No More 9 to 5: First week in the Philippines

It's been quite a culture shock after being in the smaller islands of the South Pacific. This city...Cebu City has close to 3 million people living here. The driving is terrifying but I haven't seen any accidents yet. There are a million scooters and nobody stays in their lane. They just roam around until someone honks to let them know they're behind them. They have to be reminded they aren't the only ones on the road I guess. We went shopping the other day at the biggest mall I've ever seen...next to the galleria. The water is so dirty I don't even want our boat in it. The anchorage for the yacht club is in the shipping channel so it's not very pretty. On a brighter note everything is super cheap here! Beer is about $1. A meal is about $4-$7 depending on how fancy you want to get. It's cheaper to eat out than to buy food and cook on the boat. Not to mention the heat when we cook geez it's soooo hot. The yacht club restaurant is nice but there isn't a nice bathroom to shower in or laundry service. Never take advantage of a clean shower and unlimited running water!! We checked into the country on Wednesday and then everything shut down Thursday thru Sunday for the long holiday weekend so today is the first real day we have been able to get answers on the boat work that we need done. The marine store doesn't keep any parts in stock so it would take about a month for us to get a new alternator from Australia. We could just have the boss bring it with him in that case. We have to speak to the sail maker to have some extra chafe guard on the Genoa. The boatyard that we were planning on going to for the carpentry isn't really taking new boats at the moment because the owner is in the states until the 22nd and he is the only one who can arrange the parts and labor...we just discovered there is another marina across the channel that might be able to help us out so we are going to make our way over there to see what they can offer.