Call of the Durian

#63: Davao and Back

I just got back from Davao. Lovely place. (At least from what I've seen within less than 24 hours.) The highlight of this trip was not the work-related stuff but dinner at Jack's Ridge. It's this place at the top of the hill with an awesome view of the city. (Well, awesome until my friend told me it actually also overlooks a cemetery. Gee. Thanks for ruining my dramatic moment.)

We took a cab from the Marco Polo Hotel to that place. The driver crossed 2 major lanes just to offer us a ride before another cab swooped us and our cabfare away. The windows were open, allowing us to take in cool Davao evening air while talking about Korean Telenovelas. Over the hill, then down. We had to halt talking about Cholo and Jodie and why they always cry when they see each other because the driver seemed to not know where he was going. Well, he knew alright, he snapped, just in time to catch himself from completely dozing off and sending all three of us to our graves over the cliff.

Dinner was fine - except that my officemate ordered (of all things), Pakbet, an Ilocano dish with squash, bitter gourd and a host of other weird-looking vegetables. Come on. Who the heck orders Pakbet when the company is paying for your meal? I almost didn't want him to touch the Lechon Kawali I ordered to punish him for ordering the vile thing.

My Davaeno friend treated us to dessert at Karl's Coffee Place. Pretty cool. They had good music (i.e., not the barrio music I'm used to hearing whenever I go to other areas of the Philippines); and brownies that were cream-colored instead of brown. Best brownies I've had in a long time. Or should I say, "whiteys"?

The following day, presidential bodyguards were creeping all over our hotel. Apparently, the President was there. Great. A president not exactly loved by the majority at a terrorist-infested area of the Philippines... at our hotel too. We escaped rolling down the hill to our bloody end the night before all to now face the possibility of rebels climbing up our hotel and blowing us all to bloody bits. Lovely.

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Well, since I am blogging right now, you know none of those bloody things happened. (Am I using "bloody" too bloody often?) I loved the little that I saw of Davao and would very much love to return. Their airport is new, very clean and relatively modern for Philippine standards. (It's so much better than the pathetic thing we call Manila Domestic Airport. Heck, it's even better than our Ninoy Aquino International Airport.) The roads are so much better than the main roads in Cebu and the food is so much cheaper too.

I heard there's an island called Samal that's 15 minutes off the coast of Davao. That's another reason I want to go back. Or should I say, another reason I should go back. I guess that and the "pasalubongs" I didn't get to buy the first time around.