I mentioned in one of my previous posts about my vacation with friends in one of the islands/provinces here in the Philippines. Cebu was GREAT! I never had a more relaxing and an adventurous trip (aside from El Nido where I did not have a phone with me because there was no signal)! Although it was part of the plan that 3 of us would go, the mother of one, Marian, suddenly decided to take a vacation from the US and go home on the same days that we were supposed to leave for Cebu. She was devastated but of course, Cebu can always wait. She hasn’t seen her mom in a long time so that must have been more worth it than Cebu.

Anyways! As I said, Cebu was GREAT! Although it was raining and we had a very scary experience at the boat and in our cottage, it was well worth going there.

We left Clark Air Base around 8PM, and arrived at Cebu 10PM and got to our first and only an overnight hotel around 10:30-11PM. We haven’t had our dinner yet (no free snacks were served in the airplane so we only had chips) but then we didn’t want to go out for dinner because of the time and our circumstances. We were girls who did not know the area. And so we just ate the SPAM sandwich that I made supposedly for our trip to Malapascua Island. But, we had no other choice.

The next day, we woke up 3AM to get ready to go to the bus terminal that will take us to Maya.

Malapascua Island is the top most island in Cebu and is known for its diving spots (although I never went diving). According to the description we read in their brochure, it is also known as the Little Boracay of Cebu. Boracay is another island somewhere in the Philippines. Most foreigners know about this as it has white sand beaches and a lot of drinking experiences as they say. I have never been to Boracay (also known as Bora) so I don’t know what kind of experiences there are in this little island.

The trip from Cebu City proper to Maya took 4-5 hours by bus which cost us PHP168 per person. But, this is not just any bus. This is an ordinary bus. Aside from the two-time experience I had in riding an ordinary bus (only around the city and no more than 1 hour), I have never riden an ordinary bus. When we got at the bus station at 4 in the morning to catch the first bus up, I was surprised that such a long trip would use such a HOT bus. Then again, if we wanted to stick to our itinerary, we had to take it. And so we did.

After that 4-5 hour bus ride plus moving from one bus to another due to some technical problems with the first bus we rode on, we finally arrived to the Maya Wharf. This is where people then take boats to go to Malapascua Island itself. And, another hour ride.

But, it was definitely worth it.

This is the very first picture I took the moment we landed to Malapascua. I can say that this is nothing compared to El Nido, but this is the best that I can afford with my current budget. El Nido was a family trip so our parents paid for it. This is one that I can pay for.

After searching for the best and cheapest cottage we can find (we weren’t able to take a picture of our cottage, sadly), we finally settled in and had our lunch. From 4AM to 11AM, we were traveling. We only had chips and water on hand. My fault cause I forgot our other snacks inside our refrigerator at home.

Our cottage was beach-view cottage and only cost us PHP900. This is from Sunset Beach Resort. Although I do not really recommend this as there are other more beautiful resorts to stay by the beach, this is by far the cheapest we found so, I couldn’t complain.

We ate at Ging-ging’s restaurant down at the back. All the guides in the island lead their tourists to this restaurant. We don’t really know why. Probably because their food is cheap. But then again, we had a bad experience with their Sizzling Pork. We just don’t know if their pork was rotten or it really tasted that way. Either way, I did not taste the said dish cause I had a bad stomach the day before and I did not want to spoil my stomach by eating something Hazel said might be rotten.

So after lunch, we went back to the cottage and took a short nap. 1:30PM we woke up and got ready for our activities. We had snorkeling and beach hopping. We went around the island on a boat and visited it’s various beaches. These activities we had all cost us PHP1,200 all-in-all (no, not per head).

This is taken from one of the beaches we went to.

And this is the shore of the said beach.

This is actually the last beach we went to before we sped off back to the shore where we were check-in. As you can see from the clouds, the dark clouds are coming and we had to go back before we get stranded somewhere in the waters.

Fortunately, before the strong wind came, we the boat was already anchored and we were in the shore. Just not yet down on land. When the wind blew, it almost tipped the boat taking us with it. Luckily it didn’t, and if it did, we were already at the shore and not in deep waters.

The rain that night was really hard. And due to being tired and not having enough sleep two nights before, we went to bed at 6PM and wok up 3AM, skipping dinner which we had planned at 7:30PM.

After a terrible experience with a drunk person on our proch, we turned off the lights on our porch and continued to sleep until 7AM. We had breakfast again at Ging-ging’s (it seemed like we had no other choice cause we went and tried to look for another place, everything else was either still closed or too expensive for our budget).

After breakfast, we packed our stuff and left at 10AM.

Arriving back at Cebu around 4PM, we went straight to our hotel despite the rain (yes, again), and went shopping for stuff to give back at home. We got our hotel room from Hotel Stella (a much better one than we had on our first night of course) for PHP1645 with a nice bathroom, with a flat-screen TV and free breakfast. We finished shopping around 6PM, went back to the hotel and then went to Ayala Mall.

After which, we went to Crown Regency Hotel and had the SkyExperienceAdventure. They had two rides, one was where you are going to walk around the hotel (outside the hotel), with only a harnest supporting you; plus the platform you are walking on is mostly clear. This they called the Sky Walk.They had us doing stunts like sitting on the edge of the platform with your feet dangling 415 feet above ground. Another was you put your right foot on the very edge of the platform and extend your left hand and foot outside. I will my souvenir image once I get a hold of my camera. I left it at our place in the city.

The other ride is the Edge Coaster where you are fastend on a seat and you are angled down on the edge of the building, looking down. Hazel was forcing me to take the ride. This is one of the moments that when I say no, I really mean it and there is no doubting my answer. She finally gave up and said that we’d only take the one ride plus the buffet.

Before taking the said experience, we first had our dinner buffet at their Sky Resto. A dinner at one of the fancy hotels in the country, this is something I will not let them miss. We had this planned before Marian’s mother came home. I forced them to take the ride with buffet so that we can get the buffet for only around PHP200 in a fancy hotel.

One ride originally costs PHP550. PHP250 for the entrance fee and PHP300 for the ride itself. We only paid PHP750 for one ride and the dinner buffet.

When we actually got to the ride, she was scared. Lol. She was the one who was forcing me to take the Edge Coaster with her, when even in the Sky Walk, she was scared. That was one funny moment.

The best part about these rides is that they give our certificates that you had survived it.

After the said experience, we retreated back to the hotel for our last night.

The next day, we went around the city. To the sites were all people go to be able to say, I have been to Cebu. Of course, I already had my fair share of Cebu a couple of years back. But, for the sake of just going there, we went.

After which, we headed back to the hotel to rest until 12, had our lunch at SM and had their most famous dish, Lechon Cebu. This is definitely different from the normal Lechon people usually have. So I recommend that if you do visit Cebu, you should try their Lechon. We had our Lechon from CNT Lechon. It was PHP460 per kilo. We only had 1/2 kilo and we can barely finish it. We ate it at SM where people did not use spoons and fork to eat the lechon. They provide plastics, put it in your hand, and use your hand to eat. We also had their rice, which they call Puso. This is rice wrapped in banana leaf. It is OH SO delicious when combined with their Lechon!

As I told Hazel, this is the only time people will see a Lasallian not using a spoon and fork to eat, and doesn’t know a clue on how to eat the rice.

At that time, I was wearing my La Salle jacket. If you are from the Philippines, you would know that La Salle is one of the most prestigious schools in the country. Not that I am bragging or anything. It just so happens that it was the only jacket that I had at home that time and I was wearing a sleeveless shirt on a cold environment so I needed a jacket.

3PM, we were on our way back to the airport. Our flight was at 5PM and we kept on looking at the sky hoping that it won’t rain. It didn’t rain alright, in Cebu. In Pampanga, it was raining cats and dogs. I was terrified the entire decent. We landed around 6:30PM

And so, that was our adventure. Next adventure comes this August. We are booked at The Manor in Baguio City for FREE! Our only worry for that trip will be how to get where and where to eat. Hopefully, we can all come this time.

Ronna, too bad you’re not here anymore..