Feb 25 – We’re not home to host the annual Oscar night bash, alas. But I’m thinking of y’all back home in Boston!
This morning we boarded a bus from Cebu City to Dumaguete, a ride of about 100km including a ferry hop of 8km from the island of Cebu to that of Negros. Luis didn’t warn me about those bus drivers! Fortunately we were seated close to the back of the bus, so I could see my life flashing by before my eyes. But I could see the red-shifted blur out the side window as we sped through the countryside, barreling past everything from tuk-tuks to other buses at speeds (registered on my handheld GPS) of 90 to 105kph on a narrow undivided winding road of the sort where a State-side traffic cop would cite you for doing 50mph. Well I must still be alive because you’re reading this now.
Luis likes Dumaguete best of all the places we’ve seen so far! I attribute that to the cooler weather, it’s a picture-perfect tropical beachside community with temperature around 80F. I’m writing this at 8:30pm with three San Miguels and a Chinese meal of fish and bitter-melon veggies in me. We’ve strolled the length of the beach, and about half the guys along the beach made eye contact and smiled or said hello to me. An amazingly friendly place! I’m among very few white people here, I’ve seen maybe a half-dozen, virtually all considerably older than me. Presumably there are many Koreans mixed in with the weekend Filipino crowd. The boardwalk is lovely and active with (straight) couples out strolling; we watched the evening lighting come on, and Luis was intrigued with the guitar motif sprinkled through the trees.
Last night we tried to link up with a friend of a friend in Cebu City but that person changed plans. We opted to go to a movie house, which was an experience in itself. (A film I’d read about, Troika, had just opened a couple weeks ago. We noticed it showing as we rode our taxi into town, I’d marked the location in my GPS so we went back in the evening. Our Lonely Planet guide pointed out that this part of town is one where many locals don’t go, there is a big difference between downtown and the uptown location where our lodging was.)
When we checked in early at the hotel (Jasmine Pension) at Cebu, we were brought to a very small, dark room. I drew the line at this and asked that we switch to another room. It was literally like night and day: the desk clerk pointed out that a better room would cost another (whopping) 70 pesos, but wow what a difference it was! We got an airy 2nd floor room with a big window and double beds. Decided on the spot to use that same hotel when we return to Cebu on Wednesday!
Also in Cebu we took a jeepney out toward the Taoist Temple. I say toward because we wound up at least a kilometer away. There are no public buses in Cebu, only taxicabs, tricycles, motorcycles and jeepneys. The jeepneys operate on fixed routes and you have to get in the right one. You just hop on, then get off at or close to your destination, and pay an attendant or the driver the city-regulated fare of 6 pesos. (A tad over 12 cents at today’s exchange rate, peso is gaining on the dollar as I write this.) The Taoist Temple at sunset is a charming place. (Also charming was the 20-ish guy who kept staring and smiling at me whenever I glanced his way…;-) But we made this trip in the wrong sequence vs. another trip: the Buddhist temples of Japan have remarkably detailed craftsmanship so I had to put aside my criticism of the carpentry.
Luis and I got into a cute squabble afterward, when I put too much reliance into my techno-geek gadgetry and jumped off the jeepney too early. The return route was very different from the one we’d taken out to the temple. Fortunately, my mistake only cost us a dozen pesos (to catch a second jeepney) and a relentless tongue-lashing from Luis. 
We’re going to a national park tomorrow, wistfully thinking about the Oscars on American television at the same hour.