An absolute fabulous ride down from Cebu City

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KM 170
It had been three years since I had been on a bike tour, so I was raring to go on my first official riding day (I had put in 25 kms yesterday). I bolted out of the gates at 5:30 and I had great start with the first 20 kms being four lanes. After another 30, the traffic died down noticeably and by kilometre 75 it was dead quiet. The other nice thing was that the roads were all nicely sealed even though they didn't have a shoulder. But then again, vehicles were not passing by at 100 km/hr.

One of those random moments I had was next. As I rode past an elementary school at about 8:00, I could hear the song Let's Get Physical by Olivia Newton John blaring out. At the same time, all of the students were moving to the song led by four of them. I was able to get it on video.

The ride got more and more beautiful as the day progressed with the last 60 kilometres completely along the coast. I can't recall another ride that I have done where I passed by as many resorts as today. I even had a tailwind for the afternoon. I had a big ride today and I needed to take a ferry across from Cebu Island to Negros Island. I didn't eventually get settled in to my hotel until around 16:30, as my hotel was not the easiest to find either.

One thing that was neat about the day were the water coolers. All throughout the country, people buy their water through vending machines. This made it easy and convenient for me to fill up without spending a lot of money on water, which can add up, when I am drinking 5-6 litres on a typical riding day in the tropics.

The most interesting thing about my stay in Dumaguete was the place I was staying at -- Island Leisure Hotel. At first glance, I thought this place could take the tile of most value per dollar of any stay in my history. Coconut Lodge (Panama City) looked like it might be in trouble. For less than $30, I had a boutique hotel beautifully decorated for what would go for $150 to $200/night back home. I was even able to have a Swedish massage within 30 minutes of arriving. How can life get any better? Then things started to unravel. The owner, who I am sure was gay, seemed to be able to decorate to no end, but managing a hotel was a whole different story. He just couldn't execute… Here are some of the things that went wrong.

Staff
- Too many - I counted six behind the desk one morning
- Not trained
- My waiter had to constantly go to another when I would asked questions about the food menu
- I asked for a Colt 45 beer and the staff member brought me five bottles of beer (she had no idea there was even a beer called Colt 45)
- I wasn't billed for services and food I had consumed
- I had to correct them on the final bill, which ended up doubling my non-room bill

Security Box in Room
- Wasn't bolted down
- No one had keys for it (they were actually still in the box...)
- None of the keys the front reception had were labelled
- They had to break into the box when I couldn't get it opened on the morning I was leaving

Rooms
- Wi-fi worked fine in the lobby, but not in the bedrooms -- lied to me on what was really the problem
- Too many pillows…
- Eight on the bed
- Four on the couch
- That is too many for me
- The whole sofa was there just to hold all of the pillows
- Toilet seat broken
- No soap in the bathroom and when I asked for a bar one of the staff brought me shampoo and said that is what they use here…

I could go on, but it was a disaster in execution. On the second night, there was a photo shoot going on. It was my understanding that Island Leisure Hotel was going to be featured in a national magazine, so there were a number of models floating around the hotel for a few days. The owner seemed to be way too occupied with that event rather than running his hotel.

On day two, I went into town to get my bike fixed (lost a brake pad somewhere and to get my rear-derailer working properly).

I am convinced the ratio of Western male tourists to female tourists has to be 95 to 5. I have barely even seen a tourist on this trip other than the men here on apparent sex holidays. That might also explain why all the touts were all trying to sell me Viagra and Cialis. Who the hell would buy drugs like this off someone on the street here?

As my day moved more into siteseeing, I couldn't overlook how much Spanish influence is still in existence today (remember the Spanish were here for nearly 400 years). From the architecture, to the signage, to the language, the Spaniards have left their mark.

It is interesting looking at something like the English language around the world and seeing how it evolves. For example, here in tap water is called service water. You don't get in line, you fall in line here.

Tips have been a bit of a confusing thing. In Cebu City they were generally included with most things, but on the road things have been different and I am never quite sure when to tip and when not to. When tipping, the tips do seem to be shared amongst the staff.

It is interesting seeing how much the way I travel has changed since the last time I did this. With the MacBook Air (which I absolutely love), the Garmin GPS bike computer, unlocked iPhone, Trip Advisor, and internet have made travelling a lot easier. With nearly all of the hotels I am staying at having wi-fi, I can easily stay in touch back home with iMessage and Facebook. Scoping for hotel rooms may soon become a dying art. I will have a chance to do it the "old way" in Kabankalan tomorrow.

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