Cebu-Manila-Cebu: the Petals-Tacs on Tour

Last October 1, 2008, PETC-IMDS floor had a little hullabaloo when I arrived at 1:00 pm. I looked around and saw gleaming faces chatting in groups. My curiosity was killing me, so I asked what has happened. They told me that Cebu Pacific was offering a promo fare for domestic flights with a-P200-less per flight for those who will check in without baggage. Yes, it was so tempting that 21 of my officemates immediately bought e- tickets (Nov.28-Cebu-Clark, Dec.1-Manila-Cebu) –thanks to the existence of credit cards. I was thinking that maybe my hubby and I could go with them. On second thought, I wanted us to go to another place. Besides, we had been to Baguio last Nov. 2003 together when I passed the board exam, so I wanted us to be in another place. My plan was to celebrate Dec. 9th which is our 2nd anniversary away from Cebu to make it a memorable one. Enchanted Kingdom then came into my mind. I have long dreamed of being on those famous rides—space shuttle, anchors away. Hence, I informed my Lalang of my plan plus the side trips to Batangas and Tagaytay. Thank God he agreed. On Oct. 2nd, I bought 3 roundtrip e-tickets (Dec.6-Cebu-Manila, Dec.10-Manila-Cebu) for me, Jurein, and Zyle. I anticipated that our 13th month pay will be released on Dec. 5th, so our trip should be more than okay. I informed the Tinkerbells of our plan. They wanted to go with us, for this reason, I purchased tickets for them, too. I was then imagining the trip to be extra fun.

However, weeks before the actual flight to Manila, Pepper and his guy backed out because of the “baby-in-tummy” news. Mais also wasn’t able to go with us because of her boyfriend –although she said it’s because of her sister’s birthday –whatever! I still was happy because the 13th month pay was given on Dec. 4th and my family’s health was of no hindrance to the planned tour. With or without them, we are good to go.

On Dec.6th, we arrived in Manila at 8:25am. We should have gone directly to my Maecell’s (my cousin) place but her directions were too complicated for us. Instead, we went to Glorietta mall –still closed when we got there –where we planned to meet Girlen, my college roomie and classmate, and Ensaymz, my best friend, at 12:00nn. Thereby, we told Maecell that we’ll just meet her at this mall. When we convened, we dined at McDo before we got off for EK. The original plan was to leave for EK at 12:30pm to enjoy most of the rides. However, it was already 6:00pm when we arrived due to the changes in plans –Ensaymz did not go with us –and other things –late meet-ups, FX left after it was full of passengers after an hour of waiting, and heavy traffic. We got together with Jurein’s uncle and his uncle’s family in the park. Since it was already late and the place was too jam-packed, we were only able to be on board on 3 of the best rides available (Jungle Log Jam, RioGrande Rapids, Anchor’s Away). One try with Jungle Log Jam didn't satisfy me --after 2 hours of waiting in line for our turn. The RigoGrande Rapids got us soaking wet. The Anchor's Away truly was breath-taking --I almost lost my voice because of shouting. For all that, the ride-all-you-can ticket that we bought which costs P400 was not maximized. I was a little disappointed because we would have enjoyed more if only we got there early. At some point, we were even running to make it to the other rides before the park closed. Good thing though, the park stopped the rides at 10:00 pm instead of the 9:00 pm to cater those arrived late. Well, I should learn from this lesson or still get frustrated the next time I will got there. From EK we went straight to Tiyo/Ninong Joseph’s place (Jurein’s uncle, our wedding Ninong) at Nasugbo, Batangas. Thanks to the comfortable 2-hour ride in a 3months-old Toyota Innova. We arrived at 12mn and ate our dinner/midnight snack before we slept.

On Dec. 7th, we watched “Pacman” Manny Pacquiao beat “The Legend” Oscar Dela Hoya. We then went to Picnic Groove in Tagaytay, Cavite City . When I, Zyle, Jurein, Maecell,and Girlen got out of the car, the super cold wind was blowing – I bet it was 15 deg.C, thus, I borrowed Maecell’s pink long-sleeved blouse and put it on Zyle. I bought a sweater that should have been for me but let my baby wear it instead because the chilliness was unbearable especially for my baby. We didn’t expect it to be that cold, that’s why we were not able to prepare the proper outfit. Jurein, Maecell, and I then tried the zip line. The locals said it was still operating for 5months. I don’t know why Girlen didn’t try. We paid P200 for one way only with a free 5R picture. Two way costs P300 pesos. Maecell and I regretted that we were in a sitting position. We should have tried the face down-lying position instead because it was not that scary after all. It was already quite dark, so the view was not that visible in the picture. After that, Girlen went home to QC while we went back to Batangas.

On Dec. 8th, we left early for QC. The plan for the day was to go to Avilon Zoo. I sent an SMS to Ensaymz but fell asleep while waiting for her reply. It was almost 11am when I read the message that we will meet at Gateway at 12:30 P.M. We assembled in Gateway at 2:00 pm already. She treated us with Dairy Queen ice cream. The Mud Pie was super yummy while the Pepper Mint was literally very cool –I wish there will be a franchise in Cebu soon. The regular size was P60, but it was worth the price. We left for Montalban on an FX at around 3:00 pm already because we still waited for Jim (Ensaymz MS classmate). We arrived at 4:00 pm. The worst part was --Avilon Zoo was already closed. It was tiresome to go back to QC and be in traffic-jammed streets again, so we preferred to for a place where we can stay for the night. However, there were only two choices: in a resort or in an inn. We first surveyed the room in the resort which costs P500 but there’s no TV and is ventilated only by an electric fan. We opted to stay at Montalban View Hotel (formerly Secret Love Inn) which costs P640 pesos for 12 hours thinking that it should be a better place. To our dismay, the room was not worth the price. It was motel-like –as if I had been in any –dark, and old. The first room we occupied had a love chair in it— my first time to actually see one. Its air condition wasn’t working, so we transferred to another room. With added bad luck, the air condition was making a noisy sound. Conversely, we had to bear with it rather than bathe in perspiration. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take a picture of neither the room nor the love chair. The hotel is really incomparable to the cheaper pension houses in Cebu.

On Dec. 9th, our time of stay in the hotel was up by 6:45 am. We had our breakfast –lechon manok left over for Jurein and me, and Cerelac for Zyle –at the small cottage in front of the Hotel. Then we headed to Avilon Zoo which zoo is 7.5 hectares big and is the largest zoo in the country. A regular tour would take 2-3 hours. It took us 5 hours. We were so amazed with the diversity of its flora and fauna –more of the latter. Since there were so many animals that we wanted to capture on our camera, the memory card became full in middle of the tour. We had to delete some of the pictures including the nicely taken ones. I had even used the camera of Jan’s mp5 and my camera phone but the battery of both were unluckily empty after a few minutes of use. One of the interesting animals that we had a close encounter with was a 30-kg orangutan named Camille. She was very sweet and well trained. We paid P50 just to have pictures taken with her.
At around 1:00 pm, we headed to Cubao. We bought a usb-drive at the mall where we transferred the pictures to free the cam’s memory. We were unsure where to go next: to Divisoria or to MOA? Finally, we chose to shop at Divisoria first. We bought some goods for Christmas gifts. [To add to our list of bad luck, I didn’t notice that one pair of shoes which costs P200 were both left and of different sizes until we returned to Cebu.] At 6:00 pm, we left for MOA. Unfortunately, we chose to go Maecell’s place to rest, since it was past 8:00 pm when we passed by MOA due to heavy traffic. The plan was to go there early in the morning of Dec. 10th.

On Dec. 10th, Ensaymz informed us that Cebu Pacific was getting stern with the check-in time –two hours before the flight. She said that her mother in-law’s flight should’ve been 1:55 pm on Dec. 9th but when she checked-in at 1:00 pm it was already fully booked. She had to change the flight but the fare was higher plus there’s a rebooking fee. I was anxious of her experience so we didn’t bother going to MOA and checked-in early instead.
At 1:25 pm, we were back in Cebu.