in Cebu

Ever since I was a little boy, I always wanted to see all the beautiful places here in the Philippines. I see them in books, postcards, newspapers, and magazines. And this trip started it all, my dream of exploring my beloved Philippines, and later, the world.

Cebu City, the oldest city in the Philippines, assumed the title of The Queen City of the South, and true to its name, it is very rich in culture, tradition, delicacies, language, and people , clearly the mother queen of all cities . My trip to the country of the Cebuanos - as the natives there call themselves - was rather short, just over the weekend. Around fifteen of my officemates, including myself, went to Cebu just for fun, and because there was a "seat sale" at that time, this one local airline company is always selling airplane tickets for a very cheap price, so we grabbed the chance and booked our flights,  roundtrip, Manila-Cebu-Manila.

Magellan's Cross

Taoist Temple

Our flight was around five in the morning, Saturday, it is that early that one of our colleague failed to check-in on time and unfortunately, were left behind. We arrived at Mactan International Airport in Cebu City and immediately got into the van that we rented for the city tour and went to our hotel to leave our bags and then hit it off for the tour. Since we have only two days for the whole trip, we had to start the tour right away and headed to the tourist attractions inside the metro. We went to a Taoist temple, an old and small walled city - Fort San Pedro, Lapu-Lapu Shrine (Lapu-Lapu is a Filipino hero who fought the Spaniards when they tried to conquer his land, and he killed their general, Ferdinand Magellan), and the Basilica del Sto. Niño - the shrine of the image of a Sto. Niño, which they believe to be miraculous, and who's feast day is sometime in the first or second week of January, they call it the Sinulog Festival where they do street parades and street dances while holding the image of Sto. Niño; also, just outside the Basilica, is the famous Magellan's Cross where the actual cross that Ferdinand Magellan himself planted on that very site where the shrine is erected. Being in a historical place, a very significant part of the Philippine history, it overwhelmed me. I can't believe that I am actually on the site where the history of my country began, that this place, I only see it in books and postcards before, that I was actually inside it and was able to touch the cross. It felt awesome! Then it hit me, I am actually loving what I was going on, that I could do this and explore the Philippines. So right there and then, I said to myself that I will visit all the attractions in the Philippines , that they will be no longer be just an image in a book or postcards or newspapers or magazines, I will be there myself and take the pictures using my own camera.

The city tour was very tiring, so we went back to the hotel, rest for a few hours, freshen up, then we hit the road again, this time to explore the night life and buy some stuff to bring back home. After we were finished buying the danggits, dried mangoes, etc. We then went to this baby back ribs house  that is, according to one of our officemate who lived in Cebu way back when, the best baby back ribs in town and probably in the entire country. The place is called Casa Verde, which is located in The Walk - a place similar to Eastwood or Metrowalk in Manila - which is inside the IT hub of Cebu; also, it is the cheapest baby back ribs in the country, I think, considering the taste and all, you are definitely getting the value for your money. So that's it for the first day, cause I never went to the bars actually and party because I was too tired and was having a terrible headache, I just went back to the hotel and sleep.

On the second day, we went to the Mactan island, on the southern part of the city, and rent a boat for supposedly an "island hopping" but turned out to be an island-sight-seeing-swim-sonrkle-in-the-middle-of-the-sea thing. Not much happenings, but the water is so clear and blue and just very, very amazing. I love how I can see the corals underneath because the water is so clear, and there not much current, so you can really see the bottom of the sea.

On our last day, Monday, we woke up super early because we had to catch our flight that is around five in the morning for us to be able to make it in the office on time. Yes, we went straight to the office after our weekend getaway, well some of us did, some of us did not as they were able to file a vacation leave. You see, we were kind of in one team, so we can't be all our of the office, so some of us who were not that quick enough to file for a vacation leave, had to go to work that day, too bad...

Travel dates: 07 - 09 March 2009

The Trippers