3. Mindanao - Davao City

I had read a lot about Davao. I wanted to visit southern Mindanao, and even way eastwards towards Zamboanga (mostly because I love to say that name). I did a lot of reading on various forums about the places to see on the island and the places to avoid. It seems Abu Sayyaf is quite active in a lot of places on Mindanao. It's one of several military Islamist separatist groups based in and around the southern Philippines, engaged for about 30 years in an insurgency for an independent province in the country. Our government discourages all travel to the island. I guess a big old white guy like me could really get in trouble if you show up in the wrong places, but many people say it's way overblown. After a lot of consideration and reading it seemed that Davao was OK, so off I go. I caught a flight from CDO city on Cebu Air (I think), and planned to spend a few days in Davao.

I got a ride in another kind of trike, human powered.

Off to the ferry, where I would catch a boat to the island of Samal.

I caught a ride in one of these for an hour boat ride to the resort.
Really loud and wet. Got in to the resort after dark.

I had the presence of mind to snap a pic of my assigned "butler". Actually,
they don't like to call them butlers, but that's what they were. This guy was
at my beck and call.  

Not really much of a beach. That concrete pier is unfinished, and was
a real adventure walking across in the dark to get to the resort.

Man was I ever tired the next day. It was a nice little hut, not far from the beach.
I was tired because of the numerous roosters that began crowing at 4:00 AM. I mean,
what kind of a resort has these goddamn little sleep killers running around??
Not even my foam ear plugs did any good against three roosters right outside my window.

I'd never seen a hornbill before. This one waddled up onto my porch and made a nuisance of himself, to the extent of grabbing my breakfast table cloth and almost sending my meal crashing to the floor. I shooed him away after that.

Sort of a big bird.

He was eyeing my breakfast plate

I really don't have any pics of the city of Davao except those human powered trikes above taken at the shore. After I cut short my stay at the resort, I spent a night in Davao, and I really don't remember much about it. I was extremely tired the whole time.

This statue of a durian fruit was taken at the airport in Davao, on my way out the next day. It is about 10 feet tall, and shows all manner of Philippine people and culture inside. It seems Davao is the center of durian production in the Philippines. Wow, this fruit stinks so bad.

Statue of the durian fruit at the Davao airport

Durian smells sort of like a cross between vomit and something that died.
It's supposed to taste very good if you can get past the smell. This shop in the
airport sold only durian products, and I could smell it 100 feet away.