Smoke-Free City (Day 1)

From Metro Manila, we arrived at Francisco Bangoy International Airport via Cebu Pacific at 10:30 pm. I don’t know if I was just hungry but the Davao City airport has this sweet fruity scent (not sure if it was Durian).

We actually bought our tickets on the day of our travel since our flight via Tiger Airways was cancelled and we weren’t advised beforehand.

We took a cab to our hotel which is just along J.P. Laurel Avenue. We stayed at the Orchard Hotel (Facebook Page). It was relatively far from the downtown area but there’s a grocery store just in front and also there are coffee shops and ATMs nearby. Everything from the hotel itself to its staff was nice. Davao City is a smoke free city and the hotel strictly implements the "no smoking" rule: each room has a smoke detector. The only place where you can smoke is the garage. That is if there are no locals outside.

Our itinerary kept us somewhat sleep-deprived since our activities would always begin at 7 am or earlier.

Day 1 (September 5, 2013)
Digos City

Our first activity was zipping at Camp Sabros at Sitio Baras, Kapatagan, Digos City, Davao del Sur, about 2-3 hrs away from the city. Both of us have never tried that before so we were quite excited. We left the hotel at around 7 am.

>We took a cab going to Ecoland terminal and rode a bus to Digos City.

We arrived at Digos around 8:30 am.

>We rode a tricycle going to the old terminal to take a van that would take us to Sitio Baras, Kapatagan.

We were actually the first 2 passengers

Just as in all other terminals, we had to wait until the van was fully-occupied before we left. We waited for almost three hours for passengers to fill its seats.

>We arrived at Camp Sabros parking area around 12 pm. Then we rode a habal-habal (motorcycle) to go to the camp proper.

Camp Sabros is on top of the mountain, which I think is part of Mt. Apo, and it is cold up there kahit na tirik na tririk ang araw, it felt like Baguio. Pine Trees were everywhere (we learned later that the pine trees were planted by some of the locals working at Camp Sabros).

380 meter tandem ride

Cable Lift Ride

820 meter zipline

Cottage for the overnighters

There are a lot of pine trees

We went home at around 3 pm and arrived in Davao City at 6. It was raining so we just ate at the nearest fastfood chain. I was surprised because a meal costs P25 only (1 pc chicken with rice). My! At hindi maliit yung slice ng chicken. Busog!

I did not have the time to take a picture the night we ate here so I went back here the day after and took a picture

Budget:

Fare:  P420

Ride package in the Camp: P550

Food:
         Lunch: P100

         Dinner: P25

Total: P1,095

Day 2 (City Tour: People's Park, San Pedro Cathedral, Museo Dabawenyo, Crocodile Park, Butterfly House, Davao Museum, T'boli WEaving Centre)

Day 3 (White Water Rafting, Philippine Eagle Centre, Aldevinco Shopping Centre, Lon Wa Buddhist Temple)