2nd chinatown arch

This is the city's 2nd Chinatown arch progressively worked in 3 days duration. It is being constructed full blast in time for the Chinese new Year Celebration.

Davao will celebrate the country's first Chinese New Year Festival as the Mayor signed the executive order that created an executive committee for the said event.

The city also has the country's biggest Chinatown, covering about 44 hectares of the downtown area.

chinatown street

This is one of the major streets in Chinatown district. Davao City's Chinatown is considered to be the biggest in the country in terms of land area. It is also gearing up for the country's 1st Chinese New Year Festival that will run for a week, replete with nightly cultural dances and songs, as well as night market.

The city's firecracker ban however, will still be imposed. Instead, revelers will be watching fireworks display via widescreen live from China.

Solidarity Ring

An interesting artifact is also on display at the Museo Dabawenyo this Kadayawan Season. The Solidarity Ring of Compostela Valley, Davao city's neighboring province, is the country's biggest gold ring. The 18K two-toned ring of gold and silver is 6 inches in outer diameter and weighs 1.488 kgs. The Ring symbolizes the reconciliation of the people of Compostela Valley after strifes, sometimes violent and bloody, in its political history finally subsided. Miners, officials, politicians, businessmen and private individuals supported the governor's initiative and gave gold donations for the molding of the Solidarity Ring.





Compostela Valley is home to one of the world's largest gold deposits. The gold ores from one of its mounains, Mt. Diwalwal, was analyzed to have gold metal concentrations that outranks those from the world famous Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa.

rap boy

We were strolling along another controversial park in the city, the Baywalk, when a thin, haggard-looking kid approached us. He said he will do a rap performance in exchange for mere peso coins. We sat by a bench as he prepared to do his number. Then...



...Amazing. Without skipping a bit, we were transported to the stark realities of this little boy's life with such intense, melancholic expression on his face as he narrated the hardships, the abuse, contempt, the determination to live as he held precariously his priceless dignity, expressed with the rythmic harmony of his frail, rapt voice. We witnessed this actual rendition of a work of Art. Then he prodded on, and with childlike strength he carried a fragile light of hope for him and his generation.

still kids and live kids

Live kids and still kids play together during an ethereal moment inside the park; the sentient children grinning with smiles as wide as their counterparts that endearingly 'watch' them as they savor what really matters in this life.

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.

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.