Cebu, Philippines

We had one weekend this summer where we didn't have any organization-sponsored activities planned. Most of our activities were canceled because of the weather, but this was technically our "free weekend". I had originally planned to go to Thailand, but didn't go for a few reasons. I didn't want to go to Bangkok because I'm already living in a huge city I'm not done exploring. I thought that Ko Samui flight times were inconvenient, so I didn't want to spend the whole weekend flying. And lastly, my best friend Nicole is from Thailand and we've always talked about going together. Julie and Jana were sitting at work one day, googled "Top Ten Beaches", and the Philippines popped up. It was a done deal. I booked my flight and asked for Friday and Monday off from work. The group consisted of myself, Julie, Jana, Laura, Judah, and Boomer. We really wanted our friend Angela to go, but she was hesitant and didn't end up booking her ticket. We all talked about how badly we missed her the whole time we were traveling the first day. Julie, Jana, Laura, and I took the same flight, Boomer took a direct flight, and Judah took a direct flight that put him in Cebu at about 1030 at night.

We left our dorm Friday morning to go to Festival Walk to grab a quick breakfast at Delifrance . After breakfast we took a cab to the Airport Express train. It turns out that it would have cost less just to take a cab to the airport. We checked in one bag, the one that had our liquids, and the girls carried on the rest. Philippine airlines is REALLY nice and I highly recommend it. We had an hour flight to Manila with about 20 minutes of sitting around time before we boarded our next leg. The only thing that's inconvenient about the airports in the Philippines is that they're extremely disorganized and have to pay a fee to go past security. The domestic airport fee was about $4USD. The exchange rate in the Philippines is amazing... 50PHP to $1USD. We had another comfy flight to Cebu and landed at about 630pm. It was already dark. We picked up my luggage and took a taxi to our hotel, the Hilton Cebu Resort and Spa .

Entering the resort was kind of frightening because they checked the people inside the cab, the trunk, and put mirrors underneath the car. I believe something happened in the Philippines a couple years ago that caused tighter security on tourism. I'm sure that the recent events in the Indonesian hotels had something to do with this as well. The hotel was absolutely beautiful and we walked in to live music and they immediately gave us complimentary glasses of delicious juice. We had some problems with our reservation but the made up for it by giving us free breakfast buffets everyday. We put our things in our nice rooms and went down to the dinner buffet. Of course, everything was delicious. Boomer checked into the hotel while we were eating and joined us after. We walked around the hotel to explore all the gift shops, food and drink locations, spa, pools, and private beach. We decided to plant ourselves at the bar and listen to live music while we waited for Judah. Midnight approached and we started to get worried about him. Boomer said stop worrying because he was right there... with Angela. We were so surprised and happy to see her! We hung out at the bar for a little while longer then went to bed.

In the morning, we woke up, had a breakfast buffet, and talked about what we wanted to do. It was cloudy, as usual, so Julie, Laura, Angela, and I decided to go into town after we booked our spa appointments. We took a taxi to the Lapu Lapu Public Market. I wish I had known two things going into this excursion:
1. We were going to the HOOD
2. Philippino people LOVE LOVE LOVE white girls with blonde hair
If someone had told me that day I was Scarlett Johanssen then I probably would have believed them. Everything was gawking, staring, and commenting on how white and beautiful Julie and I were. These two statements were usually separate (white and beautiful). This marketplace had a lot of trinkets, candy, bakeries, etc. Laura is half Philippina and was thrilled to see all her favorite snacks and candies. She's visited the Philippines before and wanted to bring things home for her family. After walking around for a little bit, we stumbled upon Jollibees , the equivalent of a Phillipino McDonald's. It was a billion times better. Julie and I shared a burger (which they call a Yum Yum), fries, Palabok Festival (kind of like pad thai but with a different flavor sauce - DELISH), and zert pies (kind of like the Taco Bell Apple Empanada but with mango instead). It was AMAZING. After lunch we walked around a little while longer, took some more photos, got gawked at, and took a taxi home. We saw some sort of strange accident on the way home and someone was arrested. It was odd.

When we got back we layed out on the beach for a little bit then got ready for dinner at the hotel's wine and tapas restaurant, Manny O's. Boomer, Judah, Jana, and I had scheduled scuba lessons for the next morning and knew we could drink that night. This is what happy hour is for. We had sangria, tapas, and Boomer, Laura, Jana, and Julie got these INCREDIBLE $40USD wagyu steak burgers. I can't even describe these burgers to you. We all had a lot of fun eating, spending time together, and watching the sunset. I went to bed early to rest up for the next day.

Sunday morning we woke up, had breakfast, and got our scuba lessons. After our orientation, we had lunch and got in the boat to go to my first scuba dive. I had a lot of fun and it was really cool, but I couldn't tell if I was annoyed by all the equipment or that our instructor was holding onto Jana and I's tanks like we were children on leashes. I really like Snuba diving because you aren't strapped to anything and it really does feel like you're flying. Both Snuba and Scuba have their pros and cons and overall Scuba was a very fun experience. We came up after about 20 minutes and I was disappointment that we were done. I later found out that it wasn't 20 minutes, it was actually about 45. After we played in the pool a little bit, I went back to my room and took a nap. Afterwards we had dinner and Jana and I went to our spa appointment. We were in a REALLY nice spa for four hours at a crazy reasonable price. The treatments consisted of a sesame scrub then an outdoor shower. Then they put fresh mango on us and wrapped us up in saran wrap for half an hour. Another outdoor shower. We then had full body massages followed by an hour-long facial. Julie, Laura, and Angela were exhausted from their 12 hour excursion in the Chocolate Hills to see the Tarsiers , so we ordered cookies and ice cream from room service and went to bed.

We were so glad to wake up Monday morning to the first gorgeous, clear day we'd had since we got there. Our flights weren't until late afternoon so we spent the morning laying out on the beach and relaxing in the sun. I was able to hit the gym for the first time since I came to Asia and it was HEAVEN. We packed, sorted out our hotel charges, had lunch, and headed for the airport. We had a frustrating, disorganized, expensive time getting to our gate, but we made it just in time. The leg to Manila was on a humongous 747 just for an hour long flight. We had to ask to make sure we were on the right plane. We had another expensive, frustrating experience once we got to Manila, but had a comfortable flight back to Hong Kong.

Everything went smoothly through customs until I tripped on some uneven tile and sliced my toe open. No stitches required, but it wasn't a pleasant ending to my vacation. We got to our dorm at about 1030 and were exhausted. It was definitely strange feeling like I was "home" when we got back to our dorm room. This is when I realized that I love Hong Kong and my group, but I'm ready to come home. I'm a little homesick and two months is a long time to be on a 13 hour time difference with everyone you know. I have one more weekend here that I will spend in Macau. One or two more blog entries until I come home!

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Part of trip: Hong Kong Summer 2009

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