Mactan Island, Philippines - February 9, 2006
Mactan Island.. or Lapu-Lapu.. essentially the island that holds the international airport for the city of Cebu. The Lonely Planet quotes one backpacker as calling it a 'tourist's hellhole'. Another reference refers to Magellen (the famous Spaniard explorer) who died here... and just essentially been a bit ever since for the foreigner. To be truthful, I hate this place myself. I've known other people who've said they went to Cebu, but probably landed at the airport and ended up in the same island just outside of Cebu itself. It does royally suck.
For one, the people. Just about everywhere I go here, people harrass you and try to rip you off. It almost feels like they are standing in line waiting for their turn to do it. Even from Cebu (where everyone and everything is normal).. the moment you tell them you want them to take you to Mactan Island (or the international airport).. the weirdness begins.
Even in this internet place, I have tons of kids all over me, the place, and constantly yelling and staring and running over to sit next to me. The malls weren't much better. I was telling my girlfriend I'm on 'weird-island'. There are definetely just as many foreigners around on Mactan (because of the airport) as there are on Cebu. But here everyone stares at me and looks at me strangely. Sometimes smiling or saying hello or just all around acting weird and abnormal in my mind. What are wrong with all these people here?
Anyhow, this is the same city that was my initial introduction to Cebu as well. Its a horrible introduction and a horrible place to spend the night or even an afternoon. One of the few positive things about this place is the guitar factories like Alegre and a dozen or so others in the middle of Mactan Island. We toured the Alegre factory and it was interesting. They even had an 'Ovation Guitar' brands they sell. But when I asked them about having one sent abroad, they said that cost almost as much as the guitars themselves. On a positive note, they said they sold six guitars already today just to walk-in tourists. Not bad as even a small and very mediocre guitar there costs US$100. From there they keep going higher and higher. However I suppose the tourists could have bought the super-cheap non-playable showcase tourist guitars. Totally possible as well. They did have acoustic guitars, classical guitars, ukeleles, mandolins and even a cocolele (a ukelele with coconut shells for a body - solely for novelty - can't really play those). Anyways, the guitar factories made Mactan Island alright.
More on the Philippines..
February 10, 2006
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