We woke up at 6am and went down to breakfast at 7:20am, but it wasn’t set up yet even though breakfast started at 6. We decided to change into our bathing suits and head to the marine reserve area again to swim and see if we could spot some baby sharks. Only one other guy was swimming in the marine area, and it was very calm waters. We tried swimming out further in the roped area this time and Jives saw a baby shark! I still hadn’t seen one, but just as I was about to give up I saw one! Then I saw two more! They were bigger than I had imagined, maybe 24 inches long and thick, exactly like a mini shark, swimming in the green reeds. Jives said that the sharks he saw were not as big. I was so happy to have finally seen some sharks, it was honestly the reason why I had chosen to visit Malapascua in the first place. Looking at the video footage later I actually saw five or six sharks, they blend in so well with the sand and reeds.

We then had breakfast and returned to our room to finish packing up our bags. We had a coffee and then headed to the boat dock at 11 thinking we would sit in the sun for a while before the boat left at 11:30am, but immediately the boat captain came up to us and said he was ready to go. We walked out to the shore, the tide was out further then when we had arrived so we had to take off our socks and shoes and walk through the water before climbing a ladder and coming aboard. The ride was lovely, about 39 minutes to Maya port. I was sunnier then it had been on our trip over. 

As we arrived at Maya port there was a man on his boat singing loud karaoke in a very off key voice. Karaoke seems to be so popular in the Philippines. We waited for 15 minutes for our driver. His car was much smaller than the car on the way over and the seat was a bit difficult to sit on as it kept sliding. But the driver was a safe driver and that was our main concern after our last driver killed a dog and risked our lives with every turn. The ride took about four hours with quite a bit of traffic coming into Cebu city. There was a youth marching band in the street performing. Along the drive I saw a restaurant called “Wang Dong” and another called “Hug diner”. I also saw a sign that said “a good driver is a good lover” , a tattoo shop called “Skin Head Tattoo” (sadly) , a coffee shop called “Boss Me” and a lovely variety of colourful jeepies decorated with everything from Hello Kitty to Jesus to Bumblebee from Transformers. I also saw a twenty foot tall Astro Boy. Closer to Cebu we were driving by a professional looking cyclist and he waved and smiled and gave me the finger hearts I associate with BTS. I waved and smiled back, giving him some reciprocal finger hearts! What a lovely interaction!

We arrived at our hotel at 3:30pm and made our way to reception to check in. It was super easy. Our room was 1111 on the 11th floor. It was a small room but nice. We then headed to the mall on the ground floor and had a pizza to share (creamy spinach and an iced tea). We then headed to the hotel pool where we spent the remainder of the evening swimming in the super warm lovely pool. We got two craft beers from the reception bar and watched a gorgeous sunset as bats came out at night. 

We dragged our feet to check out as close to 12pm as possible, having coffees in the room before going down for breakfast. Breakfast was in the reception area. It was an okay breakfast, the egg drop soup was lovely, but there weren’t many options compared to what our spoiled asses had become used to. We then swam in the lovely pool for an hour as we had a load of washing and drying going. We finally did check out at 11:30am and asked the hotel if they would hold our bags, which they gladly did. We then set off on a 45 minutes walking adventure to the Taoist Temple up in the hills of Cebu. 

The walk to the Taoist temple was easier than I had expected, through local neighbourhoods. Lots of people smiled and waved. It did rain on and off, but never too badly. Nearer to the temple we got asked by security to leave an I.D to head further towards the Taoist Temple. I left my health card as my passport seemed too valuable. We could see the Taoist Temple from a few blocks away, bright red and perched up on the hill, surrounded by plants and every colour of bougainvillea. The steps up to the temple were steep and zig zagged back and forth as many Buddhist temple pathways do. The rooftops were adorned with elaborate dragon figures and the walls were covered in painted motifs and story depictions. The main alter to the shrine was off limits for photography, as well you could not make a sound. There were pools of Koi fish and a statue of a little fisherman. We climbed up to the top layer of the temple from where we had a spectacular view down to the city of Cebu. I always love all the details in temples like this, and the mixing of natural and man made elements. I had felt weird being in Asia and not visiting a single temple up until this point, but the Philippines is mostly christian, so there are very few temples, only churches and cathedrals. We spent maybe 30 minutes at the Taoist Temple before walking back to our hotel, collecting my I.D along the way. 

Back at Baseline Centre (the mall under the hotel) we ordered two pizzas for take out and ate them at a picnic table. We then headed up to reception where we spent the next few hours working on things in the lobby seating area. At about 6pm we collected our bags and had reception call us a cab to the airport. The cab ride was about 45 minutes and cost 350 peso. The driver played Boney M and Bryan Adams and sang along the entire way.

We proceeded through airport security (where of course my bag got pulled) and waited for our flight at 9:30pm to Manila. As soon as the flight was announced every single person on the flight jumped up and rushed to board. There was a white lady with no shoes boarding…. The flight was otherwise pretty uneventful, except the lady next to Jives spent the whole flight vomiting into a bag. 

When we arrived at Manila airport we had a lady try and hustle us soooo hard. She told us that cab rides didn’t exist and that she could help us out. What a weird lie. We called a grab and met the driver in the departures area. He had a sign up saying “no mask no ride”, which is rare now, but nice to see. So we donned our masks and drove 20 minutes to our “hotel” at the Air Residencies. The ride cost 303 Peso but I paid the guy 400 peso.

We went to the reception area which was just some security dudes at a desk and showed them our letter of approval. They took the letter and took our photo and then we proceeded to the 45th floor where our room was. It was a small but lovely apartment. We fell asleep almost right away as it was after midnight.