With all the madness the world bestow us these days, at some point in our lives we need some place peaceful and quiet. A place not just to slow down, pray or meditate but a silent haven where we can empty our minds and reconnect with our roots – the nature. And when we’re looking for a place to do just that, there’s a healing and serene place in Tamayong, Davao City called – The Covenant Mountain and Paradise Garden of Eden Restored or The Prayer Mountain.
The Prayer Mountain now accepts visitors. Its an 8-hectare fenced property, 10,311 above sea level that is also the seat of Kingdom of Jesus Christ’s Executive Pastor, Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy. The same religious organization that operates Jose Maria College near F. Bangoy International Airport, that as far as I know the best and the most beautiful school campus in Davao City.
Tamayong is a little quiet barrio at the foot of Mt. Apo in Calinan District. It’s about an hour and a half drive from downtown Davao. Though roads are slim giving our driver no chance of overtaking, the whole stretch is entirely very passable.
One should secure an Authorization paper and pay P150/pax at the KJC Compound near the airport as I mentioned above. Booking should be done at least two days before the trip.
And so we arrived around 9AM at the hugely gated paradise. Before heading for a walk around, we joined the others for the orientation about the do’s and the don’ts around the vicinity. I heard they only allow 150 visitors at the same time; this is to maintain order and serenity of the place. It was Christmas break when we got there so we hit the maximum no. of persons. I wasn’t able to ask about the best time to visit, best time being the place is all to yourself, like alone and no one else. Maybe, you can ask the booking in-charge, just a suggestion.
Clean, wide roads. Each 10 sq.m. of the sprawling gardens has a personnel in-charge.
There's a huge space to park outside of the gate and upon checking our authorization we entered the very huge gate. I was amazed at how it was so different from the outside. Thought I was teleported to some other place. By this time, I now forgot to take a photo of that gate. We were greeted with finely manicured green field, lush Pines, wide and very clean roads and a calm, gentle atmosphere that scream peace and that to shout, yell and LOL here is a blatant desecration of the place. Indeed, very beautiful!
The Yellow Millennial House at The Prayer Mountain
Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy and his team of architects and engineers has worked non-stop, 24/7 to complete these Millennial Houses (they come in blue, pink and yellow colors) in time for the Millennial Service. This was the gathering of thousands of KJC faithful all over the world at the turn of century in 1999. It’s amazing how they turned out to be - quaint, picturesque and oh, so charming!
The Pink Millennial House at The Prayer Mountain
The Blue Millennial House at The Prayer Mountain
The Pastoral Mansion is Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy's official residence
Seven trucks of water are consumed everyday in maintaining
the landscape and watering the flower gardens.
We went there as a family so we were assigned a guide. But I want to go back and do a self-guided tour. Taking my time appreciating flowers with my lens was kind of hard to do when I'm being rushed to follow.
Anyway, on the photo above, can you see that green radial small structure just above my website's name? That's a Bose landscape speaker. There's over a dozen of those around the place. A centralized pipe-in music (Christmas songs when we were there) is played all over the place, 24 hours a day. How awesome! I got it now why plants here are lovely and flowers are always in bloom. Well, other than they were imported and being well taken cared of, music is one effective factor for plant growth that can practically change the plants characteristics. Gosh, I want a pair of those Boses, but they're around $400 a pair. Looks and sounds expensive, in the future, maybe. Our gracious guide, Lea also told us that Pastor Apollo would talk to the plants whenever he's around. Wonderful!
This is the Venetian-inspired Victoria Restaurant. This is where Pastor Apollo receives
his prominent visitors and hosts special events for KJC.
The east side of the restaurant
Rows of potted Dendrobiums in full bloom at the west entrance of the restaurant, so pretty!
Lamp posts also serve as hangers for these lovely potted hanging plants
Few of the flower shots I managed to take under pressure. I posted some on my Instagram account, I hope you can check it out @FlowersOfDavao
My kids loved it there!
I enjoyed the place too, the Red Salvias at the background are just lovely!
We stayed for three hours. You can stay longer if you wish to, they just don't cater overnights.
The Prayer Mountain is a beautiful place for people who appreciate the purest form of life – nature. It’s a serene and peaceful place to pray, to meditate, to write, to notice, to appreciate and feel nature. Though human hands were a factor to make it look so perfectly beautiful, it served as a paradigm of what we can accomplish only if we desire to. If indeed this was how Garden of Eden looked like, I’m certain I can live here forever. (+wifi please)
The Prayer Mountain strictly observed dress code. Peeps in shorts, spaghetti blouses, slippers and mini-skirts can’t enter the gates of the Garden of Eden Restored.
HOW TO GET TO THE PRAYER MOUNTAIN:
From Davao City, take the road to Calinan. When in Calinan proper take the road heading to Malagos, then slow down, on the first intersection take a left turn to Wangan bridge. Just follow the paved main road and when you reach the Sirib junction, turn right, there’s also a big sign there. Again, just drive up ahead without diverting from slim cemented road, you’ll soon see a sign you've reached your destination. There’s a guard on duty that would flag you down and tell you to go down at Gate 2. But when in doubt, pull up and ask!
Have a lovely day and enjoy the tour, I hope you weren’t lost, I’m bad with directions :P
HOW TO GET TO THE PRAYER MOUNTAIN:
From Davao City, take the road to Calinan. When in Calinan proper take the road heading to Malagos, then slow down, on the first intersection take a left turn to Wangan bridge. Just follow the paved main road and when you reach the Sirib junction, turn right, there’s also a big sign there. Again, just drive up ahead without diverting from slim cemented road, you’ll soon see a sign you've reached your destination. There’s a guard on duty that would flag you down and tell you to go down at Gate 2. But when in doubt, pull up and ask!
Have a lovely day and enjoy the tour, I hope you weren’t lost, I’m bad with directions :P
For bookings and inquiries;
Visit Kingdom of Jesus Christ Compound
at Jose Maria College
at Jose Maria College
Phil-Japan Highway, Sasa, Davao City, Philippines
(Beside F. Bangoy International Airport)
Call Telephone No. (082) 234.2866 loc. 123
Mobile No. 0916.378.9619 | 0949.135.9173
Email: info@kingdomofjesuschrist.org
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Wow, those are some gorgeous houses! I love the blue one.
ReplyDeleteHello rose, yes, it's beautiful and also very serene and cool here.. thanks for the visit :)
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