{"id":12800,"date":"2012-10-02T02:32:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T02:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teampcheng.wordpress.com\/2012\/10\/02\/our-adventures-day-2-in-cebu"},"modified":"2019-02-07T23:56:20","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T23:56:20","slug":"our-adventures-day-2-in-cebu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.teampcheng.com\/blog\/our-adventures\/our-adventures-day-2-in-cebu\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Adventures: Day 2 in Cebu"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Paul enjoying his coffee with a daytime view of the city.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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Sunday was our ‘tour the city day’ since we were already heading back to Manila on Monday morning. So we got up early since we knew we had a long day ahead of us.   <\/span><\/div>\n
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Our room during the day.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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Our room during the night.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
In case I haven’t mentioned it yet – we stayed in the Crown Regency Towers in Cebu. Since there was a great deal I found online. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Our room on the 30th floor. For some reason they gave us two Queen sized beds- this is the one we didn’t use except for the pillows.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Paul taking some photos while waiting for our friend Charen who will be taking us around. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Breakfast at Cafe Glo. The food was delish! <\/span><\/div>\n
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Beautiful decorations gave a nice and elegant feel to the Cafe. Hotel guests are just a blur as they lined up around the buffet table. <\/span><\/div>\n
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A lot of the hotel guests where foreigners from countries like Korea, China and Japan. Most if not all the hotel signs had their respective translations in either Korean or Chinese. The menu labels on the buffet even had caricatures of either a pig which describes that the dish is pork or a caricature of a chicken to signify that the dish was chicken and the same for beef and fish. <\/span><\/div>\n
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One thing I love about breakfast buffets in hotels- juice in a glass of ice! :p<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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The second floor of the hotel with the amazing decorations behind me. So basically Paul tells me to pose here and he just clicks away. Hey! Who am I to complain right? I get a lot of great photos! \ud83d\ude42 <\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
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Starbucks right below our hotel. You can see the reflection of tour buses on the glass.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

There were street children right outside our hotel who seemed to be like vultures around the tour buses or waiting for tourists so that they could beg for food or money. <\/span><\/p>\n

I thought this was supposed to be a city right? And with all the tourists coming in you’d think that there would be more jobs and opportunities for people. But then again Manila is a city also and that doesn’t mean any lack of street urchins. Or perhaps it’s the old tale of poor families flocking to the city in the hopes of a better future but only finding reality, hunger and hardships. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Does poverty always follow progress? I wonder. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Me inside Starbucks but you can also see what was going on outside.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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Waiting for our friend Charen in Starbucks. It’s great that there was a Starbucks right below our hotel and we still able to connect to the wifi from the hotel lobby here so we were still able to stay connected through Twitter and Facebook. <\/span><\/div>\n
The security guard in  the photo above approached us and was offering a ‘City Tour Package’ for only P1,800.00. There were also other packages to the beaches of Cebu for around P 3,000.00 depending on whether it was just drop off or round trip. It’s a good thing we had Charen to tour us around. :p <\/span><\/div>\n
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Magellan’s Cross. You can see Charen and myself to the right of the photo.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Our first stop was Magellan’s Cross; now people who have been to Cebu are sure to have visited Magellan’s cross since it is such a tourist attraction. While we were still in the car Charen already set our expectations that Magellan’s Cross was not was all it was made out to be. <\/span>
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\n<\/span>Upon arriving on the site it I’ll admit there was a little disappointment since it was just a really small chapel like building that housed the famous cross which was planted by Ferdinand Magellan when they arrived in Cebu on April 14 or 21 (depending on the source), 1521. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The sign under the cross says that this wooden cross encases the original cross which was brought to the Philippines upon the arrival of the Spaniards. What the sign does not<\/i><\/b> say was that they placed the original cross in a casing in order to protect it from people who would chip away parts of the wood as souvenirs or because people believed that the cross had miraculous powers. <\/span><\/p>\n

However there is another story that is going around and this is that the original cross was destroyed after Magellan’s death and that the cross in this site is just a replica which was just planted by the Spaniards. <\/span>
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\n<\/span>No matter what the real story may be, Magellan’s Cross is a very important historical artifact in our country’s history, despite it’s very humble abode. <\/span><\/p>\n

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This is Charen and myself by the cross. Charen is my childhood friend and we’ve known each other since we were like 6 years old. We live and grew up in the same village and also went to Assumption Antipolo together, although I was a year older than her. I asked her to be one of my bridesmaids when I got married last December 2011. Who thought that she’d be assigned in Cebu for work at the same time we would be visiting and because of that she was available to tour us around the city. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Paul and I by the cross. Despite of Charen’s lack of confidence in using Paul’s DSLR to take the photo, it still turned out well. \ud83d\ude42   <\/span><\/div>\n
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I felt goosebumps when I saw in the news that just a week after our visit to Cebu a man doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire inside the chapel of the Magellan’s cross. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Although the reason for the man’s actions have not yet been discovered it is still a sad and disturbing thought that someone would do something like that and in this historical and religious site none the less. <\/span><\/div>\n
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This is the church of the Sto. Ni\u00f1o which is right behind the small chapel of where Magellan’s cross is. There were a lot of people in church since it was a Sunday. <\/span><\/div>\n
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The church was founded and is run today by Augstinian priests and has undergone a number of reconstructions and has a very unique architecture. There is a huge outdoor plaza where the mass was held when we were there. Apparently the venues of the masses are changed from place to place within the church since the church also has indoor venues where masses are also held. <\/span><\/div>\n
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A little cute boy who caught our attention during mass.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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When we heard mass we were inside and the mass was being held in the outdoor plaza outside. So it was weird since we had to face the priest which meant having to do an about face every time we stood up. <\/span><\/div>\n

The mass was in English but the homily was in Cebuano so Paul and I didn’t understand the homily. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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The inside of the church. As you can see there was no priest in the altar since they were outside.I found it strange since there were security guards posted at the entrances of the church and these guards would check your bags sort of like what mall security guards would do. But what was even stranger was that there were also security guards beside priests as they gave out Holy Communion.  <\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

T<\/span>he original Sto. Ni\u00f1o <\/span>statue<\/span> which was brought by the Spaniards upon arriving in Cebu is housed in this church. We tried getting in line to kiss the Sto.Ni\u00f1o but the line was sooo long. We opted to just admire the statue from a far.   <\/span><\/p>\n

I just found out that there was a museum inside the church and it was disappointing that we weren’t able to visit it. Maybe we’ll be able to during our next visit. :p <\/span><\/div>\n
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Some Random Photos: <\/span><\/p>\n
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The Metropolitan Church.<\/div>\n
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The inside of the Sto. Ni\u00f1o church. One of our favorite photos of our trip.<\/div>\n
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Me- outside of Starbucks.<\/div>\n

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The outside of the Sto. Ni\u00f1o church.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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Our friend Kristian advised us to visit the Metropolitan church and so we asked around and found out that the church <\/span>is just like a block after the Sto. Ni\u00f1o church. There are many beautiful and historical churches in Cebu but it was sad to see so many street children just right outside the churches. <\/span><\/div>\n

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Paul noticed that the walls had bullet holes in them. I discovered on further research that during World War II most of the cathedral was destroyed because of Allied bombings but was rebuilt during the 1950s.  <\/span><\/div>\n
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These pillars are the only remains of the attack during World War II.<\/span><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>Paul and I with the surviving pillars of the original church. <\/span>
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Paul’s street photography.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The photo above shows the place known as ‘downtown’ in Cebu. Charen says it is the ‘Quiapo’ of Cebu. This is just right outside of the Sto. Ni\u00f1o church. We had to walk pass here to get to the Metropolitan Church. I also bought some souvenirs here- coin purses with ‘Cebu’ and the shape of an animal. \ud83d\ude42 <\/span><\/p>\n

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After our church trips it was time for lunch and my sister who also stayed in Cebu for work recommended that we try out Casa Verde which is basically a popular steak restaurant in Cebu. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Don’t be fooled this is one REALLY BIG baby-back ribs.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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There are two branches of Casa Verde in Cebu, one is in the Ayala area of Cebu while the other is in a bigger old- styled house and Charen brought us to the later so that we can appreciate the ambiance of the restaurant more and needless to say it wasn’t only the ambiance which we appreciated but the food as well. <\/span><\/div>\n

The food was affordable and they really tasted great! We only had one order of baby back ribs but that one order was already good for the three of us!<\/p>\n

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We had so much fun telling stories and catching up we almost forgot that we were on a tour of the city! <\/span><\/div>\n

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This is me standing outside of Casa Verde. As you can see the house some old Spanish touches to it which gives it a more authentic feel.<\/div>\n
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