After what seemed like an eternity, we finally landed at the Incheon/Seoul Airport.  This airport is incredible and probably the nicest I have ever been to.  It was still early in the morning and it wasn’t really clear on where I should go. I found a information desk but the sign said that it would be open at 8am.  It was still very early in the morning, so I was out of luck.

I wandered around for a bit and found some flight attendants who were probably going to their flight. I asked them in English while pointing at my ticket, “Where do I go?” They all looked at each other and then said to me in Korean something that I didn’t understand, but they pointed to an escalator a little ways down the hall. I head over there and ride the escalator up.

At the top there were tons of shops and stores and restaurants. Most weren’t open yet, but I managed to find a Transfer Lounge to rest.  A Transfer Lounge is an amazing thing in this airport.  There are open areas with beds, beanbags, chairs, TVs, restaurants, showers, and even exercise rooms.  Since I had about 5 more hours until my next flight, I went to find a bed.

The beds were in this very large and open room with semi-private beds to lay down in.  There aren’t any pillows or blankets and the lights are always on, but I sure needed to lay down and get some good uninterrupted sleep. I was worried that someone would steal my backpack so I set it next to me on the bed and clipped a carabiner to my belt loop and the backpack. I had an extra t-shirt in my backpack and used that to cover my eyes. I also had some ear plugs, so I was prepared to sleep REALLY good!

I woke up about 3 hours later to some extremely loud snoring. I looked around and saw several people leaving the bed area. I tried to fall back asleep, but the snoring was getting progressively louder and it sounded like a chainsaw. After about another 30 minutes, I decide it’s time to get up and head to my gate. I get to the gate and get on the plane.

On this budget flight, I was literally the only non-Korean person. I had a lot of looks and stares from people, but they were usually accompanied with smiles – I smiled back.  I found my seat in the isle and we were quickly in the air once again.  When it came time for lunch the flight attendant came by and asked me what I wanted to eat, in Korean.  I said, “what do you have?” He looked puzzled for a moment and then pulled out a menu and showed me pictures of what looked like sushi or some type of rice dish.  I pointed at the rice dish and what looked like pork(?) and said the only Korean word I know: “Kamsahamnida”, which means “thank you”. He got my mystery meat rice dish.  It was very good!

We got to Cebu at around noon and I was dead tired. I could see the elongated island through the plane window and an incredible excitement began to brew inside of me. Even though I was very tired, I was now running high on adrenaline! I was feeling all sorts of emotions when our plane lifted up about 100 ft. instantly in the air! Lots of people, including myself, let out shrieks and thought we were going to die. We didn’t die unfortunately, but it was enough to wake me up for the next 5 hours.

I went through customs without any problems and found a booth outside that was selling SIM cards for iPhones.  I stopped there to get a Philippine SIM card and it was fun to practice some Cebuano again.  I was pretty rusty, but lucky for me, Filipinos are very friendly and appreciated my meager attempts to speak their language.  I was also super tired and so I probably appeared to be drunk.  I got my SIM card and went to check in at the Radisson Blu in downtown Cebu.

This first day was going to be a day to just sleep and relax. I was so tired and exhausted that all I could do was get to my room, brush my teeth, wash my face, and fall in bed.

I fell asleep until around midnight.  I looked out the window and saw the beautiful Cebu City lit up with lights.  It was amazing to be back.  I felt like I never left.  It was odd.  It felt familiar yet it felt completely different.  I could still see the familiar landmarks dotting the landscape that I saw back in 2005-2007.  I knew that I could still get around this city just fine like I did back then.  I was getting anxious and excited to explore this city once again, but this time, not as a missionary, but as a tourist.

After sending messages to family and friends back home, I began to get very tired again. I realized too that I had barely any water since I left the Incheon/Seoul Airport.  I gulped down a 24 oz water and fell back asleep.

When the mall was open I went inside and it brought back some serious nostalgia!  I was transported back in time when I would come here once a week to do shopping, send emails to family, and eat food.  At the start of my missionary service, I loved coming here.  Being in an air-conditioned mall made me feel normal and I craved that, especially as a young American missionary in the Philippines.  All the shops and the movie theater made me feel like I was still at home in Utah.  As the months went on, I didn’t enjoy coming here. 

I enjoyed visiting the local mom and pop shops and avoided the bigger malls and stores.  Now, it just felt good to be back here. I went to the same place where I always got a mango smoothie – the shop was still there! Thirsty’s!  I went to the market on the first floor and bought some snacks – this is where I would buy groceries!  I went to Sbarros pizza to get some mediocre pizza – it still tasted the same! I was having such a great time.

My plan today was to meet up with my friend Nathalie and go explore the city. We met up at SM Mall and we took a bus to SM Seaside. SM Seaside is another mall, but it was much larger than just the SM Mall. It was fun to see Nathalie again! She helped me learn the Cebuano language and she and I became good friends ever since I was assigned in her neighborhood.

Today I met up with my good friend Mori Tia and his brother LeGrand. Mori and I served in the same area in Balamban in 2006.  I had some of the best moments on my missionary service with him.  He taught me a lot about how to love the people and just have fun and enjoy my time here.

We met up at SM Mall and walked around for a bit to reminisce about old times.  We then went up to JY Square where we hired some motorcycle drivers to take us up to a place called TOPS.  We remembered going there as missionaries and we wanted to go back.  The ride took over 1/2 hour, but it was fun to ride motorcycles and imagine us crashing and burning alive in a foreign country.

We got there safe, of course, and enjoyed about an hour of time. It’s a nice quiet place that overlooks the city.  There is a small snack shop and there are plenty of benches to have a picnic. Mostly, this was more of a “I can’t believe I’m back in Cebu” moment.  Looking out across the city, it made me incredibly happy. I think this is what people mean when they say they feel joy.  Like this deep feeling of happiness.  I honestly felt like I could live here forever and be happy.  Maybe one day!

After Tops, our motorcycle chauffeurs took us the another local favorite spot: the Temple of Leah. This was my first time here and it will probably be my last. The Temple was built by a very wealthy man as a gesture of his love to his wife. It’s a nice place, but it’s kind of strange. The center room has a large golden statue of the wife. The surrounding chambers are filled with belongings from the couple. You can see their old book collections, ivory tusks, jars and vases, and food items. It’s very gaudy and I wondered why this is even a tourist attraction.

We left the temple and got ourselves some homemade mango smoothies from some nice locals who own a shop along the road. We had a great time chatting with them as they don’t get many foreign visitors. They kept wondering what we were doing there! We even got some shakes for our motorcycle drivers! Our drivers then took us back to JY Square and we ate at McDonalds.

After eating, we decided to check out the Museum of Cebu. It was several miles away, but we decided to walk there. Besides, it looked like there was lots of traffic and we wanted to move our legs anyway.

While walking we stopped several times to buy soft drinks and fruit from the street vendors. We even had a small cup of Taho! Which is like a custard drink thing – it’s delicious! We continued our walk and got to the museum. I’m sad to say that this was my first time to this museum. I wish that this would have been one of the first things we did as missionaries so we could get a good grasp on the culture and history of Cebu.

We had our own tour guide and he spoke English very well.  But, since we were trying to practice our Cebuano he was happy to oblige us.

I would highly encourage you to visit this amazing place!  I truly felt bad for not visiting during my missionary service.

We learned all about what Cebu was like before the Spanish arrived.  Then we learned about the Spanish and their conquest to make everyone Catholic.  They gave the Filipinos Spanish last names as they were baptized and made them learn Spanish.  That is why Cebuano has lingering Spanish words to this day. 

Then we learned about the Americans and how they came to the Philippines.  Then of course, WWII and how that affected the Philippines.  I thoroughly enjoyed our visit the museum and would love to come back again.

Sadly, it was getting late in the day and we were getting tired.  Mori and LeGrand went back to their hotel and I went back to mine for the night.

We should have gotten an earlier start today, but we didn’t end up leaving Cebu City until about 9 am. Our destination was Kawasan Falls which was several hours away. Kawasan Falls is a very fun adventure to some incredible waterfalls and canyoneering experiences. It seemed like forever until we got outside of the city and we were on our way. We hired a man to drive us there who was the same taxi guy who picked me up from the airport when I first landed. He was very friendly and easy going, which made him fun to travel with.

It was fun to casually drive through the jungle and mountains of Cebu. I had never been to Kawasan Falls before, so I was looking forward to this adventure. We got to Badian, which is the town nearest to Kawasan, and found a vendor who really took care of us! They got everything set up for us and all we had to do was stand in their shop and hang out with them for a while.

It ended up being such a great time and I would highly recommend them. The vendors got us several motorcycle rides to the top of the falls. It was another 1/2 hour drive to some random spot in the mountains. We had a guide who showed us where to go and he even held our belongings while we were enjoying the falls.

Our guide took us through the jungle along a very picturesque trail. The sound of the falls began to grow louder and louder and we could also here people screaming and laughing as they were cliff jumping into the blue pools below the falls. There are several levels at the falls. We were near the top where we did the cliff jumping and went down the slide and did the rope swing. The water was cold, but felt good after sweating through the heat of the day.

We made our way down to the falls and just enjoyed our time there. We got some snacks and drinks and had fun speaking Cebuano with our guide. He made fun of me several times by saying I was too chicken to jump off some of the larger falls – he was right! I didn’t dare do it. Some of the falls were over 40 ft. tall and I just couldn’t do it.

After resting at the falls we went back to town and got back in our taxi and drove back to Cebu. I was enjoying every minute of our trip so far and didn’t want it to end. We were now on to our next adventure tomorrow: going to the west part of Cebu Island – Balamban!