown the city was and was glad I forfeited my 2 nights there in favour of heading straight to the provinces. Rubbish and rubble was everywhere, lots of people eking out a living by selling trinkets at traffic stops.

Once we left the city limits though, wow!! Breathtaking views of the ocean and winding our way through lush rainforest. My driver was a lovely man by the name of Dennis. I learnt about his family and his love of Christ. We passed so many churches along the way - the contrast of this Christian nation with my previous Islamic stop was stark.

I decided to stay at Momo Hostel, which is just down the street from the beach and about 15 minutes walk from the town. Momo is really friendly and the people I met there are from all over the world and quite interesting.

My home for my 5 nights was a little cubby bunk. Quite comfy and private with the curtain pulled across. For $11.33 a night, I can't complain.

I was so tired when I arrived but didn't want to sleep too early or my body clock would be proper messed up, so I took a walk down the ocean and grabbed a sandwich at the resort there.

What a beautiful part of the world!

Nightlife in the Philippines is something else. I ended up going for a 'night on the town' with some of the staff from the hostel. Absolute craziness! Lots of fun and for some reason whenever we bought a drink we got 2 for the price - all night long.

We danced and drank and had a ball. I've found the locals to be very physical and hyper sexual. Not in a bad way, just very overt. All I could do was watch and laugh.

I decided to be truly adventurous and signed myself up for canyoneering. I have no idea what I was thinking!

It started off well with a breathtaking zipline to the start of the course. I got a bit of footage of my flight but about halfway through all my camera captured was the rope from me holding on for dear life - I guess I'll cross film-making off from my future career aspirations. Hope you all get a giggle out of it anyway...

Next we needed to make our way down about a hundred stairs to the bottom of the canyon to start our adventure. We made our way through some lush jungle fringed blue waterholes and got to the first jump - about 4 metres.

I did it! It was hella scary but just one of those times when you switch off your brain and go for it. I forgot to do the pointy-toes thing and got an almighty bum-slap on my way in. At this point I think I landed funny on my heel. I went a little bit further and got real with myself - I am in no way ready to do 3-4 hours of this.

There, of course, are no chicken exits. If I was going to stop now, the only way out was back the way we come. My wonderful guides assisted me back to the stairs where I felt every single stair I stepped on to get back up to the entry point. 3 days later and my thighs are still burning.

I caught a motorbike ride back to the tour camp and waited for everyone to finish their canyoneering adventure before we had a delicious lunch.

I have set myself a goal to get fit during my year of travels and return to Moalboal next year to complete the canyoneering track next year.

On my last day in Moalboal, I made my way to White Beach to meet my new Swiss friend, Romane, for a swim and to watch the sunset. I was there a bit earlier than Romane, and soon made friends with a family of locals who had come down to the beach for the day from Cebu City to celebrate a birthday. They were so friendly and generous, offering delicious local mojito from a bottle and food. What a fun group of people!

Romane joined soon joined us and it was a very pleasant afternoon frolicking in the crystal clear water and the sunset was absolutely breathtaking. When we headed back to Moalboal town, we stopped at the local foodcourt for dinner and a very tasty serving of the local dessert Halo Halo.

For around $2 I was able to get a day pass to use the pool at the resort down the road from Momo's so I spent quite a bit of time in their pools.

When my time in Cebu came to an end, Romane decided to join me in my travel to El Nido. Before we knew it, we were off on our next adventure!