A Glimpse of Laguindingan and the City of Friendship

I am excited to share a trip I had recently. This is to city called Cagayan De Oro, with the slogan "the City of Friendship." The city is located in Misamis Oriental in Northern Mindanao. Well, my destination was not really CDO but Bukidnon. Since there are no direct flights to Bukidnon, I had to go via the CDO route. But passing an interesting place may mean so much to anyone I guess, especially if it is a place you have never been to. In my case, this was the first time that I visited CDO and my first Mindanao trip ever! After this particular trip/vacation that lasted around three weeks, I was back to Leyte, but we Leyteños are quite popular because of McArthur's "I shall return" statement and indeed I was back to Northern Mindanao treading (figuratively) the same route only six days after! (I’ll tell you about that soon *wink*).

*Note that I took this photo before the plane came to a full stop*

So, first thing’s first, what was my motivation for travelling? I mean, it's not that you always need to have one when travelling – but my reason mainly in this case is because I wanted to leave my hometown for a while, and run away from all the intoxication and boredom I was getting. Apart from that, it was because my Mom bought me tickets. Haha! I joked to her about it, and when she came home that day, she gave me tickets! One round trip ticket Tacloban-Cebu and another round trip ticket Cebu-CDO. I think she knew that I was really bored to death and needed the time off, so she got me those tickets. My return flight was the day before her birthday! Haha. 

Like I mentioned a while ago, my trip was via Cebu – I stayed overnight at my brother’s apartment which only cost me P8.00 since it was one multicab ride from the Mactan International Airport. Talk about savings! Anyway, my brother and I had dinner after his work and decided to do groceries. The following day, since it was my trip to CDO, after preparing a bit and doing some cleaning (older sister duties), I left for the airport and I was glad to have spent only P16.00 for two multicab rides and it was way cheaper than having to spend over a P100.00 for a taxi cab ride.

Arriving in Laguindingan International Airport is a different story. The place is really new and clean and definitely stunning. Some say the looks can be compared to other international airports abroad. And compared to the airport we have in Tacloban – I was speechless. Since it was my first time in Laguindingan, I took an obligatory photo of the airport which I rarely do nowadays since most of my travels involve only the more familiar airports  that I've been to before.

I usually take selfies but this time I was too shy to pose for one since I got ultimately self-conscious travelling alone for this trip. Perhaps if I had someone with me, that selfie would have been a possibility. HAHA.

From Laguindingan airport, there are a lot of shuttle vans headed to CDO proper and the barkers will try and get your attention the moment you step out of the airport. I rode a van headed to Agora Terminal and this commute had cost me P199 which was like a 45-minute ride. I was to meet my sister in the terminal and we rode a jeepney to see LimketKai Mall and visit a Ramen place she always wanted to try. 

Notice the photo on the left and look at the size of the Spicy Seafood ramen which she had to eat all alone. This was the expression on her face when she actually saw her order for the first time. I mean, we were both starving, yes, but that bowl of ramen was quite huge for one person.

After the bountiful meal, we rode a jeepney to reach Centrio--a new Ayala Mall in CDO. Well, we did not really have anything planned, so we just did some window shopping, ate Mochiko balls, bought a couple of stuff I needed for my writing, watched people do Zumba and ate dinner. And did I mention all the talk we have been doing since we saw each other? From Agora terminal and back to Agora terminal again? HAHAHA.

We were bound for Bukidnon at that point so we took the red RTMI bus headed to the food basket of the Philippines, but I'd want to save that story for your next read. I had fun sharing this and we hope to be able to write more about our travels and food finds with you guys!

All the love from us, sisters!

[Sisters of Wander]

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