Cebu-tiful

So here I am in a hotel room called Fleur in Puerto Princesa. Who would have thought that I would actually be able to come here. Slowly, I am able to see the beauty of the different islands of the Pearl of the Orient that I can, with so much pride and sometimes shame, call my motherland. Just last week, I was in Cebu where I stuffed my face with their sumptuous roasted pig, beef ribs, fresh scallops, prawns, crabs, fishes that I cannot name for the love of me, shellfishes that I also cannot name but ate ... We stayed at the Marco Polo and every morning, in the four days that I had breakfast there, I only ate the same thing. A plate full of danggit, mangoes and chocolate croissant. They have really great chocolate croissants and if I were only to choose one food from their buffet every morning, it will have to be chocolate croissant.

I got so stressed out in Cebu though because I had to prepare my slides last minute, present a paper and moderate a workshop after which I even took down minutes for the business meeting where the participants were so impassioned that it was so hard for me to catch up. Of course this was towards the end of the day and my brain just decided to move in slow motion. Trust my brain to do just what it is not supposed to do at a moment so important. After the day, I was soh stressed I felt like I was going to explode into pieces if I did not run so when I got into the hotel room, I changed into my running gear and off to the gym I went. I only had a bit more than half an hour to use the gym so I was only able to run 5KM. I wanted to run 10KM but the gym had to close.

The following day, we got left by our plane because it took us long to eat and also because there was a street dance party and there was a terrible traffic jam. *sigh* It was my first time to get left behind by the plane. It was soh bad that I was still in denial fifteen minutes after the plane took off...

But the Cebu trip was not all that bad. I got to eat at Charcoal Grill that wiped off the AA Grill and BBQ from the top of my list. The super bubbly aunts of my colleague took us there and they were just so fun to be with! They also took us to a bar near Forest Ann, I forgot the name of the place though... Ack! Memory gap! Abuhan was also great, they had yummy Pochero and Lapu-lapu in Pepper Sauce! :) We also got to buy Merceditas from Home Bakers which made yummy little Brazo de Mercedes, these delicacies came highly recommended by my colleagues aunts. I was also able to go to Plantation Bay where I got to taste really good burger at Kilimanjaro Grill. The Fiji Restaurant also has the yummiest dessert, three types of chocolate in a chocolate mousse! My mouth waters just thinking about it... too bad I had to eat it in a rush because I was moderator. There is another grill restaurant that we tried but I did not get to enjoy the food there so hmm... not because the food was not good but because I had something else to do. I got to eat Balut though. I have not eaten Balut in more than two decades I think... It was not bad at all. :) Oh yeah, I also got to try Laguna Cafe and their food was also good! They say they had the best chicharong bulaklak but we were not able to try it there... I was able to try their Tinolang Manok, seafood platter and many other fattening food that are but a blurry memory and layers of fat in my body now... *argh!* Golden Cowrie also offered great food. I loved their Fish Basket and their Kinilaw was also great!

Talking about all these food is making me want to eat again! *haha!* I have so many pimples right now. I do not know if this is because I switched to another moisturizer brand because I ran out of my Shiseido Day Moisturizer with SPF 15 and my Shiseido Hydrating Toner. I am now using my Murad Hydrating Serum and believe it or not Shiseido Men Revitalizing Serum so I can moisturize my face. I have huge pimples. They say it could be due to the stress I got from Cebu or it could also be from the nasal steriods that I have been taking in for my allergies... Hmm... I hope they go away soon. *arrrgh!*

I hope I can run here in Palawan though I do not know where I can really run and if it is quite safe for me to run around here.