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During the Dragon Boat festival I went away for the weekend. I know that Ian had an interesting and busy weekend - but he's going to tell you about that later, so today I'm sharing my experiences in the Philippines with you.

The Philippines is my dream destination! It has beautiful white beaches, friendly people, plenty of delicious seafood and fruit to eat... All I did for my holiday was go swimming, eating and then to sleep! I travelled with 3 of my friends to Manila and Boracay in the Philippines , places which absolutely amazed me.

Manila is busy and bustling, with plenty of interesting and cheap shops everywhere. People walk around selling snacks, paintings, toys and other tourist temptations. My friends and I shopped and did some sightseeing when we first arrived, travelling to a very old Spanish castle to see the historic views. Apparently some of the walls were the only buildings that survived the bombs of World War II. I really liked this one place that had a stony circle, which we arrived at while the sun was setting. I don't know what it is, or what it was used for but the pattern that it made was really intriguing. The stones had grass and moss starting to grow on it, but it looked like it was something out of a King Arthur tale! Combined with the sun throwing its last rays over this ancient rock manifestation, the circular creation was truly romantic.

What do you think this stone circle represents?

The downside of this energetic city was the amount of poverty I could see. There were slums with dirty people dressed in rags and begging for money. It was so pitiful! Some of the animals looked poorly treated, with skinny bodies and open sores. The pollution was another aspect of this growing city which wasn't that great. One of my friends remarked that the amount of air pollution produced by the cars on the road was really bad. Some of the tricycles and buses were spewing out this black smoke which looked disgusting, and she thought it was disgraceful. My own opinion is that I cannot judge these people because I have never been in their situation, and it seems likely that they cannot afford to spend a lot of money. Therefore it would not seem feasible for them to pay lots of money for a clean engine and quality petrol.

Luckily, we didn't stay for long in the city. I wanted to go to the part of the Philippines which resembled paradise! On our second day in the Philippines we flew to the city of Kalibo . From Kalibo we went to Boracay by bus and then a ferry, which was a big adventure!

The ferry we travelled to Boracay on:

Boracay was just what I was waiting for: it had the beautiful beaches with the clearest water and that warm, tropical atmosphere that is perfect for relaxing! Our hotel was right on the beach, and it was easy to go for a quick swim. I really miss swimming, because in Australia I used to swim everyday in the summer. My friends called me “Little Mermaid” because I was so eager to go in the water all the time!

The Little Mermaid!

Boracay also had the most delicious foods, and everyday we could eat sweet mangoes and fresh seafood. We ate huge crabs and prawns for dinner, and felt very full after every meal! Lucky for us that swimming is such good exercise, so we didn't have to worry about getting fat!

One day we decided to rent some motorcycles and explore the island. Some people think that Boracay Island looks like a butterfly, but we were the ones flying! We travelled from one end of the island to the other in half an hour.

My friends on their motorcycle:

We already planned out some of the places that we wanted to visit, such as the romantic lookout on Mt. Luho and the caves nearby. The bat cave was the best because it was so thrilling.

The entrance to the BAT CAVE:

We had to go down into the cave slowly and very carefully, because we shared only one torch among the 7 of us. The rocks felt slippery and wet, so I took off my shoes so I wouldn't slip. The guides pointed the torch up to the cave ceiling so we could see the bats, as up until that point we could only hear them squeaking. There were so many bats crawling up there, and the torch shining in their eyes turned their eyes red!

Climbing down into the cave barefoot:

Look at the bats' red eyes!

It was a little bit creepy in the cave, but the scariest part happened when we were about to climb back out of the cave. Suddenly, one of the tour guides showed us a hissing snake with the torch. The snake was pale yellow and black striped, and although the guide said it wasn't dangerous, none of us wanted to go closer to it! We resumed our climb out of the cave when one guide unexpectedly screamed... he'd run into another snake, which was hissing a warning to him: “Not too closssssse now, pal”!

My dirty hands from climbing in the Bat Cave:

Once we were out of the cave and back in the city, we bargained the cost of the guided tour with the boys. Then we got back on the motorcycles and headed towards Mt. Luho to see the spectacular view of the entire island.

The view from the top of Mt. Luho:

We reached the top and feeling thirsty from our adventures, we bought some soft drinks from a vendor. Near the vendor there were some really cute monkeys, so naturally we all wanted to touch and take pictures of the monkey. We left the can of Sprite on the wall while we positioned the camera. Like all animals, the monkeys didn't stay still while we tried to take a picture. However, we weren't expecting one of the monkeys to run over to our Sprite and steal it! It grabbed the can and ran away, where it sat down and tried to drink it. The can was already open so the Sprite just poured out, to the monkey's delight. The boys attempted to get the can back, but the monkey defended the can of Sprite!

"My Sprite!" The monkeys stole our drink!

On the last day we flew back to Manila early in the morning. We went to the department stores to buy lots of souvenirs and presents for our friends and family from our trip to the Philippines . I bought my Mum some really beautiful scarves which I think will look pretty on her! (Also, they don't weigh very much to post to Australia !)

Our plane from Kalibo (near Boracay) to Manila:

If I have the chance to go to the Philippines again, I wouldn't even hesitate! It's such an adventurous and beautiful place... and with over 7,000 islands – there really is so much to explore!