My Trip to Cagayan De Oro: The City of Golden Friendship and Iligan City
October 17, 2008THE VISIT: OCTOBER 16-17, 2008
Again as part of my job, I went to Cagayan De Oro and Iligan City to conduct a site and project inspection of the projects of my client in the same area, Firm Builders Realty & Development Corporation (FBRDC) and they have been my client since my Maybank days wayback 2005. I left Manila around 8:10 a.m. via Cebu Pacific Air then I arrived at CDO almost 10:00 a.m. then we immediately proceeded to DDD Habitat to check in since I’l be staying overnight in the City. After some short talks with the officers of the company, we headed to Iligan City for the project visit wherein I was accompanied by two great people of FBRDC, Art and Engr. (sorry i forgot your name)
ON THE WAY TO ILIGAN CITY:
I thought its just an hour drive from CDO to Iligan but it took us almost 2 hours to reach the city. We arrived there at FBRDC’s Iligan office around 1:30 in the afternoon where I met some of the officers of the company particularly their Project Manager Jong Gomez. Then they treat me to a sumptous lunch at Sunbursts Restaurant one of the famous restaurant in the area because of their ried chicken, durian cheeze cake, Kinilaw with tabon-tabon (antedote for the lansa factor of the fresh meat of tanigue-Tahnks Jong & Art for the trivia!),calamares and sinigang na tuna. In the same lunch i got to meet some of the PNB Officers of Iligan Branch who also gave their time to join us in the site visit at Brgy. Pacol. After the business and official concerns, my newly found friends from FBRDC took me at the famous store of peanuts in the City named as CHEDENGS. Thanks for the nuts and suka Pinakurat Engr.! Then we headed to go back to CDO where will I spend the night.
CDO AT NIGHT:
We reached the city around past 6 p.m. already after 2 hours of rest in my room, my new friends from FBRDC picked me up again for their Dinner Treat. They brought me at Limketkai complex at Cagayanon Restaurant, one of the popular and must visit place in CDO. When we arrived there, the Secretary of DepEd was also there for some official functions along with the School Administrators of the Region. Going back to our dinner, we enjoyed again the Kinilaw na Tanigue with tabon-tabon, pakbet, lapu lapu with tausi sauce, bola baise soup and fish adobo (i forgot the name of the fish-taste like utak ng baboy!), grilled tuna with lots of garlic on top plus fresh fruit salad as desert. To summed it up, it was realy a great dinner then. After that? we went home already after a long drive at Iligan.
A day before my Birthday at the City of Golden Friendship:
I woke up around 6am to catch up for the 7 pm mass at the Cathedral of St. Augustine where I also had the chance to take some pictures of the Cathedral’s unique beauty including that of the views of the Plaza and the City Hall. From my place at the hotel i just walked to experience walking around the place pasing thru the river. After the short walking within the immediate area, my new friends Art & Jong picked me up again in the hotel around 9:30 am since before my departure I had to visit our PNB branch to meet some of the officers of the Bank then afterwards they brought me at the store where the famous pastel is being sold and cook, the Vjandep (silent “j”) Pastel. After buying some stuff there we went to SM City CDO for our Lunch and this time at Bigby’s then after the lunch we headed to the Airport in time for my 2:15 flight going back to Manila. It’s really a great experience visiting the place of CDO for the second time around. My first visit was during my stint at Maybank Philippines but the same was not that good as it is very abrupt trip except with that of the fact that my trip then thru an airplane was the first one. I really felt the golden friendship at CDO with the great and warm reception extended to me by the people of FBRDC! Im really looking forward to my next visit at CDO hopefully before the year ends. I got back to Manila around 4:15 p.m. October 17, 2008
