The promo fare, though, is exclusive of government taxes and fees, and tickets must be booked from March 18-19, 2010.

At the same time, Cebu Pacific is offering airfares from Manila to Jakarta for as low as P2,499, also exclusive of government fees and taxes.

Travel time for the Indonesia seat sale is from June 1 to August 31, 2010.

To book the flights or learn more about the promo, visit www.cebupacificair.com.

Get to spend three days and two nights at Villa De Oro, Station 2, Boracay for only P2,500 per head, for a minimum of three persons per booking.

The promo also entitles you to free daily breakfast and airport-hotel-airport transfers. The free round-trip transfer is from Caticlan airport to the hotel and vice versa.

For inquiries or bookings, call 420-2528 or visit RC Travel Index, Fortune Square Building, corner AS Fortuna St. and MC Briones Highway, Mandaue City.

Ticket sale for Cebu to Pagadian is only until February 25 while travel time is from April 27 to July 31, 2010.

Manila to Pagadian, on the other hand, costs 988 pesos and travel starts on June 9, 2010.

Other domestic seats costing 588 pesos include those from Manila to either Tuguegarao and Laoag, and Cebu to the following areas: Butuan, Clark, Dipolog, Ozamis, and Siargao.

Ticket sale is only until February 25, 2010 while travel time is from April 1 to July 31.

Call Cebu Pacific’s hotlines — (02) 7020888 and (032) 2308888 — or visit www.cebupacificair.com for inquiries, reservation, and booking needs. (Press release)

Trips from Manila to eight Mindanao areas as well as return trips cost P1,777 one way per person.

Fares at P777 are for trips from Manila to Laoag, Legaspi, and Punta Princesa in Luzon and to Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo, Kalibo, Tagbilaran, Tacloban, Dumaguete, and Roxas in the Visayas. Return trips cost the same. The price is also P777 for trips between Cebu and Davao.

Flights from Manila to Davao, Cagayan, Cotabato, Dipolog, General Santos, Zamboanga, Ozamis, and Butuan in Mindanao are priced at P1,777 for one way and vice versa.

Plane tickets for the promo will be sold from November 19 to 25, 2009. The travel period, on the other hand, runs from December 1 to 25, 2009 and February 1 to March 15, 2010.

Seating for the promo is economy class and the price is already inclusive of VAT.

Interested customers may book and buy through www.philippineairlines.com using Visa or Mastercard credit cards, BancNet ATM cards, or at PAL ticket offices. Read about the terms and conditions of the PAL promo.

PAL’s extended range jet is the first of two Boeing 777-300ER aircraft that will form part of PAL’s fleet and will be used to service the airline’s international routes like Hong Kong, Tokyo, Syndney, and Melbourne.

Of course, the best way to watch this anticipated title fight dubbed by philboxing.com as the “most exciting…in 40 years” — if you don’t have the means to do it ringside — is through live telecast uninterrupted by advertisements.

Skycable offers an uninterrupted viewing of the “Firepower: Pacman vs. Cotto” through pay-per-view subscription.

If you want to watch it with other Pacquiao fanatics, the following establishments offer live showing of the bout:

• SM City Cebu
  Cinema 7, 8 a.m.
  P500 (premium and deluxe seats)
  231-3876
• Royal Krua Thai, 9 a.m.
  Banilad Town Centre
  P399 (with brunch buffet)
• Sports Exchange Bar and Grill, 8:30 a.m.
  3rd Floor, Mango Square
  P550 (buffet breakfast)
  Tickets available Friday and Saturday, 4 pm to 3 am
  412-6446
• Crown Regency Hotel and Towers
  Functions Halls (3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th levels), 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.Fuente Osmena
  P699 per person
  2 buffets (breakfast and lunch)
• Crown Regency Suites and Residences
  Sport and Convention Hall, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  Basak, Lapu-Lapu City
  P499 per person
  2 buffets (breakfast and lunch)
• Metrosports Center
  Badminton Court Area, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  Lahug, Cebu City
  P250 per person (inclusive of snack)
• CICC
  North Reclamation, Mandaue City
  Plenary Hall, P150
  Exhibition Hall, 100
  Gates open at 7 a.m. (tickets sold at gate only)
• Fisherman’s Net, 8 a.m.
  Lahug, Cebu City
  P175 per ticket
  Free pilsen, juice, coffee, and cookies
• Hola Espana
  Ayala Terraces and Banilad branches
  P590 per head (inclusive of Spanish lunch buffet)
  Tickets are now on sale
  Call 236-0643, 5050-801 for Terraces branch and 344-6493 and 344-6149 for Paseo Saturnino, Banilad branch
• Pino! Express Grill
  WC Commercial Complex, Minoza St., Talamban
  Pino! Filipino Restaurant
  Wilson Street, Lahug
  P590 per head (with lunch buffet)
• Gustavian Banilad
  Tap Room, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  P550 net per person (with buffet extravaganza that comes with bottomless iced tea)
  Call 344-7653 for reservations

Choose from any of the following establishments — Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Gloria Jeans, Seattle’s Best, and UCC Cafe Terrace at the first level and Bo’s Coffee, Pancake House, Postrio, and Starbucks at the 2nd level — that open at 7 a.m. daily.

Pancakes, waffles, Filipino breakfast choices, desserts, and coffee are served at the Pancake House at reasonable prices. A cup of cappucino is at less than a hundred pesos, and prices of pancakes and breakfast meals that include rice range from one to a few hundred pesos.

Pancakes at Pancake House come in big two-piece and three-piece servings and different flavors. The kind we chose had crushed bananas mixed in the pancake. It was delicious. The Spanish omelette also did not disappoint.

Aside from Pancake House and Postrio, the other establishments that open at 7 a.m. in The Terraces are coffee shops.

Gelatissimo’s two-scoop serving of gelato at 150 pesos is just about enough to satisfy my craving for this frozen Italian treat. The nearest comparison to gelato in popular dessert is ice cream, though the two couldn’t be more different.

Gelato is made from milk and sugar combined with flavorings and fruit, chocolate, spices, or nuts. It does not contain cream like ice cream, and could be more aptly described as ice milk.

Gelatissimo has two branches in Cebu: one in The Terraces, Ayala Center and another, a stall, in SM City. Both branches serve a scoop of gelato at 90 pesos, two scoops at 150 pesos, and three scoops at 180 pesos. The Gelatissimo in Ayala also serves sundaes, which combine gelato with whipped cream and other ingredients. An example is Gelatissimo’s “nuts about you” sundae, which has five scoops of gelato in the flavors of “pistachio, roasted almond, hazelnut, choc hazelnut, and chocolate layered with whipped cream, flaked almonds, chopped peanuts, hazelnuts, pistachios; drizzled with chocolate and hazelnut syrup; and crowned with Ferrero Rocher chocolate, fan water, Poco stick, and Maraschino cherry.” It’s priced at 475 pesos.

Other sundaes are Bellisima Banana (3 scoops of gelato, 280 pesos) ; Chocolatissimo (3 scoops, 300 pesos); Skrunchy (3 scoops, 320 pesos); and Death by Choc (5 scoops, 475 pesos).

Another brand serving gelato is Eliseo. There’s a shop that serves this brand at Parkmall in Mandaue City and the Elicon House cafe in Cebu City also sells it by the cup for 40 pesos and pint for 150 pesos. At Parklane in Cebu City, the Eliseo gelato is among the choices for dessert in the lunch buffet.

I have a bias for the Gelatissimo brand, though, and I’ve tried almost almost all flavors–there’s biscottino, tiramisu, Belgian chocolate, chocolate truffle, green apple, strawberry, pistachio, mango, bloody orange, raspberry.

Other facts about gelato taken from wisegeek.com:

* It melts faster than ice cream because of it’s semi-frozen consistency, and it is placed in freezers different from those that store American-style ice cream.

* Ingredients are combined and cooled and the resulting gelato contains little air so it is denser and tastier.

* Gelato made from water and soy milk is called sorbetto, and it originates from Southern Italy and Sicily. Northern Italy makes the famous dairy form of gelato.

With Gelatissimo in Cebu, I don’t think I’ll ever eat ice cream again.

My friend and I had trouble finishing our order of pork chops, which came with TGI’s original Jack Daniel sauce and served with either mashed potatoes or rice pilaf, and fish and chips.

The fish and chips surprised us because the “market fresh fish” that was battered and fried to golden brown did not come with chips but with fries.

We called one of the waiters over and asked why it was called fish and chips and he pointed to the fries as the chips part of the order.

The pork chops were good, though, and the serving was more enough than for the two of us. I love the corn cobs that came with the chops but I did not relish eating them not using my hands.

It was my first time at TGI’s. I had long wanted to try it out but the astronaut at the entrance had repelled me, in an illogical sort of way. But I see now that TGI Friday’s promote American culture in its choice of the white and red stripes and display of American icons.

When we had lunch there Thursday, they were playing music videos of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. We asked the restaurant staff to turn it down a little, though, because we were simply not hearing each other in the din. We wanted our lunch to be relaxing, but it probably served us right for doing it at 3 p.m.

My first TGI Friday’s experience did not disappoint but it was not exceptional, either. I don’t think I’ll go back unless it’s not me who’s picking the tab.

“Below zero” refers to Formo’s ice cold beer; its potato crisps come in either spicy or original flavor.

Formo also serves Mediterranean-inspired dishes.

Located at Banilad Town Centre, Formo pioneered the resto-lounge scene in Cebu. It is open daily for cocktails, dinner, and after hours from 6 p.m. onwards. It can also host private functions.

Formo’s sliding walls open wide to connect the resto-lounge’s indoor space with its lobby, where tables are also set up. The space is bigger and allows for more breathing space.

You can either take your drinks at any of Formo’s two bars or at tables for four to 10 if you come in as a large crowd.

Call (032) 420 7070 (office hours) or email FORMO.Cebu@gmail.com for inquiries. Visit www.formocebu.multiply.com for additional information.

Participants to the activity will be cleaning up White Beach in the Cebu town of Moalboal.

The scuba clean-up move is initiated by environmentalists in cooperation with the Moalboal Tourism Organization and Club Serena alongside other dive resorts in the town. Club Serena said it is estimated that over 600 pounds of garbage make their way to Philippine waters and it is in the public’s best interest to help clean the country’s seas.

For the event, Club Serena is offering a two-night accommodation package costing P2,500 per person. Included in the package are free buffet meals, 2 free dives (divers must still bring or rent scuba gears), and souvenirs. Additional dive will cost P300 per person.

Schedule for the two-day event is as follows:

July 27: Dinner briefing for divers and guests
July 28: Beach clean-up event in White Beach

Prizes will be awarded to groups that bring in the most garbage. The clean-up will end in a party that will have Aiza Seguerra as special guest.

For more information about the activity, email aquaholics@instructor.net or call 0917-7173333, (032) 5161847, or (032) 4740050.

Check out the resort at www.clubserenaresort.com or www.clubserenaresort.multiply.com.