Kadayawan 2009: Float Parade & more
Wonderful but we didn’t see everything! argH! Anyway, whatever we caught on this ‘Pamulak Kadayawan” was still very nice to watch, plus more!
As usual, we were up early and had breakfast at the lobby of The Royale House. We decided the previous night we won’t watch the Kadayawan Run, the Moutnain Bike Challenge nor the Banca Race as they were either too early or would overlap with the Pamulak Kadayawan float parade. Sometimes though, any amount of preparation can still see some glitches. It happened here, but it was fun still!
We were all confident (including the hotel crews) that the float parade would pass the same way as yesterday’s street dance. 830AM came and there was no sign that the float parade was on, when it was supposed to have started at 8AM. Some floats passed by the hotel but going in the opposite direction than yesterday’s parade. One waiter said, maybe those were just going to the starting point of the parade. So we enjoyed telling stories and jokes at our breakfast tables. At about 9AM, I got restless. Checked out the website for the float parade route, it got even more confusing. Two entries in the sked confused us and muddled more when we asked the hotel staff. These were: 1) “through CM Recto” and 2) “right to Legaspi”. Ahh!
The discussion points:
Item 1, what did “through” mean? Passing through the entire length of CM Recto from Magsaysay? If so, how could it turn right to Bonifacio? Therefore, it was passing CM Recto but only from Magsaysay to Bonifacio? If it was turning right at Bonifacio, then it was not passing by our hotel! No wonder hehe! Item 2, how can it go to San Pedro if it was turning right at Legaspi from Bonifacio? Gosh! Aaahhhhhhhh! But we were laughing as we bickered! We even had to toggle and zoom ‘google earth’, ‘google maps’ and wikimapia for the sake of this ‘discussion’. But the technical and intellectual intercourse was getting us more delayed (I was sure the parade was not waiting for us hehe).
I said, we better just go out unto the streets and for sure we’ll catch it somewhere, like at the city hall.
So we did. Oh my, just at the doorstep of our hotel were hundreds (maybe even thousands hehe) of motorbike riding men, women, boys, girls, families! They belong to so many bike clubs; they lined the entire length of CM Recto on both sides. And how nice to watch them in their respective ‘uniforms’. Hah, we took time watching them! I approached one of the riders and asked if they were part of the parade. The reply was “tapos na kami, we were front of the parade”! Argh! And so we learned that those floats passing our hotel earlier were “from” the parade. They were done! Double argh!
We were about to hurry towards near the church and city hall perchance to catch what remained of the parade… BUT, another delay… a wonderful delay… the motorclubs started a riding exhibition right at CM Recto and OMG, they were fantastic! Needless to say, we stopped to watch them. Whohoa! I did not know you can do so many antics while riding! Some would stand on their bikes, some would lie stretching their backs on the bike seats, some would sit on their handlebars, others crouched on one side of their bikes and so on. THEN, as if the whole of Davao shouted alarmed when a biker did a handstand on his bike and it wobbled! Hah! My ribcage seemed to have dropped to my knees at that sight. But all was well. He recovered early on. Whoa! Hey, just to inform you, it was not a spur-of-the-moment thingy! Those guys belong to bike clubs, a lot of marshals supervised their runs and there were ambulances and fire trucks around. Some ladies could run those big bikes with just the hind wheels! Coolness!(click each collage for a larger view)
Alright, bike show done and we inched towards San Pedro St., as we could see that the floats were exiting at that corner from the City Hall area – which we learned was the final judging station. And, another delay…
We were already at the corner of CM Recto and San Pedro, the floats were just meters away BUT, we could not focus our attention on them as they exited towards Quezon/Quimpo Blvd. Why? Well, also exiting from the parade and turning left towards our hotel (where the motorbikes went, remember?) were different groups of bikers this time in bicycles!
Whoa! If you lump the different bike-groups, they would also be in the hundreds. What about the bikes? Well, aside from their advocacy promoting bicycles to reduce health and reducing pollution, many of those bikes (and bikers) were beyond your normal daily sightings. Yes, those bikes were also driven by folks young and old from 5 year olds to grandmamas! Wow!
There were bikes with very long bodies. Some were quite minute! Others had speakers and lights. Hey, not just “just speakers and FM radios” if you’re thinking that. Some of those bikes sported boom speakers about as big as your home theater’s boxes. Thus, the whole area was thumping with music! Whoa! Hear this… there were even bikers who wore what looked like backpacks but on closer look (by covering your ears hehe) they were loud speakers too! Golly, I was sure every internal organ they had must have been shaking at every beat of those boxes – for the entire duration of the parade! Ahh hehehe!
Oh well, we still caught the latter group of arriving floats and there were too many. I think if we started on time, we would have seen more than we wanted. Too many floats big and small! Oh yes, all of them were bedecked with flowers (that’s the theme) but others were festooned with thrillingly delectable things like string beans, potatoes, pineapples, pomelos, durian and sexy models hehe!!
Hey, our very dear pamantasang hirang was represented! Yey!
And then came DARNA! Aruuuu!
Oh, when the parade ended, we were unconsciously pushed by the crowd to the rotunda of Andres Bonifacio. So we hopped to see the Museo Dabawenyo. Nice Museum!
Stomachs grumbled… we crossed to dear old Colasas that is not anymore as popular. Then off to the fruit market. Too much time spent on that market (plus Aldevinco AGAIN) so we hurried to check-out and rushed to catch our respective flights!
Fantastic Kadayawan!
As usual, we were up early and had breakfast at the lobby of The Royale House. We decided the previous night we won’t watch the Kadayawan Run, the Moutnain Bike Challenge nor the Banca Race as they were either too early or would overlap with the Pamulak Kadayawan float parade. Sometimes though, any amount of preparation can still see some glitches. It happened here, but it was fun still!
We were all confident (including the hotel crews) that the float parade would pass the same way as yesterday’s street dance. 830AM came and there was no sign that the float parade was on, when it was supposed to have started at 8AM. Some floats passed by the hotel but going in the opposite direction than yesterday’s parade. One waiter said, maybe those were just going to the starting point of the parade. So we enjoyed telling stories and jokes at our breakfast tables. At about 9AM, I got restless. Checked out the website for the float parade route, it got even more confusing. Two entries in the sked confused us and muddled more when we asked the hotel staff. These were: 1) “through CM Recto” and 2) “right to Legaspi”. Ahh!
The discussion points:
Item 1, what did “through” mean? Passing through the entire length of CM Recto from Magsaysay? If so, how could it turn right to Bonifacio? Therefore, it was passing CM Recto but only from Magsaysay to Bonifacio? If it was turning right at Bonifacio, then it was not passing by our hotel! No wonder hehe! Item 2, how can it go to San Pedro if it was turning right at Legaspi from Bonifacio? Gosh! Aaahhhhhhhh! But we were laughing as we bickered! We even had to toggle and zoom ‘google earth’, ‘google maps’ and wikimapia for the sake of this ‘discussion’. But the technical and intellectual intercourse was getting us more delayed (I was sure the parade was not waiting for us hehe).I said, we better just go out unto the streets and for sure we’ll catch it somewhere, like at the city hall.
So we did. Oh my, just at the doorstep of our hotel were hundreds (maybe even thousands hehe) of motorbike riding men, women, boys, girls, families! They belong to so many bike clubs; they lined the entire length of CM Recto on both sides. And how nice to watch them in their respective ‘uniforms’. Hah, we took time watching them! I approached one of the riders and asked if they were part of the parade. The reply was “tapos na kami, we were front of the parade”! Argh! And so we learned that those floats passing our hotel earlier were “from” the parade. They were done! Double argh!We were about to hurry towards near the church and city hall perchance to catch what remained of the parade… BUT, another delay… a wonderful delay… the motorclubs started a riding exhibition right at CM Recto and OMG, they were fantastic! Needless to say, we stopped to watch them. Whohoa! I did not know you can do so many antics while riding! Some would stand on their bikes, some would lie stretching their backs on the bike seats, some would sit on their handlebars, others crouched on one side of their bikes and so on. THEN, as if the whole of Davao shouted alarmed when a biker did a handstand on his bike and it wobbled! Hah! My ribcage seemed to have dropped to my knees at that sight. But all was well. He recovered early on. Whoa! Hey, just to inform you, it was not a spur-of-the-moment thingy! Those guys belong to bike clubs, a lot of marshals supervised their runs and there were ambulances and fire trucks around. Some ladies could run those big bikes with just the hind wheels! Coolness!(click each collage for a larger view)
Alright, bike show done and we inched towards San Pedro St., as we could see that the floats were exiting at that corner from the City Hall area – which we learned was the final judging station. And, another delay…
We were already at the corner of CM Recto and San Pedro, the floats were just meters away BUT, we could not focus our attention on them as they exited towards Quezon/Quimpo Blvd. Why? Well, also exiting from the parade and turning left towards our hotel (where the motorbikes went, remember?) were different groups of bikers this time in bicycles!
Whoa! If you lump the different bike-groups, they would also be in the hundreds. What about the bikes? Well, aside from their advocacy promoting bicycles to reduce health and reducing pollution, many of those bikes (and bikers) were beyond your normal daily sightings. Yes, those bikes were also driven by folks young and old from 5 year olds to grandmamas! Wow!There were bikes with very long bodies. Some were quite minute! Others had speakers and lights. Hey, not just “just speakers and FM radios” if you’re thinking that. Some of those bikes sported boom speakers about as big as your home theater’s boxes. Thus, the whole area was thumping with music! Whoa! Hear this… there were even bikers who wore what looked like backpacks but on closer look (by covering your ears hehe) they were loud speakers too! Golly, I was sure every internal organ they had must have been shaking at every beat of those boxes – for the entire duration of the parade! Ahh hehehe!
Oh well, we still caught the latter group of arriving floats and there were too many. I think if we started on time, we would have seen more than we wanted. Too many floats big and small! Oh yes, all of them were bedecked with flowers (that’s the theme) but others were festooned with thrillingly delectable things like string beans, potatoes, pineapples, pomelos, durian and sexy models hehe!!
Hey, our very dear pamantasang hirang was represented! Yey!
And then came DARNA! Aruuuu!
Oh, when the parade ended, we were unconsciously pushed by the crowd to the rotunda of Andres Bonifacio. So we hopped to see the Museo Dabawenyo. Nice Museum!
Stomachs grumbled… we crossed to dear old Colasas that is not anymore as popular. Then off to the fruit market. Too much time spent on that market (plus Aldevinco AGAIN) so we hurried to check-out and rushed to catch our respective flights!
Fantastic Kadayawan!
stumble on your blog..have a nice day!!n
ReplyDeleteHoping to witness this event. :)
ReplyDelete