urbaneer: Chinese New Year in Cebu

03/02/11-06/02/11 - Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Chinese New Year is the most special holiday of the year for the Chinese, prompting the largest mass migration of human's on the planet. It's a time for family and celebration, if you're Chinese. Hong Kong effectively closes down for the long weekend. So we took the opportunity to escape to some warmer climbs, the Filipino tropical Island of Cebu.

The flight from Hong Kong to Cebu is just two and a half hours. Unfortunately, the Cebu Pacific Air flight departs at 1.35am and arrives at 4.15am! Not great for sleep patterns. The journey though was relatively straightforward as we were collected from Cebu International Airport and driven 119kms to the Serena Resort that was to be our home for the next three days and four nights.

The drive of 119km's takes over 3 hours as the road from Cebu to Moalboal's White Sand Beach is far from an express way - but very interesting, particularly the town of CarCar, which aside from havin

g a great name was shrouded in a smoky mist and boasted an incredibly busy market and one of the 'disco' churches, of which, regrettably, we do not have photographic evidence.

After daybreak we arrived at Moalboal, it was overcast and spotting with rain, so we were pleased to go to bed to get some sleep after the journey. When we awoke it was brighter b

ut still a little overcast - we learned that a typhoon had passed through two days previous and so the weather was still a little unsettled. Thankfully the weather steadily improved over the four days and we had a great time. White Sand beach boasts a coral reef only 15 metres or so out to sea, perfect for some serious snorkeling and tropical fish spotting! And we even spotted a turtle in the water! We like turtles. When the tide was out we spotted a lot of wild life in the little puddles - a selection is videoed below :)

Snails disguised as stones