Madayaw Davao: Sunburn

Off to Samal Island!

A trip to Davao wouldn't be complete without dropping by Samal Island. As beach lovers, we dedicated an entire day for that. We even woke up at 5 AM just so we can make the most out of our beach trip. This time, Kuya Jovan was our driver. To get to Samal Island, you have to ride a barge that takes you from the city to the island, similar to the RORO - only smaller. I think the entire ride lasted for only 15-20 minutes, we didn't even have to get out of the van except to take pictures.

Hagimit Falls and Nature Park

First stop: Hagimit Falls. For an entrance fee of Php 50, you can go and take a look around the area. But if you want to go swimming in the upper portion of the falls where the water is more crystal clear, you have to pay extra since it's being managed by another resort. Weird, right? With the entrance fee, I guess you can swim in the lower part of the falls. But after seeing the locals who were bathing and washing their clothes near the water source, we had to pass. We've seen better. Even Kuya Jovan doesn't recommend the place. We ended up talking about Surigao's beautiful Enchanted River and Butuan's majestic Tinuy-an Falls instead. So after taking a couple of pictures, we headed to Maxima Aqua Fun Resort - where the real fun begins.

The giant water slide. Bow.

If you're an adrenaline junkie, dropping by Maxima Aqua Fun Resort is a must! After all, they are famous for their giant water slides. And if there's such a thing as an adrenaline junkie with a terrible fear of heights, that would be me.

Mission accomplished! Look at all those happy faces.

Upon arrival at the resort, we paid Php 200 for the entrance fee which includes the use of cottages, canopy walk and unlimited use of the water slides. Aside from Ate Light, we were all giant slide virgins. So naturally, we all chickened out after seeing the slide in person! Haha We even let some people go ahead of us just so we could see someone else do it. But even that wasn't enough to convince us so we asked (more like peer-pressured) Ate Light to go first. After seeing her all happy below, I felt better and decided to give it a go. But not without mentally preparing myself and repeatedly saying "Kuya, wag mo ko tutulak ha. Ako na kusang bibitaw." Me and my trust issues.

Sariling sikap!

Honestly, my chest and stomach hurt after my first try. And I think I kind of swallowed a bit of water because of all that screaming. But nonetheless, it was fun! So we went for another go. This time, we knew how to land in the water better so it was more fun. Since the climb back to the slide was tiring, we stayed for a while in the water and took our own versions of souvenir photos. :))

Just keep swimming!

After a couple of slides, we decided to head for the even bigger slide! It's the mother of all giant slides I tell ya! It seems shorter than the previous one but way steeper. We even saw a group of boys back out which is not helpful at all. As usual, we peer-pressured Ate Light to go first.

The mother of all giant water slides!

Out of the six of us, Ate Light, Jeng and I were the only ones brave enough to try the bigger slide. Vanie wanted to but because of her back problems, she decided to stand by the side lines instead. To be honest, I had more fun with the bigger slide because it's faster and more exciting. You should've seen the big splashes we made as we landed in the water.

The brave ones.

To show Faye and Erin how fun it was and to encourage them to try it as well, we went for a second go. We finally got to convince Erin after some words of encouragement which sounded more like threats. :)) But after her turn, we were all stunned and worried. It looked like she tumbled off the slide or something. Scary. And as expected, Faye backed out after seeing Erin's little stunt.

Unfortunately, yes. :(

If not for the sea of garbage we had to swim, I'd gladly go for another turn. It's really sad and unfortunate how the garbage from a nearby town flows freely into the water. Definitely not something you'll expect from a tourist spot. A real turn-off. I hope the local government does something to address this.

Thanks for all the fun, Maxima Aqua Fun Resort!

Too bad, we were not able to try the other activities Maxima Aqua Fun Resort has to offer but the two giant water slides were enough to make our visit worth the trip.

We're on a boat!

Next stop: Isla Reta! Isla Reta Resort is located at Talikud Island which is at the back of Samal Island. To get there, you can take the passenger banca or you can rent your own like we did. We didn't get to the port in time to board the public banca so we asked Kuya Jovan to look for a small banca that we can rent even if it costs more. To our surprise, we found one at only Php 350. Not bad, considering you get your very own banca. Sashaaaal~!

Loving the priva-sea!

We originally planned to book Island Banca Cruises for our island hopping but due to budget constraints, we had to pass. And thank God we did! We had our own private little banca at a more affordable price! Privacy doesn't have to be expensive after all. ;)

Cool wind + beautiful view = perfect relaxation.

The coolest part of having the banca all to ourselves? We could sit at the ledge outside the banca all throughout the trip. The view was breathtaking and the fresh wind felt great on our sun-burnt skin. Super relaxing! And of course, we could take tons of pictures without annoying other passengers.

At the beautiful Isla Reta.

It surprised me how Isla Reta's white sand reminded me of my favorite Boracay. Shells were scattered all over the beach though so I couldn't take off my flip-flops even if I wanted to. I guess the "No shell-picking" rule is strongly enforced on the island.

What was even more surprising than Isla Reta's white sand was the fact that we didn't go straight to the water or walk along the beach to take pictures. We went straight to the cottages instead and lied down while the organizers went to order lunch. This is definitely one of the chillax holidays I've been to. No rushing, no stress. Just pure relaxation by the beach.

The food took a while to prepare, we finished an entire can of Pringles Honey Mustard (new favorite!) before it arrived. And when that wasn't enough, we followed up our order a couple of times. After more than an hour of waiting, our food finally arrived. Incomplete though. We were so famished by that time, we started eating the tinola while waiting for the fish. In fairness, the tinola was really tasty. It would've been better if it arrived on time.

Fun, fun, fun in the water!

After lunch, it's time to finally hit the beach! First, we went around the island and had the usual photo ops. After seeing most of the island, we finally took a dip. Ahh~ so relaxing! Funny how we kept trying to take group shots with Erin holding the camera. After several failed attempts, we gave up. Haha

By 3 PM, we went back to our spot and had pancit for merienda. It was a bit salty for me so I only ate a little. By this time, the passenger banca would be taking the day-trippers back to Samal Island. People kept asking us if we'll be staying overnight because we weren't getting on the boat. Little did they know, we have our sundo which will be picking us up around 4 PM. Hihi

Goodbye, Isla Reta!

Since we wanted to be on time for our sundo, we didn't bother to shower properly on the island. We just washed ourselves off a bit - just enough to get all the sand and sea water off. Back in Samal Island, we met up with Kuya Jovan and drove to the port. We were still hyper from the day's activities, it took a while before we realized the van is no longer moving. It seemed unreal to have traffic in this small island but lo and behold! The "traffic" was actually the line to the barge. Kalokaaaa! Apparently, most day-trippers are coming back to the mainland the same time as us! Boo. So the barge turned out to be more similar with the RORO than we expected. *le sigh*

We couldn't do anything about it so we just made the most out of the situation by reading newspapers, singing along to the radio, watching street vendors and taking naps. It was starting to get a little dark and I was starting to panic a little. We must make it to the mainland before rainfall as it usually rains in Davao during nightime. After more than an hour of waiting, we finally made it to the barge. While we were in the middle of the sea, it started to rain. Really hard. Good thing, the trip was short so even though it was a bit scary, there's really no need to panic.

The girls still looking pretty even after our tiring but super fun adventure.

The van we rented was good for 12 hours but because of the rush hour, we were running out of time. We wanted to try out Lachi's really bad so we asked Kuya Jovan to drive us there fast before the restaurant closes at 8 PM. We arrived at Lachi's around 7:30 PM still in our beach attire. It was raining really hard by then and our clothes were still damp but we didn't care. We've got an excuse. We're tourists!

I ordered Beef Salpicao while the rest of the girls ordered Unforgettable Pork Ribs which according to them was really unforgettable. I wanted to have a refreshing glass of lemonade but after seeing their tea selection, I just had to change my order to French Vanilla tea instead while Vanie and Ate Light tried the Mangosteen tea.

After placing our orders, I hurriedly went to their chiller to pick out pastries that I'll gladly take home with me back to Manila. I ordered Red Velvet Cupcake (duh), Black and White Fudge Bar, Macadamia White Choco Bar, and Amaretto Fudge Bar all to go. Happy with my selection, I went back to our table only to find out they already ordered macarons to go. Aaahh!! I totally forgot about the macarons! So I ordered three pieces for Php 100 as well.

Perfect ending to a perfect day.

Now on to the desserts! Lachi's is obviously known for their sans rival but boy, all the cakes we tried were delish! We originally ordered three cakes for the six of us since we were stuffed but we ended up ordering one more because the cakes were that good! We ordered Classic Sans Rival, Dulce de Leche Cheesecake, and Regal Chocolate Cake at first but ended up adding Durian Cheesecake to the line up because we haven't had any Durian-flavored dish that day and it just doesn't seem right. Their Sans Rival was so good, we bought some to go. Eh sinong nang-hoard ng desserts? Haha It's official. We love Lachi's! And I love the fact that it actually reminds me of our beloved Chocolate Kiss Cafe. Hay Lachi's, we're definitely coming back to Davao for you!


Traveling party: Erin, Faye (organizer), Jeng, Light, Sera, and Vanie (organizer)
Travel date: 20 August 2012 [Day 2]
Photo credits: Faye, Light, Vanie