At the Heart of the Philippines

This week, I was back in the Philippines - specifically, Cebu - for 4 nights; I was last here in January of this year. I wrote about that stay in this post. That time, I stayed a bit more into the city. On this occasion, I stayed closer to the port, booking into the rather opulent Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu.

When you first arrive at the Radisson, you are greeted at the door by a couple of friendly concierges. Bags are scanned (though I don't know if the wand is turned on) and you pass through a metal detector before being allowed in. Assuming you're not deemed a threat, you will pass into the grandiose lobby, with the check-in desk off to the far right. I checked into my room after a long day of flying. Ironically, it was only two flights. But going from Adelaide to Cebu via Hong Kong (because Cathay goes direct on both legs) means you travel past your destination and then back down.

The bed was big and comfortable, with an unnecessary (but appreciated) amount of pillows. Actually, I found the pillows to be ridiculously soft. I think they were some kind of memory foam - I am not familiar with this kind of pillow - as they sank a long way under my weighty head. I had to use 3 of them to get a decent support. But that said, it was very comfortable.

The room came equipped with a nice work space in the corner, which is good for the business traveller like myself (or, you know... for writing blogs and checking Facebook). With free, unlimited WiFi (or cable connection at the desk), the world is at your fingertips. However, I did find it a bit annoying that the WiFi was operated by different Access Points at the lobby and in the rooms, and they wouldn't connect/log in automatically. But this really is a simple #firstworldproblem, so stop whining, Matt. The "One Touch Service" function on the phone was nice. This connects you to an operator who can facilitate basically anything you need. I used it only for room service and laundry, but they probably do a lot more useful things! It has to be noted that, no matter what aspect of the hotel service you are using, you will always be greeted with a smile or (on the phone) a friendly voice. I did not once have a bad (or mediocre) interaction with a staff member during my stay.

On my first day at work for this trip, the customer informed me that I would have to do some of my work during the night shift. So they sent me back to the hotel at lunch time. The plus side of this was I got to try the lunch service at the in-house restaurant.

While not cheap (around ₱1500; about AU$50), the buffet lunch offered a wide range of Asian and Western cuisine. The layout is done with a lot of care toward the presentation and, once again, the waitstaff were incredibly attentive to my needs.

The breakfast service in the hotel is served in the same restaurant, but of course with a slightly altered menu. With plenty of freshly brewed coffee brought to your table, it is a great way to start the morning.

The various buffet benches.

Some local flavours on display.

Dessert, anyone?

As luck would have it, my job was all finished up one day early. With that looking likely, my customer asked what my plan was for the last day. When I told him I didn't have any plan, he went into tourist mode. He suggested we take a road trip south along the coast; about 2.5 hours away was a place called Tan-Awan where you could go swimming with whale sharks.

I'll admit, I was a bit daunted by the idea at first. But life's for the living, right? Actually, it wasn't the whale sharks that worried me - I know that they are harmless. It was various other kinds of sharks that were in the back of my mind! I'm not sure how prevalent they are in the tropical waters. But one would assume that they wouldn't encourage people to swim if they were around... right? Haha. Anyway, for ₱1000 per person, you can jump on an old school fisherman-style catamaran and be paddled out some 50 metres from the beach. There, all of the boats line up and tie-off while the fishermen/staff lure some hungry whale sharks back and forth past the boats with handfuls of shrimp (or other non-human meats). You get to stay out there for 30 minutes and can jump in to swim around them. But you must stay 4 metres or more away. No touching! If you scare them, they might retreat and you'll have ruined it for all the other paying guests. This may result in a fine. Anyway... enough chatter. Let's see some photos!

I look so uncoordinated underwater.

So big and graceful.

For the record, I'm not touching him. He is several metres behind me.

They poke their face out of the water to get fed.

It was actually really hard work to get a decent way under the surface.

This is me and one of my customer representatives.

On our way back in, a baby swam directly under our boat.

Pretty damn cool, hey! If you are in this area of the Philippines, I definitely recommend doing this. It was such a cool experience, and so amazing to get this close to nature. I am very glad I didn't chicken out!

After that incredibly hard day (actually, it was a very early morning), I decided to spend my last night at the Radisson down at the Pool Bar. From 5pm to 7pm every night (or it might have been weeknight), they offer 2-for-1 local beers. I do enjoy tasting the local flavours, so of course I got onto that deal. I sampled both the Red Horse, and the San Miguel Super Dry. Red Horse won that one, hands down. Maybe that's because it was almost 7% alcohol and I had it first, skewing my judgement of anything that came next. Whatever the reason, it was a tasty way to end the day. I topped it off with a sampling of the Pool Bar's menu for dinner. They offer a limited fare of pub-style foods. I decided on the horribly Western and terribly unhealthy Prime Beef Burger. But hey, it was tasty! And the menu didn't offer anything Filipino.

With a full belly and a liver hard at work to remove all that beer, I retired to my room for one last night of sleep. I had planned on a nice sleep in, as my flight out wasn't until lunch time the following day. But my body clock had other ideas, and I was awake around 6am, finally up and about at 7.

When I did leave the hotel, I did learn one final lesson about the Philippines: don't trust the taxi drivers! While waiting for my taxi, I asked the hotel concierge how much a taxi to the airport should be; he told me around ₱250. I noted that my taxi on Sunday night from the airport to the hotel had set me back an un-metered fare of ₱475. On this trip, I got the taxi driver to use the meter. Even with heavy traffic, we arrived at the hotel with a fare of ₱186... but I only had notes for ₱1000 and he had only ₱300 in change. So even with the meter running, they aren't very useful! I ended up paying him as close as I could in Australian dollars, which resulted in a nice tip for him. But what can you do? Next time, I will be sure to have plenty of small change!