Korean Adventure: Philippines

Off we go. So we finally had a week off from work and I really wanted to go to the Philippines and was very lucky that Justine wanted to go a well. So we left a Friday evening July 27 and returned August 5. We spent 3 days in Cebu and then made our way to Palawan! First I will cover our Cebu adventure!

On the bus to the airport!

Our trip to get to Cebu took quite awhile. We had to fly to Manila first and then had a 6 hour layover before we could make our way to Cebu. We arrived in Cebu at 7 am. Here is Justine trying to catch some sleep before the last flight!

Finally made it

We asked a cab to take us downtown and he took us the the oldest street in Cebu called Colon Street. Interesting street but what I didn't know or realize is how poor the Philippines are and it was a shocker to walk down the street. We did hit the rainy season but in the end it didn't effect our trip too much!

We then made our way to Osmena circle which had a shopping center, Robinson's Mall. We found a nice little internet cafe place for a really good lunch!

Delicious Cesar salad!

There was a really tall building we went to the top and it had some nice views. I forgot its name!

Crazy cool chairs we took a rest in!

After learning how to use a jeepny we took the adventure and it was quite exciting. The cheapest way to get around and I look over excited her but was mostly embarrassed to take the picture because the jeepny was full of locals! We did it fast and not very well. We did make it to our next location which was Ayala Mall. The Philippines may be really poor but they do like their shopping centers.

Our Jeepny

Massive shopping center with everything!

Very nice court yard area

The next day we wanted to go to this Taoist Temple and then the driver talked us into hiring him for the day to take us all over Cebu city and to Mactan Island. We are still sure he way over charged us but it was a good day and we used him all day long!

Beautiful temple with amazing views. On the way to this temple you drive through what they call the Beverly Hills of Cebu and it was nicer but it didn't take much really to be nice. There were actual houses on the way to this temple. The temple was really pretty itself as well.

Justine never knew where to place her hands when taking a picture so all her photos her hands are in different, often odd places. It was funny to watch her decide where to put them.

Next our taxi took us to Mactan Island and to Lapu-Lapu statue. He was the ruler of Mactan Island and fought the Spanish killing Magellan. Nice area on the water.

Dogs everywhere!

Of course shopping and we had a good look.

There are actually real frogs that they emptied out and added a zipper to their mouth to make a purse. Felt weird as well. We didn't buy the whole purse but ended up buying the half frog purses later for Nic and Bob back in Korea!

Cute kid who played some tunes for us. I love his mo hawk.

Our driver, Dimmy. He pulled over suddenly one time and we were very confused but he just got out to go to the bathroom on the side of the road.

Some pictures driving to the next destination. We saw a lot of the area just by all the driving!

Stop #3 was to a place called Plantation Bay and it was an all inclusive resort where more well off people stayed and really didn't do much else. It was a very picturesque lagoon in the middle and surrounded by rooms where each had a ladder into the lagoon from their porch. Justine and I decided we were staying in the wrong area.

A place I could definitely spend a day relaxing.

We finally made it to the ocean.

A cute bird they had in the lobby who would whistle with me.

They had a coconut bar!

Next stop! To tell you the truth there really wasn't a lot here and I am not even sure what happened here but it had some interesting things to see.

Stop #5 Magellan's Cross

We knew we were more in the city and touring areas because there were the children asking for money and other people selling random things.

Our last drop off with Dimmy.

We found a nice fro yo place and they had actual good toppings. The way they did the self serve is you bought the cup and you could fill it as much as you could.