Missing My Merrells

Things are meant to be used and people are meant to be loved. Not the other way around.

I've always gone by this adage. Still, there are some things I have that I treasure dearly because they've impacted my way of life.

One of those are my very first hiking shoes – a (used-to-be) pretty pair of baby-blue-tinged-with-gray Merrell Gore-Tex shoes. I got it in an outlet store shoe sale sometime in early 2009 and it's never been missing from my climbs since then.

I'm already missing you... :(

Kwentong Kaladkarin #42: Davao Backpacker Stay – Green Windows Dormitel

Da Where: Davao City, Philippines
Da When: August 11-15, 2012
Da Who: me and Deej, on our Davao Duo trip

"So we're sharing the room with other people, okay? So is the bathroom. And you'd be sleeping on the upper bunk bed until a guest from the bottom bunk bed checks out."

Kwentong Kaladkarin #41: Davao Delights – Digging Into Delectable Bites

Da Where: Davao City, Philippines
Da When: August 11-15, 2012
Da Who: me and Deej, on our Davao Duo trip

What's a trip to a new (or revisited) place without dipping your feet into the hustle and bustle of their daily grind and dipping your spoon into the local eats?

In my past two visits to this largest city in the Mindanao isles, my taste buds have come to like delish dishes that can only be found in this part of the country.

Have you ever had any of these? :)

Kwentong Kaladkarin #40: Davao Delights – Soaking Up the Samal Sunshine

Da Where: Isla Reta Resort, Talicud Island, Island Garden City of Samal
Da When: August 13-14, 2012
Da Who: me and Deej, on our Davao Duo trip

Serenity and the sea

 The past two weeks before this trip, Manila was once again drenched in heavy rains brought along by the southwest monsoon or habagat. Several colleagues even experienced flooded homes and landslides in the northern mountainous areas became news on the nightly programs.

Save for a few minutes of heart-thumping turbulence before landing in Davao, it felt like Deej and I were in a whole different continent. It actually made feel a little guilty to laze around in sunshine while my Facebook news feed filled up with woes of never-ending rain, flood and horrible traffic. I was sending virtual sunshine to friends, hoping that helped a little.

Kwentong Kaladkarin #39: Davao Delights – A Day in Eden

Da Where: Eden Nature Park & Resort, Mt. Talomo, Toril, Davao City
Da When: August 12, 2012
Da Who: me and Deej, on our Davao Duo trip

If you were brought up in a Catholic home and had Christian Living, Religion or Catechism classes when you were younger, then likely the word Eden is synonymous to Paradise. It is said to to be the garden where Adam and Eve were brought and there was no want or need in this place.