I was hungover. Again. I woke up super late, past noon. Again. Lesson that I continue to not learn is that alcohol gives you a great time for that moment in exchange for your next day. Or in my case, in 2019, the next 2 to 3 days.
Regardless, I was absolutely determined to do something this day no matter how horrible I felt. It took me over 2 hours to fully regain the ability to function like a proper human being before I headed out of the hotel. Here’s the list of things I did before I came back to the hotel 6 hours later.
went through the Plaza Independent and watched some skaters/bikers do tricks
sat around in Fort San Pedro and just enjoyed the park and all the activities
went looking for a GoPro chest strap in Ayala Mall
Too exhausted to do anymore, or even look for something else to eat, I just headed back to the hotel around 8pm. I ordered room service for dinner and watched The Town. I may have thought I should go back out, but who was I kidding. I watched more Netflix and slept until 9am the next day.
I am so hungover today. Like actually today, and also on this day two years ago. I guess I don’t really learn lessons well when involving alcohol.
This day started super late. I woke up at 1pm starving. Lucky for me the restaurant that Lionel had recommended, House of Lechon, was not too far from the hotel. This place is delicious. I ordered and ate there as long as I could. I stayed at this restaurant for over 2 hours eating and reading. Great way to start the cure for a hangover.
Nice mall.
Next I visited Ayala Mall. Why a mall? Well, I was hungover and didn’t want to do anything, but felt like sitting in my hotel room would be a waste of a day. So I went back to my high school days and instead wasted the day at the mall. But at least this was a foreign mall, so that counts as being proactive. Plus I got a lot of planning done and read at Bo’s Cafe while also people watching.
I’m looking at my calendar and I don’t think I ate another meal after House of Lechon. Instead, I went to the Lanai Bar in the hotel, then went out and started another bender night at El Gecko. It’s a strange bar where girls ask you to buy them drinks. Wait… that’s every bar. Except these girls worked at the bar and partied with you. I guess that’s a pretty good concept to get your patrons to spend more money. Definitely worked on me. I also got along with their live band very well. Drunk James must love bands. Or I subconsciously wish I was in a band.
I was singing along. Probably ruined the song, but whatever.
I also did something incredibly stupid and quite possibly dangerous. I decided that I should walk back to the hotel in my drunken state. I didn’t think the neighborhood was dangerous, but I remember being a little scared walking home that night.
I had posted the day before on insta that I had a poor dining experience at a restaurant in Manila. Luckily, Anne Maria, friend from college, read it and gave me a bunch of other recommendations, which I happily tried and really enjoyed! Before I left for the airport, I ate at Noodles North Park for lunch where I ordered two dishes for myself. In hindsight, when people ask me which cuisine I enjoyed the most, I say the Philippines! Even though it’s an island country, they surprisingly eat a lot of pork. I was down with that since seafood ain’t my thing.
Traveling to Cebu City took me quite awhile. The flight was only an hour and a half, but my trip to the airport took longer than the actual flight. Also, was delayed at the airport for a bit. But it’s okay cause they had TV there and Mission Impossible was on. Big fan of Tom Cruise movies, even though people say he’s crazy. Whatever, his movies are entertaining. Comparing his personal life to his work is like saying Jeff Bezos is crazy so I won’t use Amazon. Are you crazy? I’m trying to rely less on Amazon, but it’s so convenient. Him and Elon are going to rule the world one day, if not already.
I eventually got to Cebu City and checked into The Golden Prince. Around this time, I had increased my budget for hostels and was very pleased with this selection. I was happy to be staying in the first hotel of my trip. I was originally booking all my lodging on hostelworld.com then eventually switched to booking.com since they had more options in more cities.
Look at his ears.
I got to the hotel pretty late, maybe around 10pm. I wasn’t tired at all so visited their hotel bar and listened to someone playing some live music. It was nice, but the place was pretty empty and the vibe was dying down. I did some quick research and found a bar, Cubana, which had live music and served hookahs. I headed over and spent the rest of the night there. Recommend it, especially if this band is playing. Sorry, I’m not sure who they are … I should have asked. They took song requests and somehow knew how to play every request that came in. Really impressive. I liked their version of You To Me Are Everything by The Real Thing the best that night. I have a lot of video clips of them, but loading those takes some time, so here’s a picture of Cubana and a picture of Miggy that my brother texted me that day. Look how cute he is. I love him.
Lots of Koreans were here, supposedly in the Philippines to study English.
OutsideTheWell 