Convivial Cebu (Part 1)

(Daddy recounts)

The wifey & I had long been wanting to visit Cebu in the Philippines, but this has been put on hold partly in favour of other holiday destinations where there are more places of interest for the monkies to explore.

This time, we thought that a beach holiday was long overdue. Coupled with the fact that a beach holiday basically entails a non-hectic travelling itinerary, it would not be that tiring for our tiny Diva. And so, Cebu it was!

The plane journey was rather uneventful to my utter surprise. I was half-expecting Ale to perpetuate the entire aircraft with her loud wails, and also ready to pull the barf bag over my head (if it fits) in shame. But miracles do happen, and she slept for almost three-quarters of the plane journey in my arms! I have never felt so delighted to be cuddling a sack of rice for close to 2.5 hours.

We would be in Cebu for 7 nights, with the first 5 nights in the beautiful surroundings of Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort.

As expected, the monkies couldn't wait to hit the beach (me too actually!) but first there was the tiny issue of checking into our Beach Villa.

We all fell in love with our villa, though for different reasons.

The wifey & I loved the extreme close proximity to the beach, and the cool sea breeze that rushed into our villa every time the doors were opened. While the monkies loved the 'floating' beds in the room, and something else.

That something else turned out to be the bathtub, which they spent so much time in during our trip that I was thankful that the water usage was part of the room charges. 

Enough of the indoors, it was time to head outdoors. And this view from our villa was why I love my stay so much.

And with our monkies around, there wasn't any time to lose - they practically nagged us to rummage through our still unpacked luggage and pull out their swimming wear.

'Cos it was time to get wet.

We decided to take a dip in the pool that was the nearest to our villa first, in order to placate the water monkies.

And needless to say, the 2 boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Ale also had her first Filipino dip and unlike the last dip in Desaru, she was at all smiles this time around and took great joy in splashing water at her 2 brothers.

Watching the 3 monkies frolicking in the water and enjoying themselves to bits is possibly one of the best ever moments that I can ask for. Oh, and maybe finding a rare Transformer toy too. Haha.

 Tummies soon rumbled, and so it was off to look for some food!

We had pizza by the pool and my oh my, the pizza that we had was heavenly!

The ultra-thin crusted pizza had pork floss, caramelized onions & tomatoes as toppings and even Ayd, who before this trip had never liked pizzas, loved it so much! So yes, one miserable pizza proved to be insuffcient for all of us and I had to take over Ayd's pasta instead. Bummer.

The monkies then had their afternoon naps, and then the rest of the day was spent exploring the resort grounds and relaxing the time away.

Day TWO, and the sun rises really early in Cebu - at 5.30am in fact!

They say the older you are, the less sleep you need. Hmmm... I don't know if that holds any water, but I was certainly wide awake as soon as the sun rose. And so with the rest of the family still fast asleep, I decided to take an early morning stroll.

It certainly felt very serene and peaceful... but that probably can be attributed to the fact that the 3 noisy monkies aren't with me. Heh.

That's the main stretch of the beach in the above photo. There's also another beach strip directly opposite, which also serves as a breakwater. So the waves crashing onto the main beach is extremely mild, which is great for small kids.

During low tides, we can even walk over to the beach opposite through the sea. But if you are feeling lazy, a small boat is on hand to ferry people over.

I really like the resort surroundings, even the non-beach areas were nicely done up with lots of shady trees and villas spaced apart.

And of course, there's the mandatory playground for kids. But who really needs it when there's so much fun to be had in the water?

The sweet silence was soon broken by the monkies' awakening, and after a hearty breakfast we headed to the beach.

For a game of chess!

We didn't have the patience to finish the game though, because there were plenty of other stuff to do.

Like erm, take photos.

The boys were getting more and more impatient every time the camera clicked. And who can blame them - the sea was calling out to them!

Finally, they got changed...

... which made them happy like bird.

But I still had to subject them to a bit more photo-taking. Hahahaha...

Ash wasn't smiling much though, so Ayd being the good di-di, offered to help.

And that absolutely tickled me.

But it did produce one of my fave photos of the trip! :)

I simply adore their happy faces!

Mission accomplished, and I released them to go have their own fun. :P

And I think they found something...

Lots of fishes swimming around!

Too bad we didn't have any bread with us.

Faced with such an idyllic setting, there was only one thing to do.

I nuah-ed on the beach chair.

The beach babes soon joined in though.

Which was a good thing, 'cos I saw Ash approaching us...

And he wanted to drag us down to the sea together.

The 2 babes duly followed, leaving me to continue enjoying my nuah-ing.

Pure bliss I tell you. :P