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CEBU & MOALBOAL
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| Cebu City | |||
| I won't say much here about Cebu City because
there's plenty of information else where on the net. Mavel,
Mavelita and I have spent many days in Cebu, mostly because it is
convenient transfer point for other points in the Visayas.
However, I think I need to mention the the Golden
Peak Hotel. We have stayed at many hotels in Cebu City, but
this one is definitely the best buy for the bucks. For only P1100
you get a 3-Star hotel room. Compared to equivalently priced hotels
like the Richmond Plaza or Mercedes, you get much better accommodations
and within walking distance to Ayala Center. Our favorite resort
area, Moalboal, is south of Cebu City on the other side of the
island. Most tourists stay on Mactan Island, but I think it's way
over priced and a bit of a rip-off.
Getting To Moalboal To get to there, you can take a local bus, an air conditioned bus, shuttle van or a taxi. A taxi will cost you about P1500 one way. Mavel and I actually took the local bus because we didn't know about the air conditioned buses or the shuttle vans (FX). It wasn't a pleasant trip, but it was cheap at P50 each. Our Lonely Planet Guide gave details about the Blue Bus shuttle to Moalboal, but we found out that they had gone out of business a few years ago. To catch an FX or air conditioned bus, take a taxi to the South Bus Terminal. The FX terminal is actually about 500 feet east (facing the terminal, turn left) of the bus terminal. The air conditioned bus line is called Librando, but not all of their buses are air conditioned so you will have to call the bus company to find out what time they leave. They charge about P100. The FX's leave whenever they get enough people to fill the van and they charge P75. However, the FX drivers will put 4 people per seat which makes it pretty tight, so I just paid the guy an extra P75 so Mavel, Mavelita and I had a seat to ourselves. When you arrive in Moalboal, just get off where everyone else does, generally in front of the central market. From there you will have to catch a trike to Panagsama Beach which is about 3km from downtown Moalboal. Panagsama Beach Panagsama Beach grew from an old fishing village because of its close proximity to Pescador Island, a popular diving destination. Unlike Alona Beach or Puerto Galera, Panagsama is not over developed. with huge tourist hotels. Instead Panagsama accomodations consist of small, friendly resorts with mostly inexpensive rooms. We stayed at a hotel called Quo Vadis which had air conditioned rooms with hot water, refrigerator and a porch with a hammock for P850 per night. The hotel also had a swimming pool, lively bar and good restaurant. Mavel also bargained for this price because the original asking price was over P1500, but that was during week between Christmas and New Years. There are plenty of lower priced resorts that cost around P500 and the most expensive hotel costs about P2500 per night. There is no sand on Panagsama Beach, it was eroded by a typhoon in 1984. This did not bother us too much because the beach is a smooth limestone so we just brought some beach loungers down from the hotel and layed out in the sun. The seafloor out to about 100 feet didn't have any creepy crawly stinging critters, so it was also fine for swimming. About 200 feet offshore the seafloor dropped straight down to about 100 feet and outside of Alona Beach this is the most beautiful coral reef I have ever seen. I spent hours every day snorkeling out there. About 3 km north of Panagsama is a white sand beach, for some reason called White Beach. You can hire a trike driver to take you out there for a few hours for about P100 and there's plenty of small restaurants and cabanas to provide shade and cold San Miguels. The seafloor here is very rocky so you have to wear thongs or sneakers. Kawasan Falls These falls are the prettiest I've seen in the Philippines. They are about a half hour drive south of Moalboal and requires a leisurely hike for a mile along a crystal clear river. I hired a "hubble hubble" motorcycle from the Swiss guy that owns Roxy's for P600. This type of motorcycle has side runners instead of foot pegs so you can carry more than 2 people. You often will see an entire Filipino family being transported on one of these. I had no problem hauling Mavel and Mavelita down the highway. The entrance to Kawasan Falls is well marked and there is a P10 entry fee along with a parking fee. There will also be a bunch of guides offering their services for P100, but you don't need them ... just follow the river. At the falls, there's a few tables with umbrellas and seats and someone selling beer and food. The upper falls are actually the nicest and requires a little climbing to reach them, but it's not difficult. |
Click here to see a map of Cebu
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