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?

 ==============+++++++++++++
But for the meantime, I got to put my favorite activity on hold. While we are still in transition.  
++++++++++++++=============
Meanwhile, traveling through my antiquated photos fill in the gaps.
=============++++++++++++++

Ok, not that old actually. Just a tad over a  year old. Photos I hadn't posted yet but were somehow promised.
=============++++++++++++++

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.

Butik

I never missed to drop by to the souvenir shops of island resorts. More often than not, just window shopping without buying. It's pricey to buy from these exclusive shops. I only buy when I'm sure I won't find a certain item I like outside. And only, if I could afford it.

Simply tagged as Butik (boutique), I found it in Malipano Island, Samal Islands.

T-shitrs,t-shirts and more t-shirts! Whatelse? 

locally woven clothe covered canisters

native cooking utensils, made of coconut shells

jewelry boxes made of mother of pearl

intricately designed home decor linens, throw pillows, etc.

designer's woven clothes/linens


designer's dolls wearing ethnic dresses by  Alfonso


What did I buy? Nada! The lust was there, but not so much. There wasn't anything there that I wanted so much to break my budget.  hhahaha!

Isla Malipano, Samal Islands

Another island we visited in Samal which is also owned by Pearl Farm_ Malipano Island floats just right across the Pearl Farm. Only short minutes speedboat ride to reach to/from each island.

See the proximity?  Looks like it's just a walking distance, right? Like it seems possible to extend the rubberized walk bridge from one island to another and then guests would just walk, haha. Ofcourse there's high tide to consider.

Approaching Malipano Island by foot, after the boat ride.









Enjoying full view of Pearl Farm from this island. My cuzin' from Davao who is forever celebrity/star struck (she has gigantic collections of photo-ops with celebrities- from mega stars down to extras she came across with, yes! haha ) spotted right away this guy (in black) she said was Drew Arellano. Who? She said he's her personal favorite cos she watches his travel show on t.v. Idk, haha.

This is the cousin I was talking above, haha, luvya Ate S. Anyway back to Malipano Island which is so beautiful, is actually far expensive than Pearl Farm in terms of accommodation.

There are only seven villas here which as told are also being used by the owners if they came to visit the island.

Tranquility leaves here. Can I live here? ..forever.

A chapel kiosk by the beach.

Water sports facilities.

The island souvenir shop. More of this here.

The rest of the island is consistently well maintained  with manicured green lawns and white sand.

Then it was time to come back to Pearl Farm Island.

Pearl Farm, Samal Islands

Snap Facts : Located in the southern part of the Philippines is the Samal group of Islands, an archipelago consisting of nine islands which stretch out over a land area of 28,000 hectares. Samal is a beautiful, tranquil and exotic island with a coastline adorned with white sand beaches, abundant marine life, rock formations, mangroves, and landscape elements of coconut palms, flowering plants and fruit-bearing trees. The area is blessed with various natural attractions and flourishing flora and fauna. Nestled on the quiet side of Samal Island, The Pearl Farm Beach Resort is a mere 45-minute boat ride from the wharf. This fourteen (14) hectare spread was once a pearl farm, where thousands of white-lipped oysters transported from the Sulu Sea, were cultivated for their pink, white and gold pearls. Today, the resort beckons with the promise of a relaxing, private retreat, under the care of its friendly and charming staff.

Already this little paradise had announced its invitation as soon as I got my feet in Davao airport. Wasn't it obvious?_ the island resort was talking straight to me with the right choice of word_ Bliss :D

It was nice to have some bonding moments with our relatives from Davao City. It had been quite a while since we saw each other.

After 45 minutes of boat ride, I was able to get a closer shots of the island. The cottages were remarkable having their own characters. The front stilt cottages were nature-candy.

In less than 5 minutes, we were ready to disembark. The resort was crowded cos of the Kadayawan Festival happening on the same dates of our stay.

We were welcomed with drinks and some tribal music.The ambiance gave off a Samal Islands escape.

The island thu' crowded with guests, still manage to retain its natural quiescence.We had an early island hopping schedule, so while at the main island we used our time to explore it.

infinity pool

parola bar

island toys :)))

We took a li'l break to see the other island across, just minutes boat away and apparently also owned by Pearl Farm. 

Follow me there :)