Today we went back to Cebu.  We started the day off by just being lazy.  We went to Island City Mall again for some food and spent the rest of the morning packing and getting ready to take the ferry back to Cebu.

I realized today that the countdown for the end of our trip was approaching.  We only had a few more days left.  I wish I could have stayed here for 6 months.  It was making me very sad. 

It was also getting closer to Christmas.  Christmas in the Philippines starts very early – in September!  It was fun seeing Christmas decorations and things everywhere we went. Especially in the malls.

Once on the ferry I just watched the island of Bohol get farther and farther away.  It made me sad to leave such an amazing place with amazing people.  The ride to Cebu didn’t take very long and soon we were at the port.  The ferry crew were unloading my luggage and I started talking with them.  I realized that, for some reason, I finally felt like I understood almost everything they said!  It was as if something clicked and I could just speak and understand Cebuano again like I did back during my time here as a young missionary.  It took nearly two whole weeks of struggling and I finally felt 100x better than when I first arrived!

I hired a cab to take me to my hotel, the Crown Regency.  I heard great things about this hotel and found that it was just a standard place with a nice high-rise view.  Tia and his brother stayed at another hotel, but we planned to meet up tomorrow.

I got checked in to the hotel and went up the street to Burger King! For some reason, a giant burger and fries sounded amazing.  I paid only about $5 for a king sized meal and then I went to a nearby bookstore to buy some books in Cebuano.  They didn’t really have a good selection, but I found a dictionary and some children’s books that would be fun for me to brush up on basic Cebuano grammar.

I walked around Fuente Osmena Circle for about an hour checking out the sights and sounds of this place that I frequented more than a decade ago.



I was walking across the street and I heard a man say to me in English “you want to relax, man?” I turned around and saw a young kid holding out his hand with several pills in it.  I asked him what were the pills and he responded that these are “good” pain pills.  I told him I wasn’t interested and he followed me saying how good these pills were.  I finally crossed the street and he was still shouting that I should buy some from him. 

Just beware of these types of people out there.  

After this, it was getting late and I just went back to my room to sleep.  This was a pretty low-key day, but I realized I was much tired than I thought.  I went to bed around 9pm tonight.

Today I woke up and went to the nearby Ayala Mall to do some Christmas shopping.  This mall is just like any mall in the USA, but nicer.  It has many of the same stores you’d find in America.

After this, I got a text from Tia that they were at SM Mall.  I got a taxi and went straight over there.  We played a few games of bowling and we were both sad to be leaving the Philippines soon. 

After hanging for a while, we went to Ayala for dinner.  We heard a lot of noise and music outside and went to see what was going on.  There was a Filipino celebrity who was doing a music show at the mall and we decided to stay and check it out.

During his performance, this celebrity said “let’s play a game!” And the crowd began to cheer.  The man then said, “When I say ‘one, two three’.  Clap your hands once.”  And so he said it and the crowd clapped their hands once.   Then he said, “When I say ‘one, two, three’.  Clap your hands twice.” And the crowd clapped twice.  The man then said, “When I say ‘one, two, three’.  Clap your hands three times.” And the crowd then clapped three times and the game was over haha He then moved on to the next song.  I couldn’t believe that this was the game he had the audience do. 

After the show, the crowd dispersed and we went in the outdoor arena for a better look.  The celebrity guy was charging 900 pesos his autograph and to take a picture with him.  I never wrote down the guys name, but I’ll always remember this odd performance!

After this, I came back to my hotel and went swimming for a bit before going to bed.  The Crown Regency really isn’t that nice of a place.  The front entrance was awkward and disorienting.  The rooms are old and badly needing updating.  The central location is nice though.

The below pictures are views of the hotel and surroundings.

Cebu has some of the best food!  If you are looking for authentic Filipino dishes, then I suggest you visit House of Lechon “Famous Carcar Lechon”, in Cebu City.  Lechon means spit roasted, and in this case, it’s spit roasted pig.  This stuff is so incredibly tasty and delicious that I could eat here every day if I could.  This is supposedly one of the top 3 places to eat lechon pig in Cebu and I felt bad that I didn’t know about this place on the day we landed!



This was our last full day in the Philippines and there was something that I needed to do before leaving.  I needed to find someone who I met in 2006 who made a huge impact on my life.  I met this man, by the name of Dante, and got to know him and his story – it made a massive impact on my 19 year old life.  I needed to see him before I left.

I knew he lived just outside of Cebu in a small community.  But, when we arrived, we quickly realized that this small community was now massive!  Homes and roads and paths were all over.  I couldn’t remember exactly where he lived now with all the thousands of homes.  This place was once a a very small village, but it seemed impossible to find my friend Dante and his family.

The taxi let us out near a bridge and we just started walking to where I think he was at.  In my mind, though, I felt like we were going the right direction.  In fact, there was one point where the path went left or right.  I stood for a second wondering where to go when I felt incredibly convinced to go on the left path.  After walking for about 100 ft. I saw a man walking down the path and low-and-behold it was Dante himself!  We made eye contact and the first thing he said was “It’s you!!” We talked for a second and I asked him where he was going and he said he was going to the market.  I felt like we would have eventually found Dante’s home, but we would have totally missed Dante if we took the right path instead of the left!

It felt so good to see him and his family again.  We spent time talking and I won’t go into all the details, but this was one of the top highlights of my trip.  I just told him how he meant so much to me and it felt so good to see him again.  Apparently, he lived almost in the same spot as he did a decade ago, but that thousands of people now lived here.  It was quite different and I didn’t really recognize much about it.

Tia and I left and just hung out for the rest of the night doing Christmas stuff and eating good food at the Osemena Circle.  There were many street vendors selling food, drinks, and souvenirs.  We walked around for a few hours just enjoying our last night in the Philippines.

Today I felt like crap.  I had some type of stomach bug that was making my stomach hurt very bad.  I stayed in bed as long as I could and just relaxed the entire day.  I had a flight later in the evening and wanted to get over this stomach thing so I could have a decent flight.

When it was time to go the airport a deep sadness came over me.  It was the realization that this trip was over and it would probably be another 10 years before I got to come to this amazing place again.

I was tired, sick, and sad – not a good combination for being at the airport.  The Cebu Airport is very nice though!  I went through the line and saw a few souvenir stores that had some good stuff in them.  When I saw small bags of dried mangoes and saw that they were selling them for $9 USD, I walked right out of that store.   I bought the same sized bag down the street for less than $1!  I wasn’t about to pay $9 for the same thing.

The plane boarded and I was on my way to Incheon-Seoul Airport.  I didn’t sleep much, but that was OK because I knew that at the Incheon-Seoul Airport they have these Transfer Lounges with lounge beds!  This airport is incredible.  It really puts our USA airports to shame.

I had a 10 hour layover here and found a bed in the farthest corner of the lounge, put in some ear plugs, set may alarm, and fell asleep.

The lounge beds don’t offer complete privacy.  They are purposely open areas with minimal privacy for you.  The lights are still on, but they are dimmed.  The lounge beds are quite comfortable.  I heard several people snoring VERY loud though like they were using a chainsaw, which is why I always bring ear plugs when I go to the airport.

After 5 hours of sleeping I woke up.  There were free showers in the next room, so I went over there to take a long hot shower.  (the showers are completely private and very nice!)

Then I was playing some of the games the airport had to offer.  These were really fun and included like a basketball type game.

The only food place open at this time of the day was some café.  I looked over the menu and found a drink that was half carrot juice and half apple juice.  For some reason, this sounded incredibly good.  I bought two of them and chugged them quickly.  I wandered around the airport for another hour before coming back to the Transfer Lounge to lay down for a bit longer.

It was time to board my flight to Seattle.  My flight from Seattle took only 8.5 hours!  Once we were in the air, it was fun watching on the flight map how we would basically follow the southern border of Alaska all the way down to Seattle after we were beyond Korea.

Landing in Seattle was extremely depressing.  The terminal was dark and dirty quite the contrast to what I just experienced in Korea.

I had another flight to Salt Lake City and my Philippines Trip was officially over!