The Visit to General Santos City: Day 1

12:30PM - We arrived 10 minutes earlier than scheduled at the International Airport of General Santos City.

A lot of friends asked me what is in GenSan? Why GenSan? That was the first trip that I prepared the itinerary.  Google came handy so I made my research days prior to our trip. What's in GenSan? uhhmm TUNA.

In fact it was the last day of tuna festival when we arrived; Sept 12, 2014. We missed the street parade. What we saw were colorful parade floats displayed outside a mall.

The city is quite far from the airport; approximately 30 minutes.  Based on my research, you can take a taxi for 300 pesos or a van for 150 pesos or if the budget is tight at 50 pesos for multi-cab.

Luckily a friend of mine was available to pick us up. She used to be my office mate and a close friend of mine. I guess that answers the why.

  
For six years, I have not seen my inaanak. I thought I owe him big time.

Our room wasn't ready yet so we went to a nearby mall for late lunch.

The most expensive King Crab I've eaten @ 700 pesos

I read good reviews and a friend recommended it.

A bit pricey actually but the taste was worth the price.  I noticed they are generous with garlic. 

L-R: chicken lumpia - fried rice - beef spareribs - chicken adobo

Overall, it was a good lunch.

That mandatory picture a tourist should have when visiting Veranza. The cascading water controls the humidity and it was pretty cool actually. Surprisingly, for a weekend there were few people even some shops were on sale like as low as 70% off. After lunch, I couldn't resist the markdowns so we went shopping. We were supposed to be visiting some museums and parks and learn about history but naah Aero, GAP and Guess were worth visiting and my friends agreed.

This was our room.  We stayed at Palm Woods Pensionne House. We got the Twin Deluxe for 920 pesos for the 3 of us already.  Staff were very friendly and accommodating.  The room was neat, free wi-fi and toilet was clean. I booked through their facebook page only and no down payment requirement.  Isn't that hassle free?

Friday night at 8pm, we went to our room to freshen up and rest for a while. We were waiting for another friend who would take us to the night life scene of the city. For the meantime, let us take a selfie.

  
So Kris took us to Pahayahay Resto Bar for a drink. I saw another familiar face singing at the stage. I waived hello as he announced my arrival.  Blushed as everyone turned their head to see me. Thanks Jess for the grand entrance.

I wasn't feeling well, I was about to have fever so we call it a day early.

The following morning before leaving to Gumasa, Kriss brought us to Taps and Mix for a posh breaksfast. Naah he just like to use the word posh. @75 pesos per meal it was enough to start a bright day ahead.