Louie and I just got back (as in last night at 940pm) from a three day stay in Cebu. We went primarily for work, but of course managed to sneak in some vacation time over the weekend for some much-needed R&R. As in very much-needed R&R.
I'd been looking forward to this trip for weeks. Friday whizzed by really quickly with the work -- I was briefing applicants from Cebu and a lovely bunch of people they were. The event was quite successful and so we went into vacation mode in pretty good spirits.After a quick trip to SM City Cebu, we checked out of our Cebu City hotel and took a long ride to Mactan. When we arrived at the Hilton Cebu Resort and Spa, we immediately thought -- hmmm, Florida! The resort is right next to the Shangri-la (which is an old love of the Fortich family) and is a little bit smaller than the Shang. Nevertheless, it was beautiful.At the reception, I saw an American-looking lady and told her (in my lovely accented English) that we had a reservation under my name. Imagine my shock, minutes later when she started speaking in Bisaya! It was so weird! Louie struck up a conversation with her and found out she was like 1/4 German, 1/4 American, 1/4 Irish, and 1/4 Filipino and she'd never been outside of the country! Strangely, we noticed alot of mestizo/foreign looking staff and figured, ooh, it must add to the flavor of the Hilton.We checked into our room and it was the most beautiful room ever. Beach-themed. With a little Nemo named "Sebu", on our bed (which you could buy for P500 and the proceeds are given to preserving marine wildlife - and no, we didn't buy it.) We took pictures of everything. It really was simple and very very pretty. We then went downstairs to explore the grounds. We both also decided we weren't going to beach today but more like, enjoy the room. After splitting a P400+ burger, Louie and I explored the beach, did some people watching and of course took pictures. The sky was a vibrant blue, and the sunlight mirrored onto the pristine waters. It was such a complement to the Hilton, whose primary brand color, wouldn't you know it, is blue! After taking a million pictures, we headed back to the room where we spent the rest of the day relaxing. That was looooong overdue.Dinner was spent at the Vanilla Beach Cafe. Again a beautiful place. Spare ribs for me. Spinach and cheese tortellini for Louie. Yum Yum. Then we went back to the room and just watched TV. It was so nice not to have to log on to check email and stuff like that.We woke up the next day to --- CLOUDY SKIES AND RAIN! Argh! Since we couldn't quite beach right away, we had a fabulous buffet breakfast! I was so floored with the choices available, Louie helped himself to the Japanese breakfast buffet. I haven't had a buffet breakfast like that since the good old Fortich grand spending days.The rest of the day stayed rather cloudy. We slept all morning and checked out of the room officially at 2 pm, but were told we could use the facilities until we left later that evening. So we used the gym (Louie was in love with all the new equipment) and later on, we finally got the chance to swim at the beach and in the swimming pools. The skies never cleared up and I was so happy that we had taken pictures the day before! Winds were unbelievably strong!Our flight was at 830pm. So at around 530pm, we went to the nearby market for some seafood. We had a good dinner there (although I was told later on when we got to Manila that the crab had been overpriced). Damn. Wanna beat up those people. We found a cab at the market which took us back to the Hilton to pick up our bags. We paid him P200, which was about 75 pesos more than he should have gotten. But damn, at the Hilton, the cab to the airport alone was P475! And its a 15 minute ride! So hello, P200!All in all, it was such a fabulous break. We would love to visit there again -- but more adventures await with Rony, Andrei and Boracay at end March. Might as well vacation while I don't look like a whale! Take a look at our pictures! Enjoy!
