Hey everyone!! Before I start the story...about my Davao adventures, I'd like to put a bit of intro first. I traveled from Dumaguete City to Davao City last June 13, 2019.
Image Source: Screenshot by Engr Jenn
What is Davao?
Davao is one of the famous tourist spots here in Philippine. It is a province located in Mindanao. The Philippines consists of three island groups namely, Luzon; Visayas; and Mindanao as seen in the photograph below.
Like I have said earlier, Davao is in Mindanao and is a very well-known province.
“Davao City is a leading producer of mangoes, pomeloes, bananas, coconut products, papayas, and mangosteens. Durians are also one of the most notable export products of the city has since become an informal icon for Davao that it has been nicknamed, The Durian Capital of the Philippines.”
Reference: https://philippinescities.com/davao-city-davao-del-sur/
Image Source: https://pinoydeal.ph/services/others-services/3d2n-davao-with-city-tour_i23404
My Davao Adventures
Well, without further ado, I actually went to Davao to attend the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers, also known as "PICE" here in the Philippines.
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
Every licensed Civil Engineer is required to attend this so-called "convention" to basically expand their knowledge about the latest technologies governing infrastructure designs as well as various retrofitting techniques for any structure defects, other than that, points are earned every time there is a conference or convention which is under the governments' approval, these points will then be used for the license renewal of every civil engineer. Basically, we only need a total of fifteen (15) points for our license renewal.
But enough of that already, so my coworkers and I took a local plane to get to Davao. We paid approximately, $15 for the ticket. Since we already knew about the upcoming PICE Convention months before, we've decided to book tickets ahead of time so we can avail a promo, which basically means the cheaper cost of transportation. Buying tickets earlier is highly recommended if you want to save more for souvenirs, right? A regular ticket from Dumaguete City to Davao City would usually cost $52.
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
After an hour of travel, we were finally at Davao City. We took a cab and went to the hotel. One of the advantages of being a Civil Engineer who works for the government is getting a free hotel accommodation which was sponsored by a company, like Boysen or Davies. Yeah right. Anyway, we then saw our hotel. Apo View Hotel.
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
Well, free rooms are free so don't expect anything more than that. Our room assignment was only good for two people and guess what, there were three of us...so we obviously needed to figure things. We were still thankful we had a room though. After that, we decided to eat somewhere near the hotel since we were pretty much starving. We got into Primo Restaurant just in front of the hotel and ate.
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
The next day, we had our breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Our breakfast, by the way, was again, a free meal. It was included along with the accommodation we had with our room.
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
We arrived at the venue (SMX Convention Center) a day after the opening of the convention. We were late but we took advantage of having friends and other coworkers who arrived earlier and we gave them our IDs so they can get them scanned for every topic. Yes, our IDs get scanned for "every" topic, and that's because scanning ID is their way of checking the attendance and that's also the basis for computing how much points we earn after the event. Remember the "point-thing" I mentioned earlier? Yeah, that's for the license renewal.
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
We then went to the stores right outside the SMX Convention Center. I bought some souvenirs, t-shirts and some special durian candies.
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
And now that we've reached the venue and attended a bit of the topic, we figured we needed to start our little side trip. We went to this so-called The Upside Down Museum located just near our hotel. We paid the entrance which charged at about $7. See photos below.
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
Upside Down Museum consists of different rooms with its furniture and other fixtures arranged and pinned at the ceiling which looks like a typical house, the only difference is... its reversed.
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
It was cool to have lots of photographs stored on my phone though. The experience was amazing and I totally had lots of fun.
It was the second and last day of the PICE convention. Topics discussed were informative. Again, we just stayed there, listening to the topics being discussed for half a day.
This is me with my colleagues during the convention.
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
We took a slight walk inside the SMX Convention Center and bumped into Miniso. I bought myself a new Miniso earphone worth about Php 299 or approximately $6, I guess.
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
And then we decided to just get out and go to this place where visitors mostly drop in.
Davao Crocodile Park
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
Then we went to this Davao Crocodile Park which most likely is a zoo and inhabited by varieties of birds and reptiles. With the entrance fee of about $7, I got three tickets, one for the crocodile park, the other for the Butterfly House, and the last one was for the Fire Dance Presentation.
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
I took the liberty of taking photos of some without minding my other colleagues with their own picture-taking tasks, whatever you call it. I don't know, maybe I just got carried away by the place.
I'm not really a fan of animals in cages but maybe that's one way of protecting them from the threatening outside world. Anyway, these animals seem to behave properly somewhat kind of healthy, I guess. Here are some other photos I took.
And that's me taking selfies with them.
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
I totally agree with them putting some in cages…to protect us.
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
I’ve somehow managed to capture some good photos of them too.
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
Image Source: Photo by Engineer Jenn via Steemit
Well, I guess that's all I can share here. I tried to upload more photos but it gets errored. Anyway thanks so much for visiting. I hope you enjoyed reading. I'll be posting part 2 of this blog.