Visiting Cebu in March 2022 (AKA My Trip Through HeII)

[Dave Hounddriver]

A humorous recantation of my recent holiday in Cebu. (And its not over yet  )

I was as prepared as I could be for my vacation this week.  I followed all of the requirements that BI and others threw in the path of prospective tourists and that was important.  Every part was checked and double checked somewhere along the way.  I found they are not playing around, even though some of the requirements are a joke.

My first indication this trip was not going to go smooth was when Singapore Airlines cancelled my booking just 5 days before departure. No reason given.  They just said my flight was cancelled.  That forced me to book with Philippine airlines, at a higher cost, then cancel Singapore hotel rooms, and reschedule covid tests.  Then I applied for refunds for my cancelations and still waiting.  2 days after all that, Singapore Airlines emailed to say:  Hi, your flight is back on.  Do you still want to take it?   DUH!!!! 

The flight itself went faster than normal.  It seemed to me that the route was straighter and further into the Pacific Ocean than previous flights.  Perhaps they wanted to keep far away from Russian airspace.  It meant the flight time was 12 hours 15 minutes when previous flights I have been on have taken almost 15 hours.  Arriving in Manila to change planes, there were many changes since my last visit.  Some changes due to covid and some involving No Terminal Change.  Great!.. We changed from Philippine Airlines International arrivals to Philippine Airlines Domestic departures all in the same terminal.  They do this by bussing us from the departure gate, across the airfield, to their departure terminal and putting us directly on the plane.  Would have been great except . . . . they lost our luggage.  Took them 2 days to find it and get it to us but we did get it.

So we take a taxi to our rented condo and  . . . . . . there is no one to meet us.  No problem.  Let me use your wifi and I'll contact them.  Sorry sir.  We have no wifi.  So I have to traipse around the city looking for a wifi connection to contact the owner and get a reply.  "Just wait a while sir".  Finally someone shows up, lets us in . .  and its a shit hole.  A 2 star unit masquerading as a 4 star.  So we make a deal to stay 2 nights while we look for something we like better.  Cebu got hit BAD by that typhoon.  So many condos with the windows blown out and major rainwater damage.  It is hard to find a high end condo and those that are nice are fully booked.  As an example, we tried to book at Crown Regency where I have stayed in a nice suite before.  All their suites with kitchen facilities are in Tower 2 and the entire tower is closed for renovations since the typhoon.  We eventually found a reasonable 3 Star condo that could be a 4 Star with some work and attention to detail.  Cost us CAD$105 a night which is 4,200 pesos. . . .  Deal complete, money paid . . no Internet.  "Sorry sir.  No Internet since typhoon".  Yeah . . because they did not pay the bill since the typhoon.  So I ran around and found a phone (hate cell phones) and loaded it up as a wifi hotspot and here I am.

Ain't vacations grand.

 

[Mike J]

Hopefully it will get better.  I think you would agree that the new Mactan airport is really nice. 

[Jack Peterson]

1 hour ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Ain't vacations grand.

 The Burning Question from Dumaguete is, Will we get to see you this trip? 

[Dave Hounddriver]

56 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

 The Burning Question from Dumaguete is, Will we get to see you this trip?

Hi Jack.  It is not planned, but one never knows what the future will bring.