Cebu! Cebu!

I've been to Cebu many, many times. I think this would be my tenth visit now. Yesterday I couldn't help but giggle with the welcome that the Mactan Shangri-la Resort & Spa staff gave me. They put this necklace on me -



Now, now it was a very nice gesture and the last time I experienced it was at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Bali last December when they hung a garland of kamachile on me (I thank them with a prompt ahoooo!)... but in Cebu? I never experienced it with Waterfront Hotel and Marriot Hotel. I only understood why they did it upon arrival at the resort. It's a resort!



I walked around a bit after exhausting my laptop's battery and enjoying the free wifi at the lobby. I would've dived in the swimming pool or gone to the beach, but I had to finish up with ework. I was craving for pasta so I headed over to Acqua and enjoyed the seafood marinara. Acqua is an Italian resto within the resort (also with free wifi!) and after that I proceeded to my room to do my reports. Took a nap and then my best friend fetched me to have dinner. We drove around for a bit and settled in at Amigo, a new grill place a stone's throw away from the resort. We were the only customers in the resto, so we enjoyed the full attention of the staff.

I woke up bright and early today for the 8 a.m. call time for the Cebu ICT. The "Marquee" where it's held here at the Mactan Shangri-la was quite a loooooong walk from my room. I definitely thought that I should've just worn jeans and sneakers to the event. But then again, Sasha wouldn't agree since she advised I should be wearing dresses to my speaking engagements.

I was definitely nervous - remember I have stage fright! And having bigwig CEOs, top government officials, foreign delegates in the audience didn't help any. I was part of the panel for the "Promoting Investment in Asia ICT/ITES", read up on it in my work blog. Anyway, here are some photos that TeamAsia took for me using my fool-proof idiot camera.



I still got a few days left here in Cebu and hoping to meet up with Cebu bloggers, SEOs and even open source people, or whoever! I moved the meet-up coz I'm kinda stuck here at the Mactan Shangri-la. Hope to meet Cebuanos on June 28, 6 p.m. Bo's Cafe, Ayala Center Cebu (the one near the yummy foodie area, I mean near the entrance where there's a Starbucks). (Oh! And for the bloggers - my friends are kinda looking for some to be a problogger, so you might wanna come so I can refer you guys to them).