Our trip to Cebu City took about 5 hours total by ferry and bus. When we arrived at the Sibulan Ferry Terminal it was super easy, as we just walked in and bought our tickets for the fast ferry to Liloan-Santander as well as reserved our seats on the bus to Cebu City all in less than 5 minutes. The cost of the ferry was 62 php ($1.20 usd) per person. What a deal!
When we arrived in Liloan after about 30 minutes on the ferry, there was a bus already there waiting. The bus was operated by CERES, which had AC and a TV every few rows playing a film which was nice. After getting on the bus, a man came around and collected money from everyone and for the 4.5 hour bus journey it came to a whopping 200 php ($4.00 usd) per person.
Upon arrival to our hotel, The Radisson Blu Cebu, we were surprised to find it located right next to a container port! The hotel itself was stunning and would recommend it to anyone visiting Cebu City, but the location definitely left something to be desired. We really enjoyed our time there and took the opportunity to use the amenities and fast complimentary wifi whilst we could. We aren’t planning to be in such cush accommodations for much of our trip!
When we first walked into the room we found multi-coloured rose petals all over the floor of our suite, which was a surprise I had arranged for Sophie’s birthday! Later on a group of about 5 staff came up with a birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday with maraccas and a Ukuklele. The best part it was a Vegan cake! The second best part was that Sophie looked genuinely surprised. I usually have a really hard time surprising her as she is super nosey and wants to know about everything and snoops around like a blood-hound looking for clues every time she suspects something! Dinner that evening was at the hotel Japanese restaurant Sushisake, and the food was really good. It took a bit of effort to make sure everything was Vegan, but the hotel staff was really accommodating in that respect and did their best. As we dined, the lounge musician worked his saxophone like a filipino Kenny G.
The morning after our arrival I had but one more surprise up my sleeve for my darling wife’s birthday, a 5-hour long Spa package at the hotel spa Spa Esc, which just happened to be rated as the best spa in Cebu. She came out from it glowing and feeling like a puddle. Whilst she was being pampered I went out and found an all Vegan restaurant called Lun-Haw Vegan Cafe and brought back some food for a late lunch. I ordered the Buffalo Broccoli, Vegan Sisig, and Green Soup. It was all boom and, had we more time in Cebu City, would have gone back for more. After we had eaten our lunch we walked next door to the SM Cebu supermall, which was one of the biggest malls I had ever been in; the philippines seemed to be stacked with supermalls!
I should mention that the breakfast buffet at the hotel was off the chain. After hearing about our vegan diet, one of the chef’s actually came up to us and told him he would personally see to making sure we got whatever we wanted. They made broth without any fish sauce so Sophie could get her noodle fix. Our first morning she asked someone if we could get a vegan pizza for dinner that night and they got it done and it was delicious.
We looked around the mall for a super suit for my GoPro Hero 5 camera that would allow us to take it diving properly. I took it diving without any case on it and, as per the advice of our instructor Carlo, found that at around 10 m depth the buttons are permanently depressed and can’t be operated. I got over 1000 photos taken in only a few minutes because I think it was constantly taking them while all the buttons were depressed! Unfortunately none of the shops had it so we left empty handed but at least we got to stretch our legs in the process.
Our last full day and night in Cebu City we planned to hit the town for a little exploring and nightlife. The exploring was a mini-fail but the nightlife part we lucked out on. The traffic and size of Cebu City made it hard to get anywhere very quickly from our hotel, and we really detest sitting in traffic, so the only cultural/historical site we visited was Magellan’s cross and the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño. Both were really nice to see and recommend it to anyone looking for something to visit of cultural significance whilst in the city.
After a busy morning of working out first thing, breakfast, and then heading out to explore, we came back to the hotel to recharge for our big night out. We often have grand ideas of having a night out on the town wherever we are, which sometimes completely flops and we end up back at our hotel a bit disappointed. This night, however, was different.
I had asked a few locals where a good place to go would be for some nightlife, live music, and to see some famous filipino karaoke in Cebu City. A few of them straight away said the IT Park, so I took their advice and off we went. It turned out to be great advice as we had the best time there and discovered a mini food market square that you could find all types of freshly cooked food. The lucky part was it was Thursday and that market was only open Thursdays to Saturdays. The vibe was awesome, very busy, and the smells were so good. Unfortunately for us, very few places had vegan options, but we did manage to find a couple places that would modify the dishes slightly to accommodate us. We had the most amazing pad thai we have had outside of Thailand, I could have eaten so much of it. A couple San Mig Lights later we were loving ourselves.
After stuffing our faces we walked outside of the food market area and followed our ears to a restaurant called Shaka, where live music was in full swing. The band was playing Bob Marley and they were killing it. I felt like I was at a concert, the acoustics were perfect where we were sitting and the lead singer was literally Bob Marley in a filipino body. Sophie and I found out we become psychics after a few drinks as we called 3 of the songs that the band played before they had even struck the first chord. We stayed there and listened to the music, sipping our cocktails into the night. We would have stayed at the ball, but Cinderella had to be up at 3:45am for a flight to Bali! We both agreed it was the best night of our short stay in the Philippines.
We would like to thank all the staff at the Radisson Blu Cebu for the outstanding service and for making us feel like special guests.