SIDE TRIP 33: Syort Taym sa Davao

“Manong, kanang barato pero limpio!” was our urgent appeal to the taxi driver. I was with our pretty lady accountant, Nikki, on our first trip to Davao and we had no idea where to stay. Miki and Nikki. Cute no? Like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, heheh.

We both worked for a government corporation involved in livelihood development for the poverty sectors and we were in Davao to firm up projects with several NGOs doing microfinance work. But before we could do grand things like that (ha!), we had to find lodgings first. And the easiest way to do that we thought was to ask the taxi driver.

I guess I have to tell you that back then, per diem for lowly government employees on travel was insanely low. And that measly amount already included provisions for hotel accommodations. Certainly not enough if you chose to go solo. We always traveled in pairs -- male and female, one for financial audit and the other for operations audit. And so, to make ends meet, it became standard practice for partners to share a hotel room to save on costs.

And so it came to be that me and the pretty accountant were asking the taxi driver to bring us to any barato-pero-limpio hotel in downtown Davao. Usually, the ones regularly patronized by salesmen and medreps were OK and within our budget range.

“Kana!” we almost shouted to the driver when we passed by a small building with the sign “Family Pension Hotel” on its facade. We figured that with a name like that, it gotta be “safe”. But when we got inside the room, there was only one bed! Good thing it was queen size so Nikki and I decided to just share the bed and put a pillow in the middle to serve as demarcation line.

In the morning as we were going out to meet with an NGO representative, Nikki asked the front desk clerk if he could please put a trash can inside the room because there wasn’t anything to put our garbage in. The clerk was visibly puzzled. “Bakit Ma’am, mag-extend pa kayo???”

Waaaahhh!!! Pang-short time pala napasukan namin!!!