Ang Dabawenyo

Cheers to my AngDabawenyo.com blog! This is my 100th post, so some friends and I toasted this humble milestone with a few beers. Fellow blogger Maej Villanueva, entertainer extraordinaire Ahbet Padilla, new friend and chef Jenny Tan, and fellow student of Nihongo Peter Labor kept me company that night.

We were with a couple hundred Dabawenyos at the Victoria Plaza carpark, where one of several Oktoberfest celebrations have kicked off in Davao. By the looks of it, this one will most probably last the whole month of October. It’s located in front of 51 Coffee Shop and Buffet Palace — you can’t miss it, what with the humongous San Miguel tents covering the entire area.

The place is surrounded by food and drink stalls, mostly serving Davao-style barbecue. San Mig Light is sold at a very affordable Php28 per bottle; Red Horse, Php25. Easy-to-get-drunk prices, if you ask me… but Davao’s Finest are ever present, and ably providing enough disincentive to the more hot-headed among the crowd.

Entertainment is live, if not a tad too noisy. My good friend Ahbet was rather offended by one of the artists who murdered a song by Beyonce…. But what I appreciate in these events is the support it gives to local bands. Although popular foreign music are also played, much of the songs are homegrown “BisRock” and other OPM pieces. I’m not really a huge fan of music that involves a lot of screaming and screeching, but I am happy that our young Dabawenyo musicians are afforded various venues and opportunities to showcase their God-given talent.

‘100 posts’ really isn’t all that impressive, but reaching it gives me personal satisfaction. And inspiration to forge on and look forward to my 1000th post! Padayon ‘ta!

[Photos courtesy of Maej V.]