Apo View Davao

Text and Images by Ronald de Jong<br><br> Davao is often dubbed as the window to the island of Mindanao, an inviting city that will surprise its visitors and raise one's curiosity. The city's name is derived from the word "baba-daba", which originates from rituals that were carried out before a tribal war was started and from the images of fire-breathing mythical figures that were used in these rituals.<br><br>The cultural diversity is more present in ...

Thu 15th October 2009<br><br>We were going to leave Davao today. Yesterday we had just swum that's all. I got sun burned too. We were going to leave at 1pm. So we had enough time. I, Michelle and Dad went to breakfast for dinner it was our last meal in Marco Polo Hotel. I had lots so that I wouldn&#8217;t be hungry at lunchtime. We went to the airport but our plane for ...

... picked us up his name was Toni. <br><br>We went to his house and there was a meeting there. Later in the meeting Toni&#8217;s wife brought out pizza and fizzy drinks but I was too full. I then went to Toni&#8217;s daughters&#8217; room. Their name was Maryanne and Rashi. Rashi was eighteen and Maryanne was sixteen. I talked took a photo and got their email address. Then we went back home. I was tired and Michelle was asleep already.

... and condensed milk. Good stuff.<br> <br>The following day feeling very rough it was time to say ...

Getting outside of Manila was great and it seemed like being in a different country in Davao. It's a small college town on the water with an island right off the shore called Samal, which is where a couple of my Dad's friends live. There are barely any foreigners there so when they saw a ...

... 25 years back when we were college students working on a humanitarian project with Laotian hill tribe refugees in the Golden Triangle. We've been great friends ever since and always look forward to getting together. We were sorry his wife Dorrie and their children couldn't make this trip. We checked in and dropped our luggage in the rooms, before joining the whole group in the café. We had come here to participate in a leadership conference for Asia. There are ...

"Way Kurat ni sa Dabaw" means no fear in Davao. This was my third visit in three years and this would be a long one. The CIA and State Department advised "no travel" in Mindanao for those of us from the US due to the threat of terrorist activities and kidnapping by "The New Peoples Army" and Abu Sayaf of the militant Muslin persuasion. We were cautious but not overly so ...

You must have heard about him or seen his face somewhere - in magazines, newspapers, TV and the Internet. But you should see him in the flesh. He's an attractive male viewed up close and personal. Endowed with features that cause many heads to turn for a closer look, his animalistic appeal make him one of the most sought-after attractions in Davao City, a bustling metropolis in the southern part of the Philippines. <br><br> Standing about a meter tall and weighing approximately ...