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Published: November 12th 2005
Sinulog 2005
Welcome to Sinulog 2005!ACCOMMODATIONS
1. Unless you can afford to stay at Shangri-la Mactan or Plantation Bay (which charge a minimum of P8K/night!) or go to the really nice but far beaches like Malapascua or Bantayan, you're better off staying at the city. The beaches in Mactan, after all, are just a 30-minute cab ride away.
There is Marriott (around P4K/night) which is in the Central Business District and is adjacent to Ayala Center Cebu. This is where I stay when I'm on a business trip. If you are on a budget, there are a lot of pension inns / business hotels in Cebu City. I recommend Castle Peak Hotel along F. Cabahug which is just a 5-minute ride from Ayala Center. Even with the super-peak rates of Sinulog festival, they only charged P1110 net per room per night. The regular rate for the Standard room is P888 net. This is an aircon room with 1 double bed and 1 single bed, cable, hot and cold water.
FOOD
2. Cebu is a foodie wonderland. Food is good and best of all, cheap (compared to Manila). Here are my recommendations:
Abuhan at F. Ramos for the best-tasting pochero and sizzling
Sinulog 2005
Look at that hunk of meat! Mouthwatering bulalo at Abuhan Dos. pochero in Cebu. Their pochero is actually bulalo, not the pochero with the red soup and bananas we know of here in Manila. There is Abuhan 1 and Abuhan Dos. I think both are open 24-hours. Don't miss it!
Casa Verde near F. Ramos also (it's on a side street, just ask the cab driver to take a right at A. Pond along F. Ramos then turn left on the first corner and you have Casa Verde). It's actually a house in a compound so some of the cabbies are not familiar with it. Food is cheap (less than a hundred per plate) and not to miss are the ribs and callos.
Grand Majestic at Archbishop Reyes for the best Chinese lunch buffet. They have peking duck and an amazing array of dimsum. It's P275/head but you have as many choices there as the hotel buffets here! Eat as much of the Cebu mangoes as you can there
Tong's Grill, a 5-minute walk from Castle Peak, serves cheap lunch buffet with oysters (!) at P150/head. There's a cheaper lunch buffet at City Grill along Maxilom Ave. for P130/head (also with oysters; P99/head without oysters) but the food
Sinulog 2005
First of tens of colorfully-clad teams (one per town) competing for the Sinulog's best presentation at Tong's is better.
For 24-hour tapsilog (what you need especially after a drunken night out ), try Sinangag Express just a 3-minute walk from Castle Peak. Good tapsi is at P35 lang! Best value talaga.
I heard the sisig of Portico at JY Square is good but it was closed when we went there. (Note that many restaurants in Cebu, especially the grills, open only from 6pm onwards. Ask the cabbies or your hotel receptionist before you go.)
Larsian for sidewalk bbq is a Cebu legend. If you're icky about eating out at the sidewalk, try AA or one of the nearby resto grills.
CNT Lechon restaurant in front of SM is not to be missed! If you want to take some home, you can freeze them overnight at your hotel ref
Harbor City at Ayala Center or SM for cheap dimsum served from carts that go around the resto. Ding qua-qua at Fuente Osmena and JY Square is also famous but I liked the dimsum of Harbor City better.
Krua Thai at Crossroads for very good Thai food.
Persian Palate (I think) beside Krua Thai at Crossroads serves very good kebabs
Sinulog 2005
Here's another and curries. Note that most of the restos in Crossroads, while serving very good food, is similar to Manila in price.
East West at The Village for the best crepes in town! Try their Mango Sushi -- a super good buy for only P95!
For coffee, forget Starbucks. Try Bo's (it's a local Cebu chain so they're everywhere), Off-roads or Tinderbox.
SHOPPING
3. For shopping, here's my secret: for some reason, I get a lot of high-end good finds in Cebu. Ayala Center has the high-end brands here (the Store Specialist stores -- Marks&Spencer, Nine West, Lacoste, etc.) and more often than not, they are on sale. Maybe because the upper-class of Cebu would rather shop in Manila or out of the country, you would tend to get great bargains at the high-end shops in Ayala Center Cebu. On my recent trip, I got a pair of Nine West shoes at 70%!o(MISSING)ff!
Go to Taboan for dried fish, danggit, dried pusit, etc. They're way cheaper than those in the groceries and there are a lot of stuff not seen anywhere else. Try the Fish Tocino and Fish Tapa. This is a palengke so don't
carry too much money around. I always buy my stuff at IMB -- it's one of the big stores there and while tawad is low (less P10-20 lang usually), the prices are reliable. They are tourist-friendly -- if you buy a lot, it is normal for them to ask if you want it boxed for when you check it in the airport. Their products are also air-sealed so you don't stink at the airport -- believe me, these dried things stink! Make sure you go to Taboan in the morning and make time to go back and shower before going anywhere else! Kahit yung pera mo mabaho after
From Taboan, you can take a jeep or a cab going to Carbon. This is the central market so again, be careful. Good finds here are the native bags and decors that you see being sold in bazaars in Manila. Dito puedeng magpakatigas sa pagtawad haha! The row of native stores is short so make sure to walk the length of it first before making your purchase as I discovered prices would vary greatly from store to store depending on how madugas the tinderos/tinderas are (especially for non-Visayan speaking folks). I've
bought a lot of bags here -- they're sturdy and the cheapest anywhere.
If you fancy bringing a splash of color in your hotel room during your stay, Carbon also has a lot of flower vendors -- they sell a lot of cheap bouquets, many flowers uncommon in Manila (you normally just see roses and mums here) as these are grown in Kang-irag (near Tops) and exported directly from there.
SIGHT-SEEING
4. For sight-seeing, go to Tops, a viewdeck where you have a breathtaking view of the Cebu island. Go at night so you can see the outline of the island plus the small islets around Cebu. It's better if you know someone who can bring you there because I heard the cabbies charge P500+ going there. It's quite far from the city and it's not accessible via public transport. The road going there is dark and steep (imagine the Baguio zigzags without lights) and well, scary, especially for those not used to travelling in unfamiliar places. It's cold most nights because of the elevation so bring a light jacket.
There's not much in Tops in terms of food and facilities except for a pseudo-resto which
serves just beer and junk food so have dinner before going there. There's an Italian restaurant (La Tegola) and a Pinoy resto (Mr. A's) on the way to Tops but the food sucks and is expensive (relative to Cebu standards). There is one that's very good -- Isla -- it's paluto-type, mostly seafoods, but still quite pricey (just slightly cheaper than our Dampa here).
For first-timers, go downtown in Colon for a taste of history. Visit Basilica de Sto. Niño, the birthplace of Christianity in the Philippines. At the back of the church is Magellan's Cross. A short walk from there is Fort San Pedro. Not much to see there but since you're already there, might as well see it.
SPAS AND SALONS
5. Not to miss in Cebu are the spas that abound the city. Spas here are cheap but still comparable to the spas we have in Manila in terms of services and facilities. Don't expect the ambiance of Manila spas as the spas here seem to be a regular part of the Cebuano lifestyle unlike Manila where the spas are a luxurious treat. But they're still relatively good. In fact, it is common for
teens (yes teens!) to go to spas to wind down after a night out.
Full-body massages (1hr) cost just P200 - P250. Good places here are Royal Spa along Banilad (it's open til 2am!), Body and Sole (there's one near Castle Peak, one in F. Ramos and another in Archbishop Reyes Ave. yata), Touch N' Heal along F. Ramos, Sawadee in Banilad and Meddah Spa in Crossroads (most expensive).
6. If you have nothing else to do and would like designer hairstyle at an outrageously cheap price of P300, visit Bridges Salon at JY Square. The owner, Francis, is Singaporean and he is the only one who cuts hair. His expertise is short hair. Apparently, this is where Cebu's "who's who" have their hair and nails done and Francis himself is a socialite in Cebu I had my hair cut there recently and when I came back, everyone was raving about my new 'do. Looks expensive daw hahaha. Expensive talaga if I have to fly to Cebu pa to get the same look every 2 months but the idea is very, very tempting...
For really cheap but so-so haircut, go to Salon de Rose at Ayala Center
or SM. Haircut is P90 lang. Pedicures and manicures are also cheap at P60 and P50.
BEACHES
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7. For beaches... ahhh, Cebu. If you can't spare at least 3 days for Malapascua or Bantayan (travel alone would take 4-5 hours but it's super worth it), the beaches of Mactan would do. As the beach resorts here are stand-alone and are isolated (gated) from each other unlike the beach stretches of Boracay, Panglao or Puerto Galera, day trips would do as you'd probably just get bored. Normally, what I would do is go to the beach on my last day para direcho na sa airport after. There are a number of resorts beside each other in the Tambuli, Maribago area and these are the affordable ones. Day trips would cost around P250-P350 which includes use of the facilities (beach, pool, dressing rooms) and food coupons. Costabella is good.
Shangri-la and Plantation Bay are farther away and are in a different area. Day trips cost P1500 for Shangri-la and P1250 for Plantation Bay. Shangri-la's Day in Paradise is super-sulit because the P1500 includes a buffet lunch at Tides, their new resto where the food is breathtaking (not an adjective
you would normally use to describe food but believe me, when you see and taste their food, you would understand). I haven't been to Plantation Bay because my Cebu friends said that if the beach is what you're after, then Shang is better. Plus, the P1250 just includes set lunch and yes, the food sucks (daw). We saved P550 during our recent visit to Shang because we hitched a ride in their shuttle that goes regularly to the airport Don't know if you could do the same in Plantation Bay.
So there. Hope this takes you far in Cebu. Enjoy Cebu, it's one of the best places in the Philippines 😊
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very
very nice blogs. very entertaining. keeps my travel daydreams going.