The Vow

It all started with CP's ten-peso fare having an irony of tax greater than its fare. errr! A totally unplanned decision from the six of us to booked ourselves on a flight to Davao.

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Xcons: Bratz OnBoard!
Dona, Bel and I were booked on the first flight that day and Shen, Cora and Pro were on the second flight (sounds amazing race, isn't...). And since our flight is at 4.20, Bel and I decided not to go home the day before and spent the whole twilight zone in Greenbelt watching LFS of Devil Wears Prada and chilling-out at Starbucks. We came to the airport at four (we're late, i know), we can't even spot the flight-to-davao counter anymore. Leaving Donna alone on-board, we tried to convince the CP personnels if we could still catch-up the flight to Davao but we failed. We went to the c.s. counter to re-booked us on the next flight. There's this one guard though tried to helped us. Moment after, manong guard succeeded in letting us board. We were the last bratinellas to board the craft!

The three of us arrived in Davao at around 6 and headed our way to the city to have some breakfast and looked for a hotel. Two hours later... the next team has arrived... and now we're up to explore Davao.

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Xtrail: Flora and Fauna
Having no idea were to go on our first day high, we rented a locale cab and toured the whole day in Davao. First stop, lunch at Malagos Garder Resort. Nothing's interesting about the place, just a garden with lots of trees. Off we go to our next destin' -- Phil Eagle Center... again, nothing's quite interesting, we had a little fun looking at different eagles though. The next drive is quite far and high, we took roughly around two-hour to reached Eden Nature Park. Almost closing its gates to us, we still managed to take a look and have some little fun in the park. Its a little frustrating though, of not having explored the inner side of the place :(. Off to our last stop, Jack' Ridge, the perfect spot to cozy dining at night while viewing Davao's skyline.

Before we totally dropped to bed, we tried the famous stingy fruit of Davao, the durian which apparently didn't turned out to be good in my taste... uckkkd!

Xplore: The Samal Adventure
Even though we haven't had enough good nightrest, that didn't stop us on our next trip -- island hopping in Samal. This time we have our "contacts" to circuit within the island.

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Wayne's Hideout
I haven't been to a batcave before, so I was thinking that this would be an awesome experience to have a close encounter with Bruce's family wekeke. On the contrary, Bel and I are having difficulties in getting inside the cave because of the super-panghi smell that was ventilating out in the entrance hole. Kaya nga thumbs-up ako on the girls coz they made it on the center of the cave at nagphotoshoot pa. Eventually Bel and I managed to get in though I didn't dare to get at the center because the bats were started to flee (nabothered ata sila bcoz of us). I even vomitted inside the cave coz I really can't take the smell. Langya! ang baho talaga. In the end, the girls have their own souvenirs from the bats-- lots of shits and wiwi on their outfits. Shen's got the most of it (crowd's fave... hehe), luckily I haven't got any :P

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Pearl Farm... sa gilid!
After the sticky-ickie bat experince we're off to Pearl Farm, well not really!... just beside the resort coz we were waiting for our bangka to come to take us a quick tour around Samal. Even though we haven't experienced the real Pearl Farm, we enjoyed the island hopping. By lunch we can't help but to indulged ourselves in a scrumptious native delicacies in Samal.


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When Same Poles Rapel...
The moment we've all been looking forward to do that day, rapelling! We have a brief 101 session with our guides... then a short hands-on practice... then off we go to descend in a 180-foot cliff (definitely not your ordinary wall, aguy!). And as always, a team's strong motivation was put into test to push acrophobic Donna to rapel. Sinabayan ko na sya pababa... kasi sayang ang libreng Starbucks.... hehehe. I thought rapelling would be the the hardest thing to do, but apparently climbing back up was the hardest part (damn!), having no strings to hold on, just "baging" from the trees plus you have to deal with pesteng wild langgam bites and a slippery terrain... err!
Life's a Beach
After the extreme-games-like adventure, we headed towards our way in a simple, uncommercialized beach somewhere (forgot the name). Swim, swim, swim... while enjoying the sunset! At sundown we went back from our place took some nice ihaw-haw dinner and slept!

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Xtreme: White Water Rapids
Final day, probably the most anticipated event of our vacation -- white water rafting! woohoo! Afraid at first, but the heck... this is a once in a lifetime experience!
At the middle of the voyage we were aiming to cupsize, this is were your raft flips upside down then everybody goes into the water... but we failed to do it and so we did our way by jumping off the raft before the current and let ourselves go with the flow... and as told by our guides, "just keep your body straight with your feet apart", grabe ang hirap especially if there's a big rocks ahead. After more than 4 hours of rowing and struggling with the rapids, and donating my shades into the river, it was all worthy!
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Lacoste
We took a last stop at the Crocodile Farm. We were just in time when caretakers started to feed the crocs. I wonder how many genuine Lacoste shoes can it produced in one matured croc? hehehe. I also had a closed encounter with an eagle which I haven't experienced in Eagle Park kasi yung mga ibon nakakulong. It was also my first time to touched a python while crawling in the grass. Though it wasn't cold as it was used to be. Perhaps, because a lot of warm people's hand already touched the snake, so nawalan na ng lamig. Sayang wala syang nasakmal na bata that time, just kiddin'! Tapos nakahawak din ako ng baby croc, gusto ko syang iuwi kahit ang tigas ng katawan nya... ehehe!

Xtend: Adios Davao!
Sad to say, but we have to say goodbye! We have fun though in our stay in Davao. Definitely a worthwhie experience we will never forget! If from our flight to Davao, we were late... now, our flightback to Manila was delayed, not just one but two hours...err! We arrived in Manila past twelve na, not enough sleep for tomorrow's first-day-of-the-week work.

more pixcies here...