Over a year since the last trip to the Philippines had past and I was now boarding a Qantas flight from Sydney, direct to Manila. It was nice to not have to fly to Melbourne and stop over there which is what you must do when flying with Philippine Airlines. I also found the flight lot better, the food was better, I never got the pain in my ears like I did with Pal and overall it was a lot better experience.

Flight from Manila to Cebu

I arrived in Manila after 5.pm the same day and then met my friend at the airport. After that we then got on our way to the domestic airport to get a flight straight to Cebu. I had no plan to stay in Manila so we just got the first flight out although it was not a good idea to by the tickets then as they were quite expensive. So make sure you buy tickets online before hand if you ever want to fly out the same day.

The flight was with Cebu Pacific and it was a comfortable and quick flight, less than 1 hour to Mactan airport. The problem is the flight was the last one so we never got to Cebu until the late hours of the night. It was around 11.pm by the time we got our luggage. We rang a couple of pension houses but no one answered so we had to stay in the fairly expensive Crown Agency for the first night at about 3,500 pesos. The room was nice and comfortable though and with great service. We also could have a buffet breakfast in the morning that came with the price. The breakfast was quite good and we certainly felt full after a number of servings of various fruits, cereals and toast. The omelette was also worth asking for.

Crown Agency Hotel Mactan

We met another friend who showed us around Mactan and Lapu-Lapu but some of her recommendations for accommodation were questionable. She showed us an apartment that we could rent out but it was quite run down and I personally wouldn’t stay in a place like that even if I was paid to. These apartment complexes are common in Lapu-Lapu and surrounding districts, often they have a number of buildings and usually around 3 – 6 floors. When you see that some of the rooms have been demolished right next to ones that are furnished and ready to let then it’s time to move on. Thank heavens we never rented one of these places out as we could have being tied up for months once a deposit is paid.

Our friend showed us a hotel to stay at called the Queenslander in Lapu-Lapu. It was 1200 pesos a night for a standard room. The room itself was ok but they had a picture advert of sex toys behind the door so it wasn’t hard to work out who their main customers are. I guess it explains their terrible service and rude woman on the reception. The young men that would let us in the rooms looked like people I would not let in my home but these guys had our room keys and we were not given them as we had to get these guys to open our doors. Unfortunately we paid for 2 nights in advance and the cheeky B%%%S had the balls to give us a bill for another night when we left and asked for the fridge bill. I said what the F$ and the young man soon realized they had made a mistake or got caught out, one of the two but I would not go back there again.

We found a pretty good pension house/budget hotel called The Axis Hotel that is near the Mactan Markets. Many of the taxi drivers we met had no idea where it was so work out how to get there before you jump in a cab. It is clean, tidy, secure and friendly. The security guard was always helpful getting us a cab or tricycle and the staff were friendly and we felt safe there. The price was pretty good too, only $800 pesos a night + $50 pesos for a fridge. That price includes breakfast, cable TV, air con, hot shower etc.

We stayed there for a couple of nights while we looked at condos and apartments around that area but we could not find anything suitable to live in. So we decided to get out of Cebu city and Lapu-Lapu and head over to a small town called Balamban, near Toledo on the west coast of Cebu. We stayed at Pedros after I heard about it on a forum.

Peter (or Pedro) picked us up from the Balamban bus depot after a 2 – 3 hour bus ride from Cebu. Him and his wife Jenny put us in Tricycles and they took us to their home. We would rent out the largest room for $1900 pesos for one week, I gave them $2000 pesos. Now that is pretty good value considering that we would pay that much in one or two nights for a pension house in Cebu city or Lapu-Lapu. The room came with a large fan and good ventilation through louvers. We got cable TV included, although it wasn’t working properly for the fist couple of days but then Peter fixed it. Same thing with Wi Fi Internet, it was not working most of the time but Peter got it working for a day or two. We could forget these small problems as we were some of the first customers and I’m sure they would get these issues fixed. We did find the nights to be a bit difficult to sleep at times with a number of the local dogs barking outside our window.

Peter and Jenny cooked us up a delicious barbecue the first night we were there. Peters pork ribs were something else and make sure you try them when you stay there. We enjoyed the hospitably there but Balamban did not offer a lot for us to do so after a week we decided to leave our bags at a so called friend named Tim and take a trip over to the south, down the coast to a place called MoalBoal. I thought it was time to leave Balamban, Peter and Jenny were having some of their own issue and I wanted to let them have some time alone so I jumped at the chance to move on. Living so close together there it did feel a little uncomfortable after 6 days.

This so called friend who talked us into leaving Peters to stay at his place for FREE and kept telling us how much better off we will be by being able to leave our bags at his place for FREE while we traveled to other places in Cebu until we found a place we liked. Guess what, one of the first things he asked when we got to his house was for some money so I gave him 200 pesos. Again when we left our bags there for one night he tried to con me into giving him 1000 pesos as a loan. Apparently he was going to pay me back when he and his girlfriend came to Moalboal that weekend to go diving. I gave him 250 pesos anyway for looking after our bags but off course he never came to Moalboal and he never intended to. 1000 pesos to me is nothing but I can’t stand fuckwits like that, glad I found out what a shit head he really is. Certainly fooled me before that, seemed like a nice guy, goes to show how different someone really is to what they appear. I wonder how many more expats he will con who go to Balamban?

To get to MoalBoal from Balamban then you could probably just drive south if you have a motorbike but the only way we could get there was by taking a bus to Naga (going back towards Cebu) and then get off the bus at Naga and take a bus or Vhire to MoalBoal. So all that took us a good part of 3-4 hours but the trip was pretty good and quite scenic.

I rang someone in Cebu and asked him where to stay in MoalBoal and he recommended the Love Resort hotel. So after having a bit to eat on the MoalBoal main street we jumped in a tricycle and got them to take us and our luggage to the Love beach resort. The tricycle should cost around $70 pesos but we gave them $100 as we had so much luggage. But as we got there the driver told us he knew of some cottages nearby were we could rent one out. I was a little reluctant to start looking at places with all the luggage but I’m glad I said yes as we found the perfect place to stay (nearly). The only down side is there was no Internet included and my SmartBro is so slow here that it’s painful to use.

But the cottage I now live in is all I need, it has cable TV, a fridge, cooking top, large fan and I can pay extra for air con if I want but I don’t need it so have not used it yet. It’s so peaceful here and it’s just a really nice place to live. There is an assortment of restaurants, bars and adventure services all in 1 – 3 minutes walk. The water is only 50 metres away with crystal clear blue water and white sand. Divers are based here and a number of travelers come here just for the diving.

There is a large beach only 15 minutes on the bike called the White Sand beach and it really is a beautiful and ideal place to go for a swim with the family. You can rent out huts on the beach for around $150 pesos to have some shade and privacy or do what we did and sit under a tree on the sand for free.

continued at Discovering Cebu Part2

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