Ponce Suites in Davao City (Philippines) is a cozy little nook for art aficionados and budget travelers.
Che Fiel, a journalist from davaotoday.com recommended the place located in the downtown but serene Doña Vicenta Village II in Bajada district. Since I was in Davao two days earlier for the safety and alerts reporting training in Waterfront Insular Hotel, I had to look for an affordable place while exploring the quaint city of durian.
Ponce Suites' design was eccentric and a mix and match of different medium of artworks made by the owner's artist son Kublai Millan. From as far as 20 meters, artworks outside the four-storey building were already towering. I knew I was in Davao upon seeing a giant durian sculpture with finely crafted images of women dreaming inside.
Add to that a Philippine eagle sculpture engulfing the full façade of the building.
It was a dreamland of mythological creatures that created waves of different stages of being - "soulmates back to back," "gypsy woman listening to the sound of the faraway sea," "what shape is your mind?," "Neptune in a shell" and many others.
Since Kublai was a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, his tribute to his beloved alma mater was a toddler oblation, an object of affection of many UPian guests here.
Inside was a world of its own – every space filled with pictures of Kublai's travels and travails, installations (that included his own hair), paintings and poems written on the walls. Ceilings were never spared with insect installations crawling like they just survived mutation. For P590 a night, it was not bad at all for a single airconditioned room, with cable TV and hot and cold shower. -->
Every floor at Ponce Suites has small conference rooms but the rooftop houses the biggest where wifi-enable Transcend Café is located. Here, food is as cheap as P80 with choices of sizzling sisig, tuna chunks, tapsilog, adobo, tapa, bangus plus rice, iced tea, coffee or tea. A bottle of beer is from P30-35. Up in this artist's lair, I found Davao City's skyline coupled with a breeze of fresh air the most soothing.
Che Fiel, a journalist from davaotoday.com recommended the place located in the downtown but serene Doña Vicenta Village II in Bajada district. Since I was in Davao two days earlier for the safety and alerts reporting training in Waterfront Insular Hotel, I had to look for an affordable place while exploring the quaint city of durian.
Ponce Suites' design was eccentric and a mix and match of different medium of artworks made by the owner's artist son Kublai Millan. From as far as 20 meters, artworks outside the four-storey building were already towering. I knew I was in Davao upon seeing a giant durian sculpture with finely crafted images of women dreaming inside.
Add to that a Philippine eagle sculpture engulfing the full façade of the building.
It was a dreamland of mythological creatures that created waves of different stages of being - "soulmates back to back," "gypsy woman listening to the sound of the faraway sea," "what shape is your mind?," "Neptune in a shell" and many others.
Since Kublai was a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, his tribute to his beloved alma mater was a toddler oblation, an object of affection of many UPian guests here.
Inside was a world of its own – every space filled with pictures of Kublai's travels and travails, installations (that included his own hair), paintings and poems written on the walls. Ceilings were never spared with insect installations crawling like they just survived mutation. For P590 a night, it was not bad at all for a single airconditioned room, with cable TV and hot and cold shower. -->
Every floor at Ponce Suites has small conference rooms but the rooftop houses the biggest where wifi-enable Transcend Café is located. Here, food is as cheap as P80 with choices of sizzling sisig, tuna chunks, tapsilog, adobo, tapa, bangus plus rice, iced tea, coffee or tea. A bottle of beer is from P30-35. Up in this artist's lair, I found Davao City's skyline coupled with a breeze of fresh air the most soothing.
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