Cebu is a big crowded city but it is better than Manila. We are staying in uptown. There are still annoying viagra sellers on the streets but not as many as in Manila. It is humid and polluted. We are close to the hospital. This ended up being quite a good thing because both Kelleen and I got sick with something that seemed to have the same symptoms as swine flu but turned out to be bacterial. I was very impressed by the service and facility of the Chong Hua Hospital.

In the afternoon of our first day (before I got sick) Rowshan and I went downtown and visited Magellan's cross which is enclosed in another cross housed in a stone gazebo with paintings of Magellan and company planting the cross. We visited the Fort which was the oldest and smallest in the Philippines. It was a pleasant stone walled enclosure and building with gardens, green grassy areas and trees. There was a small museum with pottery shards and an exhibiton underwater archaeology with artifacts from a ship, the San Diego.

We also visited the cathedral. I guess it had been restored recently but it looked more like a new version of a Spanish building. A mass was in progress and the choir was singing a hymn. It was in Latin but the harmony was reminiscent of Hawaiian music.

We ended up staying longer in Cebu City than expected because Kelleen and I had to recover from our illness. While Kelleen and I were sick, Rowshan took a trip to the Taoist Temple. It occupied a spot in the hills and had a great view of the city and the surrounding mountains.