Pearl Farm Beach Resort

Day 2. Second leg of our visit to Davao was our stay at a beach resort.

From Hotel Tropika, it's just minutes away to Pearl Farm Marina Wharf. This is exclusively for the guests of the resort and serves as a reception while they are waiting to board the ferry boat to the island resort. It is actually a four-bedroom hotel and could also be used for business meetings, weddings and other functions.

Pearl Farm Marina Wharf

From the wharf, it took us nearly an hour ferry boat ride to a secluded cove on the exotic Samal Island, which is now known as Island Garden City of Samal. It is the location of Pearl Farm Beach Resort, our home away from home for three days.

The Pearl Farm Beach Resort was actually a cultivation farm for luxurious south sea pearls before it was converted to a world class beach destination. Tropical Filipino Architecture is predominantly a main feature and is widely employed on most of the structures. World-renowned architect and national artist Francisco Mañosa patterned the structures after the lowly stilt houses of the seafaring tribes in the region and his successful design application gave this resort a unique and interesting character.

Arriving at the Parola, the resort hotel's iconic gateway, we (along with the other guests in the boat) were warmly greeted by the hotel staff, refreshing and delicious welcome drinks were also ready for the taking, recorded ethnic music played in the background, and the sight of crystal clear waters seems to beckon everyone to forget their worries and enjoy the day. And that was exactly our plan for this trip, to really enjoy and have a great time.

After getting hold of our room keys, we packed-out our belongings and had lunch at the Maranao Restaurant, the only food service in the resort. Needless to say, all our buffet breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, including room services were prepared by this restaurant. It is also the only place which is wifi- enabled. Our favorite however is their coconut shake. It is a must try, refreshing, filling and reasonably priced. Also, try their Pinakbet, a local vegetable dish cooked with prawns and shrimp paste.

Although we did not try snorkeling, scuba diving, or even jet skiing (it will be splendid if we had the chance), we enjoyed the crystal clear, emerald-colored seawater and fabulous infinity pool. Ashrie enjoyed it most as she discovered that she can now play standing on the kiddy pool’s floor, ditching her difficult-to-inflate kiddy lifesaver which we brought (not inflated) all the way from Singapore.

We were expecting a beach with fine, powdery sand but it seems Pearl Farm is short of beach spaces. That is probably the reason they compensate this loss of beaches with beautiful houses on stilts along the coast. The Malipano Island however has a wider beach area and can be easily reached by boat. It is also managed by the resort and if you have the means, you can stay in the Malipano suites and villas as well.

All in all, we had a great time staying in Pearl Farm. We were surely glad we made this trip. And of course, here are the photos:


Our boat to Samal Island

A row of hotel suites at Pearl Farm

Houses on stilts

Inside our ethnic-themed Hilltop Room

The Maranao Restaurant

The iconic Parola
with a bar on the second story

My favorite snapshot of MyGirls

Local Flora. I saw this on the road,
a lovely flower fallen from a tree

Crystal clear waters. No need for goggles to view the corals!


More photos on my Facebook account. Our Davao City tour and our stay at Marco Polo Davao are up next. Until then.

The Davao Travelogue

It's the Chinese New Year season once again and it's a good time to take advantage of the long weekend to spend the holidays on vacation.

Last year, Tiger Airways launched their first flights to Davao City, Philippines. They fly direct from Singapore so it's really convenient especially for families with a toddler like us. Not to mention they have promotional fees as this route is new. Jane's cousin Emily and her family (Emily's not Jane's) also live in Davao. So for this year's holiday, our choice of destination is Davao - an island paradise and a busy metropolis in one.

So I filed for a three-day leave and the additional two public holidays and a Sunday made it a six-day holiday trip for Me&MyGirls!

For this trip I have reserved three hotel rooms (the most I have booked for a single trip to date). One near the airport, one is a beach resort and one which is located at the city center.

Day 1. Our first day begins by traveling from Singapore to Francisco Bangoy International Airport. The flight took about four hours. Reaching Davao, we had an unpleasant surprise because it's raining quite heavily and our hotel pickup didn't show up. So we need to take a taxi to Hotel Tropika, our first hotel. It was about eight in the evening when we got there.

Hotel Tropika. Built just two years ago, the hotel is still new, you can feel the pristine appearance once you enter your room, all are new and in good condition, everything’s clean, not to mention their Cafe Aseya serves very good dinner. However, we didn't enjoy the buffet breakfast much because of the limited menu choices. And they definitely have to improve their airport pickup services, which was a complete turn-off on my part. But for the record, I would recommend this hotel for those who are looking for a place to stay near the airport and would love to have a spacious and clean room.

By the way, we met Jane's cousin Emily, her husband Matt and son Elijah the morning after. They were so generous to keep our biggest luggage so that we can travel light to our next destination. After breakfast and some picture taking, we parted ways. We headed to Pearl Farm Marina Wharf for our Day Two adventure.

Here are some of our favorite shots for Day 1:

All set!

Aboard Tiger Airways and
headed to Davao

At Hotel Tropika

The Cousins, Elijah and Ashrie

Me&MyGirls with the Triggs

Watch out for the next phase of our vacation on my next post.

Jurong Bird Park

Our first visit at Jurong Bird Park was during my brother's first visit to Singapore. After almost five years, my wife and I are back at JBP, this time together with our daughter Ashrie, my brother (again) and my parents. And it has changed a lot. There are new features like the Bird Discovery Centre and the newly launched multi-million dollar attraction called Birdz of Play, among others that we did not have the chance to visit because of our short visit and because of the weather.

The weather however did not dampen our moods. We enjoyed wearing the brightly colored raincoats (it's not every day that you got to wear those) and still have a blast even for a short while. We are certainly coming back.

And here, as always, are some photos.

Ashrie in her long gown

Happy Feet!

Pelicans exiting the stage

Show Stealer, in the good sense of the word

Close encounter of the "feathered" kind

Lories!

A display at the Bird Discovery Centre

Me, Mom, Dad and AR

School Girl Ashrie!

Third of January 2012 marks an important milestone in our lives. Not that it is the first working day of the year but it is Ashrie's first day in playgroup. It's a bit early if we are to compare it with her cousins back in the Philippines wherein most of the kids start day care at around 4 years old.

For the record, she did not cry on the first day. I think most of the kids didn't! Simply because the parents were with them inside the room for the first three days, that's why! And came the fourth day and Ashrie cried (probably until her tears run dry) like any other normal kid.

Both MyGirls are stressed on being apart for two hours. But it's an ordeal everybody who attended school has to face. It's all part of growing up. And looking at these photos I can't help but to be emotional. She has grown...

Tris and Jieyin's Wedding

When Weiyang invited me over Facebook months before his wedding, he got my "yes" right away. I requested to bring Jane along and he said "Of cos!" It was our first invitation to a non-Filipino couple's wedding so we were rather clueless on many things, what to wear, what to bring, along with a major concern- who would look after Ashrie while we enjoy the wedding banquet?

You see, Ashrie has never been away with at least one of us (my wife and I) for probably more than three hours. The last time we left her with another person was during her Auntie Ann's (Jane's sister not the pretzel shop) visit. Jane and I managed to have supper "alone" in a nearby Japanese restaurant that time. Anyway, we thought that it would require a strategic tactical operation during the wedding dinner itself, some major planning, and a team of trusted individuals who can really deliver. And I'm definitely not talking about the wedding but about babysitting!

So night of the wedding dinner came. It was New Year's Day. We went to Orchard together and we thought that it is best for Ashrie to be in the playground because it’s one place that she would not want to leave and it should be near the hotel where we are in. The serving intervals worked well with us because we took advantage of it by checking out on our daughter, who by the way is together with my brother and mom at a shopping mall playground. Midway, when I called my brother and asked if Ashrie would like to talk to me, my daughter refused. And that's a good thing because it means she's busy and perfectly fine.

After those elegantly-served dishes and after long hours of playing for Ashrie and company, we all met again at the lobby of the hotel, excited to see each other after hours of separation. Ashrie was indeed delighted to see us, more so the wedding bell favor! She also had a glimpse of the newly-wed couple and exclaimed that the bride's dress was pretty! We'll for the record we thought so too. We enjoyed watching their video (even without subtitles), and admired their pre-nup photos as well.

And back to my story, going down the winding staircase we needed to explain the definition of wedding, because that's new in her vocab.

In the cab, she told a short story of her evening and drifted off to dreamland in my arms, tired and weary but indeed happy.

I'm pretty sure that the beautiful couple that we cheered for that night was tired, weary but happy too. Weiyang and Jieyin, Thank you for inviting us on your very special day. May your relationship be a growing friendship each day and may our God bless you with abundance, good health, and more friends.