So I’ve been having trouble moving my blogs to FatCow right? There’s getting Alfred’s domain email to work again with Google Apps, and there’s the hassle of transferring my Newbie Photographer blog just as it is (it has been transferred now but I don’t have everything working the way I want them). I think that the problem with the transfer is more my fault than Fatcow’s but I’d have to say that they are not making it easier.
Then there’s a message in my Inbox of a $48 discount if I renew with Dreamhost right away. Now that’s a very tempting offer. If I take it, I’ll have to chuck the $35 cancellation fee from FatCow to bad experience. Or, if I look at it another way, my 48 dollar discount will just be smaller because 35 goes to the cancel fee. You know what I mean?
So I’m really considering staying with Dreamhost. I should really have planned the move to the new host better to avoid all the hassle. Sayang ang discount sa FatCow but I should have known better than to mess with something that wasn’t broken in the first place (I had no problems with my original host but considered to move because of the lower rates). Oh well. This experience is something that reinforces the fact that nothing is ever too easy or simple, just like there’s no way losing belly fat could be as easy as marketing for Abtronic X2 claims.
I have been wanting to share notes on long exposure photography on The Newbie Photographer, but the intended move kept me from doing so. As such, these lovely LE photos from our hotel in Cebu have been sitting unpublished. Might as well go ahead and share them now; these are all photos by the boyfriend, by the beach at our hotel in Cebu:
This post is Part 2 of our Cebu 2011 vacation series 🙂 Read this, if you want: Cebu 2011 Part 1 – The Trip.
This is where we stayed:
That’s the Be Resort in Mactan. We got a good deal, about 30% discount on the room because the boyfriend knew someone who knew the Sales Manager. The room normally goes for 5400 pesos per night, with buffet breakfast for two. Â However, we didn’t get the room upgrade we thought we were getting. No complaints though because we still had both a pool and a sea view:
Nice isn’t it? This isn’t really a veranda, but it’s more of a window. We had what looked like a sliding door that could only be opened a few inches to let the cool sea breeze in.
I loved the hotel as soon as I walked into the lobby. They had mismatched pieces of furniture all over, lots of pretty chairs (I haven’t organized ALL of our photos from the trip yet, so if I find more worthy to share, I’ll post again):
I so wanted to sit on this red chair, what with its comfy white pillows! But I wasn’t too sure it could carry my weight, hahahaha 🙂
My fave chairs have got to be the set right by the elevators on the 3rd floor, where we stayed. As soon as the elevator doors part, what you’ll see is a nice clean mirror above a table and two matching chairs with floral upholstery. There’s a small picture frame on the table that tells what floor you’re on. Match that with the black and white floral wallpaper and it’s just a cute scene! I wanted to go up the other floors and see how the other sets looked like but I didn’t want to show up in the hotel security cameras looking suspicious and snooping around! Specially not with my own cameras snapping away 🙂
Okay… So there’s lots more to tell about Be Resort, but it will have to wait. I want photos to accompany what I say so let me go and sort those out first.
25 years ago, democracy won over a dictatorship. We Pinoys have always been proud of that – People Power started in this great country of ours.
Though we got rid of one great evil, we are still in the clutches of another – Â corruption. It really is what’s keeping us from realizing our full potential. Our country has so much to offer. I believe that each province can sustain its own if only all its affairs are in order and priorities are set straight – and the national government could channel additional resources to the poorest provinces so they can generate more income and keep their people home.
So I hope PNoy succeeds in his quest to cleanup all branches of government.
In the meantime, I also hope that more and more Filipinos take up the challenge of being the torch-bearer for the EDSA spirit. Â We must all remember that it was the people who made EDSA significant. It wasn’t Cory, or FVR or JPE, and not even Cardinal Sin. They were the movers, yes. But ultimately, it was the people who made things happen. It is that spirit of nationalism and love for country that needs to be rekindled.
EDSA has so many unsung heroes. Years before EDSA happened, young men and women have been working in the background fighting for everyone’s rights. Back when it wasn’t cool to rage against the dictator, they were doing it. When it wasn’t the ‘in’ thing yet to raise hell against the system, they were there. I truly believe that, if it weren’t for the seeds they sowed, the Filipino people would not have been ripe for the picking and People Power would not have happened.
We need them today. Perhaps not all their methods then will work now. But the principle is what I’m talking about. We need those who are truly prepared to serve the people. We need social entrepreneurs who will trust the poor enough to give them jobs. The countryside needs teachers and development workers who can teach them about sustainable development.
But I guess it’s a little too much to ask for that. Not everyone is willing to give up creature comforts for a life of servanthood. I can’t even really do that.
But that’s just it isn’t it? We don’t have to give up too much to relive the EDSA spirit. Each of us just needs to make a stand. A pact that we won’t settle for less, that we will not tolerate corruption in government, that we will not participate in anything that promotes it. Promise you won’t do “lagay” when a traffic cop catches you beating the red light. Don’t pay for a fixer when you have to fall in line for your license. Buy Philippine-Made products. Support locals! Travel within the country just as much as you travel abroad (or more). When you are given an opportunity to empower more people – take it!
Go ahead, let’s continue with our mediocre private lives. Sit in coffee shops and talk about which diet pills actually work, or when the next shopping spree’s going to be. There is nothing wrong with that. But let’s also accommodate the little changes that will help make this country the land that EDSA ’86 made us realize it could be.
The airline tickets for this trip was purchased about six months ago in August 2010, during a seat sale.
It cost us about this much for two round trip tickets (MNL-CEB-MNL):
Base Fare: PHP 2,796.00
VAT: PHP 339.12
Aviation Security Fee: PHP 30.00
Web Admin Fee Fee: PHP 224.00
World Wide Fund: PHP 240.00
Total: PHP 3,629.12
The World Wide Fund item is to offset the carbon footprints for the plane ride 🙂
I know of some people who have gotten their fare for a much lower price – 17 pesos! – but I don’t have their luck and speed when it comes to making online reservations. I also remember regular local airfare costing no lower than 6k roundtrip per person a few years ago, so I know that I’m not getting a bad deal with this price.
A Cord Taxi took us to the airport (this is the name of the new World taxis), and cost only 200 pesos from QC to Pasay. We arrived with a lot of time to spare for our 1515 flight. This despite the fact that I came at noon time from work when I planned to have been home by 10AM. The line at the check-in counters was quite long but we found ways to entertain ourselves ;). We didn’t have much money on us so we decided not to grab any snacks before the flight. I took a few photos with my BB and tweeted them too!
V for Vera!
And the sign pointing to Gate 133
As well as Alfred while waiting to board
NAIA Terminal 3 is a huge place and the waiting areas are spacious and normally very cold. The Gate for our flight was at the ground floor where people from three or four other flights were waiting to board. The place was packed, most of the seats were taken! I guess that’s a good sign for local tourism. The boyfriend played a game on the iPad while I started reading one of the books I brought with me for the trip – Can You Keep a Secret?. I didn’t get too far with reading though – I ended up taking a nap until boarding time 🙂
Since we were at the ground floor, I’d already expected to walk to the plane on the ground rather than through a tube. We actually had to board a shuttle that took us to where our plane was:
While waiting for the rest of the passengers to board the back bus, I snapped a few more photos 🙂
And this was the plane that took us to Mactan, safely:
Although boarding was on time, takeoff was delayed a bit. There was a lot of traffic at the runway. I wasn’t surprised, seeing that our flight was rescheduled a week or two earlier. It was supposed to be the noon flight but was pushed back by three hours.
It was a full flight and all seats were taken. There were a few babies too although I didn’t notice them cry so much because of the pressure on my ears. I thought I was going to endure the pain and get a migraine on my first night in Cebu, until I remembered I could always do the diver’s equalizing trick to relieve my ears of that pressure! I had to do it a few times until after arriving in Cebu, but it was well worth it.
It was a smooth flight, except for the boyfriend spilling his orange juice all over both our legs (yes it was Minute Maid, no I did not win the blog contest :(). Oh, a tip when you’re taking Cebu Pacific on budget airfare – bring your own drinks. The drinks that normally cost 20 pesos at your corner grocery store is sold at 50 pesos! Since it’s a short flight anyway, just drink lots of water before the flight and you’ll be packed until touchdown.
I’ve always commented how we don’t have a lot of photos together, so while on the plane, we took a few goofy ones! haha 🙂
From Mactan International Airport, we took a metered taxi to the hotel. It probably took 15-20 minutes and the fare was about 300 pesos, I felt that that was too high compared to what we had to pay from QC to Pasay, but what the heck.
So that’s part 1 of our Cebu trip. Stay tuned for the next one 🙂
Did you see the video? Did you watch it? It’s one cool birthday cake, talk about being interactive 🙂
I have Angry Birds Seasons on the iPad and I find it harder to crack than the original version. We lost pretty much all our apps after upgrading to the latest iOS and having the device jailbroken. No big deal really, but we haven’t had time to redownload apps and discover new ones.
There also hasn’t been much time to go through our photos from Cebu and organize my thoughts for my blog posts. The boyfriend didn’t post-process our photos anymore and he’s started uploading them to Facebook so that should be a good place to start. It was a happy time and I definitely want to share highlights here, and scrap pages too! I haven’t had time to consolidate because I went back to work a few hours after touchdown in Manila but I’m bound to get to it, right? 🙂
Another thing I haven’t had time for is learn more about and take advantage of the Wii for fitness. We should definitely bring it down to the living room where there’s more space to move.
Anyhoo, thanks to everyone who sent well wishes and channeled good vibes while I was away. So what has everyone been up to?
