Around Mindanao – July 2014 Snapshots

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S I A R G A O

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Went island hopping, and PJ and the guys surfed a break out in the open sea.

Kai paddlin’ out with Daddy, top Filipino surfer Luke Landrigan, who was our tour guide for most of the trip. We also met up with our cousin Alex who is building a resort in the island. Half of the people you’ll bump into the island are foreigners who have settled down there, and run small businesses in exchange for giant stoke they get from Siargao’s various breaks.

We stayed at Kalinaw resort, managed by two friendly French guys. They have a brick oven that produces delicious bread and pizzas, and many people visit their restaurant for these.

This was our gorgeous villa. Roomy with a king-sized bed, two couches, a bathroom the same size as the bedroom, and a veranda out front. It’s over on the pricey side compared to most accommodations in Siargao, but the comfort was definitely worth it, especially when the primary goal of a trip is to relax. Thanks to my cousin Noey for booking this place for us!

Baskets made into lamps

Such a beautiful sight as our airplane landed… so much green!

Grass so fluffy, you’ll want to run around barefoot all the time

PJ and I went to town one afternoon for lunch.

We walked all around, and spotted this art house.

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D A V A O

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Spent a weekend in Davao for our Shop, Craft, Swap event. Our first stop was lunch at Balik Bukid, an airy restaurant that serves organic food. Love the concept! And I love that people there still like going to small arcades and hole-in-the-wall restaurants as opposed to malls. Thanks to April for taking us around on a food trip!

Ding, Anna, April and I enjoyed this banana torte from sagingrepablik. Yum!

Right beside Yellowhauz, April’s lovely studio greeted us.

We stamped on Stationery sets all weekend!

Taught a calligraphy class one evening. This was my second workshop in Davao, and I was happy to see that more and more people are interested in learning new crafts!

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G E N S A N

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General Santos City was our jump off point to South Cotabato. We stayed at Green Leaf hotel. (Props to Ate Ricci for googling this hotel and saving us, haha!) The hotel is right next to Manny Pacquiao’s Wilcard boxing gym. Our taxi driver even humoured us and drove us by Pacquiao’s houses!

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SARANGANI

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Took a trip to Glan where we played on the beach all day. Glan is an hour and a half drive from GenSan. We negotiated with a taxi driver and booked him for an entire day. You’ll just have to pay an entrance fee at the beach resorts there–inclusive of cottage use, but we ended up just staying under the coconut trees on the beach. 😛

Giant gumamelas

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LAKE SEBU

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Lake Sebu in South Cotabato was nothing short of amazing.

I have always dreamt of visiting Lake Sebu because I’ve heard so many wonderful things about this town. We were there to source local fabrics for my cousin Ate Ria’s children’s clothing line Sugarcane, and for the t’nalak festival, but was apparently a week too early. Punta Isla resort arranged our transfers and tours for us. You can choose to stay at Lake Sebu, or take a van from General Santos. (I suggest the latter.) Unless you are doing business there, you can tour the town in a day, starting with a Lake Tour, followed by visits to the weaving center and cooperative centers. The 7 Waterfalls is also a must see!

Beautiful patterns both by nature and by hand.

Took a relaxing boat ride all around the lake

Visited the t’nalak dreamweavers

National treasure Lang Dulay

little brass toys

a gong gallery

Trekked to and ziplined over the 7 waterfalls