Change to my travel plans...
Replies: 48 - Last Post: Feb 4, 2013 1:21 AM Last Post By: leng77
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Change to my travel plans...
Following advice from bikepacker (who seems to know an awful lot about The Philippines), I have decided that Cebu City may be too dangerous a place for me. So I have decided to go to Davao City.Can anyone suggest a good hotel? Not 5 star but not grotty either. (Guest friendly a bonus).
How much is a decent meal for 2?
Does anyone know a restaurant where I can get lemon meringue pie as that is the only desert I like?
I would also go to General Santos City as on the map it seems quite near to Davao so I guess it is safe also?
What is the best way to get to General Santos City. Bus or boat?
Will I be able to buy socks (size 10) in either Davao or General Santos City?
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Are you having us on? GenSan safer than Cebu? Think you need to do some reading.2
Oddly enough, my Gf is working at the Apo View hotel at the moment, one of the nicer hotels in Davao. She was telling me about the excitement mid December when a would be bomber was confronted just outside the Apo View and shot & killed. Very exciting for the staff!The bomber was originally staying at the Sampaguita Hotel (highly recommended by Asian2011) in room 204. You can now ask for the "Jemaah Islamiyah suite" at the hotel.
Sorry, but the limit for socks in all of Davao is size 7 on the order of Rodrigo Duterte, the vice-mayor of Davao City (Dirty Harry) to keep any large terrorists away from his city.
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Thanks for the info on socks. Guess I'll have to stock up in Manila.Any info on lemon meringue pie? If I bring the recipe could your girlfriend ask chef in hotel to make it?
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Only one outfit in Davao for lemon meringue! - http://www.munchpunch.com/davao-city?q=lemon%20squareI'll put in your request to the chef at the Apo View, I'm pretty sure for the right incentive he will bring it to you and hand feed you with a fork. (Or for your safety, a spoon)
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dont know what advice bikepacker gave you but it shouldnt stop you visiting cebu -we weill be there in april,here is a blog about bus from davao to gen san http://thesimplertraveler.blogspot.ie/2013/01/travel-south-davao-city-to-general.html, we went to gen san /lake sebu and gumasa beach in sarangani province -and back to bukidnon via cotobato ,you can also visit samal island near davao ,we will also be in davao during our trip6
Ah, Mayor Duterte (as he was a few years back), sponsor of the police death squads for pickpockets (on the bright side, it did mean zero risk of getting pickpocketed on Davao's streets). When the first traffic lights appeared in Davao we figured Mayor D would never settle for red-light cameras... it'd be red-light snipers.7
I went from Gen San to Marbel(Koronadal), Surralah and on to Lake Sebu a month ago via GenSan bus station where there are frequent aircon buses to and from Davao with a journey time I would guess of about 3-4 hours.- If you want to go to see the fish being unloaded at the port getup early and dont wear shorts.
You have already been advised to bring your size 10 socks, for good measure I would also bring your size 11 condoms from the UK and a knotted hankie to keep the sun off.
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proof?...there is enough evidence to elicit a human rights inquiry..."In 2009, then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte found himself in the middle of a Commission on Human Rights inquiry into a spate of vigilante-style killings in his turf that had claimed over 800 victims since 1998.
Many of the victims purportedly had criminal records, giving rise to suspicions that the so-called Davao Death Squad were behind their deaths. That the killers appeared to move with impunity led some to accuse Duterte of being behind the vigilante group.
Duterte was the Davao City congressman when the killings started in 1998. He was elected mayor in 2001 and reelected to the post in 2004 and 2007.
“If you are doing an illegal activity in my city, if you are a criminal or part of a syndicate that preys on the innocent people of the city, for as long as I am the mayor, you are a legitimate target of assassination,” Duterte was quoted as saying at the height of the controversy.
But Duterte denied that a death squad was operating in the city and blamed the killings on gang wars, rivalries in the illegal drugs trade and personal grudges."
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/297514/what-went-before-the-davao-death-squad
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From Time Magazine, July 19/02 -Rodrigo Duterte, the mayor of Davao City, is sitting in his favorite bar, After Dark, a glass of brandy in front of him, a .38 pistol tucked in his waistband. He's wearing jeans and a short-sleeved shirt loudly adorned with wine bottles and bunches of red and green grapes — the same outfit he wore to work. While other guests take turns singing along with the piano player, Duterte tells a strange and disturbing story. In 1993, Davao's San Pedro Cathedral was hit with three grenades during an evening Mass. Six parishioners were killed. The attackers were Muslim militants, the sort easily found in Davao, a time-honored haven for kidnappers, bandits, communist rebels and roaming private armies. Four of the attackers were quickly arrested. Just as quickly, Duterte relates, "They went missing." Disappeared. Dead. "Then," the mayor says flatly, "it got ugly." Further killings? "More like assassinations," he says. The targets — other militants — didn't receive the courtesy of arrest, much less a trial. Were they dispatched on his orders? "Oh no," he responds. "I don't believe in state-sponsored killing." A pause. "I can't say any more, but I taught them a lesson."
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,265480,00.html
