my mindanao trip back in september 2003 was shouting “newbie traveler!!!!!!!!!!!”.

for someone who’s lived in the city all her life - i fell into the trap of checking out the malls. yup, with no idea of CDO’s places of interest - the next destination for me was CDO’s limketkai center. the center then was under renovation, which proved inconvenient. as if checking out limketkai wasn’t enough, i proceeded to checking out the newly-opened SM Cagayan. going there gave me a little scare as it turned out, SM was located at Upper Carmen Cagayan de Oro City. the mall was on the way to the airport and was to me very far from the city proper. 

checking out the malls clearly showed my lack of an itinerary for this trip. on top of that, i was my usual self during the whole trip. i’m a creature of habits and doing something different from the ordinary is something you could not expect from me. thus, this trip as my college teacher ms. lee said, “was truly life changing”.

classic example of my usual self — my friend and co-worker then, wenawen, texted me that she could have some of her friends meet up with me. wenawen grew up and has family in cdo. thus, she suggested contacting some of her friends to show me around her beloved cdo. she was shocked and a little worried that i was there on my own and knew no one there. like i said, i was my usual self and thus declined my friend’s offer. i went about cdo on my own. 

newbie traveler booboo #1: going to familiar places                 you read it correctly. the last thing you should be doing when you’re in a different place is doing the same thing you’re doing while in your hometown. my creature of habit self kicked in and i had my B-L-D at reliable fastfoods; mc do / jollibee /chowking. [i give you permission to laugh, even sneer - hehe, i would do the same thing.] i must say that cdo’s mc do is the best mc do estab i’ve been to. it’s an estab of its own - more like a real US mc do branch.  it’s different in the sense that it isn’t located within a building or a mall. ha, i also chanced upon the original bigby’s restaurant - my favorite restaurant here in cebu back then - but moron me, had the “maulaw mosulod mentality” then.

newbie traveler booboo #2: failing to take lotsa pictures
it’s true that i only had a point 35 megapixel digicam back then, but that shouldn’t have prevented me from taking lotsa pictures. perhaps, it was me being self-conscious again. it’s really nice if you can have your travels well-documented.

newbie traveler booboo #3: failing to check out the night life traveling to one place wouldn’t be complete if you don’t see the place when the sun is out. a place is certainly transformed when the surroundings get dark and the streets are lit by the night lights. however, my first-timer and scared self got the better of me and hit back to the hotel way before nine in the evening.

==========

ticket stub going to valencia, bukidnon from cdo [AC @PhP100 sept. 2003]

the terminal for buses going to bukidnon, butuan, davao, and other areas in mindanao is located at Agora Market. this is also the same terminal where one can get to Balingoan [the port going to camiguin]. 

 

valencia, bukidnon is about two or three-hour drive from cagayan de oro city. unfortunately, i failed to explore the town. this was because it was raining when the bus arrived in valencia. additionally, it was already 4 p.m. when i reached town. as soon as i got to the area, i asked around and learned that the last trip going back to cagayan was at 7 p.m. not wanting to arrived in cagayan very late, i took the next bus back to CDO after i had snacks at guess where: jollibee valencia [hehehe... very pathetic]

it was at this bus ride that all the passengers were asked to get down the bus and wet one’s feet through a water faucet. as it was explained then, it was the government’s campaign against the foot and mouth disease. 
 

Your response: