Our traveling day was incredibly long and annoying. The 10 hour layover was ridiculous and seemed like it lasted a lifetime. We had the opportunity to go out into another part of the airport, but we were unsure of the restrictions. Turns out, we should have went out and explored. We were so bored and restless... Our flight to Cebu was quick and we met a few Koreans on the way. Needless to say, we had no idea that the WHOLE island would be saturated with Koreans. So much for a vacation away from them.
We got picked up by the hotel shuttle and was taken to the hotel. We were able to check in right away, which was nice because we were early. As soon as we got to our room, we settled down a bit and got dressed for the pool/beach. Well...the beach wasn't exactly what we had in mind. Apparently, Mactan Island is technically a coral reef, not really an island. Our beach was the equivalent of someone taking a bunch of shells and grinding them into tiny pieces. It hurt when you walked on it and under no circumstances would you want to put a towel down and lay on it. Luckily the hotel had out plenty of lounge chairs for sun bathing.
I was a little disappointed as to where we were located. We were really far away from everything and Cebu City was about a 45 minute cab ride. We were pretty secluded and it wasn't all that safe to take a stroll into downtown. I didn't realize til after I got back to Busan that there are way better options for the Philippines.
Our days were mostly spent relaxing at the pool side. On our second day we did manage to get out and about on an island hopping tour. We asked the bartender "what is there to do around here?" so he suggested this little trip. It wasn't arranged through the hotel so we were a little sketchy on what we were getting ourselves into. It turned out to be just the two of us going and we got the entire boat to ourselves.
The island hopping tour was quite interesting. We were the only ones on the boat with a crew of 4. Two young kids and two older guys. We made our first stop near the closest island to do some snorkeling. The water was gorgeous. So clear and blue. In order for us to even get in the water we had to pay a "water entrance fee" and a rental fee for the snorkeling gear. Did I mention that Filipinos will charge you for anything and everything. The snorkeling was great and we saw some amazing fish. After snorkeling we got back in the boat and headed for the floating restaurants. Half way across the water to the restaurants, it started getting cloudy and we could see there was a storm coming in. Oh ya, giant black clouds, down pour, in an all open boat. Great. We were soaked, our stuff was soaked, and we were starving. We got to the floating restaurants with ease, but I was a little nervous because there was lightning and thunder and we were under metal roofs. It was amazing how fast the rain came and how hard it fell. The restaurant owners gave us bright pink table cloths to wrap ourselves in, and were given the menu. Being in SE Asia, the menu was not just a handed to us....we were able to get up and choose what we wanted to eat. They had buckets of fresh seafood (catch of the day) that we could go up to and pick what fish, crab, snail, squid, shrimp...etc. we wanted. It was amazing...but as you all know, I'm not much of a seafood person. I ordered a Lapu Lapu (Philippines are famous for this fish and a city is named after it). My friend Katie ordered shrimp, clams and fish. As a courtesy, they offered us some spicy clam soup. Our meals came with some DELICIOUS 맛있요 fried rice. The fish was cooked whole, obviously...can't get a nice steak of fish anywhere around here, and EXPENSIVE. I can't really recall the amount but it was the most expensive meal we had in the Philippines.
The rest of our vacation was spent hanging out with some "locals". I put that in quotes because they are all from different islands but work in the same field. The Phillipines Islands are huge. There are over 7,000 different islands and over 150 different dialects. Pretty crazy. We met these crazy cats through a friend/acquaintence of Katie's. She lives in a small town in Korea called Andong and this guy is a University professor (he might be younger than me). We met up with him and he was friends with about 7 or 8 Filipinos. They are all Medical Reps or as we say Pharmeceutical Reps. Great people. We went out for dinner and coffee one night to get to know them and then the next day they took us on a 2 day tour of Southern Cebu. It was great because they all had cars and spoke English. We went to Mantayupan Falls and played around all day and then they took us to a beach after. We stayed the night at the beach and had a big Filipino dinner. It was great. They were so hospitable and wouldn't let us pay for anything. I was a little bummed out about the beach. There wasn't really anywhere to lay out in the sand because again, it had shells all over it. The view was gorgeous and the water was warm and clear.
Overall, we had a great time. There would have been a few things I might have changed but it was a great experience. When I got back to ROK everyone decided that was a good time to tell me of a better island to go to....jerks. Haha. Well I hope that fills you in a little bit on my first exploration around Asia.
Hope all is well on the home front. I'm thinking of coming home in January...not quite sure though. It will be summer in Australia..haha.
Love you all,
Jin
