Sinulog 2016

Sinulog is known for a yearly festival that is held during the 3rd Sunday of every January in Cebu, Philippines. Sinulog is the celebration of the Sto. Nino. The celebration includes Parades along the road, family and neighbours gathering, party events, drinking session and lechon time!

Ticket to Cebu City

​Here's the video of the trip. Don't forget to read the blog after watching ✌

My boyfriend Ryan is from Cebu, so pretty much he plan this trip. Ryan and his Pirata boys went to Cebu first and I reached there on January 16, 2016 (Saturday). I took the earliest flight in Cebu Pacific at 9:45am. I was super shocked as this is the first time that the plane was full of foreigners and not Filipinos. After 3 hours, the plane finally landed in Cebu Mactan International Airport and as soon as I reached the Immigration counter, the crowd was filled with tourists. All of them are here for the Sinulog festival, how incredible! The line for the Philippines Passport was very short (I guess it's the first time in my experience). Ryan and his little brother Christian picked me up from the airport. The first thing I said when I first saw Ryan was "You look shit face!". Apparently they had a drunken night and he's obviously still drunk. But I really appreciate it that he came to pick me up under any circumstances. Love him!

Alta Vista Palacio is the villa we were staying in, It is quite far from the main area but this place was stunning. The villa was huge, it consists of 3 floors with 4 rooms, swimming pool and garden, games room with billiards and mini bar, a huge and complete kitchen (as in it has everything) and family size dining room and living room, This is truly a dream home. What I did first thing is to unpack my things and hit the swimming pool. It is really cold back in Hong Kong and I have missed the water and sun. 

Alta Vista Palacio

The perfect home for families

Our view for the next few days

This is my dream kitchen. It has everything you need for cooking. 

Huge living room

On my first night (their 3rd night) we went to Mango Square to buy our t-shirts for tomorrow's festival. Then we went to eat some "Isaw Isaw" (grilled street food) and plenty of Red Horse beers.

Beer shopping before heading out. This is how we roll

Nughout with the Pirata's

Isaw Isaw are the best!

Rice in leaves. Best rice ever!

Sinulog (Sunday, 17th January 2016)

Breakfast early morning for Sinulog

So today is the official Sinulog festival. We all woke up early today and had a nice breakfast like a big happy family. After that we head to the road and start our Sinulog walk to the Mango Square, where the party place is. It was super hot and sunny. The heat was too strong, along with a huge crowd but we made it to Mango square before nightfall and it was a relief and I'm actually happy that I did the Sinulog walk. It was my first experience and I get to see some Filipino celebrities in the parade such as, Solenn Heussaff, Richard Gutierez, Maya Salvador, Noy Volante and Coco Martin (in his black leather jacket, why though? It's hot isn't it?).

Jeepney ride to the start of the walk

Big happy fun crowd

This is amazing. First to experience this kind of festival.

We started our drinking session with some Pulutan (snack food) in Mango square. I don't recall how many buckets of beer we had ordered for that night actually. It was crazy and wild. People are showering people with beers and one of our guys joined and just made even more fun.

Drinking session at Mango Square

Night time at Mango Square

With the crew

Eventually we moved to another bar in J'Ave Superclub. The place is so cool and we got the VIP table and dance and dance the whole night.

J'ave Club!

And we party all night, till sunrise

DJ Frac Attack in the house

Happy kiddos on front stage

Dancing is what makes me happy

At midnight, Me and Ryan decided to go to his Grandma's shop. It was quite a long walk as it is super hard to get a taxi at that time. It was great to see his grandma again after for so long and she seems pretty happy seeing us too. We went back to our villa after a while. My feet was so tired but I'm glad that I survived walking with my 3 inches boots for the whole day. 

Danasan Adventure Park (Monday, 18th January 2016)

The next day we all wake up pretty late due to the great night from yesterday's festival. It was awesome though and the hangover was definitely worth it. But of course we didn't want to waste our day without doing anything so we hired a van for Php3,000 to go Danasan Adventure Park. It was a long ride and a rough one too but that's okay, It's part of the adventure.

Rented a jeepney to go to the adventure park

When we finally reach the adventure park we were very hungry but the food will be ready in about 30 minutes, so we though of doing 1 activity first while waiting for the food. We went for the ATV ride. It was very muddy and fun.

A muddy ATV ride 

After the ride we dig in for our food and after that we went for the Zipline and Horse-riding.

1..2..3..

Gooooooooo!

Yeeeeeh!

Horseback riding. yeeeeh haaaah!

Ryan and Netra went to do the Sky Drop as a tandem and while the others did the wake boarding. I, on the other hand did not participate in any of it (first, I didn't wanna get wet and second I didn't know how does Sky Drop feels like). I actually kind of regret not doing the Sky Drop as it look very fun after watching them doing it (maybe next time ?). So for dinner we had BBQ night in our villa. 

Sky drop!

Bandian Kawasan Falls (Tuesday, 19th January 2016) 

Today we decided to go to Bandian Kawasan Falls to do the Canyoneering. It was not as far as yesterday's ride. We paid Php1,000 for locals and Php 1,200 for the foreigners (sucks for the guys haha!).

Motorbike ride to the starting point

The package includes:

A motorbike ride to take you to the starting point

Helmet, life jacket, slip resistant shoes and waterproof bag

2 guides 

When we reach the starting point, there is already a big fall for you to jump. I was the last in line and I couldn't jump as I am afraid of it. I just couldn't do it at that time, my heart was beating so fast so the guide bring me to another way to get down (actually regret it after jumping a few not-so deep jump).

Jump! Jump! Jump!

Deep deep water

The Canyoneering lasted for 3 hours. It was exhausting, the water was very deep and I accidentally fell to one of the rock. i slipped while I was trying to jump over to a big rock. It was very clumsy of me. i had a big scratch on my knee but at least i only scratched my knee and not my face or my head. It was a great adventure though and this is my first time to do this kind of activity although I didn't do the big jump but I am still glad that I made it to the end of the trek and there's always a next time for me to do that kind of big jump. I should always remind myself that I should never let my fear overwhelm me, I just need to do it without any second thoughts (A lesson learned indeed!)

Slippery but worth it

This is very peaceful

Group picture in our wet looking look

The highest point

Such a beauty!

Ending of our canyoneering

Paranoma view

Will come back to this place one day

Last night in Cebu

More likely it was my last night as I am going back to Hong Kong first. We all felt very exhausted to go out. So we just stayed home and cooked some food. I cooked Sinigang with Salmon Head and Chef Prem cooked some chicken and beef dishes. It was a lovely dinner and I was sad to having to pack my stuff and go back to Hong Kong and back to work. But that's okay, I will be on my holidays again in March for Phuket. I won't be vacation-lag for too long. 

Overall, this whole Sinulog trip was awesome. I had an amazing time with the people I am with during the trip and It was better than my first experience in Sinulog. This is my 4th time in Cebu and I would consider this as one of my favorite and unforgettable trip. I can't wait for my next trip!

Yours Truly,

Michelle Chan

Cebu Trip Video

As promised, here is the video of our anniversary trip to Cebu. Ryan took all the video and he edit it by himself. I am pretty impressed by his video editing skills and take note, this is his first time making a video. I got to give him a big credit for making an amazing video for our anniversary trip.

PS: He did not took any lessons or nobody taught him how to take video or even editing videos. He was born to be good at videography.  

Enjoy watching the video. 

Yours Truly,

Michelle Chan

Cebu Trip (Malapascua - Kalanggaman - Dalaguete)

So i finally get to go on trip after a stressful straight 6 months. Me and my boyfriend, Ryan went on an adventure to Cebu (Malapascua Island) to celebrate our anniversary and as part of our 'traditional trip' every anniversary. This is our 3rd Anniversary by the way. Time has flew very fast, indeed! 

Goofing around inside the plane

We left Hong Kong on September 22, 2015 and we catch the earliest flight to Cebu at 9:40am. It takes about 3 hours to reach Cebu City,

The first thing we did after we landed was to have a quick lunch at Mang Inasal. After the quick lunch, we went straight to North bus terminal to take a bus that will bring us to Maya port (also known as Daanbantayan). We took a different bus ride that cost P160 per head, I would describe it as taking a jeepney ride where it will stop by many different location and it took us nearly 6 hours to get to the port, in which it was already night time. We reached the port by 8:30pm and of course it is risky to travel by boat. So I would highly suggest to take the CERES bus service. It is a lot faster and should only take around 3-4 hours TOPS! Anyways, we had a mini non-aircomditoned bus adventure for 6 hours. We met a motorcycle driver and he suggested us to stay over in the closest inn called "KEKOYS". We paid P1,200 for an air-conditioned room for 1 night (it includes breakfast in bed). 

The next morning, we took off by 8am but unfortunately the boat does not leave until 12noon or until it gets full. So we didn't wanna wait any longer so we agreed to rent the whole boat for P1,500. It takes about 45 minutes to get to Malapascua Island.

View outside our veranda

We finally reach the beautiful island of Malapascua Island. We were greeted warmly by the locals. We stayed in Kokay's Maldito Dive Resort and Richelle, a staff from the resort assisted us to our room. I personally picked Room #7 located in the 2nd floor, as it has the best view and we have our own veranda. The room smells very nice. I felt at home with this place. 

Long legged bed. Nicely decorated

Cheers!

His new toy

After exploring our room and unpacking our stuff, we went to inquire for scuba diving. We went to our resort diving shop, DIVE SOCIETY. We spoke to this guy called John and he have arranged us to Try-scuba for P3,500 per head. He also helped us prepare for the equipment and suits that we will need to use for the following day. We left the place feeling extremely excited. 

On our second day in Malapascua Island, we woke up very early to have a good breakfast and to ready ourselves for the scuba diving. We met our dive master, Bryan and he quickly brief us with some information about scuba diving and taught us the signs that we need to learn to be able to communicate with each other underwater. After the brief we need to get change. I swear it was really hard to wear the suit, we need to wet our body in order for us to wear it, 

Healthy breakfast

ROW ROW ROW YOUR BOAT

We went to a nearby beach area, where the water was calm and good for starters. We took about 30 minutes to learn how to breathe properly, communicate, and some other useful things that we need to do underwater. After the lesson, our dive master started to bring us deeper. We get to see small but fat fishes and some small corals. There is actually some moment that I actually forgot to breathe and it is hard to think underwater, Bryan needs to remind me to release my ear pressure from time to time. It was an awesome experience and I am actually glad that I did try this and now it is out of my bucket list. I would really consider taking the 5-6 days diving course that will reward me with a diving licence. Well, maybe I will do it next year.

On our third day, we went on an island hopping trip to Kalanggaman Island. It is a 2 hours boat ride. Kalanggaman Island is located nearby Leyte and it is in the middle of the ocean (I would say in the middle of nowhere). We paid P1,500 per head for the whole trip. This island definitely took my breathe away. It is divided into 2 different part, a calm and a wilder water side. The water was just amazing. Never seen anything like this in my life. I am speechless and felt fortunate to have been able to see this beauty through my own eyes.

Kalanggaman Island

Divided into 2 sides.

Right: The wild water side

Left: The calm water side (Beware not to swim far as the wind will drive you away from the shore)

While waiting for our lunch to be ready, I took around an hour to sun tan while chatting with my boyfriend and we took some time to walk around the beach and take some pictures and videos of course. We also tried to get in to the wild water side and we almost fell as the water was too strong. I tried to go in the calm water side but only to realize that the sands are too soft and i nearly fell. No wonder they put on a sign that it is restricted to swim in the calm water side as the wind will push you away from the shore and will be unable to return. It sounds quite scary. Anyways for lunch we had grilled chicken and grilled fish. It was delicious and we also get to socialise with the people who are with us in the tour. It was a very nice day. 

Sunbathing while waiting for our lunch

Picture Picture

This is life!

Leaving Kalanggaman Island

So It is our time to say goodbye to Malapascua Island. We both feel very welcome and have felt at home in Kokay's. The hospitality of the staff are really warm and i will surely come back to this place. 

Last breakfast in Kokay's. Filipino breakfast (TAPA)

One last view of Kokay's

After taking another long bus ride back to the city, we went directly to my boyfriend's grandma house in Lahug to pick up his 2 brothers and cousin to proceed on to our next trip to Dalaguete. We took Ceres bus service this time and it only took us 3 hours to get to Dalaguete and we stayed in a nearby inn and took the night off.

The next morning we woke up early to hike the Osmena Peak (known as the highest mountain in Cebu). We took a motorcycle ride to take us to the starting point of the trail. I love riding motorcycle. It is refreshing yet dangerous but FUN. 

So the hike started and I am the only one who came prepared for a muddy, windy, wet hike. Thank God i wore shoes while the others are on their slippers. They had to walk bare feet, as the slippers are making it more slippery. We somehow had to step on the grass just for us not to fall. It was very hilarious watching them struggle, While hiking up, we saw many vegetables planted on the soils and I find this amusing as I don't see this everyday in my life. 

Cabbages

So we finally reach the top of the mountain. Although it was foggy but we can still see some view and the fogs does go away for a few seconds and then another one comes then gone and so on. It was rainy at that time when we reach on top but it was amazing to be up there.

On top of Osmena Peak

On top of Osmena Peak

The windy look of mine

After the hike, we continue on to another area in Dalaguete, to my boyfriend grandma's sister home. He showed me around and showed me the rice field where he used to play around as a child. We had our lunch over there and for first time i tried drinking Coconut wine. It was weird at first but i got the hang of the taste later. Overall, It was a nice day. Since i have lived in a city my whole life, I really do appreciate being out of the city and see nothing but nature. 

Rice field in Dalaguete

So we finally came back to Hong Kong on September 29, 2015. It was very sad that our trip is over but this only means that we had an awesome trip for us to feel sad. But this is not the end of our travel journey. We will be traveling more in the next few months, for sure!

Here are some of the best food that we ate during the trip. They're all delicious. 

From top left: Sizzling Fish, Pancit Canton (very big portion), Kinlaw, Sinigang Shrimp, Pasta Parmigiana, Mango Float, Mussels with Cheese, Carpaccio and Michelle's Soup (Broccoli Soup)

Ryan has made a video of the whole trip. It will be uploaded in my next blog.

Yours Truly,

Michelle Chan