Malapascua

Get to Cebu city on the Island of Cebu and then take a 4 hour bus to the north end of the Island. The views from the bus are varied from fantastic mountain scenes to run down shacks at the side of the road and small fishing villages. When the bus stops at some of the bus stations you get people asking if you want fruit or juice or nuts. Its great as they are so friendly and shy. The juice is given in a bag as they muct get refunds on the glass bottles - so hold on tight or drink in one go!
You need to take a wee boat across to Malapascua which takes about 20 minutes.
We stayed right on the beach in some small huts and it was just great. The island is very small and the best way to get around is to agree on a price and 'hire' someones scooter!
The beer and food are cheap and I think we only spent about £50 for the whole week we were there.
Not included in that and the best thing about it was the diving. Thresher sharks are quite abundant there. We had a typhoon nearby though and that meant viz wasn't the best but still good enough. You have to go out early to see the sharks. You go straight down to about 22m and just sit there on this rocky outcrop and sure enough not long after the sharks come along, looking for food. They were about 3-4m (most of it tail) and have great big eyes. They look amazing. Also in teh afternoon on the same outcrop you get Manta rays, I wasnt that bothered about them really until I saw one, I have never seen anything so big, 5m across and one swoosh of the wings and she was gone.

Manila is a fab place too, its so busy. The jeepnees (spelt wrong I think) are so colourful and people just hand the money from the back and people pass it along. There is a stark contrast to some of the posh new areas though and the slums further out.