Davao City

Posted by Jay on December 22, 2008 Leave a comment (1) Go to comments

Sooooo…. last month (Nov. 2 to be exact), we went to Davao, the place where I was born and grew up. At first I was’nt excited to go there because the purpose was not of a vacation but to visit an ailing father. Ok, hush now about that since this blog is my happy blog, nothing about grief, sadness or anything negative to be posted here. I went with my mother, nephew, sister. I brought along with me my youngest child as he is free from fare.

So back to where I was. The place where i grew up, half of my childhood, my memories, it’s still here (points to head and heart) =p. I left the place in 1983, and was never able to come back again. So this year, to count it, it’s been 25 years. I so missed the place so much. Davao reminds me of beaches, friends, moonlights playing hide and seek, the military camp where we always place, the coconut tree where I always climb, the roof of my neighbor where we always take a jump (hahaha, yep I did that all that), i can never forget the roof chapel where I climb and got suspended in mid air because my shorts sort of got tangled on the nail, fortunately my grandpa was there and helped me to get down, and boy did I got the scolding I so deserved =P.

Those are just some of the memories… and there are plenty,it would take pages if I will write it all.

We took the Cebu Air Pacific flight because they sell the cheapest plane ticket, we were on tight budget, since this visit to Davao isn’t planned. They have this Go Lite promo.

Roundtrip ticket – 5,600++

(this was during that time, prices change from time to time, so if you have plans on going there, check regularly their website)

Just some advice if you dont know it yet, if ever you’re going to buy a round trip ticket, be sure that if you’re gonna extend your stay, call the airline office two days before rebooking your date, so that you’ll just have to pay the minimum charge. We had rebooked the date of our flight at the same day and were told to pay 1,700.00+, rebooking charge.Royal House Hotel have an affordable rate, it’s located at the Davao City central, just near the San Pedro Church. And the food…. the food there is sooooooo very affordable, compared to Luzon’s price. Heck chicken and rice cost only 23 pesos I can’t believe it at first, and the cut, the size is big enough. At Jollibee, McDo, KFC, that would cost me 80 pesos and chicken cut is small. Other foods are very affordable there too, there’s this barbecue restaurants just beside the city hall, their prices are good on your budget, for the fruits you can go to Bankerohan. You can eat all you can without causing you pain in your pocket. Jollibee at the back of SanPedro church is open 24 hours a day. Some computer rental shops there are open 24 hours a day too.

Royal house triple room – 300 pesos /day
Computer rental – 10 pesos / hour

When we got there, after taking some rest, I proceeded on visiting the places where I used to go (just me and my little Kichiro), I did’nt took a ride, I just walked and kept on walking. I went to San Pedro church, the church where we used to go, it’s still the same, but the space in front of it is smaller now. Went to the park in front of it, there were some changes too, I looked around for a specific tree and found it. It was still there, I almost hugged it. Why was this tree so important to me?

Here’s the tree, it’s a “duhat” tree, lumboy in our language. This tree bears fruit like berries, it’s color is dark violet, and if you eat too many, your teeth will become violet too =D, i dont know what this tree is called in English, searched it on the net but found no correct translation. Her branches are not that many now, I checked it, she’s very very old. I have kept the memory of this tree. I remembered we always played here, climbing when there were fruits… and there was this one time we were climbing this tree, and there were other kids too, I was counting the berries that I have been plucking from the branches, 1…2…3…4… at exactly 10, i heard this loud crack close to me, and down the other boy fell, the branch got broken. Well, the boy didn’t got hurt but we did laugh so hard, thinking it was my fault because I was counting.

My son Kichiro, played and ran around following the pigeons that were there, I got tired from following him. From the mini park, to the front of the city hall and to the front of the church… We went back to the hotel with my feet and legs aching so much. If my feet could have talked, they would have begged for mercy to just stop walking.

We also went to people’s park. Sculptures by Kublai Milan are numerous in this place. The Philippine eagle on top is one of his creation, it was spectacular. The park opens from 1 in the afternoon till 10 in the evening.

People’s Park entrance – free

There were plenty of flowers too… and the fountains come to life in the evening with different colors of light illuminating it…

My mother bought this really huge mango, it’s called an apple mango but it’s the biggest mango I’ve ever seen in my entire life, a little bit bigger than my son’s head.

We also went to my father’s province, some 2 hours drive from Davao city, it was in Padada, Davao del Sur. They have a place there very near the beach. There was this one time that I remembered when we went there, they have this beach house (it was a small hut, exactly on the beach), it was still there. My father had made sure it will be always there. I already forgot the place but when I saw that hut from a distance, I knew already we arrived.

My father’s ancestral house is in front of that hut, it was big as I remembered it, but it was also very very old. And they have this big land at the back too, where I explored to look for something to take a picture of, did found something interesting. There were still bamboos, when I was a child they said a monster lived there and everynight his sounds will be heard. I took a picture of it too.

We slept at the beach hut and the next morning we said goodbye to my father and the other relatives that were there. Two days after that, my father died. We stayed another one week for the wake and the burial.

I missed the place so much, at my free time, I just walked, kept on walking, retracing my steps to where my childhood was. I wasn’t able to visit my schools, my friends’ house, as our time is limited and we went there not for a vacation. It wasn’t planned. I would love to go back there again, and visit the other places that I remembered so much. There was this shrine that I want to go back to, the durian plantation in Calinan, Times beach (this is where we always go for a swim), Bukana, and so many other places. I hope by next year we will have the time and finances to go on a vacation there, and by that time, I’ll bring my family with me, so I can show my kids the place where I grew up, the places I loved to go to…

For now, another memory of Davao City is added in my heart… i can never say farewell to it as my heart always long for the place…

The day before we were to go back to Manila, me and my little son went to a barber shop for his first hair cut. I was so proud of him, he was really behaved while having his hair done. And oh by the way, hair cut costs only 25 pesos there. Going to a salon/parlor there to have your hair done whatever you want it to (color, relax, rebond, etc) is soooo very affordable, too bad I haven’t got that much money in my pocket, i could have had my hair colored =(.