seeing places..

Journey starts with a destination in mind. Today, that destination is Davao City. Prepare to be dazzled. This is the documentary of my Mindanao trip. :D

Trouble arise when you least expect it. True enough, I almost wasn’t able to catch the plane. A Cebu Pacific agent notified us (a day before the flight) that we can re-sked our departure from 11:35am to 8:35; however when it was our turn for the baggage check-in, accdg. to the lady my ticket had not been updated. (panic, panic) Thank God, everything was settled just in time for boarding. Our itinerary was not shattered and I don’t want to start my trip with a headache either.

If you guys haven’t tried flying Cebu Pacific yet, well, flight attendants are conducting a game on board. It’s either name the tune or bring me. Hehe! E dahil aktibo kaming mga bata.. sineryoso namin ung game and dada! We won! Prize was lunch bag. We first had winnings on these games when we we’re off to Cebu last 2004 (ata). The prize that time was a little bag, enough for the standard size of digital cameras. My sister and I won on our flight going to Cebu and we won again on our flight back to Manila. Therefore we had four! :D

After approximately 1hr and 30mins we landed at Davao City International Airport. (Excitement ever) Ang ganda ng airport nila! We were welcomed by kuya Jenner and kuya Benj of Globe!

Day 1: Davao City Tour

We had our lunch first. Jen brought us to Karlyn’s who serves steak as their specialty. On my mind I was picturing a restau in formal dining or some sort. I was wrong. Karlyn’s is more like a canteen-type at the garage (yep, garage) of the owner/chef and not even air-conditioned. B-U-T you’ll be amazed as how many people are trying to fit in the place and there were still some standing outside. The place is not even in downtown Davao, but on a suburb residential area. We waited for around 20 mins and the moment I tasted the steak, wow I realized the prize of patience and understood why the number of people is like that. Their steak is soo good!!! I guess it was a proof that a word of mouth is more effective than huge billboards and expensive advertisement.

First stop, Davao Crocodile Farm. (Why is that almost every place have this kind of attraction? Are crocodiles that abundant?) Either way, we had two reasons for visiting this place, see the crocs and make inquiries for the whitewater rafting. (This is where the rafting headquarter is based.) Actually we’re having second thoughts of doing this, coz it will eat 1 day from our time. Conversely, we still jumped at the idea after watching video clips from previous rafting escapades. Its scary-slash-hilarious watching those people have their raft capsized. And in taking a while rescuing them before finally becoming complete on the raft. Exciting, huh?

Next, the Philippine Eagle Nature Center. This place provides shelter and a breeding program for Philippine eagles. I honestly did not know that there are lots of ‘types’ of Phil. Eagle until now. I also saw two eagles that were featured on news couple of years ago, si Kapayapaan and si Pag-asa. They say when you go to Davao, you shouldn’t miss this place. Aside from the durian, Davao is also famous for its eagles.

My head is starting to twinge this time. Uhh-ohh (Travel Tip1: always bring meds when you’re on the road. Don’t let the pain ruin your day.)

Malagos Garden Resort. This place is a combination of park, playground, zoo, hotel, plantation and restaurant. All you need, actually. It’s funny when I panicked and ran as fast as I could when we saw frogs on the grass. I hate frogs. Anyhow, Malagos is a big place, so big that they gave us a map to be able to traverse the entire spots. There are lots of pine trees that make it look like little Baguio for a few seconds. Lol.

On our way back to the city, we came across a farm that sells milk products. Milk with flavors like durian (what else do you expect), strawberry and melon among others. They also have candy products and ice creams. FTR: I don’t drink any kind of milk (fresh or powder). Nonetheless, since my sister bought strawberry flavored milk, I tried it (mainly because of curiosity). I was surprised myself, that I actually liked it. It was really good! It tastes like Starbuck’s strawberry frappe (swear). Had it can be outside the fridge for more than 3 hours, we will buy as many as we can and bring it back to manila. Regrettably, it cannot. (sad, sad)

Dinner Time. They brought us to Iron Horse. People, this place is so cheap (not on its look though, on its prices) Can you believe you can have a full blast buffet meal at P79? Yep that’s right: P79. Think of any sea shells you can think of (mussels, sikad-sikad etc), its there. Pork and chicken bbq cooked in front of you. Then there’s fried chicken and other chicken specialties, pork meals at madami pa. As for the dessert, fruits (lots of fruits), native delicacies like kutsinta etc. I then realize how expensive life in the city can become. Here in Manila, you can never find a buffet package lower than P230, or not that I know of. Ohh, and then we saw another sign, with “P50 – Pulutan all you can” San ka pa?

After dinner, it’s time for Jack’s Ridge. If you’ve been to Tops of Cebu, well Jack’s Ridge is almost the same. Except that, this is more developed in terms of amenities. This is like Eastwood (plus the pool and hotel) overlooking the whole view of Davao City. Wow db?

Before ending the day, we toured around Davao City. I was amazed by what I saw. There are a lot of recreation and commercial places around Davao. Very progressive and city-like (not resembling Manila though), yet the cost of living is maintained at the province/minimal degree.

Day 2: Whitewater Rafting!! (yay!)

I woke up super excited. Finally, this is it..wohoo! Our bustle started at 8:30am. Starting point of rafting will be 1hr land travel from the headquarters. Upon arrival at the place, there’s the briefing, what to do’s, proper position, how our guide would give commands and all the rest. Hmm, if you’re planning to do this, be sure to put sun block lotion on, as you will be under the sun for 4-5 hours. Water level during that time is higher than the average. You can tell this by the color of the river, it’s obviously brown. So we will be expecting a more exciting and a greater possibility of capsizing ride on this 13km river, accdg. to our guide. :D

Before we start the rafting proper, a drilling must be performed in case any of us fell from the boat. And in that drill, I will act as the one that was plunged and my sister will save me. The correct thing to do, if we fell with our paddles, is to reach out the paddle to the saver then he/she will pull you back to the boat. However, after my sister took hold of my paddle, I, by chance let it go. Thus before we start, we were really laughing as hard as ever on our stomach. Funnier thing is, Jen and our guide are the ones that fell on the raft during the ride while my sister and I did not.

I later grasp though that it’ll be more fun if we fell also, or if we had our boat capsized. It would be extra memorable for sure. Saya sobra! Btw, the cost for this is 1.5K, inclusive of lunch and a shirt souvenir. Sulit naman, promise! (Travel tip2: When you go places, do activities famous in that place (rafting, sky diving etc). It would certainly add bunch of laughers to the fun.)

Ugh. Our second night is spent on the road - Traveling to Cagayan De Oro. We have to maximize our time, y’know? Can you just imagine how tired we are? O_o

Day 3: Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City

Not to mention the CDO city tour (Travel tip3: don't forget to visit the church, aside from 3wishes that can be granted to you - this is also for guidance on your entire day), third day is spent purely for adventure (thanks Fred).

Caving - Okay I am a self-confessed claustrophobic. It’s not new when I let myself panicked in the middle of the cave or somewhere that’s relatively dark. At least I can be proud that I was able to go to the other leg of the cave. This other end will lead you to the opening overlooking a river. The same river, had we had the rafting in CDO. And I think it’s good enough that we decided to do it in Davao, it seems to me that the river here is more ‘terrifying’ in terms of how big the rapids are. The other side of this cave though, is a 25m long, that requires a lot of crawling and edging. And oh gosh, I tried to do it I swear. But the moment I can’t see any light from outside, I backed off. Thanks to the super flashlight of our guide. It doesn’t help, actually.

Not far from the cave, is the Macahambus Adventure Park. Here, we went skybridging (navigate the hanging bridge), rappelling and the most exciting: zip lining. There are 3 hanging bridges in all. These bridges are all connected on a big tree situated in the middle of the fallen cave. That same tree is where we will have the rappelling. If my memory serves me right, zip line’s velocity is 9m/sec. Man, that was fast. This by the way is the same justification that my picture was like I’m a monster from the outer space.

Back to City for lunch then off to Iligan, Lanao. Aside from the fact that it’s the city of waterfalls, Iligan is a business and commercial district. There’s a lot of cement factory and other manufacturing plant for some sort.

If you’ll remember, back in grade school, Ma. Cristina Falls is taught to be the highest falls in the Philippines. Apparently, contrary to its sweet name, this gigantic falls is really very tall and somewhat frightening. Tinago falls on the other hand is very lovely. Had we had enough time, we will surely take a plummet in its dark blue and very clean waters. Why they call it Tinago? Wait ‘till you witness the TREK that goes by its name. It’s really very tiring. But will eventually be paid by the cool sound of rushing waters and cold atmosphere when you get to see it at the bottom of the mountain.

We had a chance to drop by at our cousins’ house (in CDO) before leaving for Davao and spent dinner with them in Bigby’s (prang Starbucks).

Ang gaganda nila noh?!

Day 4: Samal Island etc.

Oops don’t kill me for wearing jeans on the beach (coz I almost killed myself already). It was not planned to go to Samal Island that day (our flight is 5pm) - But being the lakwatsera that we are. We still managed to see it in any case. Samal Island is one of the famous tourist spots you can go to in Davao. And we definitely shouldn’t miss it, I suppose. We also went to see the Magsaysay Park, and outside the park is where you can do your durian shopping. I instantly remember a sign that I read somewhere in Jack’s Ridge, a description of durian: “Tastes like heaven but smells like a hell”. Hahaha!

Remember the place I said that was featured in Sports Unlimited? Its Outland Adventure. I cannot let my Davao trip end without at least visiting it. This is the place to go for team building and group activities. The activities here are created with the purpose of developing unity within the group. Activities such as free fall, zip lines at mdami pa.

On the plane back to Manila, I am feeling really sad. :( I simply fell in love in Davao and all the places I’ve been into. In fact, I’m really thinking of migrating. Hehe! Good thing, we both won (again) on the game during flight, enough to cheer me up (just a little, though). And so we had three Cebu Pacific lunch bags after the trip.

Thanks to the wonderful people (Jen, Benj, Fred, Arnold and Rummel) who showed us nothing, but hospitality in abundance. (Basta Globe, posible!) :p

So there. Get your ass off that chair and start seeing places. Go travel. The world is so big and we all know so little about it. This entire trip will forever hold G-O-O-D memories for me.

(Thank you Lord for the opportunity..)