Magandang Gensan!

I have been to General Santos City already but this is my first 3D/2N stay at the beautiful GenSan. I almost always mix business with pleasure so, even if I was on official business to attend a PICPA Seminar, I also met up with one of my closest friends, Ross.

Malls in Mindanao, generally, close early at around 8pm. Luckily, there are still a lot of places where you can hang out even after mall hours. Our place of choice: Coffee Club 101 located just outside Robinson's Mall. I know there is another Coffee Club 101 branch in GenSan but unfortunately, I did not get it's street address.

A bottle of beer for me and Tuna Panini

Inside Coffee Club 101, Robinson's Branch

Since I will be staying for a couple of nights, I booked at Phela Grande Hotel, thinking that Phela Grande Hotel is just located at the same place where the Phela Granda Convention Center is. However, as soon as I stepped inside the tricycle and told the driver to go to Phela, the driver asked me whether I was referring to the Phela Hotel or the Phela Convention Center. OH MY GOSH!!! I was not prepared for it! I soon found out that Phela Grande Hotel is just around the downtown area while Phela Grande Convention Center is located a little off-city. Anyhow, Phela Grande Hotel's rates are reasonable enough and the service is also very good so I decided to stay there even if I had to pay P20 for the tricycle fare in going to the convention center.

At the Hotel Lobby

Hotel Rates

Phela Grande Hotel Rates start as low as P854 for a single room. If you have an additional guest and ask for an extra bed, you pay additional P500. It's really amazing that the additional guest also has free breakfast in the morning. It's not the same with other hotels where extra persons need to pay additional fees (aside from the extra bed fee) to have their breakfast.

The hotel was fully booked when I first checked in and I could not upgrade my single room for that night. Too bad I was not able to get a photo of the room. It cost me P956 and I wondered why they have different rates for their single rooms depending on which wing it was. My room had an appropriately-sized single bed, tv, hot and cold shower, and what excited me most was the LAN connection. There was no WIFI but there was a LAN cable. Yehey! One thing that I have noticed, though, is that the single room had only one power socket. It was a good thing that I brought my cellphone USB cable so that I could charge both my laptop and cellphone simultaneously.

For the second night, we've upgraded to the twin deluxe room located at the building's different wing. Also, wing A is not accessible by elevator. Phela's Wing B has an elevator. It's a little confusing on how Wings A and B are connected. We had a difficult time trying to figure out how to reach Second Floor A via the elevator. Long story!

Just woke up. =)

Tempt me NOT!!!

UP TO THE CEILING

DOWN TO THE FLOOR
I love wood tiles! Oh, you can see my bag there. =p

The twin deluxe room has bigger space. I think it's thrice the size of the single room. You can do tumbling shots here, really! It has a bath tub and mini bar. Plus, you have more power sockets! =) But, there is no internet connection in this part of the building. No WIFI, and no LAN cable. Telecommunication signal strength is strong so you can use your internet kit if you have one.

Generally, our stay at Phela Grande Hotel is a breeze, stress-free, and I will definitely recommend this hotel. Special thanks to one of the hotel staff, Faith, for being very very helpful and accommodating. And yes, Faith is a guy. When you're in Phela, you can ask him why his mom named him Faith. Hehe!

General Santos is a city in bloom. I've seen how much it has changed over the years. If you visit them now, you can readily see their progress. By the way, an SM Mall is currently under construction. Before, people from Mindanao would go to Davao being the center city sometime ago. Now, there is Cagayan de Oro in the North and General Santos City further down South.

Do you have any beautiful experiences in GenSan?