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An unpretentious place, Sugbutel follows the capsule hotel concept popular in Japan. They have bunk beds with curtains for privacy.
At a price of Php 250.00, shower and comfort rooms are shared. Bed sheets and blankets can be had for a few more pesos. Sugbutel at the north reclamation has centralized airconditioner,
a convenience shop, laundry shop, internet cafe, canteen and food stalls. There's an entertainment lounge with free wireless and internet connection.
I just stayed in this place for 6 hours. I had to get away from the heat at the polling place during election day. The cubicle where I was in had around four bunk beds with curtains. When I went in, there were two teens talking in low voices about their exam results.
The bed Sugbutel gave me was covered in dark brown leather. I felt I like I was lying down on a sofa. But the room temperature was cool enough for six hours of sleep. For overnights, I don't think I would be recommending this place unless you're really short on cash.
Although staff are smiling, you get this feeling of uncongeniality. It probably has something to do with the ambience. Sugbutel is located near the seaport area, and so staff have advised lodgers not to roam outside at night. There have been incidents there of hold-up. The area is OK during the day though.
Owing to its very low room rate and walking distance to one of the largest shopping malls in the country SM City, Sugbutel is usually fully booked during the Sinulog season.
So this is suppose to be a blog on travel and my weekly exercise. Although I'd really like to go somewhere every weekend, the summer heat has been so intense it has caused me regular headaches.
I noticed I was hibernating more on pension houses and hotels rather than mountains and seas. Give me a break, even Baguio, the country's summer capital, has warmed up.
Rather than whining over a depressing situation, I decided to blog on pension houses and hotels where I've stayed. In that way I'd be doing travelers to Cebu a favor.
First thing I look when I pick hotels or pension houses is, of course, the price. I'm a certified "kuripot"; not exactly stingy like Scrooge but a bit more careful with my spending. I guess its how I've been trained by Mama. After price, comes sanitation. I'm a no-frills kind of person; but no-frills doesn't mean being amenable to staying in a pigsty.
Basic amenities in my room are important:
airconditioner, a window that doesn't directly face the sun (having no windows is actually OK for me), absolute quiet (location that is not near a street or pedestrian traffic or a karaoke house), no television is fine with me (I'll either be writing or reading anyway), clean sheets and a fluffy pillow, dressing table large enough to write, hotel/pension house should be near a restaurant, sari-sari store or cafeteria.
With the above criteria, I first came to discover Golden Valley Hotel in Pelaez Street. It's beside a campus. The area was relatively quiet when I arrived as it was school vacation time.
Golden Valley has its own restaurant so eating breakfast or dinner was convenient. The food was well cooked and appetizing enough. There were newspapers at the lobby and restaurant which is a plus for me. I enjoy reading on the news. What's more they had Manila Bulletin newspaper on a Saturday. I like MB's excerpts of features on the New York Times.
Overall, I'd recommend this budget hotel. It's value for money.
It was almost 9:00 in the evening when I passed by the new schotel (school and hotel) of the University of San Carlos on my way to a jeepney waiting area in Cebu City.
The Carolinian Inn is the training hotel of the University of San Carlos. It was built and designed to give students of the Department of Hospitality Management a chance to work hands-on in an actual hotel atmosphere.
Rooms are a bit expensive at Php 1,600.00 a day but the location is good for those who want easy access to malls and offices. For those visiting during Sinulog fiesta when almost all hotels are fully booked, this is the ideal place because it is near the parade route.
Before I forget, USC also has a new pharmacy a few steps away from the schotel.
Indulgence is defined in the online dictionary as gratification of whims and desires. This was exactly what happened with me last weekend. The summer sun in Cebu has made walking outdoors physically unhealthy for me. I sweated so much and developed a regular splitting headache. I guess I probably had at strokes and didn't know.
So, last weekend, I decided to indulge my whim: I went to a hotel and booked myself an air-conditioned room to sleep-in for hours starting in the morning In late afternoon, I had a full body massage at Thewi Thai.
During national election day, I voted and proceeded to have a foot massage at Little Asia. I then checked-in at a cheap (Php 250.00 a day) capsule hotel (bunk beds with curtains) called "Sugbutel" just to escape the summer heat and the election noise and to sleep for six hours.
It was a lazy Saturday afternoon and I wanted a diversion at that time. I thought a visit to the CPDRC to watch the dancing inmates would perk me up.
So I went to the Cebu Provincial Capitol building where the buses were waiting. I signed up and they gave me an ID pass. Note that the CPDRC show is free and anybody can watch their performance every last Saturday of the month. Just make sure you have a reservation with the Cebu Provincial Capitol Office since every CPDRC show gets a lot of viewers.
CPDRC is in a hilly part of Cebu and going up there in a big bus can actually be a bit dangerous since the road is by the cliff. In fact, we got lost briefly since the guide they gave us wasn't familiar with the place.
Anyway, when we got there we were given a video presentation of the history of CPDRC and the local government's efforts to rehabilitate the inmates through music, creative crafts and gardening.
In the hall outside the room, they were selling souvenirs. Business was brisk since a lot of us (foreign and locals alike) bought the items.
We were then led to the viewing decks to watch the inmates dance. New moves were introduced, there were also expected dance numbers that were similar to that posted on YouTube. Overall, the CPDRC show was a success.
To give you an idea of the CPDRC inmates' dancing skills, here's a sleek video produced by SonyPictures: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKtdTJP_GUI and of course the viral video, one of Michael Jackson's favorites, Thriller:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMnk7lh9M3o As update, some of the original dancers of these videos have already been released and I heard that they have formed their own dance group with support from former jail warden Byron Garcia. They visit different jails in the Philippines to train inmates on dances that would help them in their rehabilitation.
This wasn't in my original plan but I was seated on the bus beside a friendly Grandma who was on her way to Simala,
Sibonga. I have heard a lot of good things about the place and was curious to find out about the miraculous image of the Virgin Mary. So, I decided to tag along with Grandma Tita and her neighbor Sita.
When we arrived at Simala, we had lunch together (chicken tinola) before entering the monastery grounds.
As can be seen in the photographs, the architecture of the church and the monastery is of Portuguese influence. Set amidst a garden setting, the place was relaxing and conducive to prayer.
As I entered the church I saw a lot of crutches and wheelchairs. Grandma Tita said those were given by devotees who were healed.
I paid Php 50.00 for the bus ride up to Babao and Php 20.00 for the tricycle ride.
I'd like to use this blog to thank Grandma Tita for being my impromptu tour guide in Simala and for being gracious enough to allow me to tag along with them. She has a chorizo business at unit 1 in Ermita (carbon) market.
Four places in four days. I originally didn't plan to take a marathon tour of four places in the Philippines during the holy week break. However, the Cebu Promo rates were hard to resist.
So last week, I took a plane to Iloilo on Holy Thursday, rode a pumpboat to Guimaras on Good Friday, hopped on a fast ferry to Bacolod on Black Saturday and finally reached Silay via jeepney on Easter Sunday. That is a short summary of my adventure last week.
It seems like I was breezing through the whole experience. In reality, it wasn't really that simple. The summer heat was oppressive, which made walking the streets uncomfortable. I had to take paracetamol at one point to ease my headache. Still, I had one of the most satisfying and fulfilling travel experience.
Breakdown of my expenses is as follows:
Air fare (Cebu Iloilo) - Php 850
Air fare (Bacolod-Cebu) - Php 1,015
Pumpboat (Iloilo-Guimaras) - Php 15 x 2 = 30
Fast Ferry (Iloilo- Bacolod) - Php 250
Ong Bun Pension House (Iloilo) - Php 350
Small Wings Pension (Guimaras) - Php 300
LD Pension (Bacolod) - Php 550
Land transportation - Php 276
TOTAL Php 3,071 (excluding lunch, dinner and pasalubong)
