5 CITIES IN 14 DAYS (CONCLUSION)

January 22, 2009. It was my second day in Davao City however, my vacation was marred when my feet began acting up like it was eaten by maggots. Imagine my feet having some fluids coming out from my bloated toes so I decided to go to Samal Island and soak my toes in salty water. According to JB, soaking feet in salty water will remove all the bacteria. I did, but with minimal results. Despite the nagging pain, I was able to have a hearty lunch at the resort (grilled tuna with rice and durian ice cream for dessert!) and viewed different species of birds. Bago pa kayo mag react, may nakita din akong mga usa at sawa sa kanilang aviary! Kakatuwa di ba?

I returned to the city at around 2 pm and stayed mostly at JB's unit to rest. At nighttime I decided to go to Jack's Ridge located at the hilly part of Davao City. Talagang nalula ako sa ganda ng lugar and not only that I was able to see a bird's eye view of the city. I was also entertained by the good food and nice acoustic songs that got me in the mood. As if that was not enough, I was able to have a good banana split dessert at their coffee shop. I went home at around 11 pm.

January 23, 2009 My last day in Davao would have been better had I decided to go to Eagle Sanctuary upon the prodding of JB. But I decided to shop for pasalubong instead and go to SM City Davao to buy it. I was able to buy durian goodies like yema durian and durian polvoron. I also toured the whole mall only to realize that... SM City Cebu is still the best mall for me, followed by SM City Iloilo and SM City Bacolod. But I'll go easy on SM City Davao because I have heard the news that SM will build another mall somewhere in the city that will be bigger and more spacious than the present SM Davao site.

January 24, 2009 I left Davao City early in the morning via the 6:15 am flight. Obviously puno talaga ang flight going to Iloilo primarily because it was Dinagyang weekend fever so I was uncomfortable throughout the flight. Why did I say so? Was it because I was carrying a baggage of guilt on my way home? Or was it because I did not want the travel madness to end?

Whatever it is, I HAVE ACHIEVED MY GOAL during my 5 day travel that ended on January 28 when I went back to Bacolod City to start a new lease on my career. I was given a chance to redeem myself so I have to make the most out of it. For this 3-part piece, I'm ending it with lyrics from The Dawn's popular song-turned movie "Tulad ng Dati".

TULAD NG DATI

Wala na akong makita sa iyong mga mata
Dati rati'y isang tingin mo lang alam ko na
Bakit ngayon ika'y nababalot sa kulay ng hatinggabi
Nagtatanong, nangangarap na ika'y magisnang muli

Kung may bagyo o kung tag-araw
Sa iyong damdamin

Sana ay makilala kang muli, tulad ng dati
Halika at lumapit kang muli, tulad ng dati

Wala na akong maramdaman sa iyong mga kamay
Dati rati'y isang hawak ko lang, alam ko na
Alam ko na

Kung may bagyo o kung tag-araw sa iyong damdamin
Sana ya makilala kang muli, tulad ng dati

Halika at lumapit kang muli, tulad ng dati...

5 CITIES IN 14 DAYS (Part 2)

I arrived in Davao City at around 8:45 am. Unfortunately, the plane did not pass thru the tunnel where passengers disembark en route to the cargo lobby. But still, setting my foot on Davao soil for the first time felt like heaven. Reaching the southernmost part of the Philippines (along with Zamboanga) is considered an achievement and a feat in itself. While touring part of Davao en route to Victoria Plaza Mall (where I met up with my friend), I realized that the city's structure is much like Baguio, where there are a lot of high and low places.

Upon reaching Victoria Plaza Mall, I decided to take my breakfast at Mc Donald's (aka Mickey D's). 30 minutes later after breakfast, my friend JB arrived to pick me up. I stayed at his bachelor's pad somewhere in the heart of the city. Upon going inside his room, I was surprised that everything was in place and that his room pretty much had everything. How I wish we could have trade places (hehehehhe). We were able to catch up on each other's happenings for the past 5 years since we haven't seen each other. We could have stayed all day long however due to lack of sleep the other day, I decided to hit the sack at noontime.

At night time JB and I decided to go to People's Park, where we toured the place full of flora and fauna. I was fascinated by the sculptures that were made by their local artist, whose name escapes me as of the moment. Upon spending time at the park, we chanced upon some necklaces that caught our fancy. We stayed for around 1 and a half hours choosing a lot of necklaces made of different gemstones to different body parts of different wild animals! Some of the sellers even claimed that these necklaces serve as amulets.

After purchasing the necklaces, JB and I ate out at a restaurant serving inasal goods. It's much like Mang Inasal because of unlimited rice but the catch is... the unlimited rice was equivalent to 3 cups of rice that filled out my plate!

Next post: My experience at Samal Island (to be continued)