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Magical Philippines - Part 6

Magical Philippines - Part 6

Author: Kasia & Tomas Yoko
Date: 2019-02-22

"I see the shapes, I remember from maps, I see the shoreline, I see the whitecaps. A baseball diamond, nice weather down there. I see the school and the houses.

I wouldn't live there if you paid me. I wouldn't live like that, no siree! I wouldn't do the things the way those people do, I wouldn't live there if you paid me to!

I'm tired of looking out the windows of the airplane, I'm tired of traveling, I want to be somewhere, It's not even worth talking about those people down there" Talking Heads, The Big Country.

A very wise and seasoned traveller recently shared a song by Talking Heads, it went something like this, "I'm tired of traveling I want to be somewhere", there comes a time when your travels take you to the brink and beyond and your soul starts searching for familiarity and contentment. This is equivalent to travel burnout. We experienced one of those in Cebu.

This weird feeling hit us roughly four weeks into our travel, we started yearning for the familiar and no amount of hospitality stars and accolades would satisfy the comforts of our own bed.

Home is like no place on earth and somewhere through the adventure we started missing our comfort zone.

There's a Star Trek episode where Spock is in his 7 year breeding cycle....but in the jist of the comment he says to his rival something to the affect of...."After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true."

However we didn't have time for these esoteric thoughts as we sat waiting in the reception of our questionable hotel. Our bags packed again and bulging with too much stuff.

We had been given a whole list of ideas and places from our new friends in Cebu City, two of the most prolific fashion designers on the Island, and we were ready to leave the hustle and bustle and its accompanying cacophony of sirens and hooters and white noise, that Cebu City produces.

Our first stop on the South side of Cebu Island was a small hotel, more like an Inn, where we were allocated a room so close to the road that I would curl up my legs in bed every time one of those huge tourist busses blistered past our window.

The place was clean and very affordable, complete with TV, WIFI and a modern bathroom with flushing toilet, very important. It was situated on the main road across from which was the crystal clear waters of the Cebu straight. We were scheduled to go diving with the whale sharks the following morning, so after buying a few plastic tubes of essential ice, for our Johnny, we settled in to the most boring TV ever and an early night.

The next morning we were animated with anticipation of the dive adventure we had planned in Oslob. We checked out early, following the advice of our 'would be tour guide buddies', and arrived at a scene comparable to complete pandemonium. Tourist busses jammed the road, throngs of tourists were milling in every direction of the three hundred and sixty points on the compass. We parked very creatively and we went in search of our share of this adventure. A restaurant refused us coffee, giving us the reason, "Were too busy!" Rude as a fishwife.

We looked at each other and simultaneously decided that this was not for us, we would find some other way of swimming with the whale sharks if it was to be. The throng of tourists looked like they were having a blast, but we decided that there were just too many of them for us, so we pointed our Toyota South and trundled slowly through one town after another looking for a coffee shop to grab a quick breakfast and begin our search for our next place to stay.

There's something exciting and definitely challenging heading out with no destination. The whole Island was our adventure and we had no plan, but a list of ideas and places from our Cebuano friends.

Join us next week for more.