If you’re in Samal Island and have no means of transportation, the best way to tour the island is via a habal-habal. But be warned though that the rate you initially discussed with the driver may not be the rate you’ll eventually pay for after the trip like what happened to us. I know. Life in the Philippines sometimes sucks. =S

Since we did not enjoy the Maxima Aqua Fun tour bundled with the package, we decided to tour Samal Island on our own in a habal-habal. The initial rate was 400 pesos for one motorcycle for a trip to the Montfort Bat Cave and Haguimit Falls plus the ride back to Maxima Aqua Fun. I am not a fan of riding motorcycles, plus the fact that we might encounter virtually any accident along the road and not survive it had me thinking twice but I had no choice. We had to ride down the roughs and the cemented road to the Montfort Bat Cave which houses the largest colony of fruit-eating bats in the world, now approximately 2.5 million in number. We were the only tourists who visited the cave at that time. Not much to see except watch the millions of bats do their thing (ie. sleep, fly to another side of the very densely-populated cave, flirt with another bat) and enjoy the smell of their poop. =D There’s also a hall with a number of boards displaying fast facts and some pictures of the bats. Not far away and in plain view from the Montfort Bat Cave area is a strip of white sand beach and clear-blue waters they called “Vanishing Island”. The sight is picture-perfect, like one out of those holiday cards. Vanishing Island is accessible via a short pump-boat ride which costs 800 pesos. We were not able to go to the island due to time constraints but promised to go back there in the future. We were told though that there are no accommodations in that island (of course, Mnel! The island vanishes during high tide. Hehe). We then went our way to Haguimit Falls which is nearer Maxima Aqua Fun. Entrance fee is pretty cheap and when you get there, you’ll be greeted by a number of “resorts” offering tables for daytrippers to small cabanas and rooms for those who’ll be sleeping over. The water was cool and clean and we frolicked a bit before realizing it was already almost 4:30 pm. If only we weren’t held back by the poor food service at Maxima, we would have gone to Haguimit Falls sooner and enjoyed the cool waters longer. =S

Our first day was perhaps the most expensive day of our trip! We spent almost 1,000 plus each because the habal-habal rate suddenly inflated after we have finished our trip from 400 pesos per motorcycle to 750 pesos! Grabe! If we only knew. We capped the day with a dinner at the Famous Fifties restaurant at Crowne Regency. Food was okay and reasonably priced, not really superb but enough to fill four hungry stomachs tired from touring Samal Island. =)

Prologue: On our Day 1 of the Davao Adventour courtesy of Crowne Regency Davao, the itinerary was changed from park tours to a tour at Maxima Aqua Fun.

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When I learned that Maxima Aqua Fun was at Samal Island, the imagery of pristine white sand beaches flashed on my mind ‘coz that was exactly what this island has become famous for. I was asleep most of the duration of the trip to Maxima Aqua Fun so when I woke up, I was dismayed with what I saw. No. There were no white-sand beaches or cottages to rent. The place looked deserted but it was also the middle of the week so that wasn’t really surprising. I was hoping I could lounge around under the shade of a beach umbrella, but how can you expect umbrellas when there aren’t even any beachy shoreline in sight. Instead, there were two giant slides made of tarpaulin leading you to the great abyss underwater. Before you start squirming, swimmers and non-swimmers alike are mandated to wear life jackets before they even think of staying anywhere near the water. And even if perhaps you’re one of the world’s greatest swimmers, I’m sure you’ll feel obliged to wear one after seeing the water’s depth.

We were starving when we arrived Maxima Aqua Fun but the boatman told us that there was a canteen where we could order food from. Much to our (additional) dismay, they didn’t have anything on the menu except grilled bangus and a few pieces of longganisa which were of course, overpriced. I was surprised when she showed me the bill which she manually wrote and added (no barcode scanner in sight). We weren’t the only people in the place. There were about three/four other groups who chose to spend their Wednesday lunchtime at Maxima Aqua Fun but we were (along with another group of Metrodeal guests) the only ones who didn’t bring any baon . Everyone except us, knew that Maxima Aqua Fun is more of a family picnic place. I should have known better. =S

We ended up waiting almost 2 hours for the grilled bangus and two pieces of longganisa. My group was famished and tired from being up all night for our very early morning flight. Imagine that! The other Metrodeal guests decided to just go back to the hotel when the ferry left at lunch. We decided to give the place a chance. Before our trip, I had a number of private message exchanges with another Metrodeal customer “Tabularasa08″ from Girltalk forums who was in Davao a week back before us. She told me that instead of staying at Maxima Aqua Fun, her group just decided to explore the island on a habal-habal. (For the uninitiated, riding a habal-habal means hitching a ride on a motorcycle which is a famous mode of transportation in the provinces.) We decided to do the same.

(To be continued)

Before I finally marched for the 7th time for a graduation rite, I hopped on the plane with Bee and my two brothers in tow for a Davao adventure. Actually, this Davao trip was unplanned and if not for the Metrodeal discount offer that I stumbled upon last April, we wouldn’t have even thought of going to Davao. All four of us were Davao first-timers and this was actually our first trip together as a group – minus the parents. I didn’t really know what to expect.

I bought the vouchers last April and minutes after I bought them, I immediately called up Crowne Regency to book a trip. I initially booked for two standard rooms but I had to request for an “upgrade” a week before the trip since my mom wasn’t coming with us anyway. From a two standard room accommodation, we upgraded to a family villa. (Crowne Regency is actually offering the deal at their website. 7,499 for 2 people in a standard room accomodation or 14,998 for a group of 4 in a family villa. Same inclusions for both deals.) Also a week before the trip, I received a call from Crowne Regency informing me of the changes in the itinerary. Instead of a day tour at Crocodile Farm, Butterfly House, Tribu K’ Mindanawan and Zip City on the first day, we were scheduled to visit Samal Island and Maxima Aqua Fun instead. We took the first flight to Davao c/o Cebu Pacific and took the cab to Crowne Regency when we arrived at the airport (airport transfers are not included in the package). The trip to Crowne Regency cost us 120 pesos. Although the real check-in time was 2 pm, we were lucky that our room was available as early as 6 am so we were able to take a nap before going to Samal Island. As soon as we were ushered to our villa, I was pleasantly surprised to see a two-floor unit complete with a living room, kitchen and a comfort room on the first floor and two large rooms with a common bathroom on the second floor. The larger room had a queen-sized bed and the other room had two single beds with fine, crisp linens (sferra linens?). We also had a small veranda and a TV set was placed inside the bigger room (no tv downstairs!). At 8 am, we waited at the lobby for the van that will take us to the wharf. We met four other tourists who also availed of the Metrodeal offer (a couple and the girl’s mother and father). Apparently it was their second day in Davao. When we got to the wharf, a little confusion ensued when we were told by the locales that there was no boat ride to Maxima Aqua Fun on a Wednesday! We had to call up the hotel to confirm and we were instructed to just wait for the boat. A few minutes later, a large pumpboat docked at the wharf. The trip to Samal Island approximately lasted 30-45 minutes (?) and when we got to Maxima Aqua Fun, I was dismayed.

(To be continued)

Trivia: The Philippines is home to earthquakes, typhoons and volcanic eruptions save for one place in this country. Do you know where?

Did I hear you say Palawan? Great guess! According to our van driver-slash-tour guide, the only place in the Philippines that’s safe from these natural calamities is the province of Palawan. Hearing this statement, the idea of moving to Palawan in the future has become more likely. I recently visited Puerto Princesa and immediately fell in love with the beauty and cleanliness of the place. Who wouldn’t fall in love with a city within a forest?

Frankly, I wasn’t expecting to travel to Palawan this year if not for the invite Bee got from one of his old high school buddies last January. The next thing we know, we were already booking our tickets to Puerto Princesa and has been looking forward to the vacation since then. But the road to Palawan was not a smooth and easy one – figuratively and literally. I’m saving the stories for next time though after I finish transferring all the pictures I took with my digicam (nope not with htc incredible s virgin, though I wish I had one. Hehe.)

Don’t you really hate it when your inbox gets all flooded with nothing but spam? I opened my other email recently and almost fell off my chair when I saw this:

OMG! 40,000+ emails???!?!?! It even surpassed my other email account which I’ve been keeping for years! I hurriedly opened my inbox and realized where all these spam messages are coming from.

Yep. From this blog. Boo! Turns out my Akismet has been deactivated all along since God-knows-when! No wonder I have 3,000+ approved comments and another 3,000+ pending comments in my dashboard! Since I’m officially free from hospital duties, looks like someone’s gonna do a major cleanup of her blogs. I blame it on seo moz and what-have-yous. These people dying to be on top of google search are spreading spam like some virus. Curse them!

For sure, anyone (even those with healthcare jobs) who spend almost 24 hours of their waking time on the internet have heard of the countless deal/discount sites like Ensogo and Cashcashpinoy and has probably bought one or two deals from sites like this. I for one have been addicted to buying deals online. But then, with the countless of deals available, how do we spot the deal from the no deal? I’m sure a lot of people out there have fallen preys to the “no deals”. A good example is the spa deal that I bought from Cashcashpinoy for 500 bucks. I bought the deal in January and was enticed because it was advertised at 60% off. A combination package of body massage, head massage and hand paraffin costing 1,250 pesos, yours for 500 bucks was very enticing to someone who loves pampering like me. I was able to consume the voucher only a few days ago because of my hectic schedule.

Getaway Spa is beautiful and spacious unlike the other low- to mid-range spas that I’ve been to. There was a jacuzzi, a sauna and a spacious locker area. They have a common room for the massage area so this is not the place for those who are very anxious about being seen naked by other people. Anyway, the therapist was good. She knew the strokes and soon, I fell asleep. Of course, I was expecting more. After all, the voucher said it was worth 1,250 right? I was treated to a hand paraffin – yup – just dipped my hands in warm paraffin for a few minutes plus a few minutes of head massage and whoa – everything was done. Although the massage was way above expectation, I felt cheated because after all, it was supposedly worth 1,250. However, the whole experience didn’t feel like it was worth that much as it was advertised. I also discovered that the Swedish massage that I had actually costed 500 bucks. It felt like I went there to pay for the massage and just had a few extras to top the experience off. Sadly, the extras didn’t feel like they costed 650 more. I was utterly disappointed. Anyway, I still might go back to the spa in the future because I loved the ambiance and the massage. But for sure, I’d be very wary of buying spa deals from group-buying sites again. I hope you do too.