The Thrilla in Manillappines

We landed in Angeles City, the equivalent to Avalon only so much more disgusting than you could ever imagine! We probably should of done a bit more research so we would know what to expect. Lonely plantet describes it as "sleazy, filthy and dirty" and they are spot on.
Turns out that it is an ex-US army base that had some 40,000 prostitutes back in the day and now still only exists for its sex tourism industry.
We got our of there pretty fast and headed for the madness of Manila.
Again we were not prepared for the large number children beggars, but had to accept that it was very common in this undeveloped country.
We boarded a overnight ferry to Cebu scheduled to take 24 hours, it took 32!!
Cebu to the island of Bohol where we stayed in the jungle on the river in huts, trekked through the jungle, zip lined over a gorge, rode 20kms (it took 1.5hours) to see some sleeping tarsiers (like little monkeys) then rode back again (15 mins downhill) cooling down with a 50 cent beer.
After Bohol we ferried across to another island called Siquijor.
Ancient folklore has it that healers and black magic inhibit the island and it is difficult to find a native Filipino who would visit the island. This didn't stop us!!
We arrived at midnight after our ferry was delayed 13 hours!!
Here we snorkelled, ate super cheap fresh seafood with two blokes from Bendigo and hired a scooter for $9 a day!
We took the scooter everywhere it shouldn't have gone. Through dirt roads, road construction sites and occasionally on the bitumen.
The not nerve racking bit, Ned's driving!
after Siquijor we started our trip back to Manila, but not before we ha to take another ferry that had us strategising how we would escape if it was to sinking. It was so clapped out and definitely NOT seaworthy.
Once back in Manila we headed for KL on route to freezing, cold Melbourne.
All going to plan we will be back before year's end I do the northern Philippines.

Hong Kong

Wow wee was it tough leaving the kids at the children's centre, but we were excited for what lie ahead next, we shouldn't have. Due to bad weather in Beijing, we sat on the tarmac for 4.5 hours waiting for the weather to improve. This meant we were served dinner before we'd even left the ground and that we were still sitting on the tarmac when our scheduled arrival time to Hong Kong rolled around.
We finally arrived at our destination, Honkers at 2am in the morning. Lost, tired and looking for our hostel an American guy offered to help us with direction which was thoroughly appreciated at that hour of the morning, only to walk 4 blocks and realise the northerly direction he was so confident about was actually south. Back we walked!!
Finally, bed. The next day would be better and we would explore the city for the entire day. That was the plan until I woke up with diarrhoea. This persisted for the entire day. I had a spew for good measure, tried to down some maccas fries unsuccessfully and was too scared to go anyway for fear of shitting myself!
Fortunately that only lasted for a day and by the second day we were good to go again.
The next day we investigated the tram that takes you up the side of the mountain to a look out. The line was huge so we postponed that plan and headed for the botanical gardens where they had a frog pond (I know, incredible huh?!), plenty of feral cats that some crazy cat person feed each night and a bunch of monkeys. This botanical garden was pretty cool and free!
That evening we headed for the world's largest permanent sound and light show as labelled by Guinness world records. It was nice as was the walk down the Chinese avenue of stars that climaxed at the statue of Bruce Lee.
Day three saw Ned inherit a bad gut, but that didnt stop him getting amongst it. We caught a 5km cable car to a mountain that boasts the largest sitting Buddha statue in the world.
We boarded a tour that took us past stilted housed and dolphin spotting for Chinese white dolphins, they're actually pale pink and really cool and we were lucky enough to see some for about 30 seconds. That 30 seconds was enough for the boat driver to say he had provided what the tour advertised and we headed back to land.
A Chinese visa was got and a spontaneous decision to change plans and head to the Philippines was made.
And so my friends this is where one trip finishes and a new one beckons. Stay tuned for our next instalment. Your guess is as good as mine about what it might entail.

Trans Continental

The next leg was Trans-Continental. We were heading for Siberia and Asia. 5 days on a train, silver birch trees as far as the eye can see for days on end. We'd go to sleep and wake up and the landscape hadn't changed a bit. There was a stinky Russian guy on the train who's aroma smelled of a glorious bonfire containing nothing but dogfood and rubber tyres burning. The entire carriage was stunk out!

We would sleep, eat 2 minute noodles, read, sleep, get fed unlimited twix chocolates from the Irish ladies, sleep and play uno. We also spent some time learning Russian from some kids in return for some balloon animals.

We finally got off in Irkutsk desperately needing a shower and headed up to the shores of Lake Baikal where we spent 2 nights in Listvyanka. Lake Baikal is beautiful, some places you can see the bottom where it is 40m deep. It is the largest freshwater lake by volume in the world due to it being so deep. It is gradually getting larger due to the tectonic plates moving apart and one day will separate Asia and Europe.