Dakak Beach Resort

On our MNL-DPL leg, our flight was delayed. Instead of leaving at 1045am, we managed to flew at around 1pm. Our original plan of eating at Dakak was spoiled. Instead, we eat at one of the food bars at NAIA terminal 3. There’s not much to do here so we just window-shop and fool around to kill those down time. It’s good that we planned touring Dakak on or first day, so we have plenty of spare time for mishaps like this. There were a lot of people complaining at the Cebpac crews… but hey, what can they do? Poor crews! Instead of complaining we joked around and asked if there were any free lunch.hehe.., too bad, there wasn’t.

Tip: Check in your tripods since Cebpac personnel will force you to check that in anyway.

When we arrived at the Dipolog airport, we were greeted by crews of the Dakak beach resort. They even hung orchid-necklaces to each of us. Other crews asked us for our bag tags and get our checked-in bags for us. We weren’t used to being welcomed like this…hehe During our last trip, I even carry a huge box while trying to run away from some haggling CDO taxi drivers. Hehehe

Using their van, we headed to Dakak. We ended up in the back row since we took some pictures of the airport and we wanted to make sure that none of our bags were missed out. When we arrived at the resort, we were given welcome drinks. The drinks were simply Tang multi-flavored juice, but it’s a great thirst-quencher anyways.

Our room was situated away from the pool and the beach. I think all rooms were designed like this. The room looked like a modern “bahay-kubo”. It was made of nipa and cement, and was spacious enough for 4 people. There was also a mini-living room inside, and veranda overlooking Dakak fields. We fought the urge to sleep and tour Dakak.

There weren’t much to do here. I think this resort is created for family and couple vacations. The ambiance is soooooo relaxing that we were on the verge of boredom. There are many water sports activities; however, they’re expensive, so we didn’t try them out.

View of Dakak from the Globe tower

Anyway, the sights were great so we ended up picture-taking before taking a dip at the beach. Even the beach was sooooo calm, there wasn’t a wave at all. At night, we tried the bowling and billiards for P30 each. Fun, at last! Hehehe. We were unable to use the free videoke machine since it closes at 11pm.

Things to do in Dakak:
-    banana boat ride
-    kayak, jet skis and such stuff
-    swim (pool and beach)
-    use the spinning Jacuzzi (upto 6pm only ? )
-    play bowling
-    play billiards
-    sing your hearts out using the videoke machine
-    relax/sleep
-    enjoy the sights
-    dine
-    annoy the doves and frogs abundant in the area. hehehe

Here is our expense breakdown for day 1:

Fast facts we learned while in Dakak:
-    Pres. GMA were supposed to visit DAKAK day after we checked-in
-    Dakak is owned by Romeo Jalosjos
-    Dakak is short for “the cock”. Dipolog and Dapitan are well-known for cockfighting

Other articles about Dakak:

Dakak Park Beach Resort, as seen from the commercial

Multi-layered Cambugahay Falls

Last Feb 19-25, 2009, 3 friends and I toured Dapitan, Dipolog, Siquijor and Dumaguete. When we reviewed our total expenses, the total, including the air fare from/to Manila just costs under P10K. To find out how we did these, read on.

Preparation:
After our trip in CDO last October, we immediately planned our next destination. Japanesecake saw Dumaguete in LivingAsia channel and thought that it might be a good place to tour. Since Dipolog is just under Dumaguete, and since Dakak is in Dipolog (we saw the DAKAK commercial played nth times in Eat Bulaga, so that paved way for curiosity about the place), we decided that we can tour Dumaguete and Dipolog using an ARUNK flight. (ARUNK is a travel-industry term short for arrival unknown. Our flight is MNL-DPL and DGT-MNL, but going to DIPOLOG-DUMAGUETE is “unknown”, that’s where the term ARUNK comes in).

When Cebu Pacific 0 fare promo is offered to the public, we immediately decided our travel dates and booked a MNL-DPL and DGT-MNL flight. Our first step of preparation is complete.

Though we only booked hotels during trips, one week before departure, we opted to book for Dakak’s barkada package which is good for 4pax. The cost is only P2800, fair enough I guess. A few days before our tour, we finalized our itinerary. Our initial itinerary was:

Day 1: Dakak
Day 2: Tour Dapitan
Day 3: Tour Dipolog
Day 4: Tour Apo island, Dumaguete
Day 5: Tour Siquijor
Day 6: Tour Dumaguete
Day 7: Tour Dumaguete and head back to MNL

Due to some unexpected little mishaps, we changed our itinerary during the tour. It’s good that our itinerary is flexible enough to be changed abruptly and that we didn’t make any hotel reservations prior to our trip (except for Dakak). Here is our final list of itinerary.

Day 1: Tour Dakak, Dapitan (Dakak andDapitan Itinerary)
Day 2: Tour Dapitan and Dipolog (Dipolog Itinerary)
Day 3: Tour Liboton Cave, Dipolog (Dipolog Itinerary)
Day 4: Tour Siquijor island
Day 5: Tour Dumaguete
Day 6: Tour Apo island, Dumaguete
Day 7: Tour Dumaguete, head back to Manila

Here is the list of expenses per day of our travel. Breakdown of expenses will be shown per day in other posts.

Being able to experience a 7-day trip across 4 destinations for just under P9000 is a feat. Not only did we enjoy the tourist spots of the provinces, but we were able to prove a lot of things. One of them is Siquijor as a paradise, and not as the “aswang-infested” island we were used to hear.

Dakak beach resort

How to go to Dakak

Cebu Pacific and Philippine airlines have regular flights going to Dipolog. From Dipolog there are vans waiting in the area to take you anywhere you want to go. In our case, it was the Dakak Park Beach Resort that took us to Dakak, as part of the promo ‘Barkada Package’ we availed from them.

What to See

Yes we all have seen this place in the commercial during eat bulaga when we were little. Well it definitely and still looks like what it is in the commercial, but boy was this place boring. hehe. The place is more-of for people that wants to have a relax vacation. And since all of us wants to get moving all the time, this place was a dissapointment.

It’s so…peaceful and calm it feels like Dakak wants you to sleep all day. The only great thing here is that it’s clean, its huge and the ammenities are pretty cheap. The amenities which included bowling, videoke machine, and billiard tables only costs 35 per game, or 35 per hour for the billiard and videoke. Actually that was the only thing we enjoyed in there.

Also one thing that (I think) we enjoyed are the frogs, hehe. During our Mindanao tour, Dipolog, Dakak, Dapitan, Dumaguete and Siquijor were swarmed with frogs. Big disgusting yet really cool frogs. haha. I’ve never seen so many frogs in my life, and that many. Ewww. And since having poor eyesight, I actually thought some huge fallen leaves were frogs. Yes they were really huge, and some of them even takes a swim at the pool. That’s why we didnt swim on some of the pool.

Going there

We have reserved our stay to Dakak prior to the trip. We availed of the Barkada package  which is 2800 pesos. I’m not sure if how many people includes the barkada package, there were four of us. It includes a two bedroom room, no breakfast, and a free pick up from airport and a free drop off to airport, or any way going to airport. So going there, we were picked up by the Dakak people so I cant give you a detail on commuting. Plus they give you orchid necklaces once you arrive at the airport, so why not avail that instead. hehe.

Things to do in Dakak

1. Take the 300-steps step

Dakak has a 300-steps stairs going atop one of the hills near it, where you can see the whole Dakak and some other islands. This is also where the cell site of the area is, but dont worry. All Mobile networks are working fine in Dakak.

2. Swimming

Dakak has a nice clean boring sea water. It has no waves at all, well we went in February so I don’t know about some other time. It also has two adult size swimming pools and one kiddie pool, and a jacuzi. The jacuzi is switched off after 6 so we weren’t able to enjoy that.

The cool thing about here is that we were able to go sea swimming in the night. There were spotlights lighting the beach area, so you’d still be able to swim around the place. And also some frogs swim the pool by night. haha.

3. Bowling, billiard, videoke

Like mentioned, the amenities is cheap. 35 pesos for each of this activity. Videoke is free.

4. Snorkeling, Diving, Jet skiing, kayaking

Since we’re on a budget, we didnt do these things, but Dakak offers these activities. (No wonder why we didnt enjoy the place. hehe)

Also, the place is owned by the Jalosjos clan, in case you have a political thing going on. And in case  you dont want to ran into Romeo Jalosjos now that he’s free. haha.

Fees and Fares of this tour

• Dakak Barkada package - P2800 (4 people)

More pictures of Dakak here:

(Click the picture to view the album)

I have searched highs and lows for the perfect foot wear that I could use for hiking, rafting, and at the same time use it on a regular basis. Then I came accross, this brown beautiful strappy thing. I was introduced to Giselle Bundchen…’s Ipanema. haha.

It cost me 1800 for this plastic sandals, only to find out that the ‘bangketa’s’ outside is swarming with fake replicas of these ipanema sandals. (I would’ve opted for the cheaper one. I’m not a ‘brand’ shopper.) My friend/tourmate ‘L’ had the same one, only fake. And to think I could saved 1700 for the slippers.

But now, my ipanema is still alive and ‘L’s well, she doesnt like to wear it anymore. My ipanema is standing strong. She had taken me to places, and she hold on tight during the rough times, when she almost was a gonner.
She had taken me to these beautiful places…

ipa at Siquijor

ipa at Macau

ipa about to take a leak.

dirty feet and ipanema at Davao

Yep me and Ipanema is going strong. And yes, I’m talking about my slippers in this manner.