It was another long weekend for the month of August. Just last week we visited South Cotabato and GenSan. For this week, the tribe wanted a short trip. Then someone suggested we visit Kim's place in Lianga, Surigao del Sur. Our trip started by taking the service bus that leaves Taganito camp every Saturday noon. We had dinner at the city and left for Butuan via van by 8PM. At Butuan Integrated Bus Terminal, we rode a Tandag bound bus come 11PM. The trip lasted for around 4hrs going to Lianga. We had a short hike on the dark rocky road early in the morning with us passing by a military campsite made me fear of rebel stories in Mindanao. Seven souls wandering at 4AM of a Sunday. A 10 minute walk lead us to a stairs in hill. Kim opened up the gate and knocked on their door. His mom welcomed us into their simple abode. We had our introductions and Kim's mom invited us for a hot choco and coffee. We helped ourselves in preparing the hot beverages.
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August 20, 2012 A Sackfull of RambutanA sackfull of rambutan awaits us as we were unloading our things from todays escapade and roadtrip from GenSan and Sarangani. It was harvested from the rambutan trees around Sir Ian's house. They have plenty of fruit bearing trees around which include lanzones trees. It was my first time also to see a live lanzones tree with soon to be ripe fruits. So what do you do with those rambutans? You guessed it right. Eat it. We ate half of the harvest leaving around 5kilos of it which we brought back to Surigao the following day.
August 22, 2012 Road Trip at GenSanOur day started amazing race style. We came from Lake Sebu early in the morning, had a quick stop at Surallah, left our bags at Tupi with Louie and Carol taking their bags to the car. Soon we went back to the road heading to GenSan airport where Louie and Carol will have a connecting flight to Cebu-Palawan by noon. We had to make another quick stop to the fruit stands along the lengths of Tupi highway. We bought some native delicacies that Carol brought to Palawan as pasalubong.
The roads of South Cotabato were so wide. It's as if we were on the express way as Sir Ian hit the gas pedal. His aim, arrive at the airport as soon as possible. Time space warp and soon we were at the airport by 1120AM. August 20, 2012 Surallah StopoverDuring our trip to Lake Sebu, I noticed the beautiful sculptures at Surallah town. So on the way back to Tupi, I suggested to Sir Ian for a short photo op at the sculptures. Coming from Lake Sebu, we had a quick stopover at Surallah.
Surallah is one of the economical centers in South Cotabato. Near the town hall was work of arts sculpted by renowned Filipino artist Kublai. Check out our photos with the sculptures. August 18, 2012 The Road Trip to South CotabatoIt was the long weekend of the month and we had planned to visit Sir Ian's hometown. We left Taganito by the arranged company vehicle which took us to Butuan. We left by 430PM trying to catch the 830PM bus bound to Davao. The service bus was full considering most of my colleagues were from Mindanao. When we arrived by Butuan Integrated Bus Terminal, some of us went to their respective bus queue lines. And we Davao bound people went aboard the Bachelor bus immediately since we were told it's leaving. We managed to find seats of the already full bus. We just had to give one seat to a lady and Dexter had to seat at the foot step. Anyway, Dexter was able to transfer seats when people started to descend from the nearby southern towns. There we were playful before the bus departed to Davao. August 11, 2013 Conquering the RapidsAfter we did the zipline courses at Dahilayan Adventure Park in the morning, it's to brave the rapids of Cagayan de Oro. Due to the limited time frame we had, our package inclusion was the beginners course comprising of 14 rapids. We maximized our time given that we had an early connecting flight from CDO to Cebu to Surigao the next day. We rode a jeepney with the raft to be used secured on top. We drove pass along the Lumbia airport, passing through Makahambus Cave and a made our way to a downhill road somewhere towards the starting the point. We left our things secured on a locked big bag at the office of Great White Water Rafting main office (www.riverraftingcdo.com). That's where our service dropped us earlier in the day. Moving on, upon arrival at the starting point, we were each given a life vest, helmet and a paddle. After our guides helped us secure of life vest, the group had a short orientation and prayer for safety. We were given some instruction like paddle forward, back paddle, and the notable high 5. Then it was time to take the 4 hours long adrenaline packed challenge. August 11, 2012 Ziplining at Dahilayan Adventure ParkWhat would you do after attending a convention in another city? Roam around the city. I attended an international convention hosted by PIChE Cagayan de Oro (CDO) last week together with 2 other colleagues, Louie and Joie and before we get back to Surigao we decided to do some sidetrip since it was the weekend. Besides, Louie hails from CDO. After the convention, we booked a zipline + white water rafting package for a group of 6 persons with Louie tagging his girlfriend Irish and his brother Shaw. Though there were five of us only, so we paid the extra slot, costing PhP1999 each.
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