After Typhoon Paeng and the low-key dramas that came from getting stranded at Camotes Island, the winds and the emotions had calmed down. My mother and I were friends again and two days before our flight back to Melbourne, my sister shouted us all an overnight stay at Shangri-La Mactan.

I had lived in Cebu pretty much all my life and it was always like, ooh… Shangri-La…

You know what I mean?

Like, it was fancy as and I wasn’t really there yet.

It still is. And I’m still not.

So it was actually quite exciting to go and personally experience what the fuss was about that I held in my head. All my preconceived notions of “living it up.” And to be honest, there’s really not much difference than going to other resorts. Don’t get me wrong, the service and amenities were great but it wasn’t really that big of a wow factor as I expected it to be.

It was like, “oh nice” and then you move on and that’s that.

For all its highly manicured lawns and white sand apparently transported and transplanted from Bohol, it didn’t feel quite as nature-y as I thought it would.

I swear I’m not whingeing.

Because despite and in spite of my expectations, I still had a wonderful time. Mainly because Raven had a wonderful time.

Also because it was free. =)

*Raven at 6 years old