phillpines at last

well, we made it - and evn though we slept at the airport we STILL nealy missed our flight - mainly due to slow immigration, but we where the last on the plane again, and still had to sprint across the terminal

anways, we headed straight out of manilla, and on to pagsanjan where they filmed parts of apocolypse now - and we hated our arrival, everyone trying to get us stay with them, get the boat with them, get on this jeepney, go here, go there - so we just grabbed a coffee and talked to this guy (who was boatman president!! yeah, right!), but he was cool so we opted to do the boat trip with his guys

in short it was stunning, u go over 14 rapids with these guys paddling like mad up to these gorgeous waterfalls, and then you just cruise on back down the rapids!

good fun, but you get all the expect a tip, buy them a drink - cant sen my kids to school - its no surprise tourists dropped off in the last few years - its just a pain in the arse, so theyve been trying to rationalise the payment methods of recent years, and it seems ok - but still a headache to deal with

so, we on the way to beach now, and we've had our first few jeepney rides which are these massive things which look like this
http://www.jarsoftware.com/PI_Jeepney_WL.jpg

they are awsome to look at, and may have even knocked the bangkok tuk tuk off its number one stop as 'fave local transport'

so not sure what phillipino internet will be like further south as we may not have access for a few days now

also, no sign of the recent troubles here, think it is still martial law, but you would never now

lovin it here, bring it on !!!!