Wow Davao or Whoa Davao?

November 18, 2010

 We booked for this trip six months ago. CebuPac was on sale then and we felt  the luckiest after booking for two to MNL-DVO-MNL for only PhP317.00. So it’s like PhP 75 one way, per person (do the math for exact computation).

But since our vacay fell a week after the first sem finals, we didn’t have much time to plan for it. Actually, there were no plans at all which was kind of unusual for us since we always have everything laid out and planned when we travel.  

So we came to Davao with no definite plan on how to spend our three days there.

We arrived at the Davao International Airport at around 5:20am. We hailed a cab and went straight to Evergreen Hotel, the cheapest in downtown.  It was cheap but decent.  My only trouble was that our room was on the 4^th floor and there is no elevator.  Four plights of stairs for me is.. tiring. 

We slept and woke up in time for lunch. We had lunch at Glamour Resto where they had unlimited buffet (read: CRABS) for only PhP328/pax. I had about 4 halves of crabs and a plateful of leche flan, ube, and other native desserts which name I didn’t bother asking.  Roma had…wait, I lost count of how many crabs he ate. He was sure in heaven there.

 yummy yummy crabs *nomnomnom* 

   

Lolo vs. Roma

After which, we went to the Philippine Eagle Center and Malagos Garden Resort. These places, I highly recommend. They are very well kept and very interesting.

  

 at the Philippine Eagle Center

  

playing the part   

 

at Malagos Garden Resort 

 

Petting Time 

For dinner, we went to Jack’s Ridge. With its overlooking deck, it is almost comparable to Tagaytay. The place is perfect for gimmick. But don’t expect too much on the food (like we did) because there is nothing special on the menu.

Then, we went back to Evergreen. We officially capped our first night in Davao with three bottles of beer, chocolates, and a bag of Lays.

On the second day, I wore the beach dress I purchased in eBay. The night before, we figured to spend the day in Samal and Talikud islands but to my dismay, we had to postpone going there until the next day. So we went back to the hotel to change clothes.   

Back-up plan:  Ziplines. Davao is well known for a number of places offering zipline rides.  We decided to go to Outland Adventures since it boasts to be the longest zipline in Asia. Entrance fee is about PhP300. But unlike the usual ziplines, we first have to raft across the river and trek for about 20mins before we reach the jump off point.  

 

at Outland Adventure

 

  Zip On!

And it was FUN! It was tiring but the view above is all worth it.

Next stop:  Crocodile Farm, Butterfly House, Tribu K’Mindanawan. It costs PhP150pax to go to all these places. I felt like I am on a field trip going to there. I honestly thought that I will be bored since there will be no other activity except sight seeing.  

  

  Mating butterflies. And they say this could go on for hours. :)

  

Tanga moment. Roma love this pic so much that I had to post this.

Luckily for us, we went to the Crocodile Farm just in time for their “interactive show”.  It lasted for an hour and by the time it ended, both Roma and I were amazed like all the kids who were there.   

 

SCAAAAAAARY.  

 

The laziest of them all

 After, we went to Aldevinco’s to shop for pasalubong and strolled at the People’s Park. We had our dinner at Penong’s, home of DVO’s famous inihaw and unlimited rice.  

Our second night in Davao ended with two bottles of gilbey’s premium and toblerone.  Perfect!

On the third day, we went to a scuba diving shop for our island hopping. Initially, we felt lucky to be accommodated by the shop to join a group since renting our own boat would cost us too much. That morning, we were told that we’ll be with a group of scuba divers and you can only imagine how envious I was. Scuba diving, as a hobby, is very pricey. Roma and I, no matter how much we want to try it out, were not yet financially ready. So for the rest of the day, we had to endure them talking about how amazing it feels to be underwater and how easy it is to do scuba diving compared to snorkeling (which is what we did!)

 

Our third day in Davao was…

I thought (and I think Roma thought so too) that we will be dropped off to Samal or Talikud Island. I mean, I don’t mind if they dropped us there and fetch us in the afternoon. Much to our dismay, we were not been able to set foot on the islands (maybe because the scuba divers we’re with liked it underwater than on sand).  It sucks because we were stuck with the scuba divers all the time. Talk about feeling out of place without so much you can do about it. What sucks more is that we were only a kilometer away from the sand and the seashells (the phrase so near yet so far is applicable here).  If only I can swim my way to get ashore. *Sigh* I felt cheated… but enough of this!

After that unfortunate event, we went shopping for pasalubong. And yes, it somehow drove away all the negativity. Spending spree at the end of a day makes me happy everyday really works for me. Both of us bought durian, pomelo and marang as much as our baggage would allow (we even exceeded!).  

Then, we went to our hotel, packed our bags and leave.

Our Davao trip was not that bad. But it wasn’t good either.  LESSON LEARNED: plan the next trip. No more “bahala na kung anong mangyayari” because as experienced, what happened was that we spent too much time at the hotel and missed a lot of good places to go.  

BUT it could have been worse. No matter how crappy our trip in Davao has been, I could not imagine going through it alone or with other people. Roma has been the perfect getaway companion. He has been really patient with me and for that I’m grateful. 

The taxi driver on our way to the airport asked us when we plan to go back. I don’t know about Roma, but me? I don’t mind if I never come back.  So, adieu Davao.