Overnight Stay in Zamboanga City

I had a 2-day, 3-night trip to Zamboanga City, one of the southern-most major cities in the Philippines.

I was struck by the amount of culture and history I saw in Zamboanga City. The variety of the culture is partly due to the fact that like much of Mindanao, the population here is comprised of three major cultural groups: Christians comprise the majority of the population; the second largest group are Muslims; and the smallest group are the indigenous people (collectively referred to by many as "lumad") from various ethno-linguistic groups.

A large banner at the airport proclaimed "Welcome to Zamboanga City, the Latin City of the Philippines." From what I gather, the term "Latin" is a reference to Latin America, because like Latin America, Zamboanga has very strong Creole Spanish roots.

I learned from my hosts that during Spanish colonial times, Zamboanga City was home to a large Spanish ethnic community, and it drew many Spanish immigrants into its borders. Those Castilian roots are still evident in the population and language. A large part of the population visibly has some Spanish ethnicity with their fair skin and European features (as a friend of mine from Manila said when he heard I was going to Zamboanga, "Zamboanga! There are a lot of mestizos and mestizas there!"). The local language, Chavacano, is a language based largely on Castilian vocabulary and syntax, with some words from Filipino languages.

I was also struck by the strong sense of history that Zamboangueños appear to have in relation to their Spanish heritage: well-maintained old buildings or new buildings with colonial architecture abound, and many walls in the city are painted with murals depicting facets of their Spanish history or heritage.

Alongside this Spanish heritage is the strong Muslim identity of the Muslim community here. Right beside the same banner at the airport was another banner, welcoming Hajj travelers back to the Philippines. In the markets, on the street, and of course, outside the mosque, the Muslim culture was evident in people's dress—Muslims and Christians alike could be seen carrying bags with Muslim prints—and with the "Assalam alaykum" (Peace Be With You) printed on arcs leading to Muslim neighborhoods.

Quick Tips:

The main language here is Chavacano, a language based on Castilian Spanish. I could catch a few words, but my colleague, who learned a bit of Spanish when he was younger, could understand enough to guess what people were conversing about. I suppose, then, that Spanish-speaking travelers may be able to understand Chavacano enough to get by.

The locals can also speak Tagalog/Filipino (the national language), and most can either converse in or at least understand English.

Best Way To Get Around:

The most common means of public transportation here is the "tricycle": a motorcycle with a covered sidecar attached to it that can seat two or three people. I noticed that unlike the tricycles in Metro Manila, the tricycles in Zamboanga City have bigger, higher, and more spacious sidecar, and most of the motorcycles that run them are four-stroke, rather than two-stroke engines.

Tricycles in the Philippines work somewhat like taxis. They have specific geographical areas which they service, but within those geographical areas, they can bring you to any specific location you request. One can hail an empty tricycle on the road, or ask around if the nearest tricycle terminal is within walking distance (usually at major drop-off points like markets). Upon riding the tricycle, the traveler specifies the exact location where he or she wants to be dropped off. Sometimes, if the area is farther than the usual area covered by the tricycle's route, the tricycle driver may agree to take you there but might negotiate a slightly higher price than the usual fare to cover the cost of his travel back to his geographical area.

Travelers unaccustomed to the Filipino tricycle may feel more comfortable hailing taxis, although they definitely aren't as abundant.

One thing I observed is that vehicular traffic in Zamboanga city moves at a leisurely pace. The roads are no more congested than any other small city in the Philippines, but for some reason, traffic moves slowly. The times when I was being driven around by my hosts, I looked at the speedometer and noticed that most of the time, we would crawl at just around 40 kilometers per hour.

Nonetheless, travel times around the city are short and in a vehicle, a traveler can easily get from one end of the city to the other in around 20 minutes.

The Marcian Garden Hotel is a 5-minute ride away from the airport, on Gov. Camins Road, along a row of several hotels. Accommodation here costs a little less than P1000 (US$20) per night in a single room (you actually stay in a twin room, but if you are traveling alone you only pay for the use of one bed).

Pros: It is very near the airport, a mere 5-minute ride away. The rooms are clean, air-conditioned, and quite spacious, with sparse decor. Each room has running warm (not hot) and cold water, a telephone, a desk/dresser with one chair, a cupboard (no safe, however), a small television with cable TV (although they may be slightly beat up; on the one in my room, the color red was broken, so I watched programs in black, white, yellow, and blue), and of course, a Gideon Bible. Soap and towels are provided. The bed was comfortable though the pillow was small (as is often the case in budget hotels). Each room also has a small balcony with two chairs. On the premises there are several function rooms, a swimming pool (without a lifeguard), a souvenir store that also has a computer with an Internet connection (Internet use is P25 per half-hour), and a restaurant which serves reasonably priced meals (my breakfast was filling and cost me P100 or US$2). The telephone directory attached to the telephone also indicated that there was a business center on the premises, although I did not see nor use it.

The staff is very helpful and friendly. They insisted on helping me with my baggage even though I had very little. However, when I asked if there was a charger I could borrow for my cell phone, they weren't able to help me with that. Laundry service is available, though I didn't use it.

Cons: One drawback about this hotel, however, is that it is along a main road and the street outside is quite noisy. If you are a light sleeper, you may want to bring earplugs, especially if you find yourself on the second floor (as I did). I was drifting off into a nap in the middle of the day, when a sharp honk from what was either truck or a bus outside awoke me.

For a budget hotel, I would recommend this hotel, if you own and don't mind using a pair of earplugs.

My hosts brought me to "Barter Trade Market," which I found out is a dry market in the city known for its textiles with traditional Muslim designs, imported from Malaysia. I'm not entirely sure if this is accurate, but it seems, from what I gathered, to have gotten its name from the fact that many of the goods here were brought to Zamboanga by boatmen who barter goods off Tawi-Tawi with Malaysian boatmen.

Batik textile and embroidered malongs (large sarongs with their edges sewn together so that the material forms a tube that can be worn as a skirt or dress) are available here at incredibly cheap prices. The cheapest malongs are around P100 (US$2); malongs made with higher-quality material are around P250 to P300, depending on the length of the malong. This beautiful cloth is also made into bags, table cloths, skirts, shawls, and shirts. If you have time to spare, you can buy cloth and have it sewn into a shirt or skirt according to your specifications, then come back for it a few days later. I didn't have time to do that, but I bought some material which I intend to have sewn in Manila.

There were also food products—sweets and chocolates—from Malaysia, and other dry goods. I bought a box of chocolates for just P70 (about US$1.50) for the folks back home.

Everything is already incredibly cheap, but sellers are willing to haggle if you so wish.

I went on a weekday, and only about a third of the stalls were open, which still gave me a lot to look at, admire, and buy—in an hour's time, I was able to buy a skirt, a malong, some cloth, two handbags, several tubaws (a Muslim handkerchief-sized scarf usually wrapped around the head or neck), and chocolates, all for less than US$40. I was told, however, that the market fills up with both buyers and sellers on the weekend.

Shoppers cannot miss a trip to this market!

Behind the Lantaka Hotel By the Sea, along the coast, is an area where Badjaos (a Philippine indigenous, boat-dwelling people who live off the fruits of the sea) set up stalls during the day to sell pearls. To get there, just walk into the Lantaka compound, through the covered walk, and out into the paved area from where the beach is visible. The Badjao pearl-sellers will be to your right, right behind the hotel.

The Badjao are truly people of the sea. As babies, they learn to swim as they learn to stand, and the mark of the sea is evident even in their physical features: their hair is usually brownish from having been bleached by the sun, and when they walk or stand, it is with the posture of someone who spends most of his hours crouching low on houseboats.

Pearl-diving is one of the means of livelihood of the Badjao people. They string the pearls into necklaces and make jewelry and trinkets from the pearls.

I myself come from the northern part of the Philippines, where most of the indigenous people are mountain-dwellers who pick their food off trees, and make additional livelihood by selling handicrafts made from plant materials from the forests. It struck me as I looked at the pearls on sale that the Badjaos essentially do the same thing; the sea is their forest, their mountain. They pick their food from the sea, and dive into the sea to get the materials—pearls and shells—with which to fashion handicrafts to sell.

By the time these pearls get to Western countries, only the roundest pearls have been picked, and all the middlemen have been paid, increasing the price by a hundred or even a thousandfold.

But the Philippines is one of the cheapest countries in the world to buy pearls, and Zamboanga is one of the cheapest cities in the Philippines to buy pearls.

The pearls that the Badjao sell are imperfect, but the prices can't be beat. For US$5 I got a beautiful set comprising a choker necklace, a bracelet, and a pair of earrings. You may haggle if you wish, but I don't see why anyone would want to.

As we left Lantaka Hotel, I was very pleased with my purchase, and my colleague said, "The best thing about your pearls is that they have a story. You can tell people you bought them straight from the Badjaos."

The terminal building of Zamboanga City International Airport is a beautiful bit of architecture. When I disembarked from the plane I let out a small cry of pleasure at the beautiful peaks of the roof of the airport.

The terminal is small and non-airconditioned, typical of cities outside of Metro Manila, but the brick walls and unique roof are a pleasant first sight when you land. The staff at the airport are incredibly helpful, prepared to help carry your baggage.

Four airlines fly in and out of Zamboanga City airport. Flag-carrier Philippine Airlines and its sister company Air Philippines both fly to and from Metro Manila, Cebu, as well as surrounding cities in Mindanao. Cebu Pacific, the largest domestic airline in the Philippines flies and to and from Metro Manila and Cebu. Finally, a smaller airline (the name of which escapes me) flies to Tawi-tawi, on the southern tip of the Philippines. I flew Philippine Airlines both ways.

The arrival area is small, with only two baggage claim carousels. Comically, while looking out for my luggage on the conveyer belt, what should I see on the belt but a cage with a white cat in it, that someone had checked in on the flight from Manila.

The departure area is just one waiting area for everyone, regardless of which flight they are taking. It has a concessionaire stand which sells drinks, snacks, Zamboanga sweets, and souvenirs; a television to keep the bored traveller occupied while he waits; and--a feature common at many Philippine airport terminals--a massage area where travelers can get a relaxing massage while waiting for their plane to arrive. There are two security points for departing passengers: an initial X-ray and metal detector at the entrance to the airport, and a second one at the entrance to the departure area.

The terminal fee at the airport is P40.00 for travel on domestic flights and P500 for travel on international flights. Foreign travelers (i.e., non-Filipinos) are asked to present their passports for identification purposes.