The beginning of October, I headed to Davao for a short vacation. It was to say, interesting, with how much small details went awry.

First, after being reassured by a friend who was from Davao that their cab drivers were honest, we were taken for a long detour and asked for an extra P50 by the cab driver outside the airport.

Then we spent around more than an hour trying to find the right ferry to get to the part of Samal Island where our resort was.

An hour after we got to our resort, the power went our for a few hours, so even when we were feeling sick (got colds and a slight fever), we sat on a cabana beachside.

Relaxing in the cabana, we felt good. Even ordered shakes that we reassured them that we would wait for (since they couldn’t make them coz blenders were out of commission), it was fun, the beach air, pillows, the crash of the waves rocking us to sleep.

Then a storm started, which we were going to wait out, but the winds got too crazy that the cabanas were getting scary and glasses were getting knocked down, so we went back to our room, which, after a couple hours, got power back.

All these things could have ruined the vacation for us, but we decided to make the most of it. Instead of being tourists, we decided to make it an actual vacation and take the time to just relax, which I can tend to forget when I’m in a new place, wanting to just absorb everything and go “tourist”. This vacation was actually a good way to unwind after weeks of training, and a good way to prep for the busy season at my job.

I even got the time to try a new sport, wakeboarding, which was stressful, crazy, but hecka fun. I can’t wait to get better at it (hopefully).

My only frustration was, I didn’t get to experience durian at its hometown in the Philippines, but trust me, I’ll be back.

Davao, I will taste your sweet, stinky fruit, mark my words. 🙂

But really, it was a weekend well spent. Amazingly relaxing, but not the boonies, that I actually felt like I could move there.

More weekends should be spent as serene as that one.