A Ferry Ride

As ever, my email is full of travel deal offers. Nowadays, very unlikely of me, I proceed to deleting them instead of rummaging over them in search of a fitted deal for my frequent family trips. A huge change  has gone over my family this year, which technically glued my feet inside our home to solely take care of my girls. I'm parenting 24/7. Alright, not fair to claim the credit all by myself. Husband actually, has never gone. He's still very much around. Thu' not so much physical but definitely 100% "around". In all aspect..


 
... virtually.everyday.7/24 during working days and yeah 24/7 on non-working days.

But him not physically around has put limit, if not totally ceased our little family adventures. If before with him around, he had already put limitations to what/where only was allowable, now I don't want to send worries to him by taking the girls on trip without him. If you're a family friend, you should know how oa protected this dad is to us.


 

But malls bored me to death. I don't shop. I mean shopping doesn't amuse me. Buying pricey bags, shoes, clothes would just end my day with heavy heart for slashing my wallet and after all would find no connection at all to these "lonely mom's toys". Long gone are my materialistic years. In my marriage and mom's life , a new matured me has emerged.

Now spot the difference of this photo of me and that of me in the previous one above. short and long hair? erk# haha. Seriously. Nothing has elated me so much as a nature trip. Need I say more?

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But for the meantime, I got to put my favorite activity on hold. While we are still in transition.  
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Meanwhile, traveling through my antiquated photos fill in the gaps.
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Ok, not that old actually. Just a tad over a  year old. Photos I hadn't posted yet but were somehow promised.
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Ready or not, let's go for a boat ride in Mindanao...

I never got bored traveling by water. I hail from a country with 7,107 islands. I practically have no choice but to have fun riding a boat to have reached some of them. # never as  pilot thu', haha. I just took the driver seat while he was still out.

 Mostly, I rode a local version of a boat called a "banca". A passenger boat/ferry  like that in the above photo is a typical boat used to reach a certain island here in our country. You can't simply jump out of an airplane to set foot in an island here. You have to add on a boat ride upon exiting an airport gate.



The interior is usually like this. Open air where passengers could enjoy the view of the sea. This kind is mostly used for short trip to a particular island coming from the mainland. Like a 30minutes to an hour long ride.

Personally, one of my favorite past times while riding a banca is to stare the parts of the boat which are called the "outriggers". I easily get lost in watching them slapping the blue sea water, until it's time to alight.




That.. in the absence of a perfect blue sea and whitish blue cottony sky. This was like less than 30 minutes away from the mainland Davao city.

Passing numerous islets in the middle of the sea  made this boat ride interesting.

More so when we passed near and had  better look of the islets. Look at the slides. It would be fun to make a stop here and swim. I almost forgot, this one wasn't an island hopping ride.I was bound to alight in one of the famous island resorts in the country.

Approaching my destination, resorts here and there were visible already.

However, a sad fact of being a third world country doesn't limit in the streets of the mainlands of our country. Right there in the middle of the sea were the versions of the street children/beggars. Throw a coin and they would swim deep to catch it. I don't know, but instead of getting entertained, my mother heart pitied these kids risking their lives to earn a living. Well, to console myself, I reckoned they must be excellent swimmers anyway.

I knew I was about to alight already when this beautiful facade of the resort appeared right on my very eyes.




How about staying a night or two in one of those pretty stilt cottages..

Well, have I mentioned that it was at The Pearl Farm in Samal Island, Davao? It was. Hop on there.

A Day Tour @ Kutang Bato

It was with uncertain excitement when a cousin dragged us to Cotabato City, cutting our leisure trip of Davao.  I was told Cotabato City is 4 hours drive from Davao City. We left shortly after early dawn and arrived at the earliest morning. It was not so 4 hours. Cousin drove so fast I swear we made it in less than 3 hours.




And guess what welcomed our initial sight of the city? Living to the image of  Cotabato ==> an armored car (a tank) !!!. .joining the traffic as if it was just an ordinary vehicle!. .or was it really just another transportation to the eyes of the locals who are used of seeing camouflage cars on a daily basis? Must be. .

Strangely enough, the moment I stepped a foot to this city, I immediately felt like I wasn't in my comfort zone. It felt like I was in a foreign land. Not in my own country. It didn't help that the locals are actually tagalog speaking.  Definitely this is a Muslim city. I was not sure if it was the armored car or the local covered women or the fierce image that Cotabato has allover the country, but my self preservation told me to camouflage. I wanted to go around the town unnoticeable as possible. I had this weird imagination that if I would be seen differently, I would be punished, haha.

Anyway, I asked my dear cousin to first of all bring me to a store where I could buy a scarf  like the ones being worn by the local Muslim women around their heads.

I had fun choosing over pretty stylish head coverings.  I settled in buying ordinary scarves that I could use in my trips.

So on our next stop ( a beautiful mosque in the city), with my head already covered just like the locals, I felt I achieved my camouflaging well. Then we went to the airport, just to see , and I saw how heavily guarded it was with armed security people around, I chose not to use my camera in the airport premises.

It was nearing lunch so cousin brought us to his house here. Currently a resident cos he married a local of this city. Remember my post about the Ampatuan's mansions in Davao City? Same thing here. This another cousin resides too, near the mansion of Ampatuan here in Cotabato City. Above photo was the state of the said mansion during my visit. Again, similar to Davao's mansion, it looked abandon and unfinished.




Then we went to Notre Dame University which is the oldest college in the city. The campus was huge and looked like pretty close to a UP campus I've seen somewhere in the country but not as big as the Diliman. My cousin-in-law proudly toured us around the campus. It wasn't a tourist attraction but cousin-in-law wanted to show us where she had graduated. Ahhh. . .okey.

More driving around.  There was no familiar Philippine jeepney here like the ones in the roads of Manila and other cities of our country. Instead, colored modified vans ( lite ace? ) could be seen in the roads of the city as the regular mode of public transportation.




We got off the car to check the new city hall of Cotabato City.

It looked beautifully Arabic with white high pillars.

Next we stopped at the other fortress of power in this side of the political Ph. The ARMM. ( not really in that order. I forgot which came first among all those stops we made).




This too conveyed a unique architecture of the south. Only it 's not as pinky and grand like the ARMM in Maguindanao.

We passed by a bridge, a huge one, and I saw locals spending their afternoon at the sides. Standing and sitting looking out to the sea , might be taking a fresh? ocean breeze? You know how in Manila people enjoy passing their afternoons at the baywalk? The scene looked like that.




Then to cap our day tour of the historical city of Cotabato, cousin nudged me to take a photo of this hill with houses sitting on it. Why??? Cos it's the Kutang Bato. Exactly where the very name of this city was derived. Underneath it, he added, are the kutang bato caves can be found. 

So there. I'm ending this veryveryvery long (photo loaded) post of Cotabato City. And am so thankful cousin made it  possible for me to experience a day in the City of  Cotabato .

Pinky ARMM, Maguindanao

Another vast structure in this side of Mindanao had snapped my fancy.

It was the ARMM in Maguindanao.




It was huge, pretty in pink and empty. Again, I had no source to know why it seemed like another abandoned structure. There were no people, not even a guard in the gate. Cousin (fr Cotabato) said it used to be where ex ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan held his office.

It was monumental. Almost looked like an airport to me, you know almost as big as one of our terminals in Paranaque in Manila.




Without any serious harm intention, just pure souvenir photos, we decided to go up the main building to have a better view of the place.

On my left, facing the main highway road, was an annex building which purpose I had no way to know. Next to it  was another building which seemed to be a garage/parking for construction vehicles.

On my right facing the same road was another annex building. Not in photos, at the near right, almost beside this main building was a gymnasium or could pass as a coliseum cos of its size.

From where I was standing, was the main entrance of the seemed to be the main building. Although it was still considerable beautiful structure, "abandoned" is the best word to describe it.

Aside from the absence of people, there were deserted manifestations.




My growing curiosity couldn't keep my eyes to the outside anylonger so I tried to peek a little inside. I was not sure, but look_ seemed like a t.v. and someone was watching!




This is one vast beautiful structure that holds history of power. I wonder what's next for this pink elephant.