Fung Wong

Just a quick update to let you guys know that we have cancelled our trip to the Philippines. We have been keeping a close eye on the natural disasters unfolding, with the 6.9 earthquake on October 10 which hit the east coast of central Filipino island Cebu, killing 74, and then Typhoon Kalmaegi, which killed 114 last week on the same island.

By chance, as we were headed to the airport yesterday, Jem checked out the local Filipino surf report, and the 30-foot waves forecast next Monday caught his eye. Further investigation revealed new reports of a possible ‘super typhoon’ headed straight to the northern island of Luzon.

The red arrow shows where we had booked our accommodation on Luzon for the first week – right in the path of the storm. Winds of more than 100mph and widespread flooding are predicted

It is devastating for the Filipinos – about 10pc of their income is from tourism, and about 10pc from agriculture. The above link provides an overview of the physical impact to date created by the barrage of natural disasters.

An image of the catastrophe caused by last week’s typhoon on the island of Cebu, taken from The Guardian. The country has declared a state of emergency

The British Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office have not advised against travel to the Philippines, and we can’t claim any money back on insurance until they do so. But staying safe is priority number one.

After contacting the poor accommodation owners to cancel what bookings we could, we made a shortlist of new destinations. Jem voted for hiring a yellow Mustang in LA and cruising up the west coast – I had to put a stop to that immediately 😂

As most of Southeast Asia is wetter than an otter’s pocket at the moment, ruling out Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, the only affordable and dry option was India.

Last night saw the most intense 6-hour visa application session ever. Anyone who has dealt with the Indian Visa Application Service website will know that it is like entering a glitchy inpenetrable Fort Knox labyrinth in the Matrix. Couple that with a shocking Internet connection, trying to access their website from their arch enemy’s country without a VPN (which don’t work for some inexplicable reason), trying to make documents the correct size and format, and all of this while using a mobile phone rather than a laptop. It was enough to drive a sane man or woman around the bend. At about 1am this morning and several therapeutic beers later, we had both submitted our applications.

A very vague plan is to head to Goa in a few days, where there is some decent sport climbing nearby. Possibly a trip down to Hampi; a world-class bouldering destination. For now, we are getting out of the city to Hangzhou to enjoy some rural life until our visas arrive.