Samal Island and Davao: Home of the BEST Pomelo! :)

Let me tell you my short backstory on Davao. This should have been my 2nd time to be in Davao if not for Ondoy last 2009. Back then, everything has been arranged for our Davao trip. When I say everything, I meant plane tickets (which were purchased early Feb of that year), hotel and even itinerary. What happened was I had to choose between the rescheduled (it was moved 1 week after because of the floods on the day of the test) LET (Licensure Exams for Teachers) and Davao trip. Since it was my permanency year that year (which means that I need to have my license to be on permanent status), I decided to skip the Davao trip. My only regret was that I missed Eauj's proposal to Joan which happened in Davao. Nevertheless, I knew that I made the right decision at that moment :)

Fast forward to 2012, when Alex and I were thinking of a place to visit with our respective families, I guess Davao was always at the back of my mind for me to decide that it's going to be Davao for us! :D 

So when Cebu Pacific had their 12-12-12 sale, I didn't think twice about booking flights for the 6 (3 from Alex's side and 3 from my side) of us to Davao :)

From the day that we've finally booked our plane tickets, I've been researching on the places to visit, things to do and hotels where  we can stay. This is a BIG thing for us because: 1) this is the first time that Alex's family and my family will be together in a trip, 2) this is the first time for my sister, Rea Mae, to ride a plane :D and 3) this is the first time that I am bringing my mother and sister in an out of town trip where I will pay for EVERYTHING :)  If you know me well, you can already imagine how planning for this trip takes up my time. But believe me when I say that I always consider planning trips as happy "problem". 

After all the planning and researching, it was so sad that only Alex can join us on the trip. His mom and sister were not able to join us since it is already the 2nd week of school and Dianne did not want to miss 4 days of school especially since she is on her 5th (graduating) year in her course. 

As always, let me share the photos that we were able to take in our trip (again, all the "behind the scenes" will be shared in a separate post :)

my HANDSOME boyfriend!!! Kilig to the bones! :D

we were laughing at this page from Smile (Cebu Pacific's inflight magazine) because this is Alex's full name also! :D 

When I asked my sister and mother if they wanted to stay in city proper or by the beach, they said that they prefer to stay by the beach. Therefore, I reserved  our 4 full days in Samal Island.

Manong Jun (Island Garden Resort in Pangubatan's driver) picked us up at the airport and when we woke up (we were all sleeping since our flight left manila at 3:45 am!) we were already near the resort in Samal Island :D

Welcome! Tuloy po kayo :)

These are the activities that we did while we were in Samal Island :)

we wake up to this view every morning! nice! 

proof that I've been munching on too much unhealthy junk! hihihi

the resort's one and only tree house! sweet , romantic and adventurous :) we did not get it though because of my mother, hehe :)

creative shot of my sister! admit it, she has the "eye"

My mother and sister doing their selfies! :D

they soak up the sun on Day 2

bangkeros on Day 1! :D

Our 1st couple shirt! These shirts were custom made in Palawan :) 

Night shot! First time to wear dress on a trip! Pardon the NOO! :D

And the highlight of our Samal Island stay would have to be scuba diving!! :D This is the first time for both Alex and Rea Mae while the 2nd time for me :)

Some creatures that we saw :)

we found Nemo!!!! :D

Oooops, peeking Nemo :D

Honestly though, the sea creatures were not as colorful and diverse as compared to what we saw in Coron (when we had snorkeling!) :( However, since it is the first time for Alex and Rea Mae, they had a great experience and are seriously considering to go back to Davao and get a diving license since Davao has the cheapest deals! :)

To conclude our Samal Island adventure, let me give my special awards for the trip *drum roll*

The forever nerbyosa award goes to....

ME!!!! Though it is already my 2nd time to dive, my nerbyos still got the worse of me AT THE BEGINNING, hehehe...Look at my nerbyos face! :p

The "kaldereta" award goes to...

ALEX!!! Bagay na bagay ang attire di ba? :) at magaling at hindi naman sya mukhang kabado
at smooth na smooth sa ilalim ng tubig BUT after the dive e eto na sya...

Ayun sya! natatakjpan ko! Dahil nagsusuka! Sinuka nya lahat ng kalderatang kinain nya nung lunch! Sabay sisi sa amin ng "kayo kasi e! hindi nyo inubos ang food nyo so ako ang umuubos lahat!" Hahahah :D

The rookie award goes to...

REA MAE!!! According to her instructor,s he was really GOOD! E kahit kailan naman e malakas
ang loob nya e :) At sabi nung assistant e kalahati lang daw ang nagamit nyang air sa tank! Wow!
hindi humihinga?! :D

Like what I've mentioned above, our plan was to stay in Samal Island the entire time! However, the youngest member of the delegation, hehehe, was already bored so we decided to go to Davao City proper on the 3rd day. These are our photos in Davao City :)

at the wharf in Samal Island going to Davao City proper

 After checking inn at our hotel in Davao and eating breakfast,we then proceeded to the "nearest" tourist attraction in the city :)

When you buy a ticket at the Crocodile Park, they will give you entrance stubs to 3 different places: Butterfly house, Park that show houses of different tribes (I forgot the name :p) and Crocodile Park :)

so who is THE boss?! :D

After visiting the places above and buying our pasalubong (fresh pomelo and assorted candies), we decided to proceed to SM Lanang and eat our lunch at KFC! :p

And bought some supplies...

ayos lang at matagal tagal pa naman kami babalik dito eh! :p

In our search for a good place to eat for dinner, the cab driver brought us here...

yummy sinigang soup :)

In the different parts of Pinas that I've been to, sinigang has a lot of variations! I guess it depends on the veggies available in the place :)

This trip is definitely one for the books!

PS: As I write this post, we've almost finished the box (with 7 pieces) of golden fruits pomelo that we bought! Davao has indeed the BEST pomelo! Woohoo! :)