Unplanned Escapades: Finding Joy in Cebu's Hidden Gems

I miss the time when I used to care about nothing but enjoying myself with my friends. ⋆˙⟡

The past few weeks have been too stressful and hectic, and as a result, I haven't found enough time to enjoy myself with some outings with my close friends. One day we thought we could have gone on dates and enjoyed activities to bring the fun and spark back in our friendship. That's exactly what happened. ✮⋆˙

We decided to go to Country Mall in Cebu City, where we chanced upon a wonderful restaurant to dine in, have some fun, and mingle, the "Taiphoon RestoBar." We did not intend to go there because we were having a hard time searching for a venue that would satisfy our needs. We first considered going to a café, but it would be too expensive and would not fill our stomachs. Then we felt like going to a place that could easily fill our hungry stomachs and Taiphoon RestoBar was our best bet.

The place was really nice and cozy because of its interior. Their tables, chairs, and counter were dark wood, and the lighting was warm and a bit dim, just the perfect place to drink and catch up with friends. The ambiance was mature but not too plain, not too overwhelming at all.

Their menu also had plenty of choices, including American and Asian dishes, which was good because Country Mall is a favorite among foreigners. We shared Original Poppers and Gi Pai (which was like Tonkatsu) and rice for the three of us. For drinks, we each had something different, I had Rose Lychee, while my friends had Lemon Lychee and a drink with Yakult.

The drinks came first, and I really enjoyed mine, it tasted just like the pink Mogu-Mogu drink! I tried my friends drinks as well. The Lemon Lychee didn't taste so flavorful to me, but their Yakult drink was too Yakulty for me to identify the flavor.

The food was really great! The sauce was terrific too, I gave it 8 out of 10, and I'd rate the dish we ordered the same.

The only downer was that their photobooth was out of commission, they were using it as a storage area. We picked this place partly because of the photo booth and their great menu, so we were disappointed. Still, I took some pictures of their photobooth area because it was really pretty and cute for me. Then, we decided to proceed to Haru Studio in IT Park to get our pictures taken and create some memories together.

Before we went to IT Park, we went to the second floor of Gaisano Country Mall. That was when I saw nice and comfy clothes, there were just so many cute and pretty clothes that I wanted to buy! Unfortunately, I did not have enough money, so I only bought two things. While looking at the clothes, we found some funny-looking mannequins. We laughed so hard that it was hard to keep our voices down in such a busy place!

After having fun in Gaisano Country Mall, we went to Haru Studio for taking memories together. (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

Haru Studio was quite nice and pretty for me! I've seen the place a lot from my friends stories on Instagram, so I wanted to visit the place for so long now. And now I've got to visit it, and I am not disappointed at all. They even had a snack bar within, but most of the people visited there to take photos. The studio had five rooms of different colors and different camera equipment.

We started in the grey room, and the camera was above us. This led us to the point where we needed to gaze upwards for our photographs. What we got as the outcome of our photo session was cool as well as adorable and messy but funny! Next, we shifted to another place. But when we did it, we also made a very small error, we found it difficult to fit all of us in the frame of the camera, so we stood very closely. In spite of this, the images still turned out good and cute.

When I look at our pictures, it reminds me that the best times end up happening on unplanned outings with friends. It may be sudden, but being together makes it fun because we would always find ways to laugh and bring our true selves. ✨𖹭