October 10 / 11 / 12
Cebu City is … well, “busy” doesn’t really get to the heart of it. It’s a humming, lively place where wealth and poverty sit cheek by jowl and seem to get along quite happily. Filipinos are friendly – crossing the road on foot is an act of faith where everyone simply steps out in front of oncoming cars / jeepneys / buses / trikes / motorbikes in the confident expectation that they’ll not hit you– yet there’s hardly a sign of the road rage that would accompany any similar manoeuvre in the UK.
As Nikki and I spend more time together a few trends are beginning to emerge. One is that she has as good a sense of direction as I do – which is to say, we spend a lot of time heading in the wrong direction. When setting out on a half kilometre journey I now assume it’ll actually be one and half as we head in the wrong direction for a while before reversing.
We stayed in a bedsit in the IT Area, which hardly cost anything and was modern, clean and fully equipped, if a little bijou. The area itself is largely unremarkable – lots of chains and a large mall full of the kind of stuff you can find in most big cities. Head out though, and there’s lots of interest. We managed to get a very expensive taxi to the barkingly mad Temple of Leah, created by the aforementioned Leah’s heartbroken husband of 59 years and now run by his … second wife. Confidently predicted to last 3000 years on current progress it’ll do well to make 30 – it’s a crumbling, unoccupied edifice, full of the stuff she hoarded over the years that mainly serves as the backdrop to an Insta-ready generation. Expect lots of tourists taking snaps of themselves – but you can’t go inside.
Prior to that we’d gone up the hill – more of a mountain really – to the even more bizarre countryside park, which has gone downhill in the metaphorical sense since being recommended back in the pre-pandemic days. But the views of the city were astonishing and well worth the hike, even if we did end up going cross-country.
Buoyed by our sightseeing prowess we decided to walk down the hill rather than hang about and hope for a taxi. Eventually we managed to catch a Jeepney. Jeepneys are blinged up converted jeeps that serve as buses and are as cheap as chips to use. We staggered back home, plunging out into the hot and choking traffic for a well deserved rest before heading out to the local night market – which was fantastic, even if I was the oldest person there by at least twenty years. Not all the food would be to western tastes, mind …
On day 2 in Cebu we took a bus (30 pesos) to a local mall which obviously puzzled the locals and the bus driver, since there was no obvious reason why any tourist would head in that direction. It also puzzled us as we’d intended to head down to the sea front and had (again) gone the wrong way … reversing out on the bus going the opposite way (42 pesos) we finally got to our intended destination and headed into a local bar where we had a bit too much beer, some lovely local grub and some additional alcohol, kindly proffered by the waiting staff on observing me anointing my mosquito bites with vinegar.
We then took in the newly opened Museum of the Philippines – well worth the visit – and the old Spanish Fort San Pedro – very small, but definitely worth the 50 pesos entry fee. We then played chicken with some more traffic – whatever you do don’t hesitate – and visited the Basilica del Santo Nino , revered by many Filipinos as the site where a picture of Jesus left by Magellan’s original expedition was discovered by the next set of Spaniards to arrive. If you like churches it’s grand, and Magallan’s Cross – supposedly left by the great man itself – is just outside.
We then staggered around Colon Street, the oldest part of Cebu – lots of life but boy was it hot and polluted – before deciding to get the bus back home, which Nikki tracked down using the combination of the bus website and Google Maps
In the evening we headed up to a roof top bar that was close by, via more insane traffic and traffic fumes, for a moderately expensive cocktail way above the crowds where we got an excellent view of all of the traffic slowly heading home for the day.
Weirdly it turned out to be three times further to get back to our apartment (walk the wrong way, turn round, walk back …) where Nikki cooked a simply astonishing meal before we collapsed into bed. Tomorrow we head off to the island of Bohol, for what we imagine will be a slightly quieter couple of days.
– Tim