One thing I learned, it can be quite stressful since you don't know what happens in 8-9 months time. As it was nearing the end of the year, there were still a lot of work at the office. Not to mention, I was getting a new BM the week before the trip. Mental note: Never plan too far ahead.
We had five days to spend and didn't really know how to spend it. Good thing Myra was so gung-ho she did a lot of research so here's how our trip went:
Day 1 - Flight was 4.45am. I picked up Kath and went to the airport together. We both didn't have printed copies of our e-ticket! Good thing Myra was a girl scout and was at the airport ahead of us. We checked in just as they were to close the counter. Whew!
Arrive in CDO 6.30am. Check in at Mallberry Suites. I took a quick nap. Meanwhile, Kath and Myra had breakfast.
We loved staying here. Thanks to Kath's supplier for recommending this hotel. It felt like a 4 star hotel. It was conveniently located behind Robinson's Mall and Lim Ket Kai Center which also had a row of restaurants around it. Mike asked me isn't it Mulberry? I answered back, No it's Mallberry, probly coz it's berry near the Mall. hwe.hwe.hwe.
At 9am, the cab that Myra's friend rented for us arrived to take us to Bukidnon. (There are buses to Bukidnon but going into Del Monte Clubhouse will require a private vehicle as no public transport would go in that far. Cab rental cost us P3K which I thought was expensive since to get rent-a-car with driver costs as much.)
The 40 minute drive to Del Monte allowed us to
see the beautiful countryside of the area. The mountains and fields were flourishing in its greenery. We went around Camp Phillips the community built by Del Monte for its employees. American-style houses decked the road side which led to a playing field. It reminded me of Camp John Hay. Going thru the pineapple plantation was quite a site with pineapple plants as far as the eyes can see. The Del Monte Clubhouse was set against the greens of the golf course with pine trees all over the place. It smelled really nice out there. Very peaceful. It reminded Kath of Canada.Del Monte Clubhouse is known for its luscious steaks. We tried a large porterhouse and roastbeef to share. Of course we drank Del Monte Pineapple Juice with it. Unfortunately, the porterhouse was a bit overseasoned though still good to eat. We finished it. The roastbeef however was too dry. Oh note worthy, it was my first time to eat sald with ketchup as dressing. Needless to say, it was weird. We spent around P1700.
After lunch, we headed towards Benadictine Monastery which was 1.5 hrs away. Full to our tummies and with the rain cooling our car, we fell asleep during the drive. At the Benedictine Monastery, we found out that there were old and new monasteries. We visited the old first which was a chapel situated on a hill. It was quite and peaceful. Disruption only came from the splattering of rain outside. Myra and I said a short prayer. Kath stayed in the car as she didn't have protection from the rain. Afterwhich we wanted to try the infamous coffee and bread of made at the Monastery. It turned out they've closed the shop quite some time ago as they didn't have enough visitors to sustain it. They now just sold Monk's Premium Coffeebeans or Ground Coffee for brewing. A small back of the ground coffee cost only P72 while the bigger bag cost P114.
The new Monastery was bigger. It had a beautiful view of the surrounding place
. It would have been a good place to have a retreat. We met an old man cleaning the place. He was sooo sweet and accommodating. He told us that we could go up behind the altar and see the wooden sculpture of the Madonna & Child up close. He also told us that we can visit the chapel behind the main monastery as well. All these he instructed in Bisaya. Somehow we managed to pick up some words to understand him. Later he was telling me, people who visit their province should learn to speak the dialect and if he ever visited Manila then he should learn to speak Tagalog. Made sense to a certain extent.After this we decided to head back to CDO. It felt like gruelling 3hr trip back though it was just for 2 hours.
Back at the hotel, we took some nap and decided to go to dinner. We wanted
to try a local restaurant. Going thru the mall, we asked the customer service any good local restaurants and the guard pointed us to Kagay-anon Restaurant. My 2000 edition Lonely Planet described it to be popular among locals though a bit expensive. Overall we enjoyed the food: Ostrich salpicao which tasted like beef, Adobong Kangkong (which arrived too late, we were almost done eating), baked Tahong, Sinigang na Hipon and Buko Juice for me and Myra, Kalamansi Juice for Kathleen. We spent P988.00 here.
And that concludes day 1.
