Maguindanao, MagandaNow

Maguindanao, MagandaNow

This quote captured me. I've been searching for new places to travel, new mountains to climb, new waterfalls to chase, when I came to a post regarding Maguindanao. When we say Maguindanao, first things that come across our minds are Rebels, Massacre, War... Amidst those stuffs, I was in awe looking at the photos of the spots in Maguindanao. Which then led me to decide to go and explore. 

TravelNatures by Inday Luchie, posted an ad regarding Maguindanao. I immediately inquired and made some invites to my friends. It had been so hard for us to do an exclusive tour as some of my friends doesn't want to go because of the fear of the place. Good thing, we were able to find some joiners before our planned date. 

We left Davao around 12 midnight and arrived at Cotabato City around 6am. During the whole duration of the traveltime from Davao to Cotabato, I never slept at all. The news about the place kept on bothering me. Haha. Around 3am, we were at a spot in Midsayap in which we were told to stopover as they aren't allowing anyone to go inside the City of Cotabato yet before 4am. I always look outside our window with a thought of there might be an ambush or something. Hahaha. Guys, I'm just being honest of what I felt that time. So to cut this made-up-horror-story-because-of-the-news, it was a very safe travel from Davao to Maguindanao and back to Davao.  

These were the places we visited during our Maguindanao escapade.

1. Mt. Minandar, Datu Odin Sinsuat

2. Masjid Dimaukom 

Pink Mosque, Datu Saudi 

*Inside the Pink Mosque

3. Masjid Abpi 

White Mosque, Datu Odin Sinsuat

*Inside the White Mosque

*The Hollywood-like ILoveDOS sign can be seen outside of the White Mosque

4. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah

The Grand Mosque, Cotabato City

Those were the highlights of our trip. We were supposed to go to the Blue Lagoon but since it rained hard the night before, the water isn't that blue anymore, not so nice to see. So instead, we had some side trips!

5. MSU Maguindanao Campus

6. Bai/Princess Walk, Cotabato City

Now, a bit of an FYI. Cotabato City is currently the #1 Safest City in Mindanao, #2 Safest in the whole Philippines. A loooooot of checkpoints! But of course, we know it's for our safety.

 Kudos to Cotabato City!

Thank you to Maam Inday Luchie of TravelNatures and DOS Tourism Datuhabib Ala Salazar for bringing us here. Such a wonderful place!

#TravelBudDear #MtMinandar #PinkMosque #WhiteMosque #GrandMosque #Maguindanao #CotabatoCity #TravelNatures