falling in love with davao...

i went there on a business trip that proved to be one hell of a very pleasurable trip.

EZ MAP IS THE WAY TO GO...

in my whole life, i never relied on a map. not even when i was a new driver here in manila... i never bought one, never owned one much less looked at one closely. the most i owned was a map of the philippines before when i was in college with colorful pins indicating what places i had been to.

but as far as navigation is concerned, i tend to just go with the flow and ask if lost. but when i got to davao, i wanted to cram in as many sites and activities as i possibly could, the only way to do it is to to get a map and plan ahead..

i was with my product specialist and she proved to be a good company..in other words kaladkarin!
i planned the daytime activities and she planned for our outing at night.
i only had two other objectives aside from closing the business, it was 1.) EAT tuna, seafoods, and durian and 2. DIVE!

before i even made my trip i searched the net for dive shops and i saw dive davao scuba shop. it appealed to me and i immediately coordinated with them. i talked at length with the dive master maeng, turned out the jump off is quite near.

FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD

the idiot-proof EZ map was really useful! as soon as we settled our things in our hotel, we searched for a place to have lunch... and of course we went looking for authentic, cheap tuna place... and we found it in Luz Kinilaw place.. 150bucks for a panga that could feed four! (though my officemate and i polished it off without difficulty!) yummmyyy!

next stop was magsaysay fruit vendors association... i made kate eat durian, full as we were, we could not finish the whole thing!! but it was divine to eat durian again.. and at 30bucks a kilo, it was a treat..

from there we walked through their park and we dropped by the scuba shop where i was supposed to go... the attendant was very warm, very engaging and called me by my first name.. they already had the equipment ready for me to fit.. it felt very personal and very assuring.. i was glad i made the right decision.

i love to dive, that is not to say however that i do not think about the hazards, i tend to choose whom to go with, preferring sometimes a paid for DM than just any group. and seeing how they cater to customers put me at ease immediately.

MEET ME AT JACK'S

we went back to the hotel replete and ready to go yet again. we were meeting some avaya people at jack's ridge.. and the EZ map once again proved very useful..
one thing that impressed me much in davao is how clean their city is.. how very courteous and helpful the taxi drivers are not to mention the fact that they give you the exact change..

so although it was a bit late at night we were both confident to ride the taxi towards jack's ridge.. called such because it is perched high above overlooking the city.

dinner proved to be a fun affair with just four of us... after which we transferred to MTS (Matina Town Square) iris left us early but it didn't matter, we had our friend EZ map with us.. we can go anywhere we want!

A FOUR LEAF CLOVER SAYS IT'S A TOURIST ATTRACTION!

the map indicated some places that are tourist attractions.. indicated by what looked like a four leaf clover to me hahaha and so i planned yet again our friday adventure..

of course there was the meeting to go through and of course i had it scheduled in the morning.. no sense doing it in the afternoon... we went there and it was a success from the word go.. closed it in less than 30minutes and so we had so much time to spare..

we just came back to the hotel after lunch dropped everything off and changed to comfortable clothes.. in less than an hour, kate found herself crossing davao channel towards samal island! for only twelve bucks you get to see other resorts.. so we picked paradise island.. i wanted pearl farm but it was a bit expensive.. plus we did not have a lot of time.


we went around the resort, took pictures... drank durian shake called the office from there... talked to clients while listening to the waves crashing down the shore.. ahhh mobility at its best.

we came back by four pm and i immediately instructed the taxi to go to davao museum, we had to tell him how to go there.. since he did not know they had one.. he was quite thankful actually and he decided to wait for us while we went around.. he stopped his meter for us.. in manila it's either you are left high and dry by the driver or charged with an arm and a leg..

after that, t'boli weaving... kate was lucky enough to find a nice woven bag.. i wasn't able to shop since i was on the phone the whole time.. bummer.. after that we went to Lo Wan Buddhist temple.. just to have a look see..


our energy level was high and instead of taking another taxi ride we opted for their jeepneys... again, the driver was helpful and his wife as well... good thing i am bisaya talking to anyone there was very easy.. we got back to the hotel soon after still very much looking forward to going out again!

kate was supposed to leave on saturday leaving me behind to dive...but the way she enjoyed the day, she had second thoughts and we called up the office to rebook her flight.. i was thankful actually, i did not look forward to sleeping in a big hotel room by myself..

DIVE DAVAO

saturday had me waking up at the break of dawn.. kate was still asleep and so i had breakfast early and left for sta ana wharf telling her half jokingly that if i am not back by 6pm she should start looking for me.. hahaha that woke her up! but actually it was a precaution. at least i was assured someone in davao knew i was diving :)

the dive rate was cheap actually, 1500 inclusive of boat, lunch, equipment and DM fee. not bad, and i only paid 40bucks for my taxi! i can't help comparing it to anilao diving.

there were only two of us from manila the rest were davao divers. when we went to the wharf, i saw their boat and it was big! bigger than what we use in anilao.. it could seat 20 divers comfortably. so off we went to samal island first to pick up the other diver from manila and onwards to talicud island.

again i did not feel out of place, i could converse in their dialect and pretty soon i was getting to know my fellow divers. there was bong, who was into structured cabling and doing a project for phil-am life, cima who is into spear fishing, alain who works for citibank davao, russel who works at hsbc, makati.. who knows rico lopez and sam (small world)and then coly who is basically bumming around after getting back from singapore.

our first dive was fairly smooth.. once again i found myself transported to another realm. my dive master was adept at ponting out little creatures and camouflaged ones that otherwise i would've missed. the area was diverse in marine life..


soon after i was swimming confidently looking and pointing but then instinct told me to look down, and by god i almost leapt out of my skin, not five feet below me was the longest sea snake i ever saw.

i am not afraid of snakes i can even hold them, even fascinated by them but seeing one slowly weaving around below you can give you quite a start! i swam towards my DM and tugged his bc and i got his attention.. he went towards it and we were all just above him hovering and observing. he was taking photos when suddenly the snake turned around and looked up towards us.. boy, were we fast in dispersing! hahaha he looked as if ready to swim up and strike! so we let him be.

we spent our SIT at this undeveloped beach... white sand, blue seas... warm breeze.. ahhhh soo beautiful. lucnh consisted of native chicken, grilled chorizos and of course fish! we stayed there for two hours since bong and cima went as deep as 140ft. spear fishing. normally i would've balked at the idea of spear fishing, but these guys know what to get, how to be on the safe side and it was not a "sport" for them... they eat what they get and they don't get a lot and they don't spear rare fish so it was ok.


MANSUUD WALL

since i was flying out the following afternoon, my DM just took us at an average of 40ft. to a dive site called mansuud wall.. he promised us schools of matambaka fish.. not ten minutes after we saw it.. wow.. so many at one time.


again it was a fairly easy dive with a little current.. there were tiny creatures as well form sea slugs to this little fish that i saw for the first time here.. our DM said something like crawfish.. or something to that effect.. i could not really understand hahaha either it's because of his accent or i needed him to spell the name out

and then i saw 15ft below me a huge fish i could not identify at first..i wanted to go deeper but i was mindful of my depth gauge. so i stayed above grateful that vis was excellent.. it turned out to be lapu-lapu.. a huge one at that! nice

RIDING THE WAVES

going back, we had to drop off russel once again to samal island since he was staying at one of the resorts there.. by the time we were crossing towards davao it was already past 4pm. towards the middle of the channel the waves started becoming big..

huge enough to send our boat high up in the air and crashing back down again... our boat was big but water still came in from the front and from all sides.. at first i wanted to act nonchalant about it.. these boat crew were capable.. but cima made a comment that this was the first time he crossed this channel with waves this big.. seconded by alain who said that yes, his nuts were in his throat already!!! wahhhh... and to think that they dive here often... the short crossing took an eternity for me.. i got off the boat nauseated and ready to kiss the ground.

it was raining in davao and moonsoon winds were high thus the waves.. but i was glad i was on solid ground once again..

i arrived in the hotel still energized. kate was there already and she already had plans for us for the night.. good... i just cleaned my gear took a bath and then we were off till 2am!

davao people are nice... very warm very engaging... my DM dropped at the hotel after dinner just so i could copy all the pics.. how nice is that? here, you would have to beg for others to email you copies..

the guys in davao will give you drinks but will not approach if they know you are not interested.. some are bold enough to ask for your name but not so much as to intrude.

all in all we had a girls bonding time... me kate and iris.. over ice cold beer and rhum coke (at 25bucks per shot! hahaha)

SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY!

and then the sojourn ends... sunday i woke up at 5:30am sad that i was leaving already.. there were still so many sites to go so many things to do... my flight was at 1:30pm so i had enough time to buy all the requisite pasalubong..

again, aided by the map (at this time it looked so well-used) we went to ciramina, a place where you could buy frozen seafoods ready to be packed in styrofoam boxes. i think kate and i went a little berserk in buying fish there... we spent close to 2k each, and in davao that means lots and lots of fishes! hahaha

so i ended up buying good for four families! i will be eating fish for the whole week! bought pompano, several blue marlin steak, tuna belly, tuna panga, swordfish and diana and tuna sashimi... i just dumped everything at jeng's billiard place since she has the freezer capable for storing my panic buying episode at citramina!

ahhh davao... i fell in love with that place... and yes if given the chance i will relocate in a heartbeat.. :)