Day 4 - 13.02.26

Today we decided to have breakfast at McDonalds. It was fairly busy, but Christine managed to get a table reasonably quickly. We ordered hot cakes, a duo burner and a breakfast burger which was scrambled egg, a sausage Pattie on a different bun. I don’t recall how much it costed, but once again we were surprised at how cheap it was.

When we were leaving McDonald’s there was a couple of guys with big guns - they are around quite often, but this time they were like actively holding them, not pointing at people, just holding them to their side. It was a bit alarming, turns out they were escorting the cash vehicle.

After breakfast we headed into the mall to hit a couple of stores, and to locate somewhere that we could print photos. We had planned to print photos at home before we left, but due to everything that happened in the last few days before we left we decided we’d sort it here. We found a place that would do the prints - our plan was ~20 photos, 5 copies of each, and the cost was around $33 which seems reasonable for 100 prints (not sure what the going rate in NZ is these days!). We arranged to send them via email later that afternoon.

After this we decided we’d go to one of the other SM malls - SM Seaside Cebu. This is the 2nd biggest mall in the area, and has an outside area at the top where you could see the city/sea views.

The ride to this mall was as interesting as the other ones - similar landscapes of areas where there is lots of issues, and other areas where things look semi ‘normal’, mostly the former.

We arrived at the mall and went inside - near the entrance there was electric trikes etc that you could hire to get around the mall - these we not aimed explicitly at people with mobility issues (there was another one further along with mobility specific hire), just I guess cos the mall was so large, you could hire the scooter to get around.

We tried it but later found that it was a little inconvenient, as you could only use a certain set of lifts (interestingly they have a person in the lift pushing buttons for you) in the middle of them mall, and you couldn’t take the scooter into the shops. As they didn’t have a key, anyone could have rocked up and taken it for a joy ride. So we only had it for an hour or so before we decided that actually walking is easier!

This mall actually felt bigger than the one from yesterday - I think because it had a better layout, so you could keep on walking in a giant circle - there was the odd passage way, but much less of a rabbit warren. We went to a couple specific shops, but in general we just wandered and looked around.

When we got to the top we went outside - it was REALLY hot. A bit of a breeze initially made it OK, but once that was gone, it was roasting - definitely the hottest on this trip so far. So we didn’t stay out side for that long - but the area was big enough that you could hire an e-bike and cycle around.

After the viewing area we headed back down to the ground level to catch a grab back to the hotel. We sat outside (in the shade) while waiting on the grab. I was warm, but no too bad. The Grab driver arrived quickly enough - there was as breakdown nearby so it took a bit to get out of the general area, and then a bit later on we were stuck in traffic for a while. The trip time was about double the original estimate. We wondered afterwards how much of the $ that we paid for the trip the driver actually gets.

When we got back tot he hotel, I stayed there for 15 mins or so, then back to the mall to get some stuff from the pharmacy. They don’t have the same OTC meds etc that we do, but managed to get something that should hopefully work.

We decided to have dinner at the buffet down stairs - today they had a dude playing sax, and singing too. There were a few different items in the buffet, and I tried the pasta where you pick the ingredients and they essentially cook it in front of you. They are also getting ready for Valentine’s Day tomorrow, so they are setting up decorations around the place.

I am trying to slow down a bit - it’s quite difficult. We are so used to doing everything really fast, even eating etc, so we can get back home, or what ever. Today we spent ~2hrs for dinner, no need to rush, no where to be.

We also pre booked the buffet for tomorrow as due to valentines we assume it will be busy.

Observations

• Today was hotter again, seems to be heading back to similar levels as I recall last time I was here
• Pharmacies here are odd - you take a number and have to wait for it to be called.
• It’s so nice that we were able to be here for a week on our own. We’ve really been able to take it easy these past few days. Even tho we’ve only been here for 4 days, in some ways it feels like we’ve been here longer.