Home to Hong Kong
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2008
1
8
Trip End
Mar 28, 2008
Davao,
Philippines
Friday, March 28, 2008
Although we now knew the price of the tricycles, we agreed to the driver's half-hearted attempt to extort P20 out of us. He was also very happy to have a photo taken with me after the short ride to the bus station.
The next bus for Davao was the Yellow Bus so we took that and had an easy three-hour ride back to Davao.
One interesting thing we've noticed about the buses here is that the conductor first goes through the bus distributing tickets and then goes back to collect the money from everyone
01 Arriving at the Bus Station
. This system suits us, as the amount we have to pay is clearly punched on the ticket, so we have time to prepare the right money. This is presumably part of the ongoing anti-corruption drive, but we noticed on some buses that there seemed to be a bit of recycling of tickets. On one bus, the conductor gave me a ticket but neglected to give one to Yoong. When he came back to us he tried to collect the full fare from both of us. We pointed out that Yoong did not have a ticket and refused to pay for hers until he issued her with one. I don't know how frequently tickets are inspected - it didn't happen on any of our bus rides - but I wouldn't like to be caught without a ticket. The officials here tend to carry guns! At one point on this trip we passed through one of many army checkpoints. At this one, everyone had to get off the bus and go through the motions of having personal and baggage checks, something that also happens every time you enter a major hotel or a shopping mall. It's a bit intimidating seeing all the soldiers with their weapons ready, but they seem friendly enough. Abu Sayyaf is a real threat in Mindanao, so there is good reason for the heavy security. It was nice to see a glimpse of a cultural show on the local GenSan channel which began with participants placing a picture of a church and a picture of a mosque side by side - wishful thinking in a world where it is just as likely that Christians will be fighting Christians and Muslims will be fighting Muslims as it is that the two religions will be fighting each other.
Arriving at Marco Polo, Yoong confirmed what she had started to suspect during the trip to Davao - she had a severe case of diarreah
02 Arriving at the Bus Station
. Obviously she could not have the buffet lunch. On the other hand she needed a comfortable place to rest, so she decided she would just have some soup - not really a good idea - while I had the buffet. As they offered a 20% discount for seniors on the buffet, my meal was definitely a much better deal than Yoong's bowl of soup, especially as she did not hold it down for very long. However, she was able to order several teapots of hot water to drink, the one thing she really needed in order to stay hydrated, and she had access to the nearby clean bathrooms, and a selection of newspapers to read, though they all seemed to have pretty much the same news articles. I didn't feel very good about eating a nice meal without her, but couldn't think of any better environment for us to be in under the circumstances. Of course, she would have been better off without the soup, but she felt she could not just accompany me without ordering anything. The meal was a welcome change from the usual Philippine fare, with Japanese dishes - sashimi, sushi, tempura, which was soft and too heavily battered, and miso soup - and a variety of international dishes. There was a table of raw fish cuts which had me a bit puzzled, until a waitress came up with a plate and it became clear that I was supposed to choose my fish and she would have it grilled for me. There were three types of fish - marlin, milk fish and something with a name like tenguini. All were delicious grilled with a bit of lime sprinkled on top
03 Bus to davao
. Yoong would have loved it. Overall though, the food was not quite up to the standard we would have expected of Marco Polo.The restaurant staff told us that the hotel had a shuttle to the airport for P50 per head once an hour so we decided to take it at 3 p.m. However, when we went to the lobby, we found that it was P100 per head, considerably more than a taxi would cost, so we braved the rain and went out to the street where we picked up a jeepney direct to the airport for P13 per head.
The trip back to Hong Kong is better organised than the inward journey. They were able to issue us with boarding passes for both flights, which turned out to be very comfortable as we had Row 11, one of two rows where there is a lot of leg room. It was a bit of a shock to see that the airport tax was now P550, rather than the P200 we had paid coming in, as this is an international flight, as opposed to the domestic flight from Cebu to Davao. By Philippines standards that's a lot of money. Our whole trip - one week in Mindanao, including six nights in very decent hotel accommodation, all meals (apart from Marco Polo, paid by credit card), land transport and shopping was covered by the A$300 we changed (at a bad rate) at Cebu airport. About A$80 of this went for airport taxes, which seems rather disproportionate.
The flights back to Hong Kong were certainly better than the overnight trip getting to Davao, but there was quite a long wait between flights and just before midnight is not the best time to arrive anywhere. Fortunately arriving in Hong Kong at this time is relatively painless, as there is a cheap and convenient night bus that took us from the airport practically to our doorstep. Of course the bus ride was longer than the flight between Davao and Cebu!
This will be our last bit of travelling for the remainder of our stay in Hong Kong, as I've promised Yoong that we will go back to Australia every holiday we get to see our grandsons, the second of whom is due to arrive in the world next month.
Raymond's Travel Page
