Out and about in Cebu

Most Koreans will tell you that their favourite seasons, spring and autumn, are becoming noticeably shorter each year, so that the switch from hot, humid summer to cold, dry winter now occurs  too quickly to properly enjoy the trees as they gradually change the colour of the mountains across the peninsular. 

Nami Island, the perfect place to enjoy autumn, or at least your own small piece of it

And for most people the change back from bitterly cold (-17'C) winter to summer can't come quickly enough. In this case $300 buys you a 4hr direct flight to Cebu where you can warm up early.  Cebu is pretty much slap-bang in the middle of the Philippines, sitting comfortably within the tropics.

View of Cebu City from the Cebu Taoist Temple

Of course the cost of visiting Cebu has often been dearer; indeed the first Europeans paid tragically with their lives; case in point, one Portugese Snr Ferdinand Magellan. For his time Snr Magellan was a pretty savvy navigator; born in 1480, by age 33 he had already spent 8 years learning how to subdue locals in Portugese India. By late 1519 Magellan secured finances from the Spanish King Charles I and was preparing to boldly go where no European had gone before; searching for the calm strait of water between the Atlantic and the Pacific which now bears his name. How Magellan knew about the strait and who originally charted it remains a matter of much speculation.

Charles I of Spain and
also Charles V of the
Holy Roman Empire;
"I speak Spanish to God,
Italian to Women,
French to Men and
German to my horse".

By early 1521, Magellan reached Cebu with only 2 of his 5 ships and only 150 of his 270 crew. There he befriended a cunning chieftain Humabon who converted to Christianity in return for Magellan's agreement to 'convert' a local rival; chief Lapu-Lapu. Rarely has a man's pulse risen so quickly as Magellan confidently strode up the beach smiling with 48 soldiers, then promptly ran back screaming in abject terror from the murderous onslaught of Lapu-Lapu's 1,500 unhappy warriors. Magellan's death by multiple bamboo spears and lances was neither quick nor merciful, proving that bad things happen to good people, clever people make stupid mistakes and lucky people get unlucky. Today you can overlook the sorry site of the Mactan Shrine and the Lapu-Lapu monument from the luxury terraces of the Shangrila hotel, pondering the folly of it all while casually chasing an olive or two around your vodka martini.  

April 1521: death is a beach;
locals speared the unprotected legs of the visitors to prevent retreat to their ships

Europeans would not return until 1565 when Spain's Snr Legaspi attempted to convert the locals once more. In a classic example of 'shoot first, ask questions later', Legaspi first opened fire on the city with muskets and and then burned 1,500 houses to the ground, killing perhaps 500 in the process. Only afterwards, in the ashes of the houses, the soldiers found a wooden statue of the child Jesus given by Magellan to Humabon, showing that the locals now prematurely interviewing with St Peter had in fact maintained and spread their Christian faith among population for 44 years without any outside coercion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santo_Ni%C3%B1o_de_Ceb%C3%BA

A statue of Legaspi stands outside Fort San Pedro,
quite possibly the world's only example of a military fort re-purposed as a botanical garden

The hanging gardens of Fort San Pedro;
perfect for photoshoots or snuggling on bench, under a tree with that special someone

Much as Korea is a convenient starting point to explore Asia, Cebu is the perfect place to start exploring the Philippines. Across the Cebu Strait from Magellan's miserable death at Mactan is the island of Bohol, location of the world-renown 'Chocolate Hills', so called due to the dusky brown colour of the vegetation at certain times of the year.

The small but perfectly rounded 'Chocolate Hills of Bohol'

A trip to the Chocolate Hills invariably includes a stop at a nature reserve to see the world's smallest (av. 12cm/120g) primate, the painfully shy Philippine Tarsier in its natural surroundings. The female is known for its multiple sets of breasts, which may or may not explain why the male has the largest eye-to-body size ratio of all known mammals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_tarsier

From infeasibly small primates to the world's largest fish; down the coast a little from Cebu is the improbably named Oslob where visitors can swim alongside whale sharks, ie; sharks which filter-feed in the same way as whales. 

Each day a group of approx. 8 whale sharks appear voluntarily in the shallows at Oslob hoping to find food. The locals paddle out in traditional small boats to meet the whale sharks, feeding them while tourists snorkel and take photos.  Admittedly there is some controversy about the impact of taming wild animals in this way, but this is probably the best chance to swim with animals 12m-15m in length and 15 tonnes weight in their (almost) natural habitat.

Slow and graceful; whale sharks reach up to 15m long, 15t in weight

An extended family of 8 is normally present each day

The suction of water into the mouth is powerful; a safe distance of 4m is advised

http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/whale-shark-oslob/index.html

All in all a short break in Cebu provides the perfect remedy for the worst of the winter blues in Korea, leaving you warm, relaxed and energised for the start of spring.