We visited quite a lot in the second day of our stay in Cebu. First stop, the Taoist Temple as it was in our itinerary. When we went out of the hotel, we found out that it rained, so we just headed to Robinsons Mall across to visit Cebu Pacific Office and follow up my refund request with them. The mall has just opened, but there were already crowd of customers waiting, so we skipped Cebu Pacific office and decided to just go to the Taoist Temple, as the rain was becoming a drizzle. We paid at least P80 for the cab that took us to the Taoist Temple up hill. Of course, the gigantic shul was really in its majestic grandeur sitting in a hill. We had a great time there roaming around and feeling the fresh air with a breathtaking clear and crisp view of metropolitan Cebu.
Taoist Temple, Cebu
Cebu City vantage view from the Taoist Temple
However, we had a problem going back to the city because there were only few taxis in the area (those only who had passengers to drop at the Temple were at the area) so we decided to take a walk going to the highway to get a cab going to CNT Lechon near SM City Cebu for our lunch. The restaurant was in a building and the ground floor served as its parking area. It was like a food court filled with patrons that you even need to get a number and queue for them to take your orders. We had ½ kilo of crispy lechon and some other side dishes. It was a good meal and we felt energized again for the rest of the day’s adventures.
We explored SM City Cebu, which has become bigger with its North Wing addition. It was about 3PM when we felt the need to sit down as our feet were like shaking tired, so we looked for a coffee shop or any restaurant serving good desserts in the area but we failed to found one until we got to The French Baker. I ordered Banana Split while Aileen got Mango Freeze. I like my Banana Split. We were supposed to go to Banilad to get some Gonuts Donuts but as it was in a totally opposite direction with our next destination we spared the donut 
. We were up to meet some of Aileen’s relatives in Lapu-lapu. We took a van going to MEPZA to get there. And there we learned that we can actually visit more places near the area which were supposed to be in our itinerary but we deleted due to time constraint.
Banana Split @ The French Baker
Next stop, the Mactan Shrine. We passed along the Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ), home to various exporting manufacturing companies such as Timex et al… We also passed by the Bigfoot Studios there, but it was a surprise to me so I was not able to capture a good photo. We got to see the statue of Lapu-lapu – the first Filipino hero in the history at the Mactan Shrine. We also bought souvenirs in the area and amazed by tons of guitars on display that are locally made in Cebu. We then went to the nearby lane of SuTuKil restaurants. And as per Vann’s suggestion we had the Manna SuTuKil. SuTuKil (Sugba-Tula-Kilaw) is a signature culinary delight of Cebu where you can choose fresh seafoods and have them cook in three ways, that is SuTuKil. The prices of seafood there are way way high than the ones in Baybay Roxas City in Capiz, and that made Roxas really the seafood capital of the Philippines. Nevertheless, we tried it there so not to miss the so called SuTuKil of Cebu. Upon going in, a server approached us and confirmed our orders who then told us that they have a P270++ cooking charge, which they did not tell us while we were still ordering. It’s kinda weird because they already have the soaring prices of their fresh seafood and yet they still charge for the cooking which they did not clarify in the first place. So much of discouragement but the Tinola tasted really bland. Upon getting the bill we asked if they accept Credit Cards and said Yes but they do charge again another 5% of your bill when you use it. Really awful, we just had it paid in cash and went out. Still Baybay in Roxas City is the best seafood destination for me and the prices are way cheaper with no additional cooking charge in a similar ambience. By the way I’ve asked the server on how they compute the cooking charge but she failed to explain, and just said that it is based on a percentage “something” and I did not insist to know the deal.
We dropped by the Park underneath the 2nd Cebu-Mactan bridge, the Marcelo Fernan Bridge to take a glimpse of the night scene overlooking Cebu City over the bridge. Then we travelled back to the city. We had a short rest at the hotel and decided to have a coffee somewhere else to cap the night. And since it was about 12mn and as per Vann’s suggestion we just went to Starbucks at Club Ultima just a block away from the hotel.
Link to Cebu Trip March 2010 Day 1
