Mactan Island Archives - Escapes From The Little Red Dot

Mactan Island, Cebu 2016 Day 4 – Home Sweet Home

Posted on May 24, 2016September 22, 2019 by ziyi

Again the same cycle repeated as yesterday, only difference was I managed to see some illumination through the clouds at sunrise. Imperfect but no choice, it’s our last day in Mactan Island. Back to bed and woke up at 8am.

Left for the buffet at 9am and for the 3rd day consecutively, the food was not getting more interesting already. Still we had our fills (baby K started liking cereals, munching on them) before leaving for the room to get ready for our last pool visit. We asked for a room extension and was given to 1pm to check out and also reserved a spot for the airport transfer that had scheduled timings (130pm was ours).

We brought the ball that we bought at the shop the night before but baby K quickly lost interest quickly, preferring to play at the pool. Since mommy joined, baby K tried to the pirates ship slide. First attempt was good but on second attempt he lost balance and started turning around on the slide and by the time he reached the end of the slide where mommy tried to catch him, he was slightly shocked. It was really funny though.

Still he continued to play in the pool after and mommy had to go cook lunch for baby K and I went around the pool on the donut float with baby K. The structure at the kids pool was still out for maintenance but the wave pool seemed to be working as waves started crashing against the land.

I made one last look at the beach and probably due to the nice sunny weather, the waters seemed prettier.

Beach was beautiful with the sunny weather.

Back at the room, we rushed to clean up, not because of the check out timing but due to a notice telling us that the entire block will be out for maintenance. That also meant that we couldn’t clean up the porridge cooker as it was still cooking. That kinda sucked as we were on late check out.

After the porridge was cooked and packed, we proceeded to check out at the busy reception. We had to pay for our dinner that we charged to the room, the in room dinner and our airport transfer (150 pesos per head per way) but was informed that our old notes couldn’t be used anymore (demonetization) and had to be exchanged at the banks. This was not the first time that it happened during the trip but we would have expected the resort to have just accepted for us. These notes we got it from the forex in JEM and didn’t know that it would be a problem. I paid by card instead.

We waited a while more for the shuttle to come and this time around, the bus was pretty crowded with many Korean tourists. Baby K fell asleep enroute to the airport which was about a 30mins drive through mostly small roads.

At the departure hall, before we could check in, we had to go through X-ray scanners and that caught us by surprise. Had to shift some hand held luggage and valuables and during that motion, baby K was woken up.

After the check in, we had to go pay 750pesos per head terminal fee, another surprise (didn’t know, should have done more research). However the good thing was that the old notes were accepted and we managed to get rid of them.

Terminal fees to be paid before departure.

After immigrations, which was moving pretty fast compared to the busy domestic flights, we went to one food center to get some drinks while baby K ate his porridge. Time flew past quickly and after shopping for a bit, it was time to board the SilkAir flight home.

For the return trip, we had the bassinet seat and sharing the third window seat with a single passenger. It was a pity that she had to sit through the entire flight without going to the loo as the bassinet was there and also to deal with baby K ruckus (He only fell asleep on the final hour before touch down). I guessed people really do preferred the wider leg space with the risk of meeting a baby in the process.

This escape was meant to be a water park resort away from home to spend time with my kid. There wasn’t really time to explore the other areas of Cebu and to do any water activities even though there were plenty. For all 4 days, we were enjoying what the resort could offer and it was nice. More planning would be required to coordinate the cooking timing and the napping timing in order to “do more”. It would indeed be challenging when we embark on our Europe trip on September.

Mactan Island, Cebu 2016 Day 3 – JPark pool and night entertainment

Posted on May 23, 2016September 22, 2019 by ziyi

The day started with an earlier than alarm clock time when baby K cried for milk and I had to get up to make him some. After about another 15 mins of snoozing, my alarm clock rang and I got up to the balcony to a cloudy morning. There was not a single bit of sun ray and so I went back to sleep.

The next time I woke, it was already 9 am and we all quickly got ready to go to breakfast. It was a pretty late start at the buffet as it would closed at 10. Wife had a spa appointment at 11 and we had to move quickly to meet the timing.

Got back to the room with baby K at 1030am and while mommy cooked for baby K, we watched tv. She left at 11am on the dot as the spa was just 1 floor underneath our floor.

I also got baby K ready to go to the pool by 12 noon and as the clouds continue to shroud the sun, it turned out to be a cooling day at the pool. We went to have a look at the beach, which was having a high tide now and the beach that we saw yesterday was totally submerged in meter deep water! Had some photos before we went to the pool.

We got ourselves onto a big donut float and with baby K on my tummy, we went around the pool going under bridges that had water spray, wetting those going underneath them. After one round, I brought baby K back to the toddlers pool and the pirate ship area and he had some fun climbing up and down the ship. Unfortunately we couldn’t go down the slide together.

The crowd was substantially lower since it was a weekday, but that also meant that one of the structure had to be shutdown for maintenance.

By the time we were done playing, we went to the concierge to ask about the free shuttle to the 3 shopping malls. We were informed that the shuttle bus was fully reserved and to get out to the malls was going to be difficult as the bridge linking Mactan Island and Cebu city was under construction and a single lane traffic was expected.

We got back to the room to clean up and baby K had his lunch before we proceeded to the Olive restaurant to have ours. While waiting for our orders to arrive, I brought baby K to the marine center and on the way back, he dozed off.

Once back at the restaurant, the waitress on seeing the napping baby, quickly brought 2 chairs together to form a makeshift bed and tie them together with towels. Baby K that slept on the chairs the entire time we had our lunch. How thoughtful!

We wanted to try Filipino cuisine and ordered some soup, fried pork knuckles and fries seafood noodles. The portions were massive and we couldn’t finish eating! Wasn’t able to appreciate the taste to start with so we had quite a bit of leftovers.

As I carried baby K, he had already woken up slightly and by the time we returned back to the room, he woke up already.

It was coming to 4 pm and we didn’t have much choices and where else to go. Went to the Metro supermarket to buy dried mangoes and Otap to bring home, as Cebu was well known of these foodstuff.

Cebu goodies - Otap and dried mangoes. — Cebu goodies – Otap and dried mangoes.

Once back at the hotel, we went to the Jlounge to claim our final welcome drink and buy a fresh mango juice and Halo Halo, a Filipino version of our ice kachang. It was great for cooling down.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Halo Halo, ice kachang of the Philippines

Back in the room, I didn’t stayed long and brought baby K out again while mommy prepared baby K dinner. Time seemed to fly with baby K around. We wanted to check out the small playground and while on the way there, we stopped by the center pool where there was some singers belting out songs at the center stage of the pool. Stayed a while before heading to the playground which seemed more for bigger kids as it had steep steps, a wall climbing section and a steep slide. Baby K didn’t like it and after a round or two on the slide and meddling with the hard to reach steering wheel and a turn on the swing, we went back to the center stage to continue watching the concert, lounging on the chairs.

Wife joined us after she was done with the cooking and we went to the shop at the arcade to buy a beach ball since baby K was kinda liking it. We went back to the room after that and as we have left baby K Pororo water bottle in the shop, I had to go back to retrieve it.

The night entertainment at the center pool had escalated into a fire dance show and I had to stop for a bit to watch. They were very skillful and I thought it was one of the best that I have seen so far. So many variations of fire torches.

Back at the room, it was about dinner for baby K, as he walked around having his dinner, and us calling in room service for some chicken (really had enough of pork!) and tomato soup. Then it was bathing and off to bed. The adults continued with the washing up and catching up online and by 1130pm, we off to lala land.

Mactan Island, Cebu 2016 Day 2 – JPark pool and beach

Posted on May 22, 2016September 22, 2019 by ziyi

I awoke at 515 to find the room illuminated by daylight. Peeking out I saw the skies in an orange hue, sun was about to rise. The clouds were blocking so I chose to return to bed without the sunrise shot.

Woke up again at 8 and surfed some net before baby K woke. Changed his diapers which was slightly leaking and concluded that the pants diapers were not as high capacity as the tape ones for overnight usage. Then we proceeded to breakfast at The Abalone.

Baby K had his own baby seat at breakfast. Baby K had some bread and cereal with milk and was satisfied while his parents chose from a wider variety of food. As baby K became bored and fussy, wife brought him out of the crowded restaurant for a stroll and back to the room to change to swimwear while I waited forever for my cappuccino which never came.

Went back to the room without my caffeine boost and found baby K all ready. He was not impressed that I have to change and became fussy again until we both stepped out of the room. Couldn’t waterproof my camera in time and so had to make do with the iPhone.

We first got out towels from one of the towel exchange huts then we proceeded to the “shore” that we saw yesterday. It was in fact a shore for people sitting in their inflated donut float to come out from the moving stream to disembark. It wasn’t a good place for toddlers since it got deeper so I brought him to the basic toddler pool where there was a rain mushroom and a small slide.

Played there for a while and we went to the bigger kids pool where there was a pirate ship, a big structure with slides and a rain mushroom. It was easier in the day when not many people were around but as it got crowded, I had to bring baby K out the pool. Furthermore the slides could only be taken by kids under 12 and so I couldn’t slide down with baby K. I had to leave the iPhone before entering the area to prevent it from drowning but that meant that I had to go back to the towel hut to put it into the locker which had a password lock.

Toddler pool with a kids Pirates ship theme. — Toddler pool and a kids Pirates ship theme pool in the background.

After all the fun in the sun, I returned to the room with baby K and gave him a bath before we again tried to get him to nap. Wife cooked lunch but baby K refused to nap. So we left the room to buy some drinks from the Metro supermarket and called room service to carry out housekeeping.

We bought more bottled water, a beer, fresh milk (limited variety) and some drinks before returning and baby K fell asleep in mommy’s arms.

Returned to the room and lay baby K on the bed while we ate the other packet of pork, microwaved, with a bottle of not-so-cold beer, upon returning from the supermarket. Thankfully baby K napped a lot longer.

Baby K woke up after 2 hrs whereas both daddy and mommy had a quick shut eye too. Things didn’t go too well as baby K became very cranky, wanted to play with water from the kitchen tap. After some scolding from mommy and trying to feed him porridge which he only had some, we decided to bring him out for a walk to the beach.

First we went to the Jlounge to pick up our welcome drinks with the vouchers, and it turned out to be tropical mixed fruits drink. It was too sweet to taste like real fruits though.

After that we proceeded to the towel hut to exchange for towels again and went to the beach. On first look it was pretty disappointing. The available sand near the water was a small space and the one where the sun decks were had a large space reserved for a company event. Baby K had to settle for the sand, which wasn’t smooth sand but a mixture of other stones, to play with.

The sea water wasn’t turquoise like Boracay but was clear and only mostly knee deep for quite a distance. There wasn’t much to see though except for a couple of silver fishes which was very hard to see sometimes. Baby K was fascinated by the water parachute in the distance and the low water level as he squats to splash the water.

A view of the beach standing in the waters.

We left after some time and proceeded to the arcade to utilize whatever tokens he had left to take the train and boat rides while I bought a frappe (Jlounge) to cool down from the heat. After that we got back to the room until dinner time.

We went to the Korean restaurant Maru just at the ground floor of our block. We ordered grilled chicken which was not too bad and they had quite a couple of sides. However the waitress misunderstood with out orders and didn’t send the pancake. Luckily the main dishes was filling enough and they made up by giving us another pancake side dish and some tropical juices.

Back at the room, I bathed the baby and soon enough he was calling for nap time. That was nice as it gave us some rest time for this trip. Got to catch some TV (managed to catch Antman on HBO) before going to bed.

Mactan Island, Cebu 2016 Day 1 – Arrival in JPark Island Resort and Waterpark

Posted on May 21, 2016September 22, 2019 by ziyi

Woke up at the same time as a normal working day on Saturday to prepare for the trip to Cebu. Just some more follow up packing such as bottles, milk powder dispenser and toddler’s home cooked food, electrical stuff like bottle warmers, electric chargers and extension cables, daily necessities like shavers.

Baby K really slept till the 11th hour and I had to gently wake him up with some Pororo music before rushing him to change out without getting him frustrated.

We arrived at T2 for the SilkAir flight and was surprised by the lack of counters as all had bag drops only and there were automatic stations to do check ins. However we skipped those and proceeded straight to the counter since there wasn’t really a queue and was checked in quickly. Had a quick brekkie at the Arrival hall and packet some bread for baby K to munch on before going thru immigrations.

Changed his diapers at the convenient nursing room and proceeded to the gates, baby K was terribly excited to see the planes along the way, as he became aware of aeroplanes and how they would fly in the skies.

The flight to Cebu was long, with a technical stop of 45mins at Kalibo, only arriving at Mactan Island at 300pm, on a 10am flight. It was a small plane and therefore didn’t had screens per passenger and relied on passengers’ own electronic devices for entertainment content. Our seats were booked on ones just behind the bassinet ones as those were fully booked out and it was not very comfortable with a hyper toddler on our laps and with the aisle seat taken up by a huge Caucasian. Baby K napped only an hour and we managed to keep him happy with books and toys and him moving about and food till we arrived, thankfully earlier than expected.

Islands, from the view enroute. — Islands, the view enroute.

At the arrivals we had to submit a handful of forms – a health declaration, the usual immigration form and finally a customs form at 3 different stations. But the line moved quickly before we picked up the luggage already on the belt and exited the small airport. Walking out, a representative from JPark resort was waiting and confirmed our names before a medium size bus came and picked us up, the only customers.

It was about a 20mins ride to the resort with slow traffic on a single line road. Again baby K was walking around on the bus when it stopped and just messing around with the curtains all the way. Nothing much on the roads interest him, he couldn’t see the difference yet between Cebu’s developing towns compared to the modern Singapore that we came from.

Modern looking new town, so different from the rest. — Modern looking new town, so different from the rest of the area.

As we arrived and got off the bus, our luggage was taken care by the bellboy and we just went to the very busy check in counter. As mommy did the check in, I brought baby K for a walk. The weather was as warm and humid and baby K seemed excited to see the pool.

We were given a spa room, which meant a room that had additional 2 beds within the shower room that had a non working jacuzzi and a separate shower and a toilet. The room was big with a separate space for sofa and daybed and a pantry. The pantry had adequate space for food preparations, and also came with a microwave.

Pantry with enough space for food preparations.

On first thought, it seemed like an upgrade but the arrangements of the only sink in the pantry meant that all the washing of hands and brushing of teeth had to be done in the pantry.

Gave baby K a bath where he pooped into the tub and got him ready for nap time as it was almost 530pm. However, the lack of a sarong, loud music from the outside and probably the excitement of overseas trip made him unable to do so. We brought him out instead as we wanted to buy fish for his meal.

We walked to the main street not too far from the resort and went to the Metro supermarket, in a Korean “biased” Shangs Island Town center mall (this island/resort was especially popular with Koreans, literally thought I was in Jeju). There was no fish there and so we decided to walk down the street where baby K dozed off. 15mins of walking in the super congested street, we arrived at Savemore supermarket, a much bigger one.

Shangs mall opposite the entrance of the resort.

Crazy crowded single lane street. — Single lane street.

We looked around but there weren’t much fish for sale, ended up buying pork. As we exited the place, we were approached to take a ride on a small motortricycle back to the resort. The quote was 40 per head which was 80 total so we got on. The tout was a different person from the rider and he followed us on the trip. Along the way, we stopped by a roast pork stall to buy some Lechon as it was recommended to try by my colleague. However the last bit was “reserved” and so we went on to another stall. It was not stated specifically and we thought it was just roast pork and so we bought it. However, the tout had asked the stall seller to give us 2 portions instead of 1 and my wife not knowing had to fork out 600 pesos for them. I thought we had overpaid as we saw 150pesos written on the front of the stall though. The stall was also just in front of our hotel entrance and so we just paid 200pesos to the rider and the tout as tips and left for the hotel, now the sky had already turned dark.

Motor tricycle that we took to return back.

Back at the room, my wife started cooking for baby K who had woken up from his nap at the pork store and I gave him a quick bath. Then we spent the rest of the night on TV and eating the roast pork and feeding baby K, occasionally looking out of the window with the fireworks up the in skies, though we don’t know what’s the celebration about. There were some music blasting below with some dancing going on but that didn’t last very late.

After his meal, I brought baby K out to check out what’s around. There was a kids club that included a indoor playground and games arcade beside it where baby K spent some tokens riding the static rides. There were some shops available for shopping but we weren’t interested.

On the ground floor out in the open, there was a main pool with a center pool bar. As we walked around, we also saw a mini golf and other pools. It was already 10plus at night so everything was closed. We went back to the room.

The day was concluded with washing of all the utensils and boiling some hot water to store in the flask for baby K’s middle of the night feeding and then lights out. Knocked out easily with so much being done for the day.