Cebu
Trip Start
Sep 05, 2010
1
8
16
Trip End
Oct 15, 2010
What I did
Cebu City, Central Visayas, Philippines
Monday, September 27, 2010
9/23/10
Day 18
I woke up early and got started out for our flights departing from Caticlan. Caticlan is not on Boracay island. We had to take a trike taxi to the port, then a boat across the lake to the Caticlan port, then a kilometer or so taxi to the airport. While I was waiting, I got a back and shoulder massage and it felt so good! I wish I would have got more of these. It was pretty cheap also One of the funny things about the airport was there is a firearms discharge station. Who carries firearms onto planes? there was like no security. I checked into my hostel and went to Ayala Mall and just walked around, ate and watched a movie.
9/24/10
Day 19
I woke up and tried asking about a few trips to local tourist sites, but the guy in the office was insisting that instead of taking a taxi, we take his friend and pay him more. He was very pushy and this was annoying. We took the taxi and it ended up saving us a lot of money. Taxi's are about $5/hour in Philippines. We started out the day by going to the Taoist temple. It was very nice. It had a good view of the city because it was in the mountains. It also had excellent landscaping. We went to Fort San Pedro next and it was very similar to Fort Santiago in Manila. I later went walked to Magellan's cross. He came to this area in the 15th century and planted a cross. We then walked to a Cebu monument that had war scenes and other stuff on it before it started raining, then we really had no choice, but to go to the local SM mall. It was another huge mall and bigger than the Ayala Mall. Philippines malls are way over the top. It rains here so much and gets over the top, so there is nothing else to do. We watched a movie called “The legend of the Guardians” in 3D. It wasn't so great, but it killed some time.
9/25/10
Day 20
I got up early and tried to catch a boat to an island called Bohol and go see some chocolate hills, but the ferry was full, so I made a reservation for the next day. I then went to SM mall again, went bowling and got a foot massage. I did well in bowling, but would have rather had a back massage than foot massage, then went to the hostel, rested for a bit, then to some night clubs. It was clear that the taxi driver didn't know where this place was that had 20 bars in one area. He just decided to take me to a bikini bar. I bought a beer for me and mix drink and gave them basically $20 and they came back with $4 and said there was all these charges, taxes and other stuff. It pissed me off. This was basically a prostitution joint. The girls were funny there. They would dance in bikinis and had no movement. The guys in the bar would buy them for the night and only be responsible for a place to stay. Upstairs had rooms for rent. I then took a taxi back to a group of bars near the hostel and went out to them and they were upper class with $2 entry for guys, $1 for girls. That included drinks also. So it was quite a deal. I went to three clubs and all of them had the same cover and gave same free drinks. It was fun.
9/26/10
Day 21
I woke up early and caught our boat to Bohol. The capital city of this island is like Tagliarbin or something like that. It was a pretty nice city and when I arrived, I talked to the tourist information office and they told me to go to the bus station and I could take a van to the chocolate hills. I was bombarded by taxi drivers on trikes when I exited the port. It was frustrating because they would follow us around. Finally a taxi driver told us he would taxi me to the terminal, but he wanted to sell us a tour and we said no, so he took me to the wrong terminal. I caught another taxi to the right terminal and no one would tell us where to go unless we purchased the package through them and they wanted ten times the amount of what the bus would cost. I ended up not being able to make it anywhere because the people would not help us. I went to the mall, ate and watched two movies. We watched “Vampires Suck” and the “Ghost House.” Then went to the port, caught our boat back. I was exhausted from being out late at night. I got back to Cebu and could not find a taxi. Everyone must be off duty on Sundays. Finally, I got a taxi late at night after walking several miles They took me to a place where I could eat. I had Shakey's pasta and a shake, then went back to our hostel to collect my luggage and took another taxi to the airport and was off once again to another destination
