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HomeFeaturesArdie's hobby or why overlanding is good for you

Ardie’s hobby or why overlanding is good for you

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Ardie Ong is a city kid in the bustling center of Negros Occidental, the sugar capital of the Philippines.

For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.
For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.

Some might call him a big boy obsessed with his toys, like guns and pick-up trucks or utility vehicles that look like terra firma versions of moon or Mars rovers.

Or padayaw (show-off) cars as some anti-capitalists would call it.

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For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.
For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.

But Ardie Ong is a big boy to begin with, younger looking than his 30 plus summers, a businessman who can sell anything, from toothpicks to battleships.

muscle car

Hip, urbane, sometimes impish when he banters with friends at the shooting range.

For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.
For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.

“Nan,” he would often respond in the Hiligaynon equivalent of “there you go” when he favors a point or to emphasize one.

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Sometimes, he would say “ato bala (remember that)?” a seemingly cryptic phrase that dovetails as an answer to any question, totally contextual, sometimes indicative of how much two friends have had their shares of adventures (or misadventures) or mischief.

aussie

And Ardie loves adventures.

For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.
For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.

Raised in the concrete jungle of Bacolod, a city of half a million that is becoming more urban by the day, he yearns for wide, open spaces, unpaved roads, grassy lands and mountainous terrain.

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mud truck

Romantic, nostalgic sceneries, a New Age-ish return to Nature.

But romantic notions of Nature also come with bugs, insects, wild things that bite. “Ewww, so itchy” some collegiala would say.

muscle car 2

And then the boulders and the mud.

The mud, especially. Indeed, one cannot embrace the beauty of Nature without its inconveniences.

muscle car 3

Offroading or overlanding is a recreation, a fun means that has gained followers, mostly urbanites wanting to break free from the ratrace and abandon the stacks of papers, cheques and vouchers that seem to glower at them every day.

For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.
For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.

Ardie was one of those who tried to escape the urban jungle, hying off to less beaten paths using his Toyota pick up trucks, stock cars at first until the trail made him decide that he had to have upgrades.

customized

Which of course starts with planning to communications but in terms of vehicle upgrades, Ardie, already experienced in the overlanding field, says it usually begins with suspensions and upper control arms that control handling stability and alignment.

mud truck 3

Asked about cars, Ardie was sure in his answer: Toyotas.

For after market improvements, Ardie chooses suspensions from Dobinsons, the Australian brand founded in 1953 by blacksmith Reg Dobinson.

Dobinson

It was first known as Dobinsons Welding, now Dobinsons Spring and Suspensions, which to Ardie is a preferred choice of those who are into overlanding or offroading.

He also prefers Hardrace Upper Control Arms that control handling stability and alignment.

For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.
For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.

This hobby, however, has led to a business, making Ardie a dealer of Dobinsons products and a lot of other products from Hardrace to Tough Dog, Opposite Lock, Offroad X and HardRace, among others.

Since he was 21, he had been making his hobby a business.

For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.
For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.

To him, however, it is not just a businesss.

It is a passion to offer people a destressing opportunity, to offer them a moment, even if brief, to forget the worries of the world.

THE ONLY CHOICE: DOBINSONS

But why Dobinsons?

To Ardie, the Dobinsons brand stands for handling, safety, ride wuality, load carrying capacity and vehicle control – words that sound like a marketing pitch for Dobinsons.

For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.
For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.

Exactly.

Except that Ardie did not learn that marketing pitch from some brochure.

He knew about it on the trail when control, handling and safety were on his mind as his truck was pitching, jumping, and yawing through some rough terrain that looked like the surface of the moon.

For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.
For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.

Or when he was going downhill, a cliff to his left and an elevated position to his right that could hide rebels ready to ambush or kidnap targets of opportunity like him.

For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.
For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.

Ardie proved it with his life, lived to tell the reliability of the products he offers to others.

And while some in Negros, the island of polar opposites, would scoff at what he does as a rich kid’s game, the products he sells a waste of money, Ardie first responds to it like a marketer.

For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.
For orders and inquiries, contact Ardie Ong.

“It’s not just for the rich, the price points we offer are from mid to high end,” he says.

Then that impish smile.

“And it makes me happy.”

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Julius D. Mariveles
Julius D. Mariveles
An amateur cook who has a mean version of humba, the author has recently tried to make mole negra, the Mexican sauce he learned by watching shows of master chef Rick Bayless. A journalist since 19, he has worked in the newsrooms of radio, local papers, and Manila-based news organizations. A stroke survivor, he now serves as executive editor of DNX.
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