Land of the Dried Mangoes

Friday, January 4, 2008 - Ahh.. oh Cebu. Where Mangoes taste a little bit better. Where the streets seem a little bit cleaner. And where the air smells a little bit fresher... just a little bit. I think I've developed asthma while I've been here or maybe it's just the smog.

We left Boracay on Wednesday at 9:30am to head to Cebu. I, Melissa, woke up at about 6:30am because the front desk had lost Dave. Well not lost, he chose to leave the place himself.

Dave was arranged to be picked up at the hotel for the airport at 5:30am. Since the hotel escorts came late, Dave decided to find a way to the airport himself. Remember, it's not that easy to get to Boracay. Let alone Dave had to find yet another airport to go back to Manila himself.

We, on the other hand, were to travel to Cebu. It's weird we had to leave Boracay from another airport than we had arrived in. Although it took us longer to get there, the aiplane we took to Cebu was new, a lot cleaner and a lot bigger.

Our first destination in Cebu would be Shangri-la Mactan Resort. Let me just say, we felt like movie stars. The place is amazing! Well, for the high price of one night it had to be! The four of us stayed in one room that was supposed to accomodate only 3 people max. Instead, since the rooms were so expensive, we decided to secretly share the room between the 4 of us. Everywhere in the resort you had to give them your room number. We felt like they were suspicious that we ate dinner for four, rented towels for four, ate breakfast for four, and went to the gym with four. Yet, there was only 3 people in the room.

We wanted to go to Bohol (Chocolate Hills) the next day we arrived in Shangri-la but it rained, so we said we would go the next day. And then the next day, it rained again. What luck.

Now we are in Plantation Bay Cebu. I get free internet for half an hour and I think I'm almost done. If you want to know what it looks like here, Kevin describes it as an amusement park.... think Universal Studios with salt water pools.

Tomorrow, my dad is meeting us and we're heading to Matagok at 6:00am in the morning. Why did he pick such an early time? I have no idea. So I have to make the most of this place while I can.