Kuching to Cebu, with some issues

After an early wake up at 3am, I had to wake up my taxi driver outside the hotel (I’m not entirely sure he was the one I had booked, but he was there with his door open asleep on the back seat, so I woke him and got to the airport in one piece). After two weeks apart I was super excited to be reunited with Amelia. I only had an hour between landing and taking off for Manila so had a quick jog through the airport before meeting up again at last at the gate.

As we hadn’t checked in together we were sat apart on a very busy plane so unfortunately didn’t have any chance to change seats. My bag didn’t turn up on the carousel at Manila airport. So I had to wait around with a few irate passengers to fill in some forms to get it delivered to Cebu. Very annoying. Not just for this incident but Manila airport is awful. After a very confusing journey between terminals we joined a massive queue to check in then a very crowded departure hall where we were very fortunate to get seats. If anyone has the chance, don’t transfer through Manila. 

We finally arrived in Cebu and had to wait in another massive queue to get a taxi to our hostel, and then the traffic was horrendous so it took ages to get there. But finally, one bag down, we arrived and could just relax in each other’s company. The hostel itself is a bit of a party place (but still pretty nice, definitely more luxurious than all of the places in Borneo) so was very loud until midnight when we could finally get some sleep.

We still hadn’t heard the status of my bag by the morning so we extended our stay to two nights and set out to explore Cebu a bit. Amelia rightly described it as a bit of a s***hole, although Carbon market was pretty epic, with a ridiculous number of stalls. The whole city is pretty dirty, witnessing people urinating in the street a couple of times. Definitely not recommended if you don’t have to stay here because Malaysian airlines lost your bag. 

I got the message at last that my bag had been located, so we headed back to the hostel to use their phone and have some food. It turns out they don’t send the luggage they lose to your hotel, so I’ve had to take a taxi over to the airport to pick up my bag and am currently sat in said taxi that I’ve been in for over an hour and a half (I could have walked it quicker, but that would probably be suicide on these roads). But at least I have my luggage at last. Looking forward to leaving Cebu city tomorrow morning and heading over to Bohol island.