I got up early and took a taxi to the Cultural Center of Philippines building. Today I was going to go to Corregidor island, used by US forces as a defense base and a key island in the Philippine battles against the Japanese in World War II.
This is the CCP building, close to Manila BayI got down behind the CCP building and walked towards the rightEventually you come across signs pointing to the Sun Cruises office. Although the ferry leaves at 8am, you are asked to ‘check in’ by 7am or so.
If you want to do a tour of Corregidor island, you really don’t have much choice besides going via Sun Cruises. They have a monopoly over the ferry service to Corregidor island and tours conducted there. I paid ₱2200 (Rs.3000/$48/€38) for the day tour. I couldn’t find anything less from any other tour provider. You can get the fact sheet about the island here.
Sun Cruises offer cycle tours to Corregidor island tooWe left the dockI took this photo before departure, but it was pretty full by the time we leftThe view of Manila skyline from sea30 minutes later, I could see Corregidor island in the distance
Being really hot during the day, I decided to step out only at around 2pm.
I began my outing by having a KFC lunch. The outlet I sat at had cheddar cheese coated KFC. It was bleh! It’s basically the same artificial coating you find on cheese balls crisps but now on KFC. The meal cost ₱99.I then went to Ayala to withdraw some money from Citibank branch there
After withdrawing some money, I walked around the area (very posh, mind you). Lots of malls and office buildings.
Asian Institute of Management — it’s one of the top-ranked B-schools in AsiaI entered Greenbelt 5 mall, which is just one of many malls under the Greenbelt name in the areaThis is Greenbelt 3, the posh mall with all the really high-end brandsI spent some time at the SM department store picking up some t-shirts for my younger brother. SM has official merchandise from popular anime like Naruto, One Piece and other cartoons. Pretty cheap too, t-shirts can be found ranging from ₱99 all the way up to ₱399.
After that, I went to Carriedo (LRT station) where SM has a clearance mall
I had seen this building from taking the LRT, figured I would check it out
I found some great bargains inside. Besides a bunch of in-store brands by SM, they had a few name brands and foreign brands in short supply (maybe export rejects). None the less, I found H&M cargo shorts for ₱400. Definitely export-reject-worthy Rip Curl swimming shorts for ₱200. And then some bermuda shorts for like ₱100 each. Not everything was cheap, but then again, coming from India, I wasn’t planning on buying many clothes from Philippines anyway.
One thing I found funny was just how many sales persons are there to sell you socks. Like, super-aggressive when it comes to shoving socks in your face. Think perfume sales people offering a spray to get you talking to them — but a lot more of them selling packs of socks! High margin socks I presume? 😀
Outside, Carriedo is home to a rather large street market
Today was my last day in Davao. I checked out early from Green Windows Dormitel because instead of heading straight to the airport, I instead decided to carry all my bags, take a taxi and visit the Japanese World War II tunnel in Davao.
The tunnel is now situated inside a resort that goes by the name of D’Japanese Tunnel Family Resort. Like every attraction in Davao, it’s a bit of a drive away from the city.
As the taxi kept on riding for around half an hour, I wondered if I would be late for my flight as the Japanese Tunnel is not in the same direction as the airport.
Once I reached D’Japanese Tunnel Family Resort, the entrance to the tunnel was pretty much visible from the gate. It’s basically a resort built around the tunnel. I went to the resort’s eception desk and bought the entry ticket for the Japanese tunnel. It costs ₱50 for adults, ₱20 for children.
This is the entrance, the reception was to the right.There is a guide that comes along with youThis tunnel was built in 1942, during World War II, when the Japanese had captured Davao and used the island in its fight to capture the remaining Pacific islands.It’s 300 metres longThe tunnel was used by Japanese soldiers during the war as an underground base. This is a mini-shrine, a prayer area of sortsAnd this is how a Japanese soldier used to look like in those daysA mini-prison cell. This is where they would sometimes keep prisoners of war. Yeah, it wasn’t meant to be comfortable.We proceeded further, and it got cooler
