Cheap, cheaper, cheapest: Zamboanga City Accommodation

Perhaps one of the most recommended, if not the most recommended budget accommodation in the Asia’s Latin City is the Atilano family-run lodging house. During my research for my first solo trip to Zamboanga, I found out that the place was bombed a year ago – talk about safety. But other than that, I read no other negative reviews about them.

So when the day I set foot in the city, I first went to the Atilano Pension House. It's a 5-8minute- jeep away from the airport. Take Canelar jeep and tell the driver to stop at the Atilano compound. Let Gerry’s Grill restaurant be your landmark and you’ll see a newly painted building near it.

I walked in and got myself a fan room with tv and private cr for 420 pesos per night.

 cheap!

If you're travelling solo, and 350 is a little out of your budget, you can skip dropping the front building, and walk inside the compound, at the back of Atilano Pension House, you’ll see the Casa Don Atilano. It’s a little old and smelly, but a-50-peso cheaper for a solo non-AC room.

  cheaper!

But wait there’s more…

Just beside the Atilano Pension House, there’s another newly opened Atilano-related accommodation – Chang-V Atilano Pension House. 

 cheapest!

The cheapest rate among the three accommodation in the compound: non-AC solo/double room – 280 pesos only.  Kung nakita ko lang agad to. Tsk tsk.

***

Alavar’s restaurant doesn’t only serve curacha, they also offer bed and breakfast where comfort comes first. And if budget isn’t much of a problem, they can be one of your options.

Curacha, only in Zamboanga!

It was a looong, annoying rainy day… and there was only one way to pacify my little incensed mood – food.

I wasn’t really decisive about splurging my just released payout to one expensive meal. But I convinced myself to think about my aborted Basilan trip (di pa rin makapag let go!) and the not so traumatic incident earlier that day. Really, I was just trying to make an excuse to think that I’ve been through a lot of emotional stress – and I needed to reward myself. Haha.

Enough said, I headed to Alavar’s Restaurant – where you can find the famous and expensive Zamboanga-only recipe – it’s called Curacha.

They have two branches. I chose the main branch near to Atilano Pension House… the other one is in Paseo del Mar.

Pikit mata sa presyo ng curacha. Haha.

As you can notice in their menu, it started with medium size… it came natural to me to ask if they have smaller ones – ako lang naman kasi mag isa ang kakain - and it was indeed my lucky day.  

Just a little reminder, do not go to Alavar’s restaurant and order curacha – if and when – you are an inch away to becoming a monster due to an empty stomach. Most likely your order would take close to 30-minutes and crabs are not much an ideal meal in the verge of starvation. That was my mistake. It was too late when I came to my proper senses – kasi naman gutom na gutom nako. Haha.

Honestly, I didn’t find anything exemplary with curacha. It’s the Alavar sauce who did the magic, but not the crab itself – the crab tastes like a normal crab to me (malaman lang sya, which is just right, for its price). If you’re on a very tight budget, and want to taste something from this restaurant, you can try other meals, cheaper meals with Alavar sauce in it – and just imagine eating it with a crab. Haha.

Good thing, I had Zamboanga white juice to appease my thirst. It tastes delectably amazing.

Curacha is best when you’re not really hungry and you have friends around –  at least you won’t get bored digging for crab meats alone. Haha.

Overall, it was an experience – an unforgettable experience to wrap up my two-day solo trip to Zamboanga City. The next day, I headed a little north to Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte (six hour drive from the city) to attend my cousins wedding.

Adios mabalos, Zamboanga!

Soloista sa Zamboanga City

Touchdown Zamboanga City, the Asia’s Latin City.

To be honest, I didn’t feel any unwanted feelings with my first solo trip in the country, until I reached the grounds of Zamboanga City. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I felt something cold in me, something in a in between the borders of excitement and fear. Haha

I felt excited because it was my first solo backpacking trip in the country, at the same I felt so scared about the fact that this city isn’t really an ideal tourist place (for others ) because of its connotation to the never ending peace crisis in this part of Mindanao.

I speak no Chavacano, I only know a word or two of Spanish… but I can speak Bisaya (bisdak ini haha!). Not really fluent though, because our version in Surigao is different from the universal Visayan (Cebuano) dialect. So upon exiting the airport, I kept on practicing my Cebuano so I won’t mumble my words, which I often do when I try to say it fast. I also had to set some rules for this challenging trip.

First rule: it’s always safe to ask a man in uniform. Instead of asking the taxi and trike drivers for directions, I approached one of the heavily armed men in the airport vicinity.

Me: Sir, asa gani pwede mosakay ug jeep paingon sa Canelar (san nga po pwedeng sumakay ng jeep paptuntang Canelar?)

Military man: Ikaw ra usa mam? (mag isa lang kayo mam?)

Me: (bigla ako nakaramdam ng takot, promise!) oo sir, ngano man?

Military man: Taga dire ka mam? (taga rito po ba kayo?)

Me: (confused and little irate – wala pang tulog for the last 24 hrs) naa koy friend  sa Canelar.

Military man: Magtricyle ka nalang mam or magtaxi (yes, may taxi sila!)

Me: (jeep ang gusto ko, kasi mura lang) asa ang exit gate dinhi? (san po ang exit gate ng airport?)

Military man directed my way to the exit of the airport compound. I wasn’t really sure if that short conversational made me feel safe or just triggered the fear factor inside me. Whew.

Just in time when I reached the exit gate, there was a Canelar-bound jeep waiting outside. I hopped it and my set my second rule.

Second rule: Act as a local. I may not speak nor understand their native language, but at least, knowing how to speak in Cebuano is a little advantage to not knowing anything at all. Haha. Paid my fare and asked the driver to drop me off at the Atilano Compound – all in Cebuano dialect. I was really trying hard, but I had this feeling that the more I tried hard, the more they didn’t understand. Haha.

It was a short ride from the airport to Atilano Compound. The driver signaled me that it was my time to get off the jeep and he voluntarily pointed the directions to Atilano Pension House – nice! Well, from the main street, it hard to miss the signage of the pension house. Take Gerry’s Grill restaurant as your landmark.

Atilano Pension House is one of the cheapest and highly recommended accommodations in Zamboanga City. I had non-AC room for 420pesos per night.

I haven’t slept properly for the past two days before my trip, so upon checking in my room, I then succumb to slumber and took a much needed sleep. Yes, I felt like I had to travel to Zamboanga, para matulog lang. Di ko na talaga kaya. Haha.

After an uninterrupted 4hour sleep, I decide to start my solo escapade in Zamboanga. I first went to Pueblo (city centre), Fare: 8pesos. Hearing the locals talk in the native Chavacano language instantly made me feel like I was in a different country. Ang sarap nilang pakinggan magsalita. The words ‘porke’, ‘este’, gracias’ ‘pabor’ are just heaven to my ears. I have always wanted to learn Spanish, too bad it was no longer included in our curriculum during college years. I think learning has something to do with our inner culture – after all, we were once under a Spanish colony.

I roam around the city, walking as if I am a local. With that, I meant, no photo shots while walking.( May local bang picture ng picture na parang turista. Haha.) I came across with this fountain beside Southway Square mall. Locals were taking pictures, so did I. It was really a challenge – the no picture taking from time to time. I had to minimize it so as not to draw attention that would blow up my cover as a local (paranoid lang!) – That made my rule number three – do not draw any attention. Haha.

Keeping rule number one alive, I always ask manong guards for directions, until I reached the famous bay walk of the city – Paseo del Mar. It was quite a long walk from the plaza, near the town hall – had I known, I took a trike for it.

It was typical bay walk with lights and restaurant and bars in it… but what made it different and special from others – is the attendance of the Badjaos, paddling their boats in the darkness of the –sea.

 Seeing badjaos diving for money in full darkness isn’t an alien to me. I’ve seen those when we were young, while travelling Surigao-Manila-Surigao for years, through different shipping lines. Ah, gone were the shipping days that would always eat up my VL’s. Haha. Apart from diving in the dark for coins, others Badjao children use their banca for selling souvenir items.

I wanted to stay a little more yet it started to drizzle. I didn’t bring any umbrella, thanks to my go-lite backpack. I rushed back to Pueblo, had a takeout for dinner… rushed back to my guest house, and call it a day. 

Pasonanca sa Zamboanga

Thanks to the heavy rains overnight, I slept like a baby for my first night in Zamboanga City. Mind you, I prayed hard before I went to bed the previous night. Haha. But it was as if the rain didn’t want me to get out of my bed, that did not stop until noontime. Oh well, it was fine with me, I had Bumble Bee as my company – good thing I got the room with tv.

Past noontime, the rain stopped and the sun took over the clouds. I then hurriedly went outside, hailed a Pasonanca-bound jeep. Fare: 9pesos. 

I took the front seat, as I was the only passenger at that time. As usual, I tried to control myself not to take photos while in the jeep. While my eyes enjoyed seeing the busy streets of Zamboanga, my ears heard one familiar sound. So familiar that made my heart beat a little faster and my eyes got distracted with numerous people running toward a particular site…  I wanted to think it was a mere vehicular accident… but who am I kidding, there was a gun fire… not once, but twice.

  

Having comfortably seated in the front seat, I was just inches away from the newly ended lives of the victims. My hands itched and I tried to take my camera out of my bag. But I didn’t shoot until we passed few more meters from the crime scene. Police started to barricade the area, and commanded the growing crowd to clear the vicinity.

Traffic started to develop when we passed the crime street – and my driver chatted with fellow drivers about the incident - they were saying it was more a drug-related case than a terrorist or rebellious act. Well, whatever it was about – it just made my first solo trip in the Philippines a lot more thrilling. (What more if I spent the day in Basilan…mas exciting siguro… haha!)

So much for crimes and no passion, I safely reached the camping grounds of Pasonanca Park.

Pasonanca Park is the official BSP (Boy Scouts of the Philippines) activity and camping grounds in Zambaonga. To make my visit more realistic, an on-going camping preparation welcomed my arrival.

I then went straight to the famous tree house.

Then to the other famous boys scout tents…

… and the children busy preparing their camping gears.

I wasn’t able to explore the whole area, though it was just a small place, because there were boy scouts everywhere. Haha.

Going back to the town, you can wait for jeep from Pasonanca back to Canelar. But I decided to walk my way out and had my feel-the-Zamboanga-atmosphere moment. After a ten-minute walk, I reached the main road – and noticed a flower-y site. It’s the Jardin Maria Clara Lobregat. Good thing, I didn’t ride a jeep or else, I might’ve missed this Zamboanga-only attraction.

Zamboanga Matriach

There was really nothing extraordinary inside the garden– except for the Spanish written signage.

****

A little later that afternoon, I went to Canelar Barter – the best place to buy your pasalubong. It’s a few meters away from Atilano Pension House. Here, you’ll be amazed seeing imported products being sold mostly from Malaysia and Indonesia – (para ka talagang nasa ibang bansa:  Spanish-like ang salita, tapos pasalubong mo imported… Haha.) Apart from imported goods, you can also spot different sarong designs, batik and more local products in the barter area. 

My failed attempt to visit Basilan

I had my first taste of solo backpacking in Vietnam and Cambodia last year, and it felt like it was only yesterday.  I can still vividly remember how I first tried to cross the streets of Pha Ngu Lao, my first sleeper bus ride to Phnom Penh, my first tuk tuk ride and the day I came face to face of the world’s treasures in Angkor Wat Archeological Park. But to prove further that it’s really more fun to travel in the Philippines, I had to try solo backpacking in the Philippines too. I never planned to, really, because I have travel buddies here to join me in my escapades. It’ll be more fun to travel with them than go solo. But sometimes, when you don’t really ask for it, chances are, it’ll be delivered to you right in front to your doorsteps.

So I really didn’t plan to travel to Zamboanga on a July. I want to see the vintas on its full glory during the Hermosa Festival which is annually celebrated in October. But when my cousin told me he’s getting married in July, I knew what I had to do. Actually, my cousin-in-law lives closer to Dipolog than Zamboanga City. But there were only few seat sale available for Dipolog-bound airlines, so the best option left was to travel via Zamboanga City, which is another 6-8hour land travel to Dipolog. So I found a very compelling excuse to visit the Asia’s Latin City for a few days before heading to Sindangan, where the wedding was to be held.

Since it was a July, surely, I won’t be able to see any vinta sailing the seas of Zamboanga. And beach-ing the famous Pink Beach in Sta. Ana Island doesn’t really interest me much (I’m not a beach person) – I only had one thing  in mind while planning my first solo backpacking in my native land – to visit one of most tourist-less town in the country –Basilan.

Ok, you can drop those eye brows down. There’s just something in this town that I want to experience. That’s just it. Besides, there were a lot of bloggers/ travelers who have made it and were able to get out of it totally unscratched. It may not be a perfectly safe place to travel alone, but it doesn’t mean it cannot be safe at all, even for a day. Haay. I do have a colleague who’s family lives in Isabela, and he even helped me with my itinerary and my contact person in the tourism department.

But even when I had it planned flawlessly, I had to face two critical problems.

First, my ever over-acting-protective boyfriend.

When I first told my parents about my Basilan plan after purchasing my Zamboanga tickets, Mama was shocked but this is what she told me ‘ang daya mo, bakit di mo ko sama?’ and Papa? Oh, he just reminded me that we have no money for any ransom demands and that he hates publicity. I intentionally told them about this, so they can pray for me during the daytrip of my lifetime. Haha.

But when I mentioned this to my loving boyfriend, it was as if I need to get an approval from the higher courts to allow me to travel. Grhh. For a time, I hated him so much for not supporting me on this. Imagine, my parents even gave me their thumbs up for this trip, but that guy. Grhh... He then, warily enumerated those times that he tolerated me with my first solo backpacking … and all the travels I had without him. His exacts words were ‘pinapayagan ka naman sa mga lakad mo, kahit hindi ako kasama... Sige, tumuloy ka, and you’ll see.’ Yes, there was a threat involve. Hahaha. I had a hard time giving up the trip until the eleventh hour, when problem number two popped up.

Second, the pricey guide and security detail for a daytrip in Basilan.

I was quoted 1, 500 pesos for a daytrip, that includes habal habal transpo, guide, security… and food, I guess. I think, it was a fair and reasonable price considering that it’s your dearest life that’s at stake.  No doubt about that. Apparently, I was on a tightly budgeted solo trip. Apart from the 1,500peso quotation, I still have to pay for my return tickets from Zamboanga to Basilan that would cost a little less than a thousand. Poorita mirasol. I only alloted a thousand for the entire day trip. Tsk tsk.

A day after my aborted trip, a minor disastrous attack in Basilan made it to the headlines of TV Patrol that made my boyfriend felt so vindicated with all the lectures and threatening he gave me.

Well, perhaps it wasn’t really the right time for me to visit Basilan. Not yet.

For assistance and enquiries:

Department of Tourism Gerard Tabil – 09176344989

PALAUI...you took my breath away!

..figuratively and literally!

We left Tuguegarao City as early as we can to check out the other highlight of our first trip up north - the Palaui Island. 

It was the middle of June, yet I see no sign of the sun slowing down its power. I was expecting some cloudy skies holding hands with rain showers or maybe a little rain will do, just to ease the unforgiving temperature – after all, the city holds the record of being the hottest in the country. 

So much for our discomfort, we reached San Vicente port an hour before noon. Argghh. It was one of those few moments that you’d want to cover yourself with tons of ice to soothe your half-roasted bodies. Napakainit talaga. After we satisfied ourselves with another papaitan session (ang init na nga, nagpapaitan pa!) we boarded our boat, wore our life vest … and off we sailed the seas.

It was a sweat and short 15-minute boat ride from the port to Punta Verde in Palaui Island. It was Mommy Earl who arranged all this, so when we arrived the island, we went straight to our supposed home stay, settled our things and rest for few minutes – then suddenly, we decided to cut short our feel-the-atmosphere-of-the-island- time, and started our trek to maximize or time – oh well, it was around 1230pm. Can you imagine the heat?

You have two options going to Palaui Island and Cape Engano:

*If you’re not trek addict, hire a boat for 1,800 pesos, this will bring to the feet the lighthouse from the port. You just need to hike the cemented stairs to Cape Engano which will only take you a little less than an hour.

*If you want to make your trip a little more exciting and complicated, hire a boat to Punta Verde for 750pesos, and trek for 3hours or more to the lighthouse. Guide will cost you 250 pesos (rates vary depending on number of visitors).

So, we chose to make our lives a lot more complicated when we decided to hike at midday. We can barely feel any oxygen in the air. Haha. It was tolerable at first, especially when we walked the very long stretch of sand, pebbles, and corals of the island. The tide was low, and we had the most scenic image of the beach. It was indeed a breath-taking moment.

An hour nonstop beach walking, exposing our human bodies to the mighty source of energy, we succumb to a much needed rest, for 15 minutes. Then we continued our trek to the other side of the island. This time, we had the greenery hills of Palaui as our background. 

But even when we were surrounded with trees, we were disappointed not to feel any fresh air in the wooded area. The high temperature did nothing but slow us down from our climb. We barely talk to each other just as to save our depleted energy.                

I hate to be the are-we-there-yet type of climber, but this one really made me asked this forbidden question because I felt it in my heart and my body that I was running out of sufficient power to carry on.  Literally speaking, it was breath taking experience.

It was only replenished when at one point of the climb, after two air-less hour hike, we had this magnificent view in front of us. Teary eyed me, I silently told myself ‘it was indeed worth every breath.’

Thanks to this picturesque preview, it was like our batteries were re-ignited that we had this sudden energy to walk as fast as we can, never mind the annoying twigs and tree branches that we came across… or must I say, we were just too eager to finish the breathless climb and get it over with. Haha.

lighthouse, spotted!

 

There were other visitors in the lighthouse, but they travelled by boat. We were really exhausted from our climb, so we hopelessly tried asking them if we can hitch a ride back to Punta Verde. Apparently, the boat cannot accommodate us all, besides, if the authorities caught them overloading, it will be taken against them, so we didn’t insist. We stayed for at least 30 minutes in the lighthouse, before heading back our trail. 

 

worth all the sweat...

 

Based on my photo details, ascending the mountains of Palaui and Cape Engano lighthouse took us two and half hours … our descent took us a little less than two hours… As Mommy Earl would put it – wala na kami sa wisyo nung bumaba kami ng bundok. Blame it to our almost empty pack of strength to enjoy our trek, we all agreed to activate our auto-mode, and marched down the hills quietly. It was as if we didn’t know each other. We walked fast and we walked silently. There were quick stops, but I can’t remember a time that we took a good rest during our descent. Seriously, we just want it to be over before nature consumes the remaining strength we had inside.

We were supposed to stay overnight in the island, but because of the grueling climbing experience we just had, I think we owe it to ourselves to at least reward our bodies with some soft, comfy and relaxing beds. We packed our bags, and hailed our boatman to transfer us back to the port.

We had a short stop at the last marker up north – KM642…  (kilometer zero can be found in Luneta Park in Manila)

… and doze off at Jomel’s Lodge later that night.

...with photos from Inch Datuin!