CEBU VISIT, Philippines [Days 1 - 7] Cebu City, Kampung Bitoon Life, Spring Water Swim, Fireworks

HEY GUYS

I finally found the time to do up my Cebu post! I got so lazy i almost didn't want to start on it cause i knew it'll take almost an entire day to do since it was such a long trip of 13 days >_>
But i still did it anyway HAHA i'm always like this.

This trip happened because one fine day when i was out i received a call from Ritche, and his mom wanted to know if i would like to go back to Cebu with them in December-Jan and i agreed.
And let me clarify that Ritche isn't a local, he's actually from Cebu that's why!

SHOCKING RIGHT,I KNOW. Like wtf he looks / talks / behaves like a 100% Singaporean Chinese. I didn't suspect a thing when i first met him up till the next day when i saw him on Facebook and he was from "Cebu"! I SWEAR I WAS LIKE WTF ARE YOU SURE NOT. And i know i haven't really talked about him on my blog (other than the fact that he's a nice guy who bought spaghetti for my hungry friends when we first met HAHAHA you better cook me mine rightnowah) but he kinda has half chinese and half filipino blood in him! 

This trip was actually more of a visit and reunion with his family than a holiday so those 13 days were " living the everyday life of a Filipino local" NOT A "i go to Cebu to see new things, eat good food, take scenic photos", though one day i would really REALLY love to go there to be a tourist haha.
I would say that i'm able to see their kind of lifestyle when trying to live the life of a Filipino local, but of course, every lifestyle has it's boring parts as well, so it wasn't like everyday fun and play all day long kind of thing! I think i'm really bad at explaining this HAHAH but i hope you get what i mean.
Just want to tell you that this isn't all there is to see if you one day decide to give the Philippines a visit!

OH YA AND this is the post for my Cebu Visit from Days 1 to 7 and from days 8 to 10, WE WENT TO FUCKING BORACAY OMG I LOVE THAT PLACE.
And we went back to Cebu for a short while from Days 11 to 13 before flying back to Singapore!

Shit sorry this intro is damn long sia but i wanted to say that i've been to Cebu before with my school 2 years back to teach children Arts/Music as a part of my curriculum for 16 days AND I SURE WANTED TO SEE ALL OF THEM AGAIN. I'm pretty sure many of my mates/teachers who went with me to Cebu for that trip have been curious to know why i didn't pay them a visit which also leads to the first part of my post.

1. I was INVITED to go to Cebu with his family. They paid for my EVERYTHING and i feel damn bad how they wouldn't allow me to pay for the trip. 

I couldn't just be so selfish and plan out my own activities right?

2. Bitoon (Ritche's hometown) is 4 hours or more away from the place i went 2 years back so of course i can't just go and pay a visit.
I need to fix transportation and all so i would have to trouble his parents which isn't nice at all.
3. I need to spoil all their plans because they had to visit his grandpa at the hospital, have reunion dinner, and whatever so i can't just say like "oh i want to go and visit taptap" and walk off,yes?
Ok so this is just to clarify the fact that i do want to visit the children back at TapTap again but not on this trip!

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So on Day 1 when we arrived at the Cebu Airport, there was actually a driver waiting for us right at the entrance of the Airport, driving his car..... 

And i felt extremely wtf-ed because it felt damn weird to think that he has a driver and a car at another part of the world apart from Singapore LOL. 

He's just so much of a Singaporean i really tend to forget that he's not a local i guess! I swear it took me damn long to process this fact. 

It was as confusing as the first time i heard him speak cebuano to his parents? 

Ritche playing the old sch game on his mom's phone wtf this game damn ancient HAHA

Arrived at Ritche's Grandfather's house located at Cebu City as we were staying here for the night!

Headed over to the hospital to visit his grandfather who just finished an operation!
This part was rather sian cause i had no idea what they were saying and we were sitting in the room for the entire day from afternoon till late at night :(

Too bored so i taught my boyfriend how to act cute for the camera HAHAHAH
i really think he could pull off as a girl leh don't you think so too?

Ritche's mom asked for a room upgrade because the room was too small for the number of visitors who came but they took 5 hours before taking actions for the room upgrade >__> i have no idea why. This is the most expensive hospital in Cebu and if a room upgrade takes 5 hours i wonder how long it'll take at cheaper hospitals leh.

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Day 1 was just spent at the hospital and we had an early night because we had to get up early on day 2!
Went to the car retailer for some repairs. AND CARS IN CEBU DAMN CHEAP LEH like this one here is 1.2m pesos (36k SGD) and no COE unlike SG.
In SG if you pay for COE, just for that piece of paper, you can buy a car in another part of the world already.

Right after the car repairs we went to visit the area in which Ritche's house is to be built!
It'll be situated 10 minutes away from a pool for residents that is BY THE BEACH.

This is just the model house of the how it's going to be like.
Apparently, Ritche's parents want it double this size and it'll be designed by Papa Chua who's an architect!

They're going to have a roof with a spot for BBQ which is damn shiok PLUS the view of the stars at Cebu is amazing so it'll be so beautiful to watch it from the roof of his house. Omg i can't wait for it to be done building haha.

The guy in the blue shirt is kinda like the housing agent or something

He's going to have a gazebo right behind his house omf

Took a walk to look at the residents pool and the beach after!

The beach was really sad and dirty HAHA but if they clean it up then omg i want to live here.
But i sure hope they clean it up though the view is terrible with all that garbage.

Drove to this really nice place for lunch by the sea. I could really get used to this lifestyle hahaha.

Tried several new dishes i've never had in my life and i really liked the raw fish.
They just dunk the raw fish into vinegar and it's "cooked" because of the acidity! Now i'm craving for it sieeeen.
This whole meal with all that seafood, meat, fish, soup and drinks only cost $30 SGD can you believe that?

That pretty much summed up my Day 2 because we headed back for the hospital, but this time i got to meet his cousins that i have never met before!
In the evening we headed back to his Kampung known as Bitoon, 2 and a half hrs drive away from the city.
Literally K.O.-ed upon reaching the room LOL.

That's their form of transportation btw they can flag this van anywhere along the streets and they pay for the ride upon reaching their destination!
When it gets too packed some of them just stand on the steps of the van like this. Looks damn scary wtf.

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On Day 3 his cousin knocked on our door and told us to head over to another nearby town so we could have lunch there and hang out!
Had this dessert known as Halo Halo at a random street side stall in the park and it cost only 50pesos ($1.40) when it includes mangoes, chocolate wafer, ice cream of many different flavours and those ice kachang ingredients at the bottom of it!

Also ordered their pizza which only cost 80pesos ($2.30)
HOW I WISH I COULD FIND A WHOLE PIZZA FOR $2.30 IN SG. I think buying the ingredients for the pizza in Singapore would already cost more than $2.30 pls.

OOTD:
Chanel Cropped Top from StyleHacks.net
Floral Shorts by TheDudes
Jelly Bag from StyleHacks.net
Kampong Slippers from Cebu for only less than $1 SGD and it's crazily comfortable!!

There were so many couples PDA-ing at the park hahaha

I don't even think Singaporean children at their age would like to play catching anymore.
You'll probably just see them asking to borrow their parent's phones for some random game or using their own iphone.
I wonder if they still know what it means to have fun?

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Photos to show you around the compound of his family's place! It's actually like around 7 or more bungalows next to each other in a square and leaving a square compound in the middle with a garage. Absolutely not something i was expecting!
I've NEVER seen a bungalow when i visited TapTap last time. So i'm guessing that Bitoon is more developed!

Second floor and our room is the one to the left! I kept telling Ritche how the railings for the stairs on the right hand corner looks like hotdog buns HAHAHAH eh but i swear it does ok. It's not just because i'm hungry all the time....

Candid shot of Ritche that just ended up being so artistic looking haha

Our messy room. And thank god for WiFi in this house.

Their own family chapel!

His other auntie's house! The interior is damn nice but i couldn't just walk in and start snapping pictures lol

Another auntie's house and this is supposedly haunted. There isn't anyone staying there when i was in Cebu but the living room lights were turned on lol i was damn freaked out wtf.

Their own garage for personal cars, there's another garage for business purposes

There would be a guard sitting there through the night by the gate!

His grandfather's house which is damn big with 2 shops in front of it! Oh and i haven't mentioned how there are so many maids walking around the house and compound wtf like i can't even rmb all their faces cause there are THAT many. If i see any random person that i don't recognize as his family member then it's a maid already. Took me long to get used to that too.

Night of playing with fireworks for the New Year countdown with all his cousins and some of their friends

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Already lost count, what day is this HAHA but one random morning his cousins knocked on our door to ask us if we wanted to go swimming! 

The place was like a resort and the water used was from the springs. Living in Cebu is really filled with many random plans and it's so fun how you can just go on to do whatever you want whenever. 

That's a bag of scones-tasting sugared bread from his auntie's bakery and it.was.so.good. 

Is the name on the bus familiar? HAHA that's my boyfriend's name on the bus!
Yeap they run some bus company business and the buses that belong to him has his name on it and every bus has it's unique design.
I still have yet to see the garage because we couldn't find the time to go there :( i guess i'll see it the next time i visit Cebu!

I realized how they always have self painted vehicles everywhere and this one really reminds me of jumanji LOL

mehmeh featuring his cousin's hairy arm HAHAHA

One of his youngest cousins! The age difference between his eldest and youngest cousin is almost 30 years lol.

Wish i had as many cousins as he does i have only 2. *sadness

The whole crew!

The chicken tasted really good but it was so weird how we were eating right before our swim LOL

All the younger ones already can't wait to swim HAHA right after eating their lunch they headed to the pool to like play with the water already. Children are really damn cute.

Tree house in the middle of nowhere

Bought myself some snacks and fed the fish when no one was looking HAHA it's so cute to see them snatching the cracker ok 

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On the following day it was his relative's birthday so we hit the road again! Not a fan of long journeys especially because they sometimes use this mini van vehicle that doesn't have windows and my extremely long hair just flies around for 2 hours >__>
After i get off the vehicle my hair would all tangle up and fuck, i can't tie my hair up either because i didn't want his family members to see my tattoo.

They had this mini farm at his cousin's rest house!

#selfie #selca #swag HAHAHAH

Just had to take a photo of this HAHA it was so sad how they were roasting the chicken right next to the chicken coop

That's the mini van thing i was talking about! It can sit up to around 14 or more people?

Took a whole branch of leaves to feed the goats HAHAH after i did this the children all started to feed the goats too.
Shit am i teaching them the wrong things.

On our way back to his house his aunties bought us pizzas! This is supposed to be one of the best pizza places ever and there were many youths eating there.

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OK i am sure,that this was taken on day 7 because we went back to the city with lots of clothes packed for our Boracay trip the next morning
I WAS SO FUCKING EXCITED HAHA. We went to one of the biggest malls in Cebu known as SM for some shopping!
I've been here before 2 years back and it was so nostalgic to be there all over again :')

Had very bad dimsum at this restaurant. That's the abacus design on the seats! Super cute

Looked through the gallery with photographs of the yearly festival known as Sinulog!
Sadly we missed it by just a bit cause we were flying back on the 8th of Jan and the festival was on the 19th.
 His mom did ask if we wanted to extend our stay but i couldn't cause i had to teach sadly :(

Headed over to the shop known as Bench/ which is their local store that's really like cotton on!
Bought a pair of paisley designed slippers here for just $4 SGD for my Boracay trip hehe

Shopping is a little rushed but i am so happy with my buys from F21, OXYGEN (local brand) and Bench/ (local brand)!
They may not have very nice clothes all around the mall but these shops are worth looking into.
Had dinner with his dad's family at a chinese restaurant just opposite the mall. ~

Didn't really like the food ah well. Had too much good chinese food back in Singapore so i obviously couldn't judge the standards like that!
But for chinese food abroad i guess it was considered to be good?

The trip was personally quite nice even though there were several boring parts to it. His family members were extremely nice to me and i heard that they like me / want us to get married HAHA so i hope to keep their impression of me that way. Plus we might be going back to Cebu again in April but i'm still thinking if i should? I'm still going to Bali in March wtf my only concern would be my teaching schedule. But yet they're doing A LOT of extremely fun stuff in April D':
Can't make up my mind what do i do sigh.

That's all i have for this post and the next one would be on Boracay! YAYYYYYYY Ritche and I took like 500+ photos there and i filtered half of it out haha. And Boracay was simply AMAZING. If you follow me on instagram you should have seen! I LOVED IT THERE i'll definitely go back again sometime soon hehe.

Till next time <3