Vaño Beach, Mactan Cebu

"Mangaligo ta!" "Asa man?" "Sa banyo!"

("Let's go swimming!" "Where?" "In the bathroom!")

Vaño or banyo in Cebuano means bathroom. So when I heard the conversation above, I thought I have finally heard the corniest joke on earth. Imagine my surprise when I found out there really is an actual Vaño Beach in Mactan Island, Cebu! The owners must have been either drunk when they registered their name or just had a twisted sense of humor. Hmmm. Maybe I should meet them.

Vaño Beach is a favorite destination for barkadas (group of friends) as well as families on a tight budget. The place is clean, close to the city, and most importantly inexpensive. So it was the perfect destination to celebrate one of our colleagues' birthday. (These photos are courtesy of her actually ~ thanks Christine!)

You can rent a public utility jeepney from the city or a van if you have money to spare and you'd get there fast. For food, you can just grill fish or meat at the venue. You can buy this from the public market in Mactan on your way there. You won't miss the public market. At least I don't think you would. (My sense of geography might have failed me for the first time. Oh well, I'll just go back to this blog and edit this.) While at the market don't forget the "puso" (rice cooked in woven coconut leaves shaped like a heart) And don't forget to bring water and ice! Very very important! You can get this from convenience stores like Ester's right across Mactan District Hospital.

Before arriving at the entrance, you'll first have to pay P20 per vehicle at the 1st gate. Not bad, eh? Now, a few meters ahead, the first beach to your right would be Vaño. Pay PHP300 for the cottage and it's a done deal! Go there early so you can get a cottage close to the shore.

Thing is, I don't have their phone number. But I'm sure you won't have to reserve a cottage unless you're whole neighborhood is going with you. If you really have to call them, try the yellow pages.

And the highlight of the trip? Jumping from that man-made mini cliff and getting a rush from it. That's the local version for extreme sports.

And don't worry about entertainment. Music would be provided to you, amid protests, by a couple of guitar-clad musicians who get a kick out of inserting your name in every stanza of their corny but original Cebuano song. First, they embarrass you and then they expect you to pay them for their trouble. It doesn't matter whether you liked the performance or not, you simply have to oblige them; anyway, there's a big chance everyone was entertained except you.

And if you feel that's not enough, there are a couple of videoke machines you can use for just PHP5 per song allowing you to annoy about 50 people at one time without ever having to dodge tomatoes thrown your way.

So if you want a quick getaway without draining your pockets, try Vaño Beach. The amenities definitely won't be world-class but it's one of the best places to experience Cebuano culture!

Eagerly Waiting for May 9

Bantayan Island!

If everything's goes according to plan, I'll be in Bantayan Island for 2 nights. I'm very excited!

It's just that I've realized that while I'm still single, I should do more of these trips. I've been quite satisfied living the life of a couch potato for a really long time and it is quite boring. You'd think this epiphany should've come to me earlier but quite unfortunately, it didn't. But like they say, better late than never. I'm not getting any younger so I might as well do it while I can.

So I've vowed that this year, I should make at least 5 trips around Cebu and 1 outside the country. I don't know where I'll get the money but travel I will. Hush hush, I still have to get my passport. Embarassing. But I'll get my passport, promise.

Right, well, I'll post the last outing I had with my co-employees. It was in one of the beaches in Mactan. I'm still waiting for the photos but I'll have it posted soon.

MEDELLIN, CEBU -- SEAHORSE RESORT

"Is it even worth 3 hours of stressful driving?"

The question ran through my mind as I revved the engine and thought about the long trip ahead. I was unfortunately the designated driver as Khailo conveniently deprived himself of sleep the night before and begged off having to drive.

I was warned the trip would take that long but still I bit the bait when my brother invited me. Oh wait, I just remembered, he did not invite me, I volunteered to tag along. See, I had a couple of paid-time offs to spend but not a single idea how to spend it; so without giving it another thought, I packed my bags and enlisted Khailo as my trip companion. I could hardly care whether the beach's all dried up when I got there for as long as I can brag that I did go on a weekend getaway rather than have to come up with some lame excuse about how I had to run a family errand and had to waste what could've been a great weekend.

So, after a healthy 6-am breakfast at McDonald's, we were on our way. Just couldn't wait. The first 20 minutes were fine with me driving; but because I kept losing my place in our 3-car convoy, Khailo took over. My devious plan worked out perfectly! Haha! You see, I'm actually an excellent driver. I just pretended to suck so he'd take over. (But I'm sure he'd argue that I really do suck but who'd you believe anyway?)

My expectations of the resort were quite low, really. I mean, really now, Sea Horse Resort? You'd think it would just be something obscure with hardly any charm to it. But I think it does help to be pessimistic sometimes because goodness I was impressed when we finally arrived!

Aaah the beach! Clean air! Bright blue skies! Just the sight of the white sand beach made me even forget how to spell the word stress!

I posted a few of our photos to prove I'm not making this up! Hehehe. Forgive the low quality. I took these using my phone. By the way, that island you see on the photo? It's for sale. About PHP50M. A bargain, eh? And they said Bantayan Island is about a couple of hours away from there. (And that's my next destination!!! In a couple of weeks!!! Oooh!!! Exciting!!!)

How to get to Medellin? I'm not sure I could recall the exact route we took but you can always go to Google Maps and look for Medellin, Cebu. All I know is you had to drive through a half dozen towns starting from Mandaue before finally getting there. And the ignorant little me didn't even know that Medellin is located northwest of Cebu. I got confused why the beach suddenly turned up on the left side of the road when it started out on our right.

But anyway, you want to know the rates? A mere PHP1,500 per night -- fully air-conditioned rooms. And it's really nice. The bathroom's nice and the beds too. And the place isn't crowded. But if you do decide to go there and it is indeed crowded, I would like to believe my blog had something to do with it.

Too bad I don't have shots of the room. It's in my sister's camera which my brother borrowed which my niece broke (inadvertently, if I may add) and had to have fixed. I'm guessing he may have spent more for the camera than the entire trip itself. How unlucky.

Well anyway, if you want to call Sea Horse Resort Inn, here's their number -- 032-4363188. You definitely would want to reserve a room way before the trip. (Duh!)

I'll post more photos once I get hold of the memory card from the broken camera. And I'll definitely keep you posted about my next trip!!!