It’s quite strange waking up on Monday 4 February - today is a Monday and a Friday! Finally CNY Eve has arrived! It’s been a looong January at work. I’m off to Cebu for the CNY break. Sun and heat are required.
Check-in is nice and easy at Kowloon airport express; the convenience is great! For now it’s off to work I go.
It’s a super quick trip to the airport, through security and immigration - totally not expected given so many people will be flying today.
I order an Aperol Spritz as I walk into the Qantas lounge. I now feel like I’m on holiday.
My gate is gate 47 so after 30 minutes I decide to head to the Cathay Pacific Lounge that is the closest to gate 47. On arrival it’s as busy as I expected it to be. There is a spot at the bar for me. Bingo.
Once on-board and settled I quickly realize the sun streaming in is HOT, a good sign I think for Cebu and to put the window shades down until we are ready to depart.
The sun sets as we get closer to Cebu - even though I’m not on the side of the sun going down it’s still impressive.
At 6.04pm the pilot announces we are 40 minutes from landing and that’s it’s a balmy 29 degrees - ye ha!!
We land into Cebu 15 minutes early - thankfully I was able to watch the whole movie I was watching. Bohemian Rhapsody; definitely recommend it!!
I manage to get myself into the business class area before they close the curtain; helps to be in the front row of economy.
Once we are finally off it’s a brisk walk to immigration where there is one person ahead of me in the diplomatic line.
With no luggage to collect I’m straight out and heading to the ATM machines. Machine one is a false start; please ooh please don’t let this be a repeat of what happened in Kota Kinabalu. I move over machines and stand behind a lady who seems to be taking money from a million cards. She finally notices me and lets me go - ok deep breath....and I have money. Next stop is to locate my name card. I had decided to arrange a car through the hotel - yes it’s more expensive but more convenient and safer.
Name card located. The lady walks me to the seats and tells me she’ll call the card. It’s nice and breezy at least.
It’s a good 30 minute drive to the hotel; definitely lots to look at (even though it’s dark) along the way. Driving into the hotel complex it’s like I’ve entered a new world.
On exiting the lift I notice my room is directly on front - buggar. Let’s hope there isn’t any noise every time someone arrives and leaves.
Tuesday 5 February there is absolutely NO need for an alarm. The birds happily take on that role however not at the time I asked for.....I will definitely be sleeping with ear plugs in tonight.
I have prearranged a day’s scuba diving with a company nearby the hotel; the leisurely time of 9.30am is when I need to be there so I’m in no rush (a pleasant change from Monday thru Friday).
The hotel arranges a taxi for me; I’m informed I need to pay PHP 50 on top of the meter......ok, seems strange but ok. I’m then told it’s due to the hotel not being on a main road so they need to call the taxi.
Google map is quite accurate with its 2 minute journey; with one of the roads being bumpy it doubled the time.
Of course my taxi driver doesn’t have change for a 500 note - in the end my dive master Arnold does the exchange with me. Taxi driver paid, I’m all set.
We are definitely on Island time here! After a while I get my gear. Arnold then announces he has to go and get petrol and that I’m to have a seat. Ummm ok, wouldn’t this be arranged ahead of time??!
We finally leave the dive shop over an hour after I arrived - better late than never! It’s just Arnold and I plus the boat man today. Brilliant.
My first dive is a Tebuli Point which is only a few minutes passed my hotel. It’s a current dive where we go with the correct, nice and easy as it meant we didn’t need to kick much. Amazing array of fish! Just as we are about to surface Arnold points out a HUGE school of fish. We end up in the middle of and see the fish swim all around us. I learnt a few minutes later it was a sardine run - sooo cool!
Once we are both back on-board we cruise over to another island, where we chilled for a good 40 minutes.
We end up helping 3 divers who surfaced near us locate their boat. They were very lost!
On our second dive I had a few problems going down with my left ear - as there were so many boats / jet skies around I wasn’t able to pop up a bit to try to equalise. Thankfully it was ok after a few minutes.
Victor went up to the surface again without me - I kept on swimming and looking. He managed to get us to the point where the boat was, talk about location location location. Another great dive with so much to look at, the Philippines definitely has amazing dive spots!! Hard to believe my days diving is over.
On arrival back to the dive shop I have my booked signed then wait for a taxi. In the end no luck so one of the workers takes me back to the hotel by motorbike. A little scary as neither of us had helmets on and I’m in a towel. Thankfully I arrived safe and sound!!
Bathroom stop was first followed by lunch. Sitting here with the breeze is heaven. I’m excited I have 2 days of doing a whole lot of nothing - reading, swimming and relaxing. Perfect!
I retire to the pool for a couple of hours. This is the life!
I’d researched the sun set (5.50pm) today so after getting rid of my rats nest of a hair head down to the board walk.
I’m feeling exhausted - definitely won’t be a late night. Clearly a mix of not sleeping well and being on / under the water for a few hours.
When I checked in last night I was informed there is a Spanish tapas bar which also has 40% of cocktails from 5pm to 7pm. Given the sun has gone for the day I must too.
Walking inside (the “outside” area, think enclosed, was for smokers) I felt like I was walking into a sports bar. This isn’t what I thought it would be. I decide not to order another drink - I need to be outside. Instead I head back to the restaurant where I’d ended lunch.
This is more like it! San Miguel ordered. Queue breeze and relaxation. In honour of CNY I'm given a Year of the Pig cupcake to end my meal, a nice touch.
Wednesday 6 February (Waitangi Day in New Zealand) the birds wake me at some good godly hour, thankfully I manage to go back to sleep.
It’s cloudy when I open the shutters - perfect weather for running.
I finally drag myself out for a 30 minute run. Not easy dodging cars, bikes and tricycles but I made it back in one piece.
As soon as I get back to my room after breakfast the heavens open. I’d seen on the weather app it was predicted at 10am but that was it. The weather app was correct. It was loud and strong rain for a few minutes then all over.
Today I decide to get a lounge chair at the beach, where I remain for the day. Heaven on earth!!
As the sun is setting I decide it’s shower time. I could get use to relaxing all day every day :)
I enjoy a local fish of banana tree wrapped fish for dinner - super tasty.
My last day, Thursday 7 February, the birds wake me. I’m definitely not ready to return to normality. Thank goodness it’s one day of work then the weekend.
I head out for a run 20 minutes earlier than yesterday - man oh man it’s HOT!
Post breakfast I head to the beach for a days R&R. This really is the life. I got a tad too much sun yesterday so position my seat in the shade.
Around 12.30pm I head to the room to pack up before checking out. So nice not to be having to leave for the airport now.
I have a couple more hours at the beach before going to shower and repack my bag.
My 3 day CNY break has come to an end. It’s been a lovely relaxing 3 days. I, of course, am ready before my taxi is....
At 5.15pm the lady who has informed me the taxi can’t come earlier informs me there has been an accident and my driver is stuck. Not good. Not entirely sure why she didn’t know this 15 minutes ago. Let’s hope she can get a backup driver here ASAP.
In the end they give me a refund and call me a taxi. Let’s hope it doesn’t take forever to arrive.
Finally I’m in a taxi and heading to the airport. As it’s still day light I’m not short of things to look at out the window. As we get close to the airport the sun starts to set. So beautiful.
Check-in-in is nice and easy; after paying the departure tax (PHP 850, ~NZD 24) I'm straight through immigration and security to the lounge.
While my 3 days away have been relaxing I could have done with just one more day.....next trip in one month (Singapore).
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