Monday, July 14: Cebu, Philippines
I flew from Cleveland > Chicago > Incheon, South Korea > Cebu, Philippines. It was a long flight. When I finally landed in the Philippines I had to go through customs. In the Philippines the culture is much different. People were cutting in line and really just didn't care. I was getting so mad because I was hot, tired, hungry, and my backpack was so heavy. Eventually, I just decided to do what they were doing. I finally got to the counter and the officer didn't believe my passport was mine because I look a lot different than the photo. Luckily, I had my driver's license or else I don't know what I would have done.
After going through immigration I pretty much bribed my way through customs. This guy came up to me, looked in this plastic bag I had from the Korean airport, said that the candy looked good, I said he could have a piece, he took one and let me through. I finally got to my sister and we took a cab to our hotel. I had bought an outlet/surge protector and as soon as I plugged it into the wall it sparked and cut all the power in our room. I went to see if the power to the to the whole hotel went out. I thought I opened our bedroom door to the hallway, and I told my sister it was all out. She then went to the door and opened it up and we realized it didn't. Apparently I went into the bathroom, but I swear I was in the hallway. Jillian went to the fuse box and turned our power back on. I just hoped I wouldn't screw up like this the rest of the trip.
Tuesday, July 15: Cebu, Philippines
The next day we went into Cebu City and got our new hostel. I napped for a few hours then that night we went out with my sister's friend and his friend who also came to visit. We went to a French bakery where I tried my first macaron. Later we went to a bar and drank beer and listened to music. It rained a lot the first few days I was there because a typhoon was going through the country north of us so we were getting the outskirts of it.
The next morning we woke up and there were ants ALL OVER our stuff. The lady in charge of our hostel told us not to eat food in our room, but I didn't think much of it. I thought these ants were going to be a much bigger problem than they were, but my sister dealt with it before and said as long as the food was gone they would leave our bags. We threw away the food and shook out our clothes and luckily they were gone. So, if you ever have to deal with this problem just know that it seems a lot worse than it actually is!
We left Cebu via ferry and went to Bohol, another island in the Philippines. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to get there because all the other ferries canceled their trips as a result of the typhoon. Luckily, we were able to go. One thing I learned from my sister is not to get a tuk tuk/motorbike driver right at the port/airport/train station. If you walk a little ways away you'll always find a cheaper ride. We didn't have a hostel booked for Bohol, but my sister managed to get us a discount at hotel right on the water because a friend of hers recommended it.
Sorry for all the writing. I wanted to make these posts more pictures and less writing, but I'm really bad at making my writing concise. My high school social studies teacher told me I needed to write less. Oops.
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