Our recent trip to Mactan, Cebu was our first to fly outside the Negros province since the pandemic. It’s no ordinary trip, as this was my biggest Christmas treat for myself and my sister — watching K-pop superstars EXO Xiumin & Chen, TVXQ U-Know Yunho and Max Changmin and BoA!
All five of them are known legends that are under one of Korea’s entertainment giant, SM Entertainment. Xiumin is my ultimate bias, which is, in K-pop terminology, refers to the favorite artist or member from all the groups that one takes interest in or listen to. When word got out that he would be part of the line-up and that they would perform both in Cebu and Manila, I didn’t hesitate to arrange for our flight and accommodation in Cebu despite not yet securing our concert tickets.
As the concert was taking place in Mactan Newtown, we decided to choose our hotel within the area, so we opted to book our stay at Savoy Hotel Mactan Newtown. We arrived Wednesday night and spent three nights and three days in Mactan. We worked our itinerary within the island, except for a time when we had to meet a friend in Cebu City.
The first night at Mactan Newtown
Mactan has shown a lot of progress since the last time I was in this place. The airport has become bigger now that there’s a new terminal. Traffic jams were also everywhere, although it’s mostly because of the road repair being done near the airport and most of Mactan’s roads were narrower than those in Mandaue and Cebu City at the other side of the bridge.
It took us around 45 minutes to get to our hotel, which could probably be reached within 20 minutes without traffic. After we checked in, we decided to walk around Mactan Newtown to eat dinner. Unfortunately, most restaurants were already about to close as some of them closes at 9:00 pm and some at 10:00 pm. We decided to eat at the Mactan Alfresco, which was like a food court with several food stalls in the center. But we were told by the guard that they were already closing and directed us to Kusina ni Master just right at the entrance of Mactan Newtown, which served food for 24 hours.
After a hefty meal, we strolled and took photos of the fountain and other attractions in the township. At that time, some fans were still at the airport waiting for the artists to arrive from South Korea, but we opted to forego of this opportunity as we were so tired and it was still a long day ahead of us in the morrow.
A rainy concert night
It was D-Day of the concert and I was fortunate that it was a holiday, so I was able to take the whole day off from work. But my sister still had to work and had several meetings and calls to attend, so she stayed for the whole day in our hotel room.
I had a humble breakfast at the hotel café to start my day. When I had my fill, I went to a nearby convenience store to buy me and my sister our lunch (which we didn’t eat because we didn’t had the appetite). I made a brief stop at the hotel’s third floor where their gym and pool were located to check them out and take some snapshots.
It was free seating so I was afraid that a lot of concert goers would be lining up early at the entrance to secure their spots in the concert venue.
Aside from that, I had to meet a Twitter user, Mimi, who was giving away some prizes for concert goers in Cebu. Good thing that she and her friends were also staying in the same hotel as ours so we met up at the hotel lobby before noontime.
At the same time, I also scheduled a meet up with the hotel’s PR and Marketing Manager. We chatted for a bit, but because it was a busy day, we eventually departed as we’ll have other chances to meet and talk again.
Feeling uneasy, I eventually went to the concert grounds. There were already people there but not too crowded that we’d lose some seats. Changmin was doing some sound check so I stayed a bit. But as there was still no queue, I decided to go back to the hotel where I could sit comfortably while waiting for time to pass by.
Mimi and her friends were at the hotel lobby as they also needed to meet other fans. I sat with them and chatted a bit. But as they had to make a lot of preparations for the concert later, they went to their room to freshen up and get their things to bring to the concert. I was left with one other fan that Mimi met up at the lobby and I didn’t want to leave her alone so we chatted, exchanging stories on K-pop, Korean variety shows and other common interests we had.
As it was already an hour after noon and gates would open in two hours’ time, we decided to head to the entrance of the concert venue and camp there. Eventually, we were asked to form lines and we were lucky enough to be at the front of one of the lines. Everyone was excited but the skies were getting darker. My sister followed me to the line after she finished her work.
When the gates opened, we were able to choose good seats at the very front of our tier and just at the edge of the stage ramp. Night has fallen and the show began. But it also started to drizzle so it was difficult as a lot of people in front began to open their umbrellas, thus, blocking our view of the stage.
The first set was more on the videos that the organizer has put together and local acts, especially by the Asia’s Queen of Songs, Ms. Pilita Corrales. She was followed by the multi-talented actor, Ian Veneracion. But as the first set was done, we were at the edge of our seats as the drizzle became a bit stronger and the Korean artists would be appearing on stage anytime soon.
As soon as I heard the intro, my heart and my whole body jumped because it was Xiumin’s “Brand New” stage. I don’t know how it happened but I seemed to have flown from my seat to the barricade at the edge of the stage. Next thing I knew I had a good view of the artists who walked down towards that part of the stage. Chen himself sang most of his song “Shall We” in front of me. BoA also did the same. Only TVXQ stayed at the main stage, which has a covered area, because their songs had choreographies. Xiumin walked towards us during his ment — a portion in K-pop concerts where artists give their speeches or talk to the audience, but it was very brief.
The night finished with a fireworks display while the rain continued. It only stopped briefly during the last two songs of Xiumin and then came back when Chen came out on stage. The concert ended with us drenched. Good thing the hotel was just a block away so we were able to shower fast before we could catch a cold.
Friday night at Cebu City
I woke up the next day in cloud nine as I was still reeling over my experience of the concert. But I had to report back to work. My only consolation was that it was already a Friday and the weekend was waving at us. I was just worried because I had a Zoom meeting and things might go wrong while I’m in the middle of it. But the hotel’s wi-fi was stable and my sister was also working in her corner in the hotel room, while I stayed at the other end of the room.
We ordered lunch — rice bowls, to be exact — but they were just so huge that we only finished half of each. We spent the early afternoon wrapping up our work and then preparing to go to Cebu City. Aware of the heavy traffic that we would be traversing on a Friday night, we called for a Grab taxi a lot earlier than our intended meet-up time. Still, our friend arrived ahead of us because the traffic jams were so bad.
At least, I was able to see alternative routes and realized how near we were at the Mactan shrine, which was at the top of our list to visit for the day after. We arrived at the Ayala Center tired from the journey. I felt dizzy being stuck in traffic, which was a new thing to me after so many years of working from home. It was an everything to me when I was living in Metro Manila, but after moving back to the province, I became more accustomed to the laidback pace of life.
Another friend who was also in Cebu for a business trip joined us for dinner and since all four of us knew each other since our elementary days, we had plenty of things to talk about. Our friend who’s based in Cebu was going to migrate to Canada in a few weeks so we were fortunate to have spent time with her during our brief stay in Cebu.
A day around Mactan
Finally, Saturday has come. It was our last day in Mactan, but it’s also the weekend so we spent it going around the island. First, we visited the Mactan shrine that housed Lapulapu’s statue. Since it was located just next to Mactan Newtown, we walked towards this historical landmark. The last time we were here was when we were still kids and then I went back during our high school field trip. I had passed by the landmark a few times I had business trips in Cebu but was not able to take photos of the area.
A photo with Lapulapu’s statue was a must this time because it was a running joke in our family when one of our aunts told us that we were descendants of Lapulapu, recognized as the first Filipino hero. Our maternal grandmother had her roots in Lapulapu City and we still have relatives living in the area.
We were surprised that there was no entrance fee to the shrine. There were staff ushering the visitors there but they didn’t collect any fees from us. There were already groups there, so we took our time taking photos of the different monuments there, including the obelisk built in 1866 dedicated to Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan.
The sun was up and it was getting hotter since it was nearly noon. There were no cabs or Grab vehicles to book, so we took the jeepney to Marina Mall. We wanted to try Rico’s Lechon, which is popular for its roasted pigs. The staff at the Mactan Shrine gave us some instructions how to get there. From Marina Mall, we walked a bit to the Lapulapu Airport Road.
After taking a sumptuous lunch of spicy Cebu lechon and carrying a small box to bring home, we made another stop at Tita Belen’s Empanada to add to our pasalubongs. We brought all these food back to our hotel to pick up our luggage. We then made our way to the airport to catch our flight. It was a smart move to be at the airport early because the queues were quite long, especially that the Cebu-Mactan International Airport is also a major hub in the Philippines.
It was a brief stay in Cebu and we weren’t able to explore much, but we had a wonderful time watching the concert, something that we couldn’t experience much often. You see, it was the first time for TVXQ and BoA to perform in the Philippines. EXO, as a group, held their last concert in the country in 2019, minus Xiumin, who was then in the military at that time. But, this year’s concert was perfect timing because Xiumin and Chen both released their solo albums in September and October, respectively, so we were the first outside of their country to watch the solo stages of their new songs.