Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Pearl Farm Resort

I often wonder if Filipinos think the same way about tropical beach resorts as Canadians do. Canadians treat tropical resorts as the closest thing to paradise. I guess we think this way because there's no such thing as a tropical beach resort in Canada. At least, I've never sat on a powder white sands beach in Canada sucking back coconut juice out of a straw. It's the uniqueness of the experience that makes it like paradise. But if you're a Filipino, you must be used to this stuff. I know from my experience over here I'm starting to get used to this stuff. Before, if you were to offer me a coconut with a straw sticking out of it I'd be like, "OH WOW COOL, hand that over!" But now it's more like, "Oh, another coconut. Gee, how original, thanks." The resort experience is getting familiar but that doesn't mean it's still not fun to do!

Our travels for a beach resort brought us to Davao. Davao is located on the southeastern portion of Mindanao here in the Philippines. It consists of four provinces, namely: Compostela Valley, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, and Davao del Sur. The region encloses the Davao Gulf and its regional center is Davao City.

We saw very little of Davao City. Once our plane landed we immediately took a cab to to where the resort's boat was waiting for us. The resort is called Pearl Farm Resort and it's on an island called Samal Island. In this photo, the boat behind my motley crew of resort hoppers is the boat that took us to Samal Island. As we approached the island I found myself thinking about that TV show Fantasy Island. Instead of a private plane taking us to the island we had a private boat.

Unlike the show Fantasy Island there wasn't a midget named Tattoo ringing a bell yelling, "Da plane, da plane." Or in our case, "Da boat, da boat." What we heard on approaching the island is some interesting jungle trance techno music. I loved the sound of it. Or at least, I loved the sound of it THEN. More on that later...

When we got off the boat we were immediately greeted by the Pearl Farm staff with a pineapple drink in a bamboo cup.

Here's Aimee standing in front of the Pearl Farm Resort sign. Incidentally, here's the write up about the resort of their website:

Nestled on the quiet side of Samal Island, The Pearl Farm Beach Resort is a mere 45-minute boat ride from the wharf. This fourteen (14) hectare spread was once a pearl farm, where thousands of white-lipped oysters transported from the Sulu Sea, were cultivated for their pink, white and gold pearls. Today, the resort beckons with the promise of a relaxing, private retreat, under the care of its friendly and charming staff.

Sulu Sea? Wow, it's taking a lot of effort not to say a Star Trek joke right now.

When you arrive at Pearl Farm Resort they not only hand you a pineapple drink but also a baby to guide you during your stay.

Seriously.

Okay, I'm joking. In behind Aimee and my niece are rows of bamboo built cottages. They are built over the water on stilts. We stayed in one of these. It's an interesting experience waking up in the morning to the sound to water splashing underneath you. Okay, I'm going to say it ... it's p-a-r-a-d-i-s-e.

Davao is known for many things. One of these things is the fruit pomelo. It's similiar to a grapefruit only larger and sweeter. During our stay at Pearl Farm we ate pomelo in numerous ways: freshly picked and peeled, blended into shakes, chopped into salads, you name it.

Obviously resorts mean relaxation. We did plenty of that.

At night we were serenaded by a band of three musicans who seemed to have endless knowledge of every song in the universe. My personal favourite of the band is the guy in the middle. I love his shades! He's so cool. Only cool people can wear sunglasses at night (IE: Corey Hart. I shall call my favourite man Pinoy Hart!).

This is a view from our bamboo cottage. You can see behind me in the distance the place where the boat dropped us off a day before. The boats arrive every 30 minutes. And every 30 minutes they play the jungle beat trance music. Remember that music? The music I loved? Every 30 minutes people. Every damn 30 minutes. It starts playing in the morning and continues playing into the evening. Every 30 minutes. 30 boom boom boom minutes boom boom boom. After a while I wanted to find out where the music was played from, go there and break the damn CD.

Hey, who let the pasty white guy into the pool? Behind me is that building again. The building that plays the jungle beat music. The second level up is the bar. Obviously we spent some time there since we're all drunks.

Here's Aimee and I practicing for Amazing Race Asia Season III. I discovered that time moves slower when you're paddling in a boat. We rented the boat and paddled to the island across from Samal Island. Once we reach that island we docked the boat, got out, and hung out for a bit. Once the novelty of being on a different island wore off we got back in the boat and paddled back to Samal Island. Our time in the boat seemed like an hour and a half but the time in reality ended up being thirty minutes. Either I'm out of shape and the pain in my arms from paddling made it seem longer or we were trapped in a time warp. I'm sticking to the time warp idea.

So what is my impression of Pearl Farm Resort? I liked it, but I think we stayed a day too long. We stayed for two nights when one would have been enough. The trouble with the resort is you're trapped on an island and you have to depend on the resort for everything. They had only one restaurant and after eating the same type of food three meals a day two days in a row it was getting boring. I think the resort needs to jazz the place up a bit. Bring it into the new millennium. That tiki bamboo look worked well in the 70s but I think it's old school now. Mix some modern stuff with the bamboo. And please, oh please, mix your music up a bit. The jungle trance music is going to make someone go postal one day.

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