Mabuhay Philippines - Mactan Island, Cebu (Day 3)

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Friday, 26th October 2012

After breakfast at the Bayleaf Hotel this morning, we took our last look at Intramuros before heading to the airport in the afternoon. This morning, we covered our final bit of itinerary at Fort Santiago, located along the western edge of the city. Our early afternoon flight meant that we didn't have much time to enter the grounds of the fort to take a good look of the place. All we could manage were a couple of shots and a quick stopover at one of the souvenirs shop along the street.

We finally came to an end of our trip in Manila as we made our way to the airport. Personally over the past two days, I had developed a love-hate affair with this city. I loved the friendliness of the service staffs we encountered. I loved the coziness of our hotel at the very heart of the city. And I certainly loved the helpfulness of some of the commuters who offered their assistance when we appeared lost at the LRT stations.

Of course, like all Manila folks, we hated the massive traffic jams that seemed to stretch indefinitely especially on a rainy evening. We hated landing at Terminal 1 of the Ninoy Aquino Airport for its back-dated structure. Finally, we hated the typhoon which disrupted our travel plans to Corregidor Island and the American War Cemetery.

From Manila, we continued our journey towards Cebu City about 1hr 20mins flight time to the south. The Philippine Airlines (PAL) certainly impressed us with their attentive service and engaging inflight safety videos. This was one of my most memorable flights I had flown in for the past couple of years. For sure, I would be choosing PAL in future to take me to far flung places like Honolulu and Los Angeles.

Our PAL flight landed on schedule in the afternoon at the Cebu-Mactan International Airport. From the airport, it was another 5 minutes drive to our hotel in Lapu-Lapu city. The rest of our day was spent at the Mactan Marina Mall while trying to firm up the itinerary for the rest of our time in the Philippines. Since we had not opted for a stay in the beach resorts along the coast, we had to make do with whatever we had to make our stay a pleasant one.

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