Sagada, Philippines, Asia The one thing I want to see in the Philippines is the Banaue Rice Terraces. This is proving to be a very difficult place to get to. I have already flown into Clark (north of Manila) and taken a five hour bus journey further north to the city of Baguio. This morning I left Baguio (as soon as humanly possible) to get another bus up to Sagada. This was another six hour journey by bus, but because…
Baguio, Philippines, Asia Today was a long day of travelling. It started out with waking up with a very sore back from a horrible night’s sleep. My mattress still had a plastic wrapper on it, so my fitted sheet kept coming off and my legs were sticking to the plastic. There was no A/C in the room so it was roasting in there, and every time I moved, the plastic made tons of noise that I was certain was waking…
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Asia Today was a bit of a wasted day due to travelling. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a flight back to KK from Sandakan, so I decided to take a bus. I got up and checked out of my hostel earlier than I was planning, but I was just happy to get out of there. Neither Sandakan nor my hostel impressed me, so I wasn’t going to stick around longer than I…
Sandakan, Malaysia, Asia I’m getting a little tired of these ridiculously early wake up calls, but today it was well worth it. I woke up at 4:30am and got in a cab at 5am to head over to Terminal 1 at KKIA. I had checked the website and unfortunately my AirAsia flight wasn’t flying out of T2 which was only a five minute walk away. It was leaving from T1 which was a 30RM ($10) taxi ride away. Luckily I…
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Asia I met a few really nice English people at Borneo BeacHouse Backpackers this morning, and ended up spending the day with them. A couple (Rob and Jen) and a solo traveler (Julie) were nice enough to invite me to go for a walk around KK with them, so I wasn’t about to pass up that invitation. We caught the bus into town, which was an experience in itself. It’s not so much a bus, as a…
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Asia I got up this morning after a very comfortable night at Hunny Hostel. I had a four bed dorm to myself, and it had A/C, so I was very happy. I wasn’t too excited about seeing anything else in Jakarta, but I forced myself out to see what was around. I had a walk up the main street until I got to China Town and had a walk around there checking out the markets and whatnot….
Jakarta, Indonesia, Asia This morning started out with a stupid 5:30am alarm wakening. The hostel called a cab for me and I left at 6am to head to the airport. I checked in and got through security without an issue, and it occurred to me how different it was than going through security anywhere else. I didn’t have to take my laptop out of my bag, I didn’t have to put liquids and gels in a clear little bag, I…
Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Asia I did pretty much nothing today. There wasn’t much more in the city of Yogyakarta that I wasnted to see and didn’t get to, so I took today as a planning day. I figured out a lot of the flights I’m going to take after Indonesia, and picked out some hostels that I hadn’t booked yet. There were quite a few new people at the hostel today so I got to meet a lot of travelers. A…
Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Asia I went on a tour around Yogyakarta today with five other people and our hostel driver Nanda. We got to see so much stuff, It was really incredible. The morning started out with an excellent breakfast at the hostel of toast, cereal, watermelon and orange juice. It might not sound excellent, but when you consider that at most hostels the breakfast is only toast with one kind of jam. That’s all. The fresh fruit and juice and…
Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Asia Today started out with a ridiculous 3:45am wake up call so I could catch my flight at 6am. I got to the airport in plenty of time and had some time to just watch people at the airport. I figured something out that I’ve been wondering for a while. I thought some Asian people wore surgical masks to combat the smog in the cities, not true. It turns out they wear the masks because they all burp…