KADAYAWAN FESTIVAL

The Kadayawan Festival is an annual festival in the city of Davao in the Philippines. Its name derives from the friendly greeting "Madayaw", from the Dabawenyo word "dayaw", meaning good, valuable, superior or beautiful. The festival is a celebration of life, a thanksgiving for the gifts of nature, the wealth of culture, the bounties of harvest and serenity of living.

Today, Kadayawan has transformed into a festival of festivals, with a number of spin-off festivals in the region. The festival honors Davao’s artistic, cultural and historical heritage, its past personified by the ancestral “lumads”, its people as they celebrate on the streets, and its floral industry as its representatives parade in full regalia in thanksgiving for the blessings granted on the city. A celebration that interfaces the three aspects: tribal; industrial and; arts and entertainment. The festivities are highlighted with floral floats, street-dancing competitions and exhibits that showcases the island's tourism products and services.

DAVAO CITY: A PARADISE IN THE EAST

The City of Davao (Tagalog: Lungsod ng Dabaw; Cebuano: Dakbayan sa Dabaw) is the largest city located on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. It is also one of the Philippines' most progressive cities. Its international airport and seaports are among the busiest cargo hubs in the southern part of the Philippines.

Davao City is also one of several cities in the Philippines that are independent of any province. The city serves as the regional center for Davao Region (Region XI). It has a population of 1,363,330 (2007 census) and is named by the Foreign Direct Investment Magazine as the 10th "Asian City of the Future".^[1] In recent years, Davao City has emerged as the business, investment and tourism hub for the entire southern Philippines. The city boasts of some of the finest beaches and mountain resorts in the country and its proximity to the Philippines’ most captivating diving spots as well as its highest peak, Mount Apo.

DAVAO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Terminal

The passenger terminal is a Malay architecture-inspired building which cost P1 billion and is four times larger than the old terminal. It is highly computerized, more secure and has more commercial spaces for concessionaries at approximately 9,000 sq. meter. It has four units of jet bridges (3 for domestic planes and 1 for international) for passengers. It has also a Flight Information Display System and Closed Circuit Television System complementing the terminal's security system. The terminal has 14 domestic and international counters that can handle a steady flow of passenger traffic. The Check-in counters are equipped with electronic weighing scales and conveyors and its baggage handling system is also computerized. The Cargo Terminal Building covers almost 5,580 sq. meters and can handle up to 84,600 tons a year. ^[4]Runway

The airport has a single 3,000 meter long runway that can handle wide-bodied aircraft such as Airbus A330, Airbus A340 , Boeing 747 and even Airbus A380. The installation of a new landing instrumentation system (ILS) for both Runways 05 and 23 upgraded its compliance to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) operating category-Precision Approach Category 1. It can accommodate 8-10 aircraft landings per hour, depending on size and has the equivalent 8 gate holding areas for those aircraft.

FORMER BB PILIPINAS UNIVERSE 2005 AND OTHER WINNERS EATING FROZEN EXPORT QUALITY KRADUM DURIAN

The durian is widely known and revered in southeast Asia as the "king of fruits". It is distinctive for its large size, unique odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk.

The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. Sometimes people described it as the fruit that smells like hell but tastes like heaven.

A visit to the south must include a tour of Davao—which automatically means a deeper excursion to Davao City. There the numinous spirits are sure to charm the unsuspecting visitor with the forbidden (but delectable) fruit, aside from wooing the same with the city’s other attractions. Calinan is where the enchantment flavors are concocted. With an array of durian assortments that have mesmerized many a wandering tourist, one will forever be spellbound by Davao—tongue, heart, and soul.

MT. APO: THE HIGHEST PEAK IN THE PHILIPPINES

Mt. Apo, a dormant volcano and the highest mountain the country, is favorite destination, treks may be arranged with tour agencies. The trek starts only after a bus ride to Kidapawan, 107 kilometers south of Davao City, a 12-kilometer jeep ride to Barangay Ginatilan, and a five-kilometer jeepney ride to Barangay Ilomavis. From there, the climb begins. Trekkers will find on the slopes forest of exotic flora, steaming geysers, rainwater lakes, swift-flowing rivers, and cascading waterfalls.Peak of Mt. Apo

After four days of leisurely trek, you are bound to see the Agko Blue Lake, a steaming lake with some parts that are icy cold and others that are boiling hot; Lake Venado, an irregularly shaped expanse bordered by a think carpet of bermuda grass; and the Mt. Apo Crater.

Mt. Apo is home to the endangered Philippine Eagle, the world's tallest eagle species at one meter high and, with a wing span of about 2.5 meters, the largest. The eagle preys on monkeys, flying lemurs, flying squirrels and, occasionally, pigs nd goats. The mountain is also a sanctuary for some rare birds such as the flycatcher, fairy blue birds, flower catchers, coltos, doves, sunbirds, and racket-tailed parrots.

DURIAN: THE KING OF FRUITS

The durian is widely known and revered in southeast Asia as the "king of fruits". It is distinctive for its large size, unique odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk.

The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. Sometimes people described it as the fruit that smells like hell but tastes like heaven.

A visit to the south must include a tour of Davao—which automatically means a deeper excursion to Davao City. There the numinous spirits are sure to charm the unsuspecting visitor with the forbidden (but delectable) fruit, aside from wooing the same with the city’s other attractions. Calinan is where the enchantment flavors are concocted. With an array of durian assortments that have mesmerized many a wandering tourist, one will forever be spellbound by Davao—tongue, heart, and soul.

WALING WALING: THE QUEEN OF ORCHIDS

Waling-waling is one of the finest orchid species endemic to the Philippines, desired by orchid growers and breeders alike for its showy and attractive flowers and ability to impart its vigor and floral characteristics to its progeny. “The flowers are flat, to eight centimeters across; the sepals and petals are obviate, bluish pink, with buff-yellow stain, and dull-crimson reticulations on the lateral sepals; the lip is small and concave, purple-red at base, strongly recurved and brownish purple at apex; with three prominent keels.”

The waling-waling, named in “allusion to a month in flight,” was discovered on Mindanao in 1882. It used to grow on tree trunks in the rainforests of Davao, Sultan Kudarat and other parts of the island. It is worshipped as diwata (fairy) by the native Bagobos.

“The Waling-waling blooms best from July to October each year, and its very fertile because it easily propagates, and a cluster of waling-waling in full bloom is a very spectacular sight,”