This is the first leg of our Visayan adventure in June 2013.
Okay, I'll start with a tearjerker. I originally planned this trip with my (then) boyfriend, supposedly for our first anniversary as well as my 24th birth day celebration. I booked our flights, made our itinerary, and prepared my bank account for the upcoming shock that month. But apparently he had a different plan in mind. Less than a week before our flight to Cebu, he vanished into thin air. The last messaged I received was our usual I love yous and a good night-message.
I was astounded but I had to decide fast if I'll go on this trip alone or invite someone. I guess you can tell I chose the latter. My very good friend Arlene was more than willing to skip work with a day's notice to accompany me. To avoid suspicion (he wouldn't approve if she told him the truth), she only carried a shoulder bag and told her boyfriend she'll run a quick errand and will come back soon. Did I say, she's a VERY GOOD friend of mine? I did? Well she is, she's the best! So off we flew to the Queen City of the South!
The sun was setting when our plane landed in Mactan airport. I threw the original itinerary up in the air and decided to surprise ourselves by roaming the city of Cebu instead.
We went around downtown to look for the cheapest accommodation since we'll be only staying for a night. Few inquiries and thousands of steps later we finally found one double room. Yes, it was cheap because we shared the room with a family of cockroaches, welcoming us to the city. After settling down and freshening up, we headed to Crown Regency Hotel and Towers for an adrenaline rush. The other attractions and activities weren't available, probably because it was off season, so w ended up doing the Sky Walk Extreme solely. The price per person at that time was particularly high but I did some research the other day and learned that though the old prices stands, they have new promos now. Apart from us two, there was a group of 15 Korean tourists, all teenagers. They were the first batch. They were casually putting on their orange jumpsuits and harnesses - lightly teasing each other. So Arlene and I pretended to be cool about the upcoming walk as well.
I was overflowing with excitement, I thought it would be the highlight of our evening there in Cebu, as it turned out, it was one of the two highlights. Yay! <3
The Walk. They gave us a briefing before leading us to the platform outside floor 37th. The platform was made from glass panels: we were overwhelmed by the bustling traffic below, my heart skipped a beat for a minute. The walk lasted 10-15 minutes, but it was enough for us to admire the city lights and the view, which to my surprise was calming. I reflected as our guide/photographer filled us in with trivia about the tower and some historic places in Cebu. I'd show more photos from the walk, however cellphones, cameras and some personal effects weren't allowed so the official pictures we had were in print and I can't remember where I kept them.
A visit to Magellan's Cross is a part of the original itinerary, that evening it was our next stop. The cross was planted in Cebu by the Portuguese and Spanish explorers headed by Ferdinand Magellan in the 16th century. We took photos and moved on, there's nothing much to do and see in this part of the city. Equipped with walking apparels, we strolled some more around the city. We happened to pass by the Fort of San Pedro which was also built in the 1500s under the command of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. It served as a garrison, a rebel stronghold, and a prison camp. Today part of it was converted into a museum and it's seen as a walled garden.
A taxi was hailed: at this point we were ravenous, we haven't seen one food park. I instructed our driver to take us back to the part of the city where we can find food. We ate our dinner enthusiastically before capping off the night with good drinks and laughters.
The Performance. God bless my poor memory for I failed to record details about the comedy bar which gave us an experience we'll forever recall and chat about. Truthfully, I just wanted to grab a beer because I was worried that we'll miss our 4 am ferry ride to Tagbilaran, Bohol. Anyway, I guess you already know that we had too much to drink and found ourselves on stage singing. HAHA! To cut the story short, the singer-stand-up comedians were throwing jokes here and there but we can only comprehend 20% of the jests. They asked us where we were from as we looked so lost. Luckily, they spoke to us in English and Tagalog and invited us to sing with them on stage. So we did, and it was SO MUCH FUN! We were still giggling on our way back to our room. It was past 2 am then, so we spent the remaining hour lying on bed watching porn to stay awake.
I'm still in awe of how much we've seen and did in one evening. Next blog: Sleepless Souls in Bohol
Peace!