When it comes to motoring media trips, the Toyota Road Trek is high up on the list of ‘most coveted’. Ever since I joined the automotive media world, people would speak of the Road Trek as this sacred thing that only the top journalists are invited to.
Fast forward a few years later and I was finally given my own ‘golden ticket’ to join the 17th edition of the Road Trek, and boy was it one wild experience.
Toyota Road Trek Davao
I arrived at the airport in the wee hours of the morning, and after dropping off my bags and checking in for the flight, I settled in for the wait of the boarding time call. It was a call that I ended up having to wait 6 hours for…
Due to some mechanical or technical difficulty, our plane was unable to depart and all of us media delegates were stuck. Within minutes of the delay announcement, Toyota PR members booked some of us lucky media into the Mabuhay lounge for a more comfortable wait. This was a welcome development for us lucky few, other trips I’ve gone on with other brands would have had the air of “stick it out on your own” but here I felt like everything I wanted or needed was already thought of for me ahead of time by the brand.
A few hours later we arrived in Davao late into the afternoon, and we first made our way to the local brand dealership to get acquainted with the vehicles we’d be driving. We were divided into teams and my team was assigned the Hilux Conquest, we also found out that we would be given a series of team challenges throughout our stay in Davao.
Once we were briefed on this, we were then tasked to drive to the port of Discovery Samal where we would take a boat to the famous and exclusive Samal island. Once I set my eyes upon Discovery Samal itself I was awestruck even in the dead of night, it exuded exclusivity and grandeur. I was eventually brought to my room to freshen up for the evenings dinner, and that blurred itself by through the helping of fatigue, good food, and some Gin and Tonics.
The next day we were tasked to drive through Davao City all the way to the famed Malagos Farm, where world-renowned chocolates are grown and made. We took a quick tour around to understand the making of chocolate which Malagos takes very seriously, and we were even given the opportunity make our own box of chocolates.
We made our way back to our lunch stop for the day where I ate some of the best Filipino food I’ve ever eaten, after lunch we made our way back to the hotel where a very welcome surprise was waiting for us. Before taking the ferry back to Discovery Samal it was announced that a few of the soon-to-be-launched Toyota Tamarraws were placed around the resort for us to find and make content with.
The late afternoon was spent running around the massive Discovery Samal property looking for these Toyota Tamarraws, after which we relaxed a little before the culminating activity and party. During this the winning teams were awarded some amazing prizes, but everyone still got a cool Toyota GR watch.
Reflecting on Status
Yes, it may seem like we really didn’t do anything momentous in terms of automotive journalism, or anything challenging in terms of driving but what dawned on me was it was never about the cars or about the brand, it was about the media. Toyota through all its might and power in the Philippines, wanted to spend a big chunk of change on a group of media men and women to simply say “thank you” for the support. Each and every one of us was treated equally and attended to as if we were delegates of an important business or political summit.
This for me is the highlight, to be regarded by the number 1 as one of the leading journalists in the country definitely ticked a box professionally.
