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Trip report - Cebu City & Bohol

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kennumen:
Greetings! As promised, here is (the beginning of) my trip report.

In case you haven't read them but would like to, here are my introduction and trip preparation topics.

I won't bore you with most of my transportation to Cebu. Got up very early, car to Antwerp, train to Schiphol, Amsterdam (funnily enough the car would've been cheaper than the train), flight to Hong Kong. 9 hour layover so traipsed all over the airport, found an amazing lie-down chair, slept an hour, ate McD's (for bowel safety and because they accepted a credit card), for the rest just sat there and listened to some music :)

Sat next to cute girl on trip over - turned out to be Thai - had a short chat but she had her earphones in the whole time which I take to be a sign of 'leave me alone'. Immigration in Cebu took forever. Half an hour would not be an exaggeration - on the contrary. The whole time I was thinking 'anyone could take my suitcase'. Nothing particularly expensive in there but a week's worth of comfy clothing, sun-blocking cream and so on. Someone had taken the suitcase off of the belt on the far side but luckily it was still there. If the immigration line wasn't enough of a hint, you can quickly tell there's not a lot of international flights here. Very small arrival's area. Quick pass through custom's (they don't look like they check anything, honestly) and finally you get the feel you're in the Philippines.

At this point I've gotten up early, after a week of lacking sleep and only one hour of sleep in the past 34 hours or thereabouts. So it's caution, common sense and a vague memory of rules to follow against some pretty extreme (certainly for me) exhaustion. To compound my problems I asked for a hotel shuttle via the booking at booking.com and also by mail but haven't heard a word about it, so do I have a shuttle or no? First person to speak to me is going on about foreign exchange. I'm distracted looking for a card with 'Orchard Hotel' or somesuch. I wave her off but rather than go outside and look for the shuttle, I go back to her. I probably need to pay the shuttle and/or taxi so might as well. Beats an ATM. 'Mastercard?' "no sir, cash only". I can only attribute this  sheer luck to my exhaustion but I'd brought 80EUR for the airports and/or just plain trouble so I exchanged 60. "51PHP/EURm ok sir?" Well I've already given you my money so it feels like a rhetorical question. I'd checked a few days before and it was 53 something so yeh, sure, sounds pretty good actually. Once outside, no shuttle. A cop or somesuch asks me to move along. Go left, take another good look, keep looking as I go right, "taxi?" Well it's looking like yes but I don't know yet. Oh, an ATM. Lucky! I got 3000PHP and change so let's get another 2000. Ticket received. ... ... Hey, where the hell is my money >< So in the end, exchanging cash was a really good idea.

"Taxi, sir?" 'Metered taxi?' "Yes of course, sir". He takes me to someone else's taxi. Damn, I've been had. Oh well. 'Metered taxi?' "yes sir." Well okay then. The first guy hands me a ticket and starts (probably) cussing as I move to get into the taxi. So I gave him that coin I got at the exchange. Not sure how much but definitely less than 2EUR so I got off kinda OK. Probably 50PHP. Taxi starts at 70PHP. 'To the Orchard Hotel please' "OK". Clearly traffic lines do not matter. There don't appear to be any safety codes in place. At least one of the seatbelts in the back works. Driver moves swiftly, somehow anticipates people joining and leaving, and does it all without accelerating or braking hard. His dashboard shows 3 error lamps. Great :) Every white cab passing us honks. My driver honks once in the trip at a white cab, meter doesn't jump. Good. We don't appear to take detours. Arrive at the hotel with 170PHP on the meter. Wait. And a shuttle was 780PHP? What the hell man? So now I only have 3100PHP, 6bills of 500 and 1 of 100. Keeping in mind that it's way cheaper than the shuttle, he's been fair so far, my exhaustion and of course all the stories about "Sorry, no change", I tell him "200PHP change?". If he goes 'no' it's 10 meters to the hotel which must have change, but he smartly says 'OK' and gives me 200 back. Could've gone better but I'm a sucker so it was OK in my book. Quick mail to the family (after working out Wifi problems) and off to sleep after some Discovery Channel.

So the hotel is OK. At 35EUR/night (or so, think it was 3900PHP for 2 nights) it's very cheap. Looks pretty good coming in. Forgot my mastercard at the desk (or rather she forgot to return it and I forgot about it too), returned it to my room. Nice! But back to the beginning. Taxi just arrived at hotel, security takes out my bag. FFS man why won't anyone let me do my own lifting here. At least nobody's touched my laptop bag so far. Security takes my bag to the reception desk. Cute girl. Checkin, paid. Read something about noise, asked for something higher than the first level, so I'm on the second floor. "But it's two single beds, sir" From this point on it's clear that being alone is not normal. I don't mean security wise (he's all alone! Take him!) but more in a "really? No friend? No girlfriend?". Anyway, I shake off the guard before he gets a chance to move and turn to the elevator. Pfft, just one floor. Swiftly up the stairs and quickly to the door. As my door opens I hear another door open behind me, some sort of staff "wait sir". No way, I'm out of coins and I think I can figure out a room. Door's already open. 'I'm fine, thanks', quickly in the door and close it behind me. That guy must be bummed there was no elevator 'ding' and I give a sigh of victory. My first hour here so far has felt like everyone's after my money.

So, turn on flashlight on phone and look how to turn on electricity. Yea, it's one of those rooms. Look around, then at the door, "put in card with chip on the inside". Takes me a few minutes to figure out that 'inside' means towards the hallway, not the inside of the room. No wifi reception. Do a quick checkup on my luggage, down to reception. Ask about wifi "oh it's just our wifi, and second floor has Orchard2 as wifi". And hey, I do have Orchard1 & 2 at the reception. 'Sorry, guess I missed it'. Back to the room. No wifi. Ooooh. Seats at the elevator, check again, yes, wifi. But it won't connect. Try again. Nope. Let's try the laptop. Oh hey it's got networks in the room. Orchard 3 & 7, but signal's too weak. Enough about the wifi. Orchard2 is unavailable and near the elevator both laptop and phone can get connection to first floor wifi. Fair enough. Write on the room and send near elevator. Not ecstatic about showing my laptop and/or phone in public but hey, beats no wifi. Honestly at this point I'm longing for someone who doesn't add "sir" to everything they say. lol. Go get a sandwich at hotel restaurant (no time to be adventurous), quick mail to family, some discovery channel and off to bed. Wow. the bed is so hard. And the aircon's been designed to blow on your head or neck. Fair enough. Put pillow on the feet side - no sheets, just a comforter - and body's warm but room's cool. ish.

Next morning I wake up around 8, keep lying there until 9. Quick shower, no warm water. Pro-tip: turn off airco before entering the bathroom. Down to get my complimentary breakfast. Nothing on the menu has any veggies and barely any fruit. And everything - breakfast, lunch or dinner - has eggs. I'm not going to leave here any healthier :) The fruit juice is more like Oasis - sugarwater with an orange taste. Order some extra water for the thirst and tooth brush, back upstairs. Pack everything up for housekeeping, think of what to do, 10 more minutes of discovery channel. You know what, I'm pretty tired so let's rest a bit. The day's not going anywhere.

Wake up, 15h30. lol. Go downstairs, ask where an international bank is. At the J-Mall just down the street. Oh, nice, can do my shopping too. Can't find the bank. Didn't want to but end up asking someone anyway. At least I'm smart enough to ask security. Unfortunately he's not smart enough to answer quietly. "Outside and downstairs". Okay, security is everywhere (and apparently white folks are not a security threat... at all. Metal detector beeps but they barely acknowledge me). Security is everywhere but the ATM is outside. I act to go in the bank "Sorry sir, bank is closed." People inside and 15h30 but the bank's closed? Paranoia to the max. Anyway try to get out money. 200k PHP (4k EUR). Above my limit. Oh snap, added a 0 too many. 20k then. Nope, still above limit (really? should be below EUR500). 10k PHP. --Second hotel in Bohol requires cash, around 13 or 14k for 6 nights-- Okay. But I'm outside. Let's put it in the wallet and go find a toilet to put it in my money belt. Wait, where is the toilet? Been over this entire mall 3 times and no toilet anywhere. Back to the hotel. Housekeeping's busy. Some small chat. Wow, bad teeth at such a young age. Very nice though. She mentions 3 times that the man (who she sent outside of the room) is her colleague who is here on his day off. Apparently I'm supposed to be worried about his presence? All the while I'm just disappointed I can't put the money in my money belt. Well, I've dropped off the groceries. 4 bottles of Evian (as expensive as regular water but I know I like the taste), anti-mosquito spray (haven't seen a mosquito yet - must not be able to survive in this Cebu City air) and shampoo.

While shopping I had a small chat with the guy that helped my find the mosquito repellant. "European" 'Yeah' "Yes we have Spanish history" 'Yes and 50 years of America' "Yea and Japanese too... but they not so good". Interesting. So first of all -I'm vampire white so no matter what I do I can't blend in; Best I can hope for is not to look like a tourist- the guy assumes I'm European. Despite my flawless American accent, an American graduation t-shirt and a Hard Rock Miami ballcap. First I've heard of Americans being looked down upon. Interesting. Anyway, moving on.

Leaving the hotel with the money still in my wallet - ironically my money belt is all empty - I go back to the mall to find a place to eat. Appear to have choice being McD's and Jollibee. Both packed to the brim. Mall is a lot more active now, looks like school's just out or something. Won't take out my phone to check time but it's between 17-18h. Decide on Jollibee's. It might be fast food but it's native fast food. One small step and all. But I don't want to wait to get a seat and I've got time to burn so I go discover the mall - again. Eye falls on a comic store so I go in. Okay so first off, there's security everywhere. 2 guards at every entrance of the mall, one at each exit. Several stores have several more guards. Oddly enough it makes me less comfortable... This small, tiny even, comic story has 3 girls in it. It barely has room for 3 more customers :) I go in so soon one of the girls starts talking to me. "You French". Wow, again European. The girl is just talking, not really trying to sell anything. Stark contrast to the convenience store where most employees were nice and friendly but didn't seem to want to be approached. After a while all three girls are hanging around me. Some older lady walks in and after a bit I get the feeling it's closing time. No queues or anything just a gut feeling. She's not there to shop or to talk to an employee or anything. It feels like I'm being hit on by one or even several girls but I'm tired, it's my last night in this part of Cebu (ferry to Bohol tomorrow), they might just be trying to sell more (pretty expensive store for Filipino standards) but also I want these girls to get home safe. So I pay for my niece's gift and head for a much calmer Jollibees. Get the special (pork, rice, soup + drink for 100PHP), eat and head back for the hotel to drop off my gift and finally put the big money in my money belt.

Just after 20h now. Regretting not asking that/those girl(s) out. But I could use the sleep and I have this to post still. Tomorrow's pretty mellow. I'll (try to) get 5-10k PHP more, also ask for a taxi to get me to the pier by 11h30 and off to Tagbilaran. Bohol will be much more relaxed. I'll be there to relax, get some pool time, do some activities, go at my own pace. No need to go out of my element and learn the culture by talking to random people or moving about a city. I'm still hoping to find a moped rental service. First time on a motorized two-wheeled vehicle but it's just a moped. And I have motorcycle lessons in a month so it would be good exercise. If not a moped then hopefully some activity will take me to the Chocolate Hills.

So - so far a lot of resting but things are looking good. The room is very budget - power off when not in room, aircon aimed at bed's heads, no hot water and generally cheap feel about the room by construction and finishing terms, and not much space to move about, but still good value I believe. Airco, fridge, tv, bed, shower, toilet and (with some tricks and poor range) free wifi - what else could you want? (ok, aside from hot water)

I'll probably check in next time from Bohol. 6 nights there, then another 6 in another hotel in Cebu.

This post feels long, so sorry if it's too long. Certainly is pretty detailed.

kennumen:
Day 3:

Went to the bank, tried 8k, no go. Gave up. Stupid. I'm actually not sure how much I need but the money is going out like crazy. I'll head into town tomorrow if it doesn't rain too bad and see if I can't find another bank here in Taglibaran. Might have to walk to save on taxi fare.

Checked out of the hotel, taxi to Pier 4. Gave myself half an hour for the 12 noon ferry. But I need a ticket, which is 2 blocks from where I got dropped off (where you check in). Pass 2GO ads - 555PHP lowest price. Still hoping for a noon ferry so keep going to Weesam. No noon ferry, 2PM. Okay, check out the prices - 600PHP first class, 420PHP one trip - Ooh, 600PHP round trip economy. Yes please. Fairly happy I finally found a deal I'm off to check in. First pay port taxes, 25PHP. Next check-in price for luggage, 50PHP. That last one was probably a ripoff, everyone else seemed allowed to carry their own bags onto the boat. Ferry's 30 minutes late, of course - so total wait 3 hours. Ride's just under 3 hours. I swear since I left home 80% of the time has been spent sitting down. Some trouble (and panick) finding the suitcase but fortunately it came along.

Now, for a taxi. Careful not to be scammed. I hover a bit, then stand at the door. "Taxi sir?" 600PHP? too much. 500PHP? too much. 400 PHP? too much. He droops off. Another guy points me to a counter. I lower my guard because of course an organization with a counter must be trustworthy. "500PHP". Too much. Goes on about how far it is on unpaved roads. I say 300, he says 400. Well not many options I guess. His kid comes along and they stop for groceries and twice to ask for directions. A flat-fee taxi is nuts. Left lane on a blind left turn... But we arrive alive, and I have 350PHP and a 500PHP bill. Yikes, is that all? (oh, and 10k PHP earmarked as 2/3 of the hotel fee or thereabouts). Of course I have to give him the 500PHP bill and of course he has no change. And then he gives me his card to call him if I need a taxi. *Oh but of course*

I am waaay out in the boonies here. Can't say anything for certain but it's fairly deserted and a ways off from Taglibaran. People are friendly but half the staff speaks no english. I have a little cottage of my own with aircon (a bit too weak for the size of the room) and TV (with 1 channel - non-english). Seems pretty nice otherwise. Had a 'boneless chicken' meal which certainly wasn't boneless and was barely chicken (or barely meat at least). I'm a little frightened in a "I could get chopped into pieces and disappear" kind of way but as long as I get the money from the bank I'll -probably- be fine. So as I started, unless it rains tomorrow (like it's scheduled to do all week) I'll be looking for a bank first thing.

thekfc:
Nice report K.

If you have that much of a layover in HK, you should try heading into the city. That 9 ours was more than enough to head into the city, catch a few sites/eats and come back.

If you don't feel like leaving the airport, then you can head to Terminal 2 (it is landside so you may have to exit customs). There is an Imax theater, golf course,  and a sports simulator center (I-Sports). You can also go to one of the paid lounges, take a shower, rest, etc,.

Try using an ATM inside the bank, there is a difference between the ATM's inside & outside the bank. Most of the
ATM's outside the banks & at the airports are privately owned and international cards may not work in them - only regional/local cards. Try an ATM inside an international bank (if you can find one) - I remember using a Citibank in Cebu.

Also did you tell your financial institution about your travel plans?

Keep the report coming.....when you have connection.  ;D

robert angel:
Thanks for the reports--I see dozens of people have read them already here so you're really helping folks out. Seems wherever you go, taxi drivers are just the bane of the tourism business, although supposedly the Filipino taxi drivers are in fear of being 'reported' to the govt. That said, I have been fed the line "I can't make change' and still never reported them. so that's probably why it still goes on.
 
There is so much poverty there that people will try and do every little thing for you in the hope of some tip or fee, but like beggars, most folks get used to it and largely zone it out. If you can't nicely say no' or otherwise ignore them, it can wear on you. I guess ater a while I didn't notice a lot of people calling me 'sir' or kids mostly in the cities, calling me 'Joe'.
 
Hope the weather gets better!

Ray:
Hi Ken,
 
Enjoying your trip report...
 
 
Ray
 
 

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