Recently I've had 2 strange occurrences as a tourist here in Davao. One was kind of funny. When I arrived at G Mall they asked me for a my boarding pass. Yes, that's right, my plane boarding pass. I've been here for 8 months now so I don't have the original boarding pass anymore and that's quite a strange thing to ask someone trying to go to the mall. I simply said I don't have it and they let just let me in.

The other occurrence was not so nice. I entered Ayala Mall and was immediately asked to step to the side. They needed a drug dog to come sniff me. I've been in this mall multiple times and I've never seen anyone asked to do this. But, I smiled and said ok. I waited and waited and then waited some more. I can't tell you how long it took but it felt like an extended period of time until the officer arrived with the dog. The pup took one sniff and they said I was good to go.

I'm sure it wasn't their intention but I felt singled out as a foreigner. Mall visitors looked at me throughout the interaction and it was very awkward. I would rather they had manually checked me than waited for the dog in order to save some time and for religious reasons. Dog saliva is considered unclean in my faith and requires a particular process for purification after coming in contact with it. Thankfully, the dog just sniffed and all was good but it was a bit of a nerve racking experience.