Philippines 🇵🇭 - Day 13, 14, 15, 16 & 17 - Cebu

My first day in Cebu wasn't very active, I was absolutely exhausted from my 36 hour journey from Aqaba to Cebu so I slept a lot and lazed in.

I did go out a little bit for a short walk in the area around the hostel, to get a quick feel of the city and the country.

The streets were fairly narrow, plenty of people everywhere, and even quite a few people sleeping on the pavement.

The next day I went out for a walk around the neighbourhood again.

I didn't feel like partying to celebrate new year, so I just stayed in for the night.

When I was going out to find some food the next evening, I started talking to Ivan, the guy working the hostel bar. He gave me a few recommendations for places to eat.

When I got back, he offered me to stick around and just hang out. He's a very nice Russian guy who's been living here in Cebu for a year, working at the hostel.

A bit later in the evening, 2 german girls checked in and joined us. We started making plans for the next day.

I initially wanted to leave Cebu then, but decided to stay another night.

The initial plan was to go to a water park, but after reading a few reviews and opinions, we weren't so keen on going there anymore. Instead, we went on a little private tour with the owner of the hostel, Michael, and his girlfriend. He's filipino and she's british.

They first took us to the nearby mountains where they were refurbishing an old house to turn it into a hostel.

It's part of a wider activity complex for visitors, and has an incredible view over the mountains and the city on the other side.

After that, we went for a drink in a coffee shop.

I was amazed to find the served Kouign Amann, a specialty cake from my region of Brittany! Of course I had to try it, and it was surprisingly good!

After that drink break, we went to Michael's appartement complex. Michael is a triathlete, so he trained swimming and cycling. I did a bit of the swimming part, and tried running for a bit, but it's really not my thing so I went back to swimming.

In the evening, we went to a restaurant close to the hostel, then played table tennis for a while.

I left the hostel the next morning to catch a ferry to Bohol, another island nearby. Before leaving Cebu City, I went through the HSBC ATM to withdraw cash since it's the only ATM in the Visayas region that doesn't charge extra for foreign cards.