Hey, it's Phoebe with Matt behind the camera.
And today we are staying at a beachfront resort and waterpark
right here in the Philippines
Known for its incredible beaches, amazing food and rich history.
Cebu is a coastal paradise.
Now, this is our first time visiting this region.
We have never been here before.
So I am really curious to see just what Cebu has to offer
and what it’s like to stay somewhere like this
We are staying
at the Jpark Island Resort here in Mactan, and it was about a 20, 25 minute
drive from Cebu Airport where we flew in with Cebu Pacific Air from Manila.
Super easy to get here like an hour flight.
Now the resort is located right on the beachfront,
which makes it the perfect backdrop for all your water sports
and it actually has this awesome waterpark.
There are so many things you can do.
We're going to kick things off with getting stuck into the water slide
because that is the happiest place on earth.
Let's go.
Ok that was the slowest one.
If the water slide isn't quite your speed, you want something
bit more relaxed but still just as wet, this is the one for you they have a...
what do you even call this a tube ride Get the tube and go around in a circle.
Sounds great.
There is a lot to see
and do around the park we have only just scratched the surface
There's all kinds of watersports, like parasailing, you can go snorkeling.
They have jet skis, banana boat rides, of course.
Now, we actually arrived yesterday and this morning
we got to sneak in a few extra things.
They have the Pororo Park, which is a kid's room.
But we went in there and we had fun in the ball
pit going down the slides, jumping on all of the things they have rides.
It's a really cool spot
and if you came here as a family, you would absolutely love it.
Now, given the sheer size of it, it should be no surprise.
There are a few restaurants on site as well,
and we are going to be checking them out, especially tonight.
We're starting with one tonight,
but right now we are going to check out one of these beautiful villas
the team have set up for us.
And we're going to have some drinks.
There are a couple of things you need to know about Filipino people.
One, they are incredible
hosts which we are discovering.
Two, they are absolutely lovely.
The happiest, kindest sweetest people on the planet.
And Three, incredible performers and we're about to See
some proof
of number
three in action.
It is time for dinner.
Now, there are all different
kinds of cuisines on offer at restaurants spread across the resort.
Tonight we are trying the Chinese restaurant Ching Hai
Now I believe they are going for authentic Cantonese.
I don't know what autentic Cantonese
tastes like, so to me it will be authentic.
Let's go and try it.
I’m about to make a very big call.
But I make it and I stand by it.
This has been my favorite meal we've had in the Philippines, so
that is our previous episode in Manila and this episode here so far.
This is my favorite.
Chinese food can be hit and miss.
It can be very rich, oily very processed and can make
you have a bit of a funny tummy afterwards this is so clean it is so well done.
I have loved just absolutely everything.
There's been no weak dish.
Ten out of ten would munch again.
Good morning, you guys.
So we are exploring Cebu a little bit more today
and we're doing a guided tour, checking out some of the major spots.
Now as we know, you may remember from Modern History back at school,
the Philippines has a really interesting history with the Spanish
and we are starting our tour today at one of those spots.
So we are at Fort San Pedro.
Now, this place is really interesting because it was built
way back in the 1500s.
Let me consult my notes.
May 8th 1565.
So it was originally built in 11 days and it was built out of logs
after the arrival of Miguel Lopez, Del Legazpie, right here in Cebu.
It's a really cool piece of history. Let's go check it out
Our city tour today is going to go from 8 a.m.
to 4 p.m.
It is going to be a long, long day.
I'm going to try and pace myself.
Taht is stop one down.
Our next stop is a spot that is a Cebu City icon
and it is this beautiful kiosk with a red tile roof.
If you look up Cebu,
this is probably what you're going to see and it houses Magellan's cross.
This cross was planted back in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan
while he was on his Spanish expedition.
It's a pretty cool piece of history.
This is a hard name for me to remember, so I need to read it out to you.
We are at the Basilica Minore del Santo
Nino De Cebu and it was founded in 1565.
And that makes it the oldest Roman Catholic Church in the country,
and an amazing piece of history, let's go take a look.
20 Pesos
for some
fresh pineapple
Let’s open this up and try it so we are at a local market.
It is a very big market and we have come straight
to the fruit section because I figured that some nice, easy,
fresh local stuff for us to try. Yum.
Now normally pineapple makes my tongue hurt, but the pineapple here does not.
That is so good and it is so hot today.
That's so refreshing.
I feel like Cebu
is if you love the beach, if you love the tropical aspect,
but also if you love history because it is such an old city
and we’re going to dig a little deeper into that history.
Right now we are at the oldest dated house in the Philippines.
Not just Cebu, the Philippines.
Incredibly, it is preserved inside a warehouse.
So we have pulled up.
It looks like we're just at somebody’s workshop
and this incredible piece of history is in here.
Let's go take a look. Yeah.
So this house is the oldest dated house in the Philippines.
So before the Jesuits .................
here in the Philippines.
These two lived in this house.
It is beautiful.
And so it was lost for a time.
And then they found it is, right? Yes.
How did they find it?
The present owner, Mr. ............
he studied in one of the Jesuit school.
Wow. ............. Manila.
So he came across the book of one of the Jesuits
and then he found a familiar structure, which is his house.
You can see this one in your two eye it is too dry.
Because what we haven't learned so much like the Spanish is the woodcarving.
That's why the Cebu having an export and import by Woodcarving
furniture, especially by the Spanish back in the days.
Our dresses look like this, this influence so much with the Mexican
because of the balloon.
If you have a shawl it means you're a wealthy family.
If you don't have a shawl it means your ordinary family.
This is a tradition that they have.
So sorry for the delay.
No that’s ok. Thank you so much.
All right. We are at the Chocolate Chamber.
We are learning about chocolate.
We are experiencing chocolate.
This is cacao. So if you’ve never seen it before.
In its original form, it comes off the tree.
You've only seen it in the supermarket. This is what it looks like.
And they say, that you can tell if it's ready or not by whether or not it moves.
So this one, I mean, you guys can't feel that.
But the little pods inside move like it’s loose inside
and this one
no movement. Ready. Not ready.
Basically, this is a traditional way of consuming
hot chocolate here in the Philippines.
So it is basically just the chocolate, the cocao in its raw form with water.
It is very bitter, apparently, and it smells chocolaty
and it also smells bitter.
So let's try
it. My first sip of that hot chocolate
was so bitter it was a shock to the system.
But then we met the chocolate queen, Raquel.
Now she has an incredible story.
You should definitely look into her.
Check out the chocolate chamber website and learn everything you can about her.
But she gave us a demonstration of how
they actually make it, how she works with cacao, her life story.
And it was incredible.
But more than that.
I got to see her beautiful skin and I was so taken by how stunning she is.
And she said she drinks.
Anywhere up to four or five cups of cacao a day.
So I had a second go at it so that I could.
Soak in some of Those good nutrients and great skin.
And by the end of it, I was really enjoying it.
I think I could really get into it.
So I definitely recommend this experience is really lovely
and if the first sip is bitter stick with it gets.
Better and you'll have great skin.
It has been a really big day of sightseeing and I am absolutely exhausted.
I am so happy to be back at the resort and I don't have to put any effort
into eating tonight
because we are having dinner at one of the onsite restaurants, Coral.
Now, this spot is located right along the beach front.
We got back a little too late for the sunset.
I wish we were here just slightly earlier so we could have shown you
the sunsets here are amazing.
The staff do amazing ice cold beers, cocktails, drinks.
They have a live singer.
It's a really relaxed atmosphere.
And tonight we are sampling traditional Filipino food.
Now, this is based around the concept of a boodal fight.
If you've never heard the term before, basically what it is traditionally,
banana leaf is spread along the middle of a really big long table
and loads of food like seafood,
pork, all of that is put in the middle.
And it came about during the Second World War
and it was a way to unite the troops and didn't matter if you were a general,
a foot soldier, whatever you were when we sat down to eat,
you were all equal.
And we are doing a very elevated, very fancy version of that tonight And the
chef has gone all out.
I am so happy to be finally able to show you our room
this is is and we have been loving it. It is so spacious
and it honestly has everything you could need.
The bathroom is a really good size.
We have a shower and a bathtub in there.
There’s a toilet, a storage sort of a wardrobe area and a great size basin.
In the bedroom we have a television
The Philippines is famous for its beaches, beautiful water and its islands.
And we're going to be making the most of that today.
We're heading out for a little bit of island hopping.
Now this is all done through Jpark our resort, where we are staying and
I'm curious to see it I've done anything like this in the Philippines.
It’s pretty exciting.
All right.
We have arrived at Caohagan Island and we did a bit of a walk through the middle.
Now, this island is super, super clean.
You can tell the locals take a lot of pride in that.
Everything is really well manicured and looked after.
Lots of cute dogs and roosters and cats and little children
running around is really sweet.
You can tell it's a lovely local neighborhood of an island
and we have pulled up to this beachside spot under this tent somewhere
nice and cool.
And the locals have put together an incredible seafood feast for us.
So we have crabs, fish.
I'm just going to stick to the squid and the rice today so let's give it a go.
Tasty and spicy.
Jamie is willing to eat something I am not.
And she's agreed to do it on camera.
Over to you, Jamie.
Okay, so here we have alien versus predator.
Okay, so I'm guessing this is Apollo.
This is what we eat, right? Yeah.
Oh, my God.
Oh wow.
Oh, my God it’s back out.
Oh wow, she's munching it. Mm.
Oh, mmmmm
It's like like bitter. Mm hmm. Yeah.
You know what I'm so impressed with there is the fearlessness
which she attacked that I would have nibbled it.
I am taken by the way you just went. You know what?
Is that like calamari texture.
Oh, is like calamari texture but bitter and yeah if you pussy out...
oh shit
I am absolutely exhausted.
You guys, we've had a really big week or so starting in Manila
and now here in Cebu.
We've done so much seen so much and experienced so much,
and we've loved it all.
If you take nothing else away from this, I hope that you've seen how beautiful
the Philippines is and how wonderful the people are.
And we are so glad to be back in the Philippines again
and seeing some new spots.
And with that, that brings this week's episode to a close.
I really hope you have enjoyed it now.
If you don't already, be sure to subscribe right now.
So you never miss a single episode and say hello in the comments below.
That is my boat. I'm going to go get on it.
I hope you have a great week ahead.
And if I don't.....
no I will see you with a brand new
episode next week.
Love ya!