A VERY Emotional Day in Cebu, Philippines

Good morning. After a beautiful day exploring waterfalls on last episode with John and Rod, today I'm in Cebu and I'm just going to explore the city as much as I can and check out Magellan's cross and also the public market. And then I have a personal item to do. Um, I'll save that for later, but then I want to eat lechon. Everyone in the Instagram comments has told me you got to eat lechon when you're in Cebu. So that's on the agenda today. Let's get the day started. I didn't have a chance to explore Cebu much before the Sinalog festivities got underway. So before I leave for Iloilo tomorrow, there's a few things I want to see and do in the city. All right. Quick banana snack on the way down to Magellan's cross. Oh man. Deep fried bananas with sugar on the outside. Delicious. This way. I just walked down to downtown Cebu and I'm at Magellan's cross right now. Said to be the first place where Magellan came in and he gave a gift, which was the cross and also the child Jesus, which Sinalog is all about. But I'm here now. This is the resting place. Let's go check it out. The original cross is said to be encased inside this standing wood cross and it's where the King and Queen of Cebu and some 800 of their subjects were baptized. All right. So entry place, beautiful painting, a little bit sad to be honest. You start to think about some of these explorers and what they came to and they arrived and they changed a culture forever. Um, yeah. Interesting to think about. All right, let's continue. Next up is Cebu city's central park Plaza Independencia and the city's most significant fortress. I just got down to Fort San Pedro. It's just a short walk from Magellan's cross. Only 60 cents to get in. Relatively it's a bit smaller than the one in Manila, but still a beautiful little fort as you can see right along the water. And also the cool thing about this spot is that there's sports going on all around. You got volleyball down there. You got kids playing football over there. You got basketball happening just on the other side. It's a happening little park right here in Metro Cebu. How I want to try to find the market. Let's go. Here is the market. Just made it to the market. Looks like it's going to rain. Perfect time to go inside here. Check out what they got. It's like a very local market. Tabuan market is famous for its abundance of dried fish. In particular, the local favorite tanger. However, there are a ton of different options if you're not fully versed in Filipino cuisine. Try mango and all the fish. There's mango. Does it taste like fish? Or does it taste like mango? Here in Cebu. And it looks like the main players are dried fish, chorizo. There's a little bit of vegetables, a little bit of candy and some fish, some fresh fish. But I went with some dried mangoes and a little bag of rice. I'm just hoping they don't smell like dried fish because everywhere in here, as you can see, it's very hot. Smells like dried fish. Can't stay for too long, but it is a very local market. I don't see anybody else in here, not from this neighborhood alone. They're just slicing and dicing things up. It is so cool. All right, let's get out of here. All right, I've left the market and now I am in Fuente Osmeña Circle. As you can tell, the sun is shining now. That's the weather here in the Philippines. It was raining when I was inside the market and now it looks like it's, it's trying to poke through. But just a quick note on that market. I have never felt so, I don't want to say uncomfortable, but out of place. It was definitely a local neighborhood market. And when I walked in, everybody just kind of the record stopped and everyone stopped to look at me. So it was very interesting. A lot of dried fish, as I said. But yeah, I felt very out of place there, but still a very cool experience. And those are the kinds of things that I love the most. But now I'm over here in Fuente Osmeña Circle. As you can see, everybody's breaking down, Sinalog stuff, traffic is going. My goal this afternoon is something personal. So back in World War II, my grandfather was actually stationed here. He came through the Philippines on his way to Okinawa, to Japan. And he said this area in the Philippines was, was his favorite part of the trip. I mean the war. So how good can it really be? But he said this was a highlight for him for sure. And he spent time in Cebu and there's actually two photos that he took here. I'll show you those right now. So my goal is to find those locations and I'm over here at Osmeña or Fuente Osmeña Circle because I was told that this general area may be where they were taken. So I'm going to go over here at one. You can see it looks like the Capitol building and I'm told that right down this street is where that was taken. So I'm going to walk this way, try to find out a little personal mission here this afternoon. Just to think that my grandfather was in the same city in 1945 is pretty crazy to think. So let's go over there. I think I found it. I believe that this is the exact location where that first photo was taken. At the end of this street is the Capitol or Capitol building. You see the giant dome. That's the exact same in the photo. This long street here, which obviously has changed so much. Jeepneys have replaced the horse-drawn carriages in the photo that you saw. But yeah, this is, this is wild. I don't know how to think about this. This is really, really cool. Um, yeah, this is awesome. All right. I'm going to try to go up to the Capitol building now and try to get that second photo. I think from what I was told that maybe it was the gardens inside of the Capitol building where the photo of my grandpa actually was. So I'm going to go up there and see if I can get in. I don't even know what the requirements are, if it's even allowed, but I'm going to try to go up there and see if I can find the photo. Let's go. First, I have to get into the building. I just wondering if it's possible to speak with someone about coming in and taking a photo of the gardens. Can I speak with someone about that? Okay. Thank you. Then I need to get permission to speak with someone. I'm just looking, hoping to take a photo in the gardens. This is my grandfather. Okay. Thank you. Next it's up to the admin office. You gotta go to the admin office. Hello. Good morning. Would it be possible to, I don't know exactly which garden, if you guys know about us and the admin office takes me to the marketing department and then to the historian's office. From there I can meet with the boss. It's this photo I want to recreate. This is the only one. This is my grandfather. He was here. Yes. He was in the Navy. Luckily she's intrigued by my mission and even offers up help. All right. Now I have a whole team helping me find out where this location is. Look at these statues are not here in the other photo. So that means this guy came in later, hopefully. And the historian says, yes. All right. It doesn't look exactly the same. The statue is new, but I am told the historian team told me that this is in fact, the location you can tell by the windows, you can tell by the runway here. Some of the bushes are different. The trees are different, but this is in fact the location. My grandfather stood in 1945 and took that photo at first. I just thought I'd come here and it'd be funny and cool to see a photo next to my grandfather, like those before and after ones. But, um, there's a little bit more emotion to it than I had, than I had originally anticipated it. I I'm sure I'll find better words for it later, but to be standing in the footsteps of someone who you respect and love very much. Um, and during a time where it was very, very difficult in world war two, I, I just, there's a lot of emotion and it's exciting and it's awesome. And I feel, I feel amazing that I get a chance. I wouldn't say humble. That's not the right word. It just, I feel honored. I feel, I, I don't know. I don't know what to feel right now. There's a lot of different emotions. I just feel good. I feel happy. I feel excited that I've had the opportunity to do this. And yeah, this is what makes travel so special. This is what makes this life so special. All right. I got to process all these emotions. I'm going to go home now, get showered, get cleaned up and I'll think about it all over a big plate of Lechon. House of Lechon. That's what I want. That way. Oh yeah. All right. It's been a long day and I finally made it. House of Lechon. I'm ready for some serious pig. Let's get in there. Where's the Lechon? So I went all out here at the House of Lechon. They have the traditional Lechon with a nice, it looks like a vinegar sauce there. Then I got the spicy Lechon here and then some just mixed vegetables with oyster sauce and a little bit of rice. And also a massive amount of iced tea. This stuff is really delicious. So let's jump in here. First, I'm going to try some traditional. They got the skin on top. This is everything I will do here. Crispiness of the skin here, the sweetness of the sauce. Oh, the pork is cooked perfectly. All of you on Instagram that said, come here, try the Lechon when you're in Cebu. Thank you. Thank you very much. See you guys next week. If you liked the video, give it a thumbs up. And he also brought this giant cross and this guy is just getting right in the middle of what I was trying to do. Very close. All right. Just made it inside the Ayala mall. And one of the major reasons is because it's guaranteed air conditioning and I can feel it. It was only a 20 minute walk over here, but I am already sweating and that has been the staple since I arrived. All right. So good news, bad news. The good news is I don't know yet. The bad news is I got it not even in the right place. I got to go to the Sony service center on Jones Avenue to see if they can fix my Sony a seven camera. We'll see you hoping for the best, but I'm going to explore the mall a little bit more. Then we'll move on. Hot dog stand at this store. Steph Curry. It's crazy. Even in the Auntie Annie's scallop pizza. Now with more scallops. No thanks. All right. So I just left the Sony center. It turns out they can't do anything for me there. They have to ship it to Manila. It's kind of a pain, a bit of a run around, but enough of that. Let's go explore Cebu. YouTube, YouTube, YouTube.