The Great Escape
Everyone needs to get out and get away once in a while. When the workload mounts and responsibilities hound and harry you from all sides, or simply when the mind-numbing tedium of the daily grind threatens to overwhelm you, sometimes, all one has to do is get away from it all to unwind and recharge.
In my experience, the best place to do that is in my home city of Davao. Whatever you want to do is within reach of the city. Breathtaking mountains are barely an hour’s drive from the city, beaches and dive sites are only usually a twenty minute boat ride, great shopping finds are all over the city and many more can be found, and all one needs to do to get one’s desires fulfilled is to simply ask.
One of my favorite things to do is go mountain climbing. For a short jaunt, Eden Nature Park is an excellent beginners’ try-out. Just an hour’s ride away from the city center (or only half an hour with a fast driver and an adventurous spirit; but not for the faint of heart!) the park is a thousand feet up from sea level. Spread over several dozen hectares are hiking trails and for the less adventurous, the park offers car tours, hotel lodges and an excellent restaurant with a view of the entire province (try the sun-dried tomato pesto, a real crowd pleaser). For the adventure-seeker, Mt. Apo is only a few hours away. The tallest mountain in the Philippines, Mt. Apo offers several trails, from the more leisurely overnight trail to the grueling five-day Kidapawan trail.
But my personal favorite is bumming around in one of Davao’s numerous beaches. One can choose from a bustling resort with a thumping nightlife, to secluded resorts where one can have the entire beach to oneself. Water sports enthusiasts can choose to cut their teeth sea-kayaking, wakeboarding, jet skiing and surfing, to name a few. Divers have dozens of dive sites to choose from, ranging from an easy beginner’s coastal introductory dive, to reef-diving, sea-wall sites to exhilarating open-water dives at night.
Truly, Davao holds many diverse thrills, and all one needs to have one’s desires fulfilled here in this idyllic city is to simply ask.
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