Bohol-Cebu-Manila-Kota Kinabalu

I stayed on Panglao Island, just off Bohol from Monday to Thursday. Tuesday I spent diving around Baclisag island. On the dive boat it was me, a japanese guy and the filipino dive crew, which was quite intimidating at first, but after the first dive we all chatted about where we had dived before, and we had a good time. The actual diving I found better than at Apo Island, as well as the usual stuff we saw large schools of Barracuda and Jacks. They were mesmerising to watch, and I could have hovered there for ever watching them, a bit like staring at fire.

A guy offered to take me to a good spot on the island for sunset on his scooter, so we drove out there, saw a few sites on Panglao Island and then watched the non existent sun go down. The sky was beautiful though so the guy didnt understand why I wasn't annoyed, I got some good photos, very different from the usual sunset.

Tuesday I got ripped off a little, getting someone to take me on a tour around Bohol. I got up at 4am to drive to the chocolate hills in time for sunrise, I was the only one up at the viewing point and it was an amazing experience. We then drove onto the Tarsier centre to see the small monkey like creatures, but everything else there was to see my guide wanted more money for, and I was really tired so decided to head back and just sit on the beach in the afternoon.

I got up early on Thursday morning to go dolphin watching, expecting to get on a boat at 6am, although the guys who had organised it for me had messed up and I got more and more annoyed with them trying to sort a boat for me that I just walked off. Someone else stepped in and offered me my own private boat for 1000 pesos (just over 10 pounds) and so I spent an hour and a half watching dolphins in the wild. It was awe inspiring, and it felt like the experience was all mine because the other boats had disappeared so it was only me and my guides out on the water. I felt like the luckiest person alive to be doing that.

After breakfast I took a ferry to Cebu, and spent the afternoon in an enormous shopping mall. I got a bit overexcited, miscounted the money I had left and after buying a few items left myself very short to get to Manila... The next day I had to stop the cab after the meter reached 172 pesos (the airport taxis are more expensive than the usual ones), which confused the driver immensely who thought I was trying to bargain with him. I think he finally understood when I emptied my wallet into his hand! I had a couple of kms to walk to the nearest Western Union, which wasn't too bad. Taxis were stopping asking if I needed a ride and when I said I had no money they thought I was joking and started laughing, I was like 'no, really!'. (I'm not sure I mentioned this before but had my cards stolen in Thailand and my replacement Mastercard doesnt work anywhere, so I'm relying on western union money transfers)

So I arrived in Kota Kinabalu last night and have found my way to Borneo Backpackers. I met an american girl who I had dinner with and we got bought beers by the locals, so spent a relaxed evening after a manic day. Not really sure what I've done today, just been getting more western union money, walking around the markets and shopping malls. In the fish market I saw a shark which had its fins removed for shark fin soup, which was quite upsetting (they just throw the rest of the shark away).

We've booked our climb up Mt. Kinabalu for tomorrow, which has cost 690 ringit, (around 110 pounds), which is quite expensive, but the local travel agencies have created a monopoly on climbing the mountain, booking all but a small percentage of the accommodation in advance so you are forced to book through them with their extortionate profit margins. I think it is the same for Mulu where I intend to go later, so it could get quite costly, but these are once in a lifetime experiences so they're worth it.