Exploring Davao City as A Retirement Site

Before our supposed month-long vacation got interrupted by some family issues we are now dealing with, @dandalion and I had a chance to roam around her hometown – Davao City. We have been taking vacations in Davao, but I haven’t really had a chance to see a lot of what the city has to offer. There’s a couple of reasons for that. Before this trip, we wanted to spend as much time at home getting to know our first-born Lucy. Sam, our youngest was also quite young to be left to Danda’s folks during our previous trips.

Before this vacation, Lucy have spent a full year with us, and Sam is now ten years old. We thought its now okay to spend time together seeing more of the city where Danda grew up. The things I’ve seen in and around the city convinced me even more, that this is the place where I’d like to grow old with Danda.

Having worked in the Business Process Outsourcing, and occasionally performing some business development work, I’ve observed how Davao and any other location in Mindanao really get quite difficult to sell to westerners. To some extent I can understand why this is the case. Mindanao got quite neglected by the national government for a long time. Being an archipelago and having the seat of the government in almost the extreme south of the country, it is convenient for our previous leaders to focus on developing the metro areas in Luzon, occasionally paying attention to Visayas, and looking at Mindanao the least.

Despite the many handicap, Davao managed to emerge as one of the prime cities not only in Mindanao, but also in all of Asia. Here are a few reasons why I am considering a life in Davao after retirement.

• Davao is probably one of the safest cities in the Philippines. In the infographics to the left created in 2015, Davao had second to the lowest crime rate in all of Asia next only to Singapore.
• Cheap food, utilities, and overall cost of living.
• Clean potable tap water. Davao is the only place that I've grown comfortable drinking water from the faucet.
• The best of both world (Smart and Green). I've been seeing articles about making Davao a Smart City. It is the first city in the Philippines to have implemented a central 911 system, so to some extent it is already a Smart City. There are also several proposals to improve transportation, and communications systems from other governments and private institutions.
• Proximity to the beaches. This one is a bonus. Where I am from it will take three to four hour drive and around thirty minutes boat ride to get to a decent beach. From downtown Davao, a thirty minute drive and ten minutes boat ride will get one to several amazing white sand beaches.

Ateneo de Davao University

One of things I saw for the first time was the hallways and the grounds of Ateneo de Davao University where @dandalion spent nearly fifteen years from pre-school all the way to college.

I wrote Life Lessons from Summer Sports Camp a couple of weeks ago sharing some lessons we picked up from Sam's summer camp. Ateneo would have been great for our two daughters in my brief experience being there. It is aligned with the values we teach our children. This photo tells me where Danda got her inclination to the arts.

Café Demitasse, Indian Darbar Cuisine, & Lachi's

We held the SteemPH Meet Up Caravan #4 – Davao City in Café Demitasse, and having visited the venue before the event, we realized that there’s a chain of specialty restaurant, bakeshops, cafés in the area. We actually visited the venue the day before the event, had coffee, and tried a couple of their cakes. I must say that this is yet the best looking venue we held a meet up in, the food is fab, and we paid only a fraction of the price we paid for all the previous meet ups.

We've been coming to Lachi's Sans Rival Atbp. pretty much every time we go home to Davao. We love their crème brulee and durian cake. This trip to Lachi's came with a surprise however. I've been craving for Indian food and next to Lachi's is Indian Darbar Cuisine. The price is a lot less expensive compared to Indian restaurant I have sampled in Manila so I satisfied my cravings and had an order good for two of their chicken biryani, a chicken curry enjoyed with four chapatti and two butter naan, and a couple of glasses of sweet lassi. For all these I paid less than $4. Because I too find it difficult to believe, I took a photo of their menu.

Alorro Beach Resort

For the SteemPH Homesteading Brigade we crossed the sea to get to Libertad National Highschool in Island Garden City of Samal. After giving smiles for the 50 participants through our gifts, we had the chance to sample one of the amazing beaches of Samal.

The best beaches are the ones away from the big cities. They are typically difficult to reach, but this one's an exception. There's rough road still, but paved roads are being constructed when we went there for the Homesteading Brigade, and the plan is to finish the work by the end of this year.

Roxas Night Market

Craving for food, we went to Roxas Night Market. In September 2016, this place became well known not only within Davao, but in the whole country because of a bombing incident. Now a year and a half after the incident, the security in the area is still pretty strict. Big bags are not allowed, everyone has to be frisked upon entry, and uniformed military and police men are stationed at all entry and exit points. Roxas is known for bargains and street food. The concept is much like Banchetto and Mercato where typically busy streets in the morning are being closed at night and food stalls are put up.

From grilled tuna, to chicken, pork belly, and various preparations of sea foods. This place is heaven to foodies at half the price one would spend in a restaurants. We went to the night market for the food, but there are other merchandize available at a bargain too. I've seen shirts, pants, bags, shoes, and other apparels on the way to the food section.

People's Park

After realizing a problem with our daughter Lucy, I wanted to spend a morning somewhere peaceful and quite, and @dandalion had just a place in mind - People's Park. Peaceful and quite it is. Except for the soothing cooing of the doves, and the barely audible laughs from the children playing at the play ground, we were able to have an uninterrupted debate about what we ought to do.

Unlike the parks in Manila or Bulacan, this one is clean and well maintained. The park features life-size sculptures of indigenous people by Mindanao artist Kublai Millan.

D'Japanese Tunnel Family Resort

The rest of our stay in Davao was spent in a resort which was surprisingly cheap. We spent no more than $40 a night, and food in the restaurant is priced quite reasonably too.

With Sam's summer camp at the Ateneo being cut short along with our vacation, we spent the days in D'Japanese Tunnel's pool continuing her swimming lessons.

This trip's been great, but also caused us a lot of heart aches. Still, we learned quite a few things, and are now clear about how to move forward. It is very likely that this is our last trip to Davao until maybe when we retire.

Credits:

2015 Davao Infographics
D'Japanese Tunnel Family Resort