Cebu, Through the Years

Cebu! Cebu!

Through the Years

Singapore, 

 

....South California, 

....and Hong Kong
 

...are the places we don’t get tired coming back again and again,

visiting the same spots all over again

and finding new places to explore in every visit…

Cebu belongs

to this category.

It is one of the few places in the Philippines

I find worth coming back again and again.

My love affair started with Cebu as a very young man.

I visited the province in my youth in the early 90’s.

I  stayed in a scenic  seaside resort  called Mar Y Cielo.

(succeeding photos are about 15 years  old and I decided
not to hide my face anymore as no  one would recognize 
my younger version anyway)

As a first time visitor the idyllic resort

made an impression that Cebu is indeed
 a very beautiful place.

I returned about two or three years later
 with a group of friends

We stayed in Park Place Hotel. 

I cannot recall how the hotel looks like…

but is still I vividly remember 
island hopping in a yacht…

…got into this powdery- white sandbar 
 in the middle of the ocean

…and  had a blast of a good time
until the sandbar disappeared during high tide….

I stayed in Cebu Plaza Hotel on my third visit

and incidentally met  a cousin who married a Cebuano

who  happens to work in the hotel.

I remember the hotel  having charming

and well manicured garden.

I returned to Cebu for the fourth time in 1997

as a newly married man with my wife

on our first Valentine together

who happened to be about 3 months pregnant then…

We holed on in one of the Cebu Plaza Hotel  
suites on the top floor,

seldom left the hotel  room as she was  bleeding…

It was a good thing that the room was so comfortable

we did nothing but stare at the view of the city

and watch movies(including Madonna’s Evita) all day.

We returned two more times in Cebu

(my fifth and sixth time in the province)

 this time as a family man with two kids.

Cebu became more sophisticated

and the choice for wonderful places to stay was endless.

Mactan Island

became more like Tumon in Guam...

Where fabulous hotels and resorts

sprouted like mushrooms…

Two of the hotels we stayed in Cebu where the kids

did not want to leave anymore were

Shangri- la Mactan….

It was a 2 bedroom suite

that offers a sweeping view of the ocean...

and reminds me so much like the hotel

we stayed in Guam

(3rd and 4th photos respectively from the picture above)

…a paradise where you could isolate yourself

from the rest of the world...

... but just  within reach

of the city center…

We returned to Cebu few years later

….and stayed at the scenic Plantation Bay…

a fabulous resort where our hotel room

opens directly to the lagoon…

,,,,the resort was so beautiful
and offered so many attractions, 
so many things to do...

that the kids did not want 
to leave Cebu anymore....

We are scheduled to return to Cebu

this August and we are staying at the Radisson Blue…



We cannot contain the excitement

of having another adventure in the city.