enter the park

Here's one of the views that greet goers from the entrance of the People's Park. There's the large, uniquely original artwork of an eagle done by a local artist, that award winning hotel grandeously posing at the background, and eye(sore)-catching, garish colored concrete flowers (the proponent argued that these don't need watering) to lure little Hansel and Gretel to the exciting crass world of highly commercialized illusions with imitation sculptures at the children's playground (sigh).

tall hotel

This giant 'hiding' behind the bushes is the city's tallest building. Although this hotel may seem midrise (18-storeys) compared to taller structures of major cities, it nevertheless towered over when it won the highest rating in guest satisfaction survey among all of the company's hotel chains in Asia.

typical streets

Here are some snapshots of typical streets in the downtown area.





No exaggeration, but one may notice that some of the city's streets are typically clean. Unless a cute five year old happens to throw her plastic wrappers in sheer innocent gesture, or an age 39 jerk from who knows where with the mindset of a three year old does the same.

a street

This street (Rizal) 'used' to be my favorite (never mind the spaghetti wires) many years ago because there weren't much cars zooming by. I remember the shrub fence in front of Phil-Am Life building, a spot of well-trimmed greenery amidst concrete landscapes. There's also a durian stall, and some quaint old houses of the city's early pioneers.

Things are no longer the same. A public passenger route to a southern district now saturate the street and the trimmed shrubs were pulled out to make way for a modern building. Suddenly, a midrise hotel mushroomed up surrounded by resto-bars with a kebab stall owned by an Iranian actor across the street.

Er, is that sad news or what?

I still miss that green spot of fence. Some of the vintage houses still stood there though, and pedestrians with jaded olfactories can still savor a distinct, intriguing, sensuous aroma from that durian stall by the corner, especially during fruiting seasons.

building the bridge

That's the recent scenario of the Bankerohan bridge now finally under construction after many months of red-tape induced delays by the central government, and agonizing wait (although the agonizing traffic still remained). The main, old bridge linking the downtown area to the south cracked after an earthquake months ago.

At present there are two major bottleneck traffic in the city: this one, and the People's Park entrance.

Locals await with anticipation the finishing of this project. But here's, in my opinion, what could be a foreboding finale. What if, after months of waiting and millions of funds guzzled out, the finished structure would still aesthetically present itself with a dull thud?

Yeah right, the adage always say it's better to build bridges than walls. But it doesn't have to be with bridges that look like drab, soul-less, or worse tasteless walls.

homegrown mall

This mall is located in the southern part of the city,but unlike other large malls here, it is homegrown. It is a very popular mall in Davao patronized by locals because of good service. They even have an exercise program where sales attendants will suddenly sprout out of somewhere and line up then do synchronize dancing for startled customers.

typical mall day

This is actually one of the first snapshots taken while on test before bringing my phone home. It's a bit rough and blurry (shot behind glass doors) for such initial test so don't mind it anyway. It was a typical day inside a local mall and nobody obviously suspected they'll be posted here.

Uhm, not really that typical. That was the day I decided to buy my mobile with a modest built-in camera, and that's intrumental for people to view the snapshots on this blogsite right now.

whitewashed wall

This whitewashed wall (no pun intended) is one of my favorite slabs. It is steps away from the park with a tiny sidewalk that makes a twosome stroll clumsy, and threesome a virtual impossibility. It is actually the wall of a pioneering hotel in the city. It is called by a name reminiscing the view of the country's tallest peak, Mt. Apo. But that's no longer accurate. The view had long been blocked by a nearby mall, so it may aptly be called Mall View Hotel.

If you're on the first or second floor, that is. The hotel is actually a nine-storey midrise that had been added years later, so there could still be left peeks of the peak. But then, the mall is eight levels too (plus basement) so the name may remain a dilemma. However, the mountain is more than 10,000 feet, so there goes enough reason for the hotel to keep its name and not push through with my suggestion of renaming it as Mall View hotel :)

a hole by the park

This place gets a view of the newly built People's Park with its durian shaped dome. It's the city's new attraction not only with original sculptures and landscaping by local artists, but also with tasteless imitations of walt disney figures and artificial flowers butted in by uncultured wannabes to keep it from being proclaimed as one of the world's more unique parks (pastilan!).

Anyway, throngs and busloads of park-starved people keep pouring into the greens so it seemed like the whole country is invading it, which only exposes the national government's lack of priority for providing parks around the country. It's a good thing that the local government here is doing its initiative. Still, on any day (and night, especially) the park would just get too crowded one could bid bye-bye to relaxation (as parks are supposed to offer) and say hello to stress.

I'd rather be in this corner hole with my priceless need for tranquility, and it's good that the small pitstop is a wifi hotspot too.