A Day Out in Cebu

Getting Started

On our organised schedule we had a trip arranged for Cebu City and Upland highlights. It was a private tour which sounds posher than it was as in reality it was a taxi who took us round the sights and waited as we looked round.

The driver didn't seem to know too much so some of the stops remain a bit of a mystery. We will have to Google them.

Discovering Cebu’s Historical Sites

We started at an old house/ancestral home filled to the brim with stuff, but no real idea of the significance to Cebu. Across the road from here was the Monument of Cebu statue. Our driver did point out Magellan but couldn't tell us who else was on it. I think may have been a translation issue as he told us it was 300 years old, it didn't look this old and the internet says less than 30!

After this we visited a church, the taxi driver dropped us off with a warning about pickpockets and children begging! This site was amazing. A museum with interesting stuff, a big outdoor church with signs to the bleachers. But most impressive was Santo Nino, a image of Jesus, which is the oldest Christian artefact in the Philippines. The Philippine Catholics believe this to be miraculous and it has been recognised by previous popes. We queued to see it, without realising the queue was for people seeking a blessing or intervention but we were happy to take our turn. I think the fact we were the only foreigners in the queue should have been a clue.

Further Out of Cebu

Next were the Sirao Gardens a brilliant spot for photographs, standing in a big cement hand with the hills in the background was fun. Instagrammers paradise and lots of posers queuing for "the shot".

After this we visited a Taoist temple which was impressive although a lot of steps in the (feels like 41C) heat. More annoying was due to Karen's revealing top, well sleeveless, we weren't allowed to go up towards the alters.

We finished at Leah's Temple which is a big Greek like temple built by a chap to remember his wife and store her collections. This was a ridiculously grand building with works going on to add gardens. It did have a couple of things which amused us, the loving husband had children with other women so not that loving, not sure if other temples and planned. As well as the wife collecting amazing objects she also liked that with several vases from Vegas showing the replica of the Eiffel Tower. It was a fabulous place to look round and billed as the Tahj Mahal of the Philippines.

The tour was overall excellent and gave us a different view of this big city.

Driving in the Philippines

We love the driving here, it seems if you overtake anything smaller than your vehicle you honk your horn. It means some crazy lorries just go down the road with the horn blasting. The honking rules seems to apply if you pass a female pedestrian as well. Also some junctions have traffic lights but other major and busy ones don't. It seems a free for all which bizarrely to us works. A system whereby drivers seem to know when to give way and when to push in, and the traffic keeps moving.....slowly. We were glad to be driven round rather than working out these unwritten rules.