After a few days in Cebu it was time to see some ocean and escape the noise and crowds of the city. We booked a couple of nights at a resort and packed our snorkeling masks into overnight bags. Cordova Village is on Mactan Island, where the Cebu airport is. It's connected to Cebu Island with two bridges, and a third one is being planned. "We call it... 'The Third Bridge'" said our Grab driver solemnly.
Grab is the South-East Asian equivalent of Uber, which operated here briefly, but because a negligible proportion of the population have credit cards, it didn't last long. Grab offers payment with credit cards, cash, or GrabPay, an in-app credit system, which you can top up with some of the drivers. You can also order a Grab Taxi, which is just a normal taxi, but it looks like it guarantees a metered ride and a more transparent transaction than when you just hail a taxi in the street. And they offer a delivery service, too.
The 16 km trip from our Airbnb to the resort took about 45 mins. I'll leave it at that and you can ponder Philippines traffic on your own. What really surprises me is that I haven't got car sick here once, while in NZ I could get a bit queasy just getting out of town to the motorway if the traffic was bad. Or, "bad", really.
It's the only resort in that part of the island, it had mixed reviews on TripAdvisor, and it left us with mixed feelings as well. It was quite deserted, but we liked it because we wanted peace and quiet. The beach and the water by the shore was too dirty to even think about hanging out there or swimming, so definitely no snorkelling straight off the beach like we were able to do in Tahiti or Rarotonga, but the pool was great to cool off in the constant heat.
They had kayaks that we used to go out on the water, which was ok, at least it was something to do. We booked a very overpriced "island hopping" trip on the full day that we were there, and it's not something I'd want to do again. I already described it in my TripAdvisor review, so I'll spare it here. It wasn't terrible, and we saw some really great fish and other sea creatures while snorkeling, but overall it didn't leave a pleasant memory. I do have a few pleasant photos:
We ventured into the village a couple of times, and it was nicer than walking around Cebu, but you still need to keep your eyes around your head watching for cars, motorcycles, trucks. One evening we took a tricycle to a restaurant in the village, and that was an adventure. The poor guy definitely worked hard for his money with the two of us in a seat made for Filipino butts. We are giants in this land.
No post here will be complete without food photos, so here are a couple from that trip:
Grab is the South-East Asian equivalent of Uber, which operated here briefly, but because a negligible proportion of the population have credit cards, it didn't last long. Grab offers payment with credit cards, cash, or GrabPay, an in-app credit system, which you can top up with some of the drivers. You can also order a Grab Taxi, which is just a normal taxi, but it looks like it guarantees a metered ride and a more transparent transaction than when you just hail a taxi in the street. And they offer a delivery service, too.
The 16 km trip from our Airbnb to the resort took about 45 mins. I'll leave it at that and you can ponder Philippines traffic on your own. What really surprises me is that I haven't got car sick here once, while in NZ I could get a bit queasy just getting out of town to the motorway if the traffic was bad. Or, "bad", really.
It's the only resort in that part of the island, it had mixed reviews on TripAdvisor, and it left us with mixed feelings as well. It was quite deserted, but we liked it because we wanted peace and quiet. The beach and the water by the shore was too dirty to even think about hanging out there or swimming, so definitely no snorkelling straight off the beach like we were able to do in Tahiti or Rarotonga, but the pool was great to cool off in the constant heat.
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| We had the place almost to ourselves |
They had kayaks that we used to go out on the water, which was ok, at least it was something to do. We booked a very overpriced "island hopping" trip on the full day that we were there, and it's not something I'd want to do again. I already described it in my TripAdvisor review, so I'll spare it here. It wasn't terrible, and we saw some really great fish and other sea creatures while snorkeling, but overall it didn't leave a pleasant memory. I do have a few pleasant photos:
We ventured into the village a couple of times, and it was nicer than walking around Cebu, but you still need to keep your eyes around your head watching for cars, motorcycles, trucks. One evening we took a tricycle to a restaurant in the village, and that was an adventure. The poor guy definitely worked hard for his money with the two of us in a seat made for Filipino butts. We are giants in this land.
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| A tricycle in front of ours |
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| Jon's spicy seafood parcel |
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| Our lunch from a self-proclaimed "Belliciously Delicious" pork and chicken grill |
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