03/29/23

Cebu to Malapascua, Philippines

We woke up at 3AM to drive (2.5-3hrs – thanks Humphrey) to the edge of Cebu to hop on a boat adventure. Along the way, we had to stop at Jolibees for breakfast. Our crew for this trip was Elein, Bev, Bev’s cousin Aldrich, Winnie, their son Tim, Ketti, Humphrey, Andrew & Gayaanan.

Our first stop of the day which took some time to get to was Kalanggaman Island. There is a long sandbar there. One side of the island was really rough currents but the other side was calm for swimming and snorkelling. We stayed for awhile and had lunch there.

Back onto the boat and another long section to get to our destination for the night Malapascua Island. The waves got a little intense at certain points and it evening started to rain at one point so you got double splash of fresh water and saltwater. When we finally arrived to Malapascua, we saw a double rainbow and the moment we got off the boat, it rained again.

We stayed at Kokay’s Maldito Beach Resort. After everyone showered, we walked the Bounty Beachfront before having dinner at Kokay’s. I ordered fried chicken & fries. It was ambitious with how my day was going in terms of recovering from stomach pains. Turns out, drinking soda helps with indigestion.

03/30/23

Malapascua – Cebu, Philippines

Bev, Andrew and Gayaanan woke up super early to go diving to see the Thresher sharks. From the footage I saw, it looked magical.

The rest of us had a buffet breakfast at resort before starting our day. Winnie and Humphrey had to work in their rooms so the rest of us decided to go to the north side of the island and see the lighthouse and north Beach.

Aldrich, Elein and myself decided to walk while Ketti and Tim took a motorcycle ride. It was hot hot hot but a good walk. We met up with Ketti and Tim at the top of the lighthouse and walked down to the beach before all walking back together.

Quite perfect timing as Bev, Andrew and Gayaanan were just coming back from their scuba diving when we returned.

Winnie, Aldrich and Tim left early as we needed to wait for Humphrey to finish a call.

We sat in the lobby/restaurant and I made a new little friend named Leo and we played for a bit.

We ate lunch at Angelina’s on the beach. I got the Hawaiian pizza and a banana shake.

The boat from Malapascua to Cebu is only about 20 minutes but it was still a 4hr drive back. The road is windy and there was lots of weaving in and out. I was so nauseated on the trip in from the slight food poisoning that I KO-Ed but this time around I was awake and felt nauseated again.

We stopped for dinner at Kusina Clasica where we shared 2 plates of Ong Choi, pochero (bone marrow) soup and pochero sisig, fried intestines, a weird version of bicol Express with shrimp paste and some not so good mango and calamansi drinks. Super tiring day leaving us all feeling super off but overall everyone had a good time in Malapascua.

03/31/23

Cebu, Philippines

With it being Elein’s last day, we had to hit up one of the largest shopping centres in the Philippines – SM Seaside Cebu City mall. The mall is massive. At the mall, Bev met up with her and her brothers yaya’s (caregivers/helpers) from when she was a baby in the Philippines. Bonnie was her Yaya and Rosemarie was her brothers. We were in the mall from 1130AM-430PM and we still didn’t even completely walk through all the floors. The mall includes an indoor skating rink across from the food court on the 4th level. There’s even a bowling alley.

We grabbed lunch in the food court and I got Mr Kimbob’s Bimbimbap (149PHP). I’m just happy I was able to stomach it after 48hrs of stomach ailments and episodes of nausea from the boat and car rides. We finished off our visit to the mall at SM Supermarket picking up snacks to bring back to Canada. We got Turon to eat on our car ride back.

It didn’t take too long for us to drive over to SM Mall however, a truck had driven into the skywalk the day before causing mayhem and even more traffic in the city. It took 2 hours to get home. When we arrived back, we immediately went up to get Elein packed. Elein had helped Bev bring a pasalubong (gifts from home you bring when you are visiting relatives) from Canada over to the Philippines so on the way home to Canada, Bev was able to get Elein to bring one back home filled with goodies. It is literally a giant cardboard box and its max weight can be 50LBS. Patatas & Dried Mangoes were among the mix of things we sent back with Elein. It also helped because Bev and myself were able to offload some of the items we had originally brought with us at the beginning of our trip that wasn’t serving us a purpose for the remainder of our trip.

Once all that was packed, we piled back into the car and went back towards SM Seaside City Cebu Mall to Casino Español de Cebu. We joined Leslie & Joaquin in celebrating Leighton’s Baptism.  We got to see Bev’s family from Ozamiz & Mahayag which was really nice. A final send off for everyone.

04/01/23

Cebu, Philippines

We were so use to waking up early even though we slept late.

On weekends, the family has lunch together with one member choosing where to eat. That weekend was Bev’s cousin Derrick. We went for Korean BBQ at Pearl Meat Shop.

We ate with Ketti, Humphrey, Auntie Anita, Derrick and his daughter Beatrice, Larae and her kids Raynard, Arianna & Kendrick.

We also went to Sulbing Dessert Cafe for Korean bingsoo (shaved ice) and I got the blueberry & mango.

We went back home to pack a bit before heading back out with the family.

Meanwhile, in another part of Cebu, Gayaanan was on a mission to retrieve his forgotten drone that was left in the car from the previous day when he and my brother Andrew were in the Maolbaol area with Oslob Whale sharks and also the Sardine Run. Gayaanan travelled to Argao (a few hours away from Cebu City) to meet with the driver and successfully returned with it and some chicharron from Carcar City.

The nights event was the Despedida dinner (farewell dinner) at Casino Español with majority of Bev’s extended family. We were at the same place the previous night and so many farewells were had in a short span of time. My brother Andrew joined us for dinner as it was also our last night seeing him as he and Gayaanan were parting ways from us as well.

04/02/23

Cebu – Manila, Philippines – Canggu, Bali, Indonesia

Flew with Philippine Airlines. Early morning flight from Cebu to Manila (1h35min).

With a 10 hour layover in Manila, our first stop was meeting up with Bev’s cousin Daphne. We got a quick tour of their beautiful home then a quick bite at La Creperie. We went to get a facial at One World Skin Wellness. My first ever facial and it was lovely. It’s been a long 48 days and our skin had been through a lot.

After the facial, we went for lunch at Wildflour in Greenhills where we met up with Daphne’s family – husband Brian; kids Adrian, Ethan & Brianna. Bev’s other cousin Friedrich (we met up with prior to Malapascua), his wife Tasha and daughter Paige also joined.

After lunch, with a little bit of time before we needed to head back to the airport, we walked around the Bonifacio Global City (BGC). That area has adopted the outdoor mall model and it felt like we were in the States a bit with the layout.

We went back to the airport and again with PAL (3h35min) flew to our next stop – Canggu, Bali, Indonesia. It was 34USD Visa on arrival. The customs line took almost an hour. To help you get through customs faster, use this Link for claiming baggage.

Bev’s friend Daniel and driver Oman came to grab us and drove from the Airport to Canggu. It was about a 30mins drive at 1AM. Luckily our Airbnb host waited for us. You drive on the left side of the road in Bali with drivers on the right-hand side.