flight of ideas

It was supposed to be a FOOD appreciation tour.

March 13 to 15 2009 marked year 2 of the Davao Food Appreciation Tour, aptly named Davao FAT or DFAT. This tour is an offshoot of the Davao Food Trip organized by the local bloggers of Davao. Now it’s bigger and better with 7 sponsor restaurants who let the DFAT 09 participants taste and explore Davao in very special, yummy way.

I wasn’t aware of what DFAT was, until Markku and I saw Jay, Aileen, Jayvee, Juned and Fritz in a blogger event in Manila. We found out from them that there were still open slots for the tour and urged us to join. I was hesitant at first, not being sure if I can take a leave from work for two work days (March 13 and 16), until Winston told us about the longest Zipline in Davao (and in Asia) that was part of the tour.

That did it for me. The next thing I did was ask permission from the bosses if I could take a leave from work, and with their go signal, we booked our flight to Davao!

And the rest, as they all say, is history. From the moment we landed in Davao, to our morning trip to Samal Island, to our Japanese lunch at Tadakuma (Itadakimasu!), to our secret trip to Lachi’s (but we still knew about the antique sewing machine in the Davao Museum ), to our real scheduled dinner at Lachi’s (cue mouth watering!), to a hopping coffee experience at Kangaroo Coffee Company (they offer the famous coffee from the coffee beans Civet ‘s poop), to my first upside-down Zipline Adventure (yeah!), to the sweetiest proposal ever , to a sumptuous lunch at Pepper and Peppers (I love that Iberian chicken!), to a walk with the crocodiles at the Crocodile Park (we saw a whole other bunch of animals too!), to a fine dinner at Mamu’s (and a sneek peek at their very romantic rooms!), to my second and third adik attempt at the Zipline, to a quick pasalubong trip at SM Davao (I love SM!), to a hearty lunch at Cafe Andessa (and me gulping down that heavenly iced tea of theirs), to another pasalubong trip at Aldevinco, to a view of Davao’s “skyline” (not!) at Jack’s Ridge, and to a very “active” game of Paintball (and a run to the tiangge for new fresh clothes that don’t stink), to a sidetrip to Cafe Firenzo (and a mmmm-hmmm pictorial with Ate ), to an Italian dinner at Spirale, to that throat-wrecking good time at K1 Videoke, to that speedy boat ride to the wonderful Kembali Coast, and the relaxing hobie-kat ride, to a mad dash to the airport (congrats to Jeff who caught the flight), to another (last na!) pasalubong stopover for fruits, all of these together with our enjoyable stay at Arturo’s Bed and Dine (and all those breakfasts we didn’t miss) ending in another race against time to the airport, which we won against our plane that came 2 1/2 hours late (boo!).

All of these happened in one weekend (i thought it was a month!). Now, it’s over, but it still feels so real even when I’m back in Manila, all because of the very warm and accommodating Davao bloggers — Blogie (punong-abala), Andrew (ultimate driver), Chattee (dakilang photographer PA), Ria (ultimate Lachi’s girl) and Migs (um…the voice over? ), and a bunch of new (and old) blogger friends from Manila — Jay and Aileen (the sweeties!), Jayvee (narcoleptic), Juned (the grandfather…este godfather), Fritz (camphone paparazzi), Jenny (the single and very available political blogger), Maki (who’s happier now yey! ), Jeff (zipline fail man zipline S-man), Manolo (the explainer), Arpee and Noreen (Marco-Polo-ers), the generous sponsors of DFAT (thank you for the wonderful, wonderful food!), and Markku (my one and only pangga) of course

So why did I drop the word FOOD in my title? Simply because this trip became more than food appreciation. It was an appreciation of Davao as a City, of the Davao bloggers, of LOVE and FRIENDSHIP and of FUN, FUN, FUN!

Until the next Appreciation Tour!

The 2009 DFAT was brought to us by Davao Delicious and Davao Foodie.

**Hindi masyadong halata na excited ako sa post, pasensya na…hehehe
Watch out for upcoming photos and posts in line with this trip.

One of the cutest kids in church.
Now I miss those santan flowers.

I took the photo with Markku’s very new 85mm, f/1.8 lens. Woohoo!

Last February 19, 2009 at Le Souffle at The Fort, Ipanema launched it’s Gisele Bundchen Seeds Collection.  The collection’s theme — SEEDS, emphasized the role of seeds that grow into trees, maintaining the balance of our rainforests.

Together with the launch of this new collection was the presentation of an eco-friendly project, “Walk the Green Mile”. It’s a walkathon project partnered by Haribon Foundation and ELRO Commercial and Industrial Corporation, exclusive distributors of Ipanema flip-flops. Every purchase of Ipanema flip-flops will allow you to participate in this  advocacy. Not only that, part of the money from these Ipanema purchases will be given to Haribon’s ROAD to 2020 projects, the aim of which is to plant and grow more trees in 1 million hectares of our local rainforests (some of which are very badly deforested…tsktsk) until year 2020.

I’ve once participated in a tree-planting activity in the Ipo Dam watershed, and it reminded me of the irony of how fast people cut down trees, and how long it takes for a new tree to grow in its place. Not only that, statistics show that only 10% of the trees planted during these activities will survive and grow. Imagine how much help our forests need to heal, and you can help in many ways.

I’m not really the type of person who would buy an expensive pair of slippers, but I’ve been using the Ipanema GB Seeds Thong Fem for a week now going to the office (Thank you Ipanema!) and it’s super comfortable! (I can definitely walk a long distance wearing those) So it’s actually a wise buy. And with them supporting an advocacy so important to our lives, why not?

So for those who want to join in this cause, and be fashionable at the same time, let’s Walk the Green Mile on March 21, 2009. Registration opens at 3:00 pm at the parking lot near Le Souffle, and everyone starts walking at 5:00 pm.

The hope of a big change comes in a small seed. Be part of this change.

Btw, I wasn’t able to take photos during the launch, but Markku did