Cebu City

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What a morning! It started off okay, got packed up and had a nice breakfast at the restaurant. We sat waiting for our tuk-tuk to turn up. We waited ages and it became evident that he had forgotten about us or had a better offer. It took 45 minutes from where we were staying on Panglao Island to the ferry port, we were on a serious time crunch. The owners of our guesthouse saved the day, they had to go to a flower market near the ferry port, so they offered to take us. We were relieved for about a minute, until we realised we had to wait for the driver and van to turn up. It was stressful, waiting and watching the minutes tick by. The van turned up and we drove to the port, it wasn't smooth sailing as we had to stop to get petrol and then when we hit the city, the traffic was at a stand still. We reached the ferry port, with a glimmer of hope that we would make it. We had to swap our tickets for boarding passes and we ran into the tent of a terminal. We rushed up to the boarding gate, to find that the ship hadn't even boarded yet. We were so relieved. We boarded a few minutes later, and found we were sitting right at the front. The boat was pretty empty. The journey was about two hours and pretty smooth. They were showing a film, but it was a crappy Transformers one, so I read my book instead.

We took a taxi from the port to our hotel. It didn't take too long, although the taxi driver did get a little lost, he was in the right area, just on the wrong street. We had to wait a little while, and then we were checked-in. We headed up to our room, it was small with no windows, but it would do the job for a night. We spent a bit of time in the room, planning what we were going to. We headed out, our first stop was for some food, as we were hungry. We found a Jolibee close to our hotel. Jolibee is a Filipino fast food restaurant, and since we hadn't been to the atm yet, perfect for our dwindling budget. I ordered the Ultimate Burger Steak Meal, because it came with mashed potato. However when we ordered there must have been some mix up, as I got chips instead of mash. The meal was nice, the burger actually tasted and looked like a proper burger, not one of those wafer thin patties. The gravy had mushrooms in it, and that was good. The meal came with a fired egg, I love eggs, so I was happy with that. It was a bit of a carb overload due to the chips and rice, but I still scoffed the lot.

We left Jolibee and found a cab, pretty much straight away. Score! We headed to the Taoist temple, which is quite far from where we were staying. The temple is set in a gated community, and our taxi driver, had to trade his ID for some pass to get us in there. The community is called Beverly Hills, very swanky! Our taxi driver had offered to wait for us, saying that it is difficult to get a taxi from within Beverly Hills, we agreed even though I was slightly skeptical, how many times before have I had that before. However, our taxi driver spoke the truth, there were no taxis about. We wandered up the steps to the temple. The views were pretty good, and we could see down on Cebu City, and out to sea. The temple was built in 1972. I don't really know anything about Taoism, it has something to do with throwing stones to see if you can make your wish and then if your wish will be granted, I think. It didn't seem very clear. The temple was pretty and it was different to all the temples I have been in recently, in Korean and Japan. I loved all the dragons.

Our taxi was waiting for us, and we drove down to Fort San Pedro. The journey didn't take took long, even though there was quite a bit of traffic about. One place we drove through was obviously a bit sketch as our taxi driver locked the doors. He dropped us off in front of the fort. There were quite a few police officers in front of the fort, making sure that taxis didn't linger. We headed into the fort and paid the entrance fee. It was all very official as we had to fill out our names on the receipt. We had a look around the fort. The fort was built in 1565, by the Spanish government. There is a small museum, which had some information about the local area. The fort was quite busy, it seemed a popular place for couples to come to. From the top we could see down on the park below. There were a few dance groups practicing.

From the fort, we headed to Magellan's Cross, as it was a short walk away. We had to walk round a huge church to get there. The church is called Basilica of Santo Nino and contains the statue of Santo Nino, the Holy Child, which is said to be the oldest religious relic in the Philippines. The area around the church was a hive of activity, an there were people coming and going from the church in droves. Magellan's Cross was a bit of a let down, as it was covered up and undergoing some restoration. Just our luck! The small octagonal building houses a wooden cross that commemorates Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese conquistador, who planted a wooden cross once the original inhabitants of the island converted to Christianity. We headed into the church, it was huge, there were so many people in there. People attending religious services may be dwindling in the west, but definitely not in the east. There was a huge outdoor service going in when we were there. One perk of going to church in the tropics, outdoor services. It was beautiful, not that I had a clue what was going on. We listened to a bit of the service, and then had a look around the church, it was very ornate. There was a gorgeous garden in the centre, which had statues that were lit up with changing colours.

We had decided to walk along to Colon Street from the church as it didn't look to far. The walk wasn't too far at all, although the area we walked through as pretty sketch. There were quite a few homeless people about and the area looked quite run down. I kept a tight hold on my bag as we walked up the street. I wasn't too impressed with the Colon Street Area, we had read that it was a big shopping area, and that there was a market. However, we didn't come across the market. We headed in to Metro, a big supermarket and had a fab time. I love going to supermarkets in foreign countries. We spent ages going around all the aisles, looking at the different things that were on offer. We also ended up filling a basket full of goodies. We also had a wander around a shopping mall, which wasn't very exciting. We took a cab back to the hotel and spent the evening chilling, catching up on the TV. We wandered up to 7-11 at one point to grab some water and see if there was any food to eat. Filipino 7-11s do not compare to their Japanese counterparts, there was nothing exciting to eat, a few sweet buns or pot noodles.

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Comments

[JustG]

Dreamlike Scenery of Roses
We've been there too last week the temple is very solemn. Right after that temple we went to see 10,000 roses cafe in Cordova.Did you went there too?

[Zephyr]

Hope you had a great trip!
No, I didn't know about the cafe. Hopefully, I can get back to the Philippines one day.