S I N U L O G 2 0 1 4

It was my second time going to Sinulog and I can that I was more prepared than I was 3 years ago. My friends and I booked ticket to Cebu, while we were in Singapore, thinking that this would be our homecoming celebration. I can't say that this year is better than the last time I came, but it's still is something for the books.

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This year's crew comprises of old and new friends. Singapore friends + high school friends + friends that I've only met that day and will probably never meet again in the near future. 

This year, I went with the bucketeers, no actually the bucketeers went with the bboys. We tagged along with our friend who was going with his friends. Good thing is that I've known these guys since high school, and it wasn't all that awkward. We didn't had a hotel to stay in up until 2 days before our flight, and boy were we lucky to have a room in the same hotel as our friends, considering that it was "fully booked" everywhere. 

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Our first day- Saturday, didn't go through as planned. 20 of us were supposed to hop on a bangka and have a little booze cruise of our own, but due to bad weather, we decided to cancel it. Better safe than sorry. We ended up in Plantation Bay, which was in Mactan, Cebu. It's beach resort, not actually what we had in mind to have a "good time" (if you know what I mean) but, nonetheless, we did had fun doing the kiddy dorky stuff we don't get to do so often like riding (tandem) bikes, fake cliff diving, wall climbing, archery, and having not-so friendly competitions with the "other" group. And yeah, we did have that cheap thrill of being bad-ass youngsters who tried to sneak in alcohol inside the resort. (We swear it wa just apple juice in the Nalgene bottle! Honest!)

Our night ended after dinner at Casa Verde, yes, we did have delicious ribs! and thank you, to our wonderful friend who's family owns the resto and who does not want to be named! Thank you most humber SIR! ;) Of course Saturday night would not be complete without intoxicating our livers, we had drinks in our hotel rooms, played a couple of drinking games, got secrets revealed and some got wasted. Wonderful indeed!

(1) Channeling our inner Katniss Everdeen and Legolas (2) Hello, there half of Octave!

The next day- Sunday, was THE day. THE festival day, THE Party day. Our hotel was just a few block away from baseline, the said party place, so we didn't have to worry about the hassle of getting there. We got there at around lunch time, we thought it was early, but we were wrong, the queue was long that early. But thanks to me, (yeah it was me!)  and viber we found a way to cut the queue and get our tagged in a matter of minutes, turns out everyone who had viber installed on their phones gets priority. 

Our group started to party at around 2pm and by then you can still roughly count the number of people inside the venue, and still have some personal space. We went up in front a couple of times, joined the moshpit got drinks, got paint all over and danced to the beat of we don't know what music. By around 5 or 6 pm the crowd started to pile up and when I say pile up, I mean people were coming in, and coming in, and coming in, by the second, there was no way of navigating your way in the swarm of teenage hippie wannabes. By this time, no one knew the meaning of personal space, I can literally lie down and not fall on the ground. It was jampacked crazy! And being the oldies that we were, we decided to end the night early and hit the sacks before midnight (I know it sucks, but our bodies cannot handle it) 

And all I can conclude for all of these is that- 1. it was not worth the 350 pesos entrance fee, I mean come on, we didn't pay 3 years ago! 2. Your first time is always the best time and 3. We are definitely getting old to get down! :)) 

(1) The Bucketeers meet again, this time in out homeland! (2) The not so calm before the storm (3) View form the electric fence (4&5) Chaos, just chaos!

Our third day was just extra time for us to dilly dally our way in Cebu, 4 of us decided to go on a cultural walk downtown. We went to the church, offered candles for good luck, took some pictures and went back to the hotel. What better way to end our Cebu trip than with having lechon for lunch. Because it would not be a Cebu trip if you don't have lechon. 

(1&2) Exploring the streets of Cebu. Reminded me much of the streets of Malacca. :)

All in all, I could say that this year's Sinulog was not that bad and not that great at the same time. But what the heck, it's Sinulog! it's better than not being there!