I stand towering over Fuente Osmeña (A sky experience adventure)

It is customary to celebrate birthdays by throwing lavish party for relatives, close friends, etc. My family doesn’t host birthday parties. We can’t afford to have one before and it somehow becomes a tradition for my family not to hold one even if we can already afford it; except when my father turned 60 and, probably, on the 60^th birth anniversary of my mother.

I also like it this way for at least I won’t force myself to save more for the occasion. My idea of a best birthday celebration is a dinner with my loved ones. And the best idea of all is to exclusively celebrate it with the person who means the world to you – may it be your husband, wife or fiancée.

Sometimes the usual dinner idea during birthday celebration doesn’t appeal much especially if you don’t see each other often and had frequently go to good restaurants when you had opportunities. So in this year’s birthday celebration of my fiancée, a year after I made that wedding proposal, we tried a different activity. What other activity could be distinct and adrenalin pumping than having it atop the tallest building in Cebu City?

We had her birthday celebration at Crown Regency Tower and Hotel at downtown Cebu. The place boasts for the first and only sky extreme adventure in the country. It housed the country’s first extreme skywalk fitted at the 37^th floor, 400-feet above the Jones Avenue. The extreme skywalk is believed to be the fourth in the world today, according to Randy our guide and who happens to be a friend of Kuya Rex. Kuya Rex, anyways, manages the Red Raft, which specializes in white water rafting in Cagayan de Oro City. This skywalk is the same as the skywalk found in Macao and other parts of the world.

We took the skywalk extreme first, walking in a platform suspended at the side of the building. Fashion accessories are prohibited and we were given the skywalk suit. Don’t worry about rubber shoes for they provide them also. You will first feel the thrill the moment you step on the platform, which is made of aluminum and glass panels, and will have the tendency to hold your safety harness. But as you walk around the edge of the building, you start to relax and feel comfortable. It was a good feeling sitting on the edge of the platform, which the two of our lady companions were afraid to do. I was glad that Iris was cool about the idea. The skywalk offers you ample time to appreciate the 360 degrees view of the city. It had a drizzle that afternoon. The rain soaked platform added more thrills and excitement to the experience.

Our second ride that day was on the world’s first edge coaster, suspended atop the skywalk platform. The edge coaster, a two-seater car, rotates around the building. The car can tilt up to 55 degrees over the edge of the building which gives you the view of the ground below as if you are thrown out of the building and is flying. The car tilts automatically to 55 degrees on its turn at the first corner, which surprised both of us. The operator didn’t tell us about it. Iris was asking me to pull down the lever, which control the tilting of the car, to its normal level. After that turn, you are given a free-hand in tilting the car, which I occasionally try to tilt to its limit and Iris letting go a big shout asking me to turn it down again as if she might fall to the ground. We finished the 5-minute cycle on the building with big smiles in our face. I didn’t enjoy much the ride, but I enjoyed seeing the reaction of my fiancée every time I tilted the car.

We end the day’s adventure with a buffet dinner at the Sky Bar and Restaurant located at the top floor of the building with a full view of Cebu’s skyline and Cebu’s harbor at night. We only spent a total of P1,700.00 for the two rides (skywalk and edge coaster), access pass and buffet dinner for two. We brought with us a digicam but its use was prohibited during the ride. They have their own photographer to take souvenir photos, however, be prepared to spend a minimum of P350.00 per printed photo. I suggest the you asked for digital copy saved on a CD, which cost us P1,100.00 for the pictures during the edge coaster ride and the skywalk. We may have spent P2,800.00 for that adventure but we won’t surely forget the experiences we had had especially that it was the birth anniversary of my fiancée.