T&J Travels #6: Cebu 2016 (Part 5)

Ever since I lived near my work, I have, for the past years haven't stood in a bus for 3 hours straight. Not only were our legs exerted enough effort already earlier at the hike, but we have to endure the ride back standing! We should have gotten that open air one that came before :-(

Other than the unfortunate, we were able to purchase a few delicacies that we came there for other than the peak. We tried the tostado (flower shaped biscuits), torta (mamon-like but with a smokey flavor), chicharon (so many of them around Carcar I think) and the banana meat (meat with giniling filling).

+ Tabo-an Market +

After getting off South bus terminal, we thought of looking for the market. This was not a part of the plan for tonight but thought that to make another stop here the next day would be harder to squeeze in. Since I haven't researched from here I have no idea where Tabo-an is. We got two things that time: 1. The only taxi driver we got refused to take us there since we're already near (we're already in front of Emall) and 2. We didn't know that the street was just where the jeeps are going to--- hence we walked from Emall to there.

If I was alone I would have gone back, not knowing that this dark street with all the trimmings of a turn gone wrong is actually leading us to the famed Tabo-an market. There were still a few stalls open (it was just 8am, where is the action?!) which not only had all the dried seafood anyone could ever buy, there are also other pasalubong delicacies your friends expect you to buy for them.

Maybe it was a Saturday but taxis are so hard to come by at this time that after all our purchases it took us a long walk back to Emall just to hail one that would take us back to the hotel. This was also the culmination of the entire trip's dialect-deaf blunders. On the way back we saw someone selling hotdogs. I asked her twice how much was it and she kept on saying CHEESE. Not until she motioned with her hands did I realize she was actually saying DIYES (10). Her patience saved my skin from getting drenched with that scalding oil she's cooking that hotdog with!

+ Parkmall  and City Time Square+

Seeing the other night that they have a night market, we decided to also have our dinner here so we don't need to travel to and fro just to go back to the hotel. I'm assuming that whatever bbq they have here are the same as Larsian, only with lesser people and hopefully less stressful. I was told that it had the ambiance of Dampa where you get lost in all the sellers calling you to try their stalls.

It wasn't even 9PM and the crowd is already thin. The food, seeing that there's not much to choose from was just OK, nothing out of the ordinary. We should have just went to that shrimp buffet place after all. The only consolation is that now I know what this puso tastes like that I kept on seeing everywhere. Just your regular sticky rice.

+ Mactan Shrine +

It felt like we were duped by a taxi driver in paying him 500 from Big Hotel - Mactan Shrine - Airport. We should have told him to stop the meter while he let us roam around the park which was on top of what he asked to give him. Another life lesson there.

But, it was exactly the place that I needed, some place where I could get my hands on a ref magnet for my collection. It would have also been nice if the water haven't dried up (probably the only park I know of where most of it should be in water) when we were there and it would look really colorful too, if they had boats on them.

Just like Rizal at Luneta, it's a good thing to pay homage to Lapu-Lapu who is synonymous to Cebu. Would have been nicer if at this point they did offer a guide to talk us through since the park only had a few points of interest and stories from well informed locals are always a treat listening to. Plus, it would have been nicer not listening to J. Lo's dance song blaring at their sound system.

+ Going Home +

I am still at awe at their airport especially with their food section at the departure area. It's far better to stay here with all the choices other than the ones at the Domestic terminal back in Manila where the place is too cramped and the ceilings are too low.

Oslob and the resorts at Dalaguete are some of the places I would like to come back to once I get myself sold to being in the water finally. The driver that we got told us of two places to get to the next time as well: Temple of Leah and Sirao Garden. I also wanted to go to this Simala Shrine but we never had a chance to since most of our time that Sunday was spent on a bus.

While it is true that Cebu is not huge landmass in the first place, I highly doubt that what the regular stuff you see on your normal Google search is all that there is. I highly anticipate what we can do out of the city for next time we're in town.