hi everyone. I'm back in SG , getting ready to come back to office for two more weeks .
I was climbing in Phillipines recently. I attempted 2 volcanoes.. the big one is mayon, the most symmetrical cone volcano. I managed to summit the volcano last tuesday. I spend 3 hours on monday climbing to 2500 ft. woke up on tues morning and started climbing from 4.45am up the volcano along a lava rock gully. all the way up to the highest point allowable(8000ft).. its called the knife's edge. The crater is an M shape, the knife's edge is at the tip of the inverted V in the M. I looked over the ledge into cloudy emptiness. if its a clear day , it would have been nice.. a thousand feet deep hole with lava and smoke. i reached the edge at 10.04 am. it was very cold and windy up there.
luckily it did not rain, still it took me a long time to get down as my knees are not strong any more. i finally got down to the village at 7pm.. after almost 14 hrs of continuous climbling.
i do not know how to post pics yet, but you all can go into www.new7wonders.com to view and vote for mayon.. she is now top 15 in votes in becoming the 7 new natural wonders .

2 days before attempting mayon, I was in another district attempting mt bulusan. bulusan and mayon are 2 of the six most active volcanoes in phillippines( still safe-- active do not equals eruption). No one has climbed bulusan since it last erupted 3 yrs ago. I wanted to use it as a warm up climb for mayon and maybe if i make it, will appear in the village's folklore as the 50 yr old who climbed bulusan after a 3 yr absense of climbers.

unfortunately, i was caught in thunderstorm and decided to abort my climb at the half way mark cos I know that wet conditions is no good for my knees.
On my way down, a leech went into my eye. Yes, continuation of my leech story. This one is a needle leech. very small. like dental floss in thickness. I felt something moving around my eye. rub it with my sleeve cos hands were muddy. Then felt it moving and i turn to my guide for help. Saw horror in his eyes! Not easy to pull it out, it went into the inside of my upper eye lid. Can feel him moving and bulging inside. luckily i have tweezers in my swiss knife. Managed to pull out .

Rest of the trip was routine stuff. went to a place called donsol where there are plankton eating whale sharks that i could snorkel with. they are the largest fish in the whole, some as long as 30 feet. gentle giants. i knew its off season as they have migrated eleswhere. just wanted to try my luck. did not even get to see a dolphin or a whale shark's cousin. i now have an excuse to go back there!