Friends Swarm to Davao City

Yes, I used the term swarm because these friends are entomologists (people who study insects or work on concerns related insects) who came over for the Annual Conference and Meeting of the Pest Management Council of the Philippines.  The gathering is being held at the Waterfront (Insular) Hotel , Lanang, Davao City until Friday.

We were really glad to see old friends and acquaintances from the academe, industry and business who came from different parts of the country yesterday afternoon.  We also enjoyed the night with food, wine, videoke and dancing during the Philippine Association of Entomologists, Inc.'s Fellowship Night.










Besides renewing friendships and updating one another, we were also able to get information and assistance in connection with our 60-day road trip this summer.

Very significant is an information about Donsol, Sorsogon when a friend from Bicol mentioned butanding (whale sharks) and fireflies. Wow...it blew our minds upon knowing that we can just have a sidetrip when we get to Bicol from our original Mt. Mayon tour plan. The kids would definitely love Donsol. Now I have to see if we have enough time to insert this as we need to be in Laguna by March 27. I need to get more info to make the adjustments.

We also got phone numbers of friends who we can visit in Albay, Benguet and Nueva Ecija. Giving in to our friends' invitation to party was indeed a wise decision and time well spent.

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Contact Information for Travelers to Surigao Del Norte

I had a pleasant morning today as I was able to obtain really helpful information from the Provincial Tourism Office of Surigao del Norte. This is the second time I called this office and my experience had been very positive.

I've been interested in information related to Sohoton Cove, Siargao, Bucas Grande, Socorro, Claver, boat rides, Lipata Ferry Port and Surigao City accommodations.

As an avid traveler and good citizen, I feel it's my duty to share the information that I obtained from various sources. Often, the contact numbers one gets from websites that are not regularly updated (especially static ones) are not functional, and so it's quite frustrating.

The numbers below can help you get information that are not readily available in the internet:

PROVINCIAL TOURISM OFFICE: (+63) 86-2319271 Romy & Chat were really helpful

SURIGAO CITY TOURISM OFFICE: (+63) 86-8268064

LIPATA PORT (for ferry schedule, etc.): (+63) 921-5905210

SOHOTON COVE PARK: (+63) 939-4235793 c/o Dodo

SOCORRO MUNICIPALITY WEBSITE: www.socorro.gov.ph

SOCORRO TOURIST ASSISTANCE: (+63) 919-9686796 c/o Lyka

These are the numbers that are functional at the time of writing. Please let me know if you encounter any problem, so I can try to update/correct the information.

I will be posting more travel information when I have personally verified the contact numbers. I am also accumulating information about accommodations that are not easily obtainable from existing websites.

As of this writing, only one ferry (of three) is servicing the Lipata, Surigao del Norte - Liloan, Southern Leyte route. The other two are dry-docked for regular maintenance in preparation for the peak travel season during summer.

Note: +63 is the country code for the Philippines
86 is the area code for Surigao del Norte
three digit area codes starting with '9' are mobile phone numbers

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Calls to Surigao del Norte

Made some phone calls today to get information about Surigao and other possible arrangements when we get to that area. I got some of my questions answered but had to wait for tomorrow and a few more days to satisfy my other queries.

The Provincial Tourism Office of Surigao del Norte was able to assist me by referring me to their local counterparts. I confirmed that there is indeed an option to stay in the mainland and kick off from Claver port, which is the nearest point to go to Sohoton Cove.

There's also a better option of staying in Bucas Grande Island instead of Siargao Island if one is more interested in a Sohoton visit than surfing. The owner of Hidden Island Resort was more accommodating than the foreigner (owner?) I spoke to about Club Tara. Hidden Island Resort can make arrangements for our car parking in the mainland and the boat ride to the island.

I have yet to speak to the Tourism Officer of Socorro Municipality, the LGU in-charge of Sohoton Park, where most of our activities will be done...especially the swimming with non-stinging jellyfish. The cell number seemed to be always out of reach. It was the same with the Tourism Officer of Claver who failed to answer my calls, while "all lines are busy" in their office landline.

As for the ferry schedule, only one ferry is doing the route between Lipata, Surigao del Norte and Liloan, Southern Leyte today as two of the vessels are dry-docked for maintenance. This is regularly done in preparation for the peak travel season starting in April. I just hope there will be more trips on March 23/24 when we need to cross the gap between Mindanao and Leyte.

I will be posting the numbers I used to get information as references or travel resources online when I confirm that the lines are indeed functional.

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March is Marching In Strong

There's no holding it back! March is finally here.

With so much to do to prepare for our vacacion grande to kick off this month, we are feeling the pressure.  Indeed, the excitement is accompanied by an overwhelming feeling of awe-- in a sense that this is our first road trip that entails thousands of kilometers of travel, and we'll be away from home for about 60 days! 

We have already made general arrangements for what we are leaving behind for two months, but then again the devil is in the details.  So, to-do lists or checklists are needed for the various aspects of our responsibilities-- in the actual travel (schedule, route, accommodation, etc.) and in what we're leaving behind (bills, subscriptions, etc.)

Unrelated to family events and milestones, March is also special as "Araw ng Dabaw" is celebrated this month.  I was reminded about it this afternoon when I heard radio ads promoting gimmicks of certain local establishments to celebrate Araw ng Dabaw.

So far, what I found out is that the 2010 Araw ng Dabaw celebrations will be compressed in three days on March 14 to 16 instead of five to seven days in the past. Nonetheless, we can still expect the regular Araw ng Dabaw highlights such as Mutya ng Dabaw, Datu Bago Awards, Museo Dabawenyo Historical Exhibit, Agro-Industrial Fair, SaliDabaw, Sayawan sa Da’n, Banda Hudyaka, People’s Park Presents, and Parada Dabawenyo...just packed in these three days. This 73rd City Charter Anniversary will revolve around the theme of "Stability is Power" and "Women Empowerment."  The latter is in line with the International Women's Month, which is celebrated in March.

So expect much activity in this travel blog as we approach our final 20 days of preparation for our island travel adventure. Celebrations that fall this month would also be highlighted.  Perhaps we can jumpstart by posting photos of landmarks and events around Davao in the next few days.

So, let March march in strong...and let's not be caught unprepared. Cheers!

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It's Road Trip for Us, Air Trip for Lolo

As the start of our Island Travel Adventure nears, we are now less than four weeks away, some decisions had to be made regarding our travel arrangements.

One of the formidable challenges in this whole project is having to consider concerns of/about individual family members.

Our two school-age kids have been warned ahead of time that they should not have any backlogs in their school requirements as we're leaving on the same week their classes end. There's a not-so-subtle threat of risking being left behind should they fail to accomplish everything before our date of departure.

Our two younger kids, a tot and an infant, have no scheduling conflicts. We anticipate that they would have more requirements to be met on the actual road trip. Things like being in the car for more than an hour could be a big challenge. So we're carefully planning our strategies.

Our children's Lolo or grandfather who's been living with us in the past months would need special arrangements. He cannot endure the long road trip, so he has to travel by air. On top of that, he needs to be accompanied by an adult as he's not confident to travel alone anymore.

So, we need to ask our scholar to accompany him. We've asked her to plan her school requirements around our trip and she decided not to attend summer sessions so she can be with us in this family vacation. It looks like, instead of assisting us during the road trip to Luzon, she would be with Lolo all the time.

So we made arrangements with an Uncle to accompany us on the road. He immediately agreed as he can then spend the Holy Week in his home town and then he can return to Davao City after. So we're very thankful for him as there's a third adult to depend on for driving and other concerns as well as look after the kids during the road trip.

As for us, we also need to make arrangements with our writing commitments and issues/responsibilities that we would leave behind for two months.  Actually there's so many of them, that we should really make a physical list of things to do with corresponding deadlines to aid us with preparations.

So it's settled. Lolo will fly in to Manila with our scholar on March 24 using the plane tickets we bought that triggered all of these. We will do the road trip to Luzon with four kids and an Uncle. We're looking at March 23 as the ideal date to leave from Davao.

We appreciate the suggestions we received when we asked about what option to take between road trip and air travel with many different combinations, including sending the family car via Superferry.  Your feedback helped us see many viewpoints before making our decision.

As for now, the decision on the sticky issue related to the six non-refundable but rebookable (with penalty) plane tickets can still be postponed. The choices are whether to just forget about it and charge to experience *ouch!* or rebook (and pay about P4000 or $85 plus fare difference) to a distant date in the hope that we can eventually use it. What do you think?

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