Day 2 : Samal Island Hoping

     Since we got a tiresome experience from our Water Rafting, we have a hard time waking up in the morning for our next Escapade.

      We were supposed to wake up 5AM for us to get to the SASA port by 7AM so that it is not yet heat burning for our skin from the sun.  Unfortunately, we woke up 7AM, and we are not bothered by the time, and we feel we still want to sleep. We get our senses back around 730AM, and decided to have breakfast.. get down to the cafeteria in our pajamas.. (ahhhmmm in their pajamas rather.. since I am not used to sleeping in pajamas.. I slept with my maong on, to counter the cold aircon..)

The place was nice and enticing, since the ambiance is clean and well organized. It even has a sala for chitchats, and place to relax on the sofa.

      The breakfast meal is.. ammm if I'm not mistaken, its P115 for 1 viand, 1 side dish (veggies or egg, and 1 rice..

       

       After eating, we went back to our room,and  we went for a shower (of course not all at once, hehehe).. Girls first, and obviously I'm the last. Girls are to long taking showers, that's a given.. and I would be the last since I am fast taking the shower, with no more ritual whatsoever and I myself is fast in dressing up, so I could catch up with them...hehehe

At around 9AM, we left the Dormitel, and asked the guard of the building for instruction how to get to the port, SaSa where we will ride a barge to Samal Island.

     We took a ride on a jeep from Quirino St., and it cost us P17.00 to Sasa Port. When we get to Sasa port, which is at the right side, we bought tokens which cost only P10 each.. we were in shock, that the fare of the barge was just that cheap. Even regardless it is just a 10 minute travel of the barge going to the next island, but still it is way cheaper that we expected. I expected it to be P30-P40 pesos. 

When we arrived at Samal Island, we know for a fact that the only public transportation there is by Habal-Habal, which that is what they call their normal motorcycle which can carry a min of 2 passengers and a max of 4 passengers.

We arrange an agreement to one of the Habal-Habal to rent his service for the whole day trip on Samal Island. It was the best arrangement, than be commuting to every destination that we will be going, and it would cost at more money and time since not every tourist destination have Habal-Habal riders at our beck and call. Both of us and the driver on the fee of P1000 (originally P1200 for the whole day), and since I know a few Bisaya language words, I manage to negotiate in their language to get that discount.

Our first Stop:   Monfort Bat Colony: the Defending record of Guinness World Records

Ticket: P100

Rating: 9 out of 10 ( ********* )

As detailed discussed by our down to earth guide, the Monfort Bats as they called them, got their names because the Cave that they lived in was owned by  Ms. Monfort, and managed by the preservation organization.

The bats are sensitive to bright flashes, so we are only allowed to take pictures provided no flashes. At night, they would get out from their cave as a group, to eat for food, and since they are fruit bats, they main food is fruits. I asked our guide (sorry I forgot her name), if what are the common fruits they commonly eat, and she said mostly Guyabano, ripe mangoes, etc. and they could not eat Durian fruits (which is the main fruit of Davao), why? because of its thick covering which they could not get in to the fruit. But this fruit bats is the main pollinators of their Durian fruits. Without this fruit bats, Durian will never bear so much fruit in Davao. Why? The Durian flower only blooms at midnight, and the only capable that could pollinate them are the fruit bats.

  

The cave have 4 holes, which as mammals, they are also quite civilized and have designations for every members of their colony.

> 1st opening, as far as a remember is their Maternity ward, which all their female bats stay for breeding. They have a Queen, which also a unique queen since it is an Albino Queen Fruit bat. You are very lucky to see among the 1 million bats, to see their Queen even it is white complexion due to it rarely expose herself at the opening.

>2nd opening, is the Mating Ward.

>3rd opening, are their Training Ward. This is where their small youngs are trained. If you can see, the opening is a bit wide for their flying practice.

>4th opeining, is the Senior Citizen Ward.  this is the opening that is far from the other opening, and this is the most quiet Ward among all other 3 openings. These is where all the old bats stay and die. Do you ever wonder why this ward is the most quiet ward? Because like humans and mammal, old bats are now sensitive to loud noises.. 

The manure of the bats are called "Guano". Guanos have very fowl odors, which have high content of Potassium Nitrate, which is the main components for making gunpowder. Before many are harvesting these Guanos for that purpose, but then it was later prohibited for the reason that the fruit bats might be disturbed from their habitat, and be forced to leave the cave. For the Guiness World record holder, and the importance of the fruit bats in the agricultural aspect of Durian Pollination, Guano harvesting was stopped.

2nd Stop: Hagimit Falls
Environmental Fee: P5
Ticket: P40

Hagimit Falls, is a natural falls with a part of man-made reconstruction, which were made as a public resort.

There is not much of a view to start with, and the only view was the falls itself. To check it out, it is not attract my interest, not even a twitch. Maybe because, the place was much of a commercialized venue than a natural tourist spot.

Rating: 2 out 10  ( ** )

3rd Stop: Kaputian then Island Hop to Talikud Island ( Isla Reta)
Boat fare: P20
Habal-Habal: P6

Rating: 9 out of 10

Our next destination is Kaputian.  Kaputian is a town in Samal Island famous for its white sand. The duration of the travel is almost an hour from the pier itself, which it is somewhere on the other side of the island. Brace yourself for the most tiring travel if you are the middle passenger, which will create cramps on your groins and thighs. hahahaha

Kaputian is not much of a tourist spot, but it is the way to get to the other island..called Talikod. I think the name of the island speak for itself. "Talikod" in Bisaya for "Back" which it is literally at the back of  Samal Mainland.

Upon arrival, you will get to the pier for the boat to get to you to Talikod Island. We heard from the other Habal-Habal Island that one of the good resort is the Isla Reta, we didn't get much to visit the other resort and we stayed for awhile in Isla Reta. 

The ticket per head is P100. You could see other tourist, who have brought their tent for an overnight experience.

You will notice that their sand texture was so fine, and you could not see any garbage floating in the area, or even in the water area either. The resort was really managed properly.

We have no more time to swim for a bit since our time is limited and it is a bit late already and we have no plans to get an overnight stay at the resort. The boat going back to Kaputian will be back soon, and no more other boat to ride if we stay a bit more further.

We just enjoyed the view, and admired the scenery. Gosh, we wish we have more time to stay.. but off we must go or we will be stranded in Talikod Island for good for this day.

On our way back, there is no Habal Habal available at the exit of the resort, so we were force to walk back to the pier. It was just a kilometer walk, so we didn't bother walking. At the end, we see some Habal Habal drivers signalling us that we should hurry since the last boat will be leaving soon.

At last, we arrived on time before the last boat was about to leave. There are a few passengers, and the prior to leave, they requested if it is ok that we go now for P25 per head, and we said we are ok with that so we could be leaving early back to Kaputian.

At the pier, our driver was waiting for us. And that we hopped in at the motorcycle and hurried back to the pier back to Davao.

Day 1: Davao River Water Rafting

Our Davao Adventures

Well, we got our ticket from a peso fare of Cebu Pacific a year ago, so we got still time to save some more budget for our pocketmoney and allocate for the expenses for the trip.

Unluckily, some of our companions have back-out from the trip, and we are 3 left, and we have to juggle on some recalculations of our trip 1 month before the said date. In the trip, it is really an advantage if you travel in large group since most of the activities requires big groups so you could have a big discounts or you could successfully pursue on the reserve slot. Some activities can't be done if you are 2 or 3 persons which in some like water rafting, needs a minimum of 6 persons for the schedule to pursue, and if your lucky you have other tourist that goes with your schedule day, then you could be in one group.

This was the disadvantage of un-trustworthy companions that be backing out.

Our trip to Davao was only for 3 days.. (actually 2 days and a half  since we will be flying back to Manila 12 noon.)

Our Flight schedule is in the morning at 3am, and mostly this is where the promo flights start at a very inconvenient time, in the morning..so we get to the airport at around 12midnight, and we have no more time to sleep.


Day 1:
We arrived at the Davao Airport around 5am, and we took the taxi since we haven't seen any public transportation around the area. And since Davao is known for the "Safest place in the country" I guess it is safe for us to take the taxi in this hour, and we won't be scammed by high taxi rates..( sorry, if you are used to living in Manila, this is normal for us to be worrying about this kind of stuff..)

We checked in to Green Windows Dormitel, which was  near Quirino Ave, near Davao Doctors Hospital (that's the closest Landmark that I remembered near our place, for taxi familiarization incase they don't know our Dormitel place, which indeed they are not familiar with it.)

So far, this is the first place that we stayed in that I like, due to good facilities. Clean bathrooms, towels, wide screen TV, Safebox, magnetic key card for the Door, and a lot more.. feeling tourist from a different country.:)





We got to sleep for a bit for an hour and a half, and by 7am, our alarm goes off for us to wake up, for our first activity, the Water Rafting.

We took a Taxi going to Crocodile Farm..where these is the place where the Davao Water Rafting is also located. In this place, where all the group of tourist interest have merged into one place, like zoo, crocodile farm, zipline, water rafting, and lots more.. Unfortunately we have no more time to visit them all due to time constraints, and we stick to the ones that we interest the most - Rafting.

For information of everyone, the Rafting needs a reservation and must deposit a down payment to the bank account for finality of the slot.

Our Water Rafting Experince

At the start, we were asked to fill up the form, which it is the Waiver form (that whatever happens.. blah blah blah.. Davao wild water rafting company will not be liable for any accidents, and it is solely the  riders responsibility)

Then we get to fit our headgears and lifejackets.. then off to the Comedy Briefing...

Then we traveled almost 1 hour going to the site (Davao River)

Then we have another briefing on the rules on the defensive swim (in case you fell off or thrown by the rapids / waves), proper paddling, holding of the paddle, and safety rules and precautionary measures.

And now, meet our best guide and head paddler , Boyong.. (his name was originated from Bouyance, because he is good in floating..hehehe just kidding.. but thats really his name/ nick name..)

Ours is the biggest and unique among the rest raft. It is the color red one, and the biggest among the 3 rafts.  The only disadvantage of this raft, aside from its big and hard to handle in paddling, it has no grip handles compared to other boats, and no partition in between so you get easily slips to the center of the boat, and I am guilty to that..

The rafting started around 11 am.. 

At around 12noon, we stopped by for our lunch. The Lunch is inclusive of the Fee (including Tshirt and DVD of the whole event.)

The experience was tremendous.. In the rating of this xtreme sport like this, it's an 8 out of 10. It should be a 9 out of 10 if the rapids was a bid more strong. Our guide said that the water level is not that high that's why the rapids was not that strong. If it should have rained a day before, the water level might have gone up. The level of difficulty, as per Boyong was just for beginners... well, nahhh... I was a bit dissatisfied on the level of it, since Boyong is keeping it to a minimal level due to we have 2 lady beginners, and they both experience abandoning the boat..hehehe unintentionally abandoning the boat.

It was a great 3-4 Hrs Water Rafting experience.  I didn't kept track of the time we spent at the Davao River itself, because we have a hell of a good time. It was a fun experience, and I would love to do it again, and when that time comes, I wanna make sure, or at least get to Davao on a Rainy Season so that the rapids would be more challenging.