27/03/18

It was a successful flight to Hong Kong, pretty much slept the whole way. Walked around for a few hours until my flight to Manila, once in Manila we had to wait for a bus to change terminals and catch the next flight to Cebu. It’s taking about 2 days to reach our final destination!

My friend Ejay picked us up from the airport and took us to Hostel 7, a hostel that his friend runs. We checked in and took a much needed nap. About 1pm we got ready and I went to buy a SIM card from 711. Annoyingly no ATMs would take my credit card, which is apparently a normal thing to happen. And I had to leave the SIM card to go get cash. We ended up having to walk to the HSBC bank which was 30mins away and draw money out there. Luckily we could draw money out and there’s no bank charge there either. After another 30 min walk back to the 711 I got my sim and we went to meet Ejay.

I wasn’t very hungry but he took us to a shawarma joint and we had a small wrap. Then we walked to the main road near the hostel and jumped in a jeepney bus which is a pimped out local run mini van, much like those found in Barbados. We took the 06A bus down to the famous Colon street which is the oldest part of Cebu. It was so fun to sit in the bus, we had to pass everyone’s money down to the driver who was half driving half counting the money and squish up as more people got on, and it only cost 7pisos. To stop the bus you hit your coin on the bar overhead, make a sucking noise or just shout at the driver.

When we got off we walked to the market which was mega bustling selling all types of food. Then we walked to the oldest church in Cebu, and into the only park area in the city. There was an old fortress which we had to pay 30pisos to enter. It was pleasant to walk around and even though it was a stones throw from the market, it was really peaceful. Walking back we passed this parade of Jesus, it had statues of Jesus being whipped and other niceties. We then went and bought a ton of fruit, and finally took another jeepney bus back towards the hostel. Once back we jumped in Ejay’s car and he took us to go eat Lechon in their biggest mall. It was super tasty pork, a bit like Cantonese roast duck, we also ate sisay which is fried pig head and some bitter gourd. Afterwards he took us to ice giant to have dessert, which was like a Korean bingsu with shaved ice at the bottom. I chose a pandan one with condensed milk ice cream, mega delish.

For our first day we crammed in a lot and I’m pleased we saw so much. I think I’ll be full for days haha.