Cebu, Part 2

I’m actually in Bantayan now writing this post about my time in Cebu.

I didn’t do any exploration in Cebu this time since this was my second time here. There really isn’t too much to do anyway. I mainly came to Cebu to take a break from town-hopping in Palawan and ended up staying for six nights.

I met up with Michelle in Cebu. I had met her the last time I was here. We had some meals together before deciding to come to Bantayan, which is an island north of Cebu province. I also met up with Rhez, also a girl I had met before, for dinner at Il Corso. I chose to stay at Cebu Mini Hotel for three nights before transferring to Peach Haven Hostel. I liked these places better than Murals Hostel that I stayed back in November with Chris and Christine because of the better facilities.

After a few days, I was getting bored in Cebu and didn’t know if I want to stay the entire time until my flight to Manila on the 20th. It would have been eleven nights in Cebu. Good thing that Michelle said she would come with me to Bantayan for three nights. She motivated me to get out of the city and go to the beach, which is a better idea. The other idea was to take a day long ferry to Siquijor and go to the waterfalls there, but I didn’t like the idea of traveling that long on a ferry. 

I prefer to be on the beach in the Philippines than in the cities. I find the cities to be crowded, polluted, and hard to walk around. I can only get Grab taxi here, can’t get the Grab motorbikes for some reason. There a separate app for motorbikes called Move It, but I couldn’t register since my phone number can’t get the confirmation code. All this makes me want to just chill at the hotel or hostel and not go too far.

Additionally, I tortured myself again by thinking about what I should do after traveling. I still don’t have many ideas except to return to work. My hope is that I’ll find my answer while I continue to travel.

In the Peach Haven Hostel, I talked to someone from New Zealand and asked her about transportation in that country since I will most likely go there in July or August. She told me it’ll be very windy so riding a bicycle across the country is a bad idea. She suggested that I rent a car but that’s expensive. Since I’ll be in Australia and New Zealand in their winter and I don’t want to buy any winter clothes I might skip these two countries and come back to the US after Southeast Asia. At least that’s a thought I have right now.

I’m very grateful to be traveling again with a friend. It breaks up my boredom and loneliness. I think I’m getting used to traveling solo since I haven’t experienced the extreme loneliness and burnout that I encountered in South Korea. It’s also been seven months since I departed Philadelphia. My plan is to return to the US before the November presidential election, hopefully in July or August. This would conclude my year long traveling in Asia. At least that’s the plan, but I’m open to change. I’ll have to see.

I didn’t take many photos in Cebu this time. Sorry about that!

View of Cebu from my hotel

Il Corso at night