[紫折んコラム]
〜一度は行ってみたかったフィリピンへ行くチャンスがやってくる〜
My Trip to Cebu
When I visited Cebu last August 3 in 2012, at first I was surprised with many points.
The traffic rules were different.
There were many holes in the road.
Outside the hotel ,the road was bad.
There was heavy traffic.
I stayed in Pacific Cebu Resort Hotel with my son Takuro who is 4 years old.
There were many mosquitoes in our room.
At the same time, my brother Masashi stayed in Crimson hotel.
There were no mosquitoes in Crimson hotel.
The maintenance was different in Pacific Resort Hotel and Crimson Hotel.
Of course the costs were different.
I felt that Japan is hotter than in Cebu in day time. But Cebu is hotter than Japan in night time.
There are two seasons in Cebu, rainy and sunny season.
July and August are rainy season and the rest of the months are the sunny season.
5 August
Masashi participated the triathlon competition in Cebu.
The major purpose of our visit was to watch the triathlon competition .
Family members of the participants added to the disturbance in Shangri-la Mactan Resort & Spa Cebu Hotel.
We stayed near the beach in Shangrila.
We watched within the Shangrila vicinity because it was difficult to go outside Shangrila.
I wanted to watch the competition by the road like the students.
During the triathlon,Shangrila was very crowded.
Many people were falling in line to eat at the restaurant.
My son and my brother's son wanted to swim there,but they were not allowed , because we were not guests in Shangrila.
The hôtel employee called our attention that we were not allowed to use the pool.
In the age category of triathlon,my brother belonged to the 10th place.
6 August
The day after the competition, we went around for sight seeing with my brother's family.
We hired a tour guide to bring us around to the tourist attraction places.
We paid 3000 yen each to the tour guide.
We first went to the butterfly farm.
We saw the traditional house of the Philippines with kitchen tools.
We saw the butterfly garden.
There were many beautiful butterflies.
The most beautiful butterfly was named Lady Gaga.
We also saw the traditional tool for hunting.
We were able to experience hunting.
Here were bananas, coconuts and mangoes.
We saw a big rock spider.
Takuro was happy to see the rock spider.
Takuro said he wants to be bitten by the spider so he can be a spiderman.
Everybody laughed.
Then next, we went to the guitar place.
The place was in Mactan.
We watched how the guitar was made.
They make different kinds of guitars.
I bought ukelele for my husband.
I bought the ukelele for 1,500 pesos.
Philippine guitarist play the guitar with a Japanese song "Ue wo muite arukou".
We went to Magellan's cross in Cebu City.
A man hold my brother offering an umbrella for rent.
My brother used the umbrella and he gave a big tip to the man.
The man says thank you with a big smile.
We got hungry.
We ate at AA barbecue restaurant.
My brother can't drink beer before the triathlon race.
The day before triathlon, Masashi and I did not drink any beer.
The day after triathlon, he drank beer with me.
We ate chorizo,ground pork, grilled vegetable, sinigang(seafood
soup),pancit Canton(noodle).
The tour guide paid for our order.
After eating,we hurried going to Santo Nino church because we consumed plenty of time eating lunch.There were lots of church goers.
The church songs can be seen on an electronic board.
After church, my brother's son wants to go to the aquarium.
From the church, it takes 30 minutes to get to the Aquarium.
When we get there, it was closed.
There was an Aquarium in Mactan Island before.
Masashi and his son like an aquarium.
They like sea creatures.
During our last night, we wanted to go to the best restaurant.
But we didn't know where to go.
We went to the floating restaurant.The place is called SUTUKIL.
Masashi's wife hates the flies.
We were not able to use our credit card there.
So we used our money.
There was a live performance.
The lady singers sang a birthday song for Takuro.
I was worried for Takuro that he might fall to the water.
I ate mango while I was in Cebu.
I bought plenty of dried mangoes.