mindanao

Dapitan City Travel Guide – Things to Do, Tourist Attractions and Suggested Itinerary For This Historic City in Northern Mindanao

May 21, 2017 by Bino 1 Comment

Dapitan City in Zamboanga del Norte has long been in my bucket list of places to visit in the Philippines. This town in the northern part of Mindanao has long been under the tourist radar although it has been featured in quite a few publications over the years. Dapitan City is most well-known for being the place of exile of Philippine national hero, Jose Rizal, and has plenty of historic sites for visitors to explore over a weekend. The city is also known for Dakak, a beach resort which has managed to capture the imagination of local tourists due to heavy promotion back in the 1990s.

During a recent trip across the northern coast of Mindanao, I finally had a chance to visit Dapitan. I was able to cover both this city and the neighboring town, Dipolog City over two days. These were the places I visited:

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Lake Sebu in Mindanao – Possibly One of the Philippines’ Most Exotic Destinations

May 24, 2014 by Bino 9 Comments

incredible sunset in lake sebu

The enchanting Lake Sebu, in the Allah Valley in South Cotabato, is a contender for the Philippines’ most exotic destination. The vibe here around one of Mindanao’s iconic lakes is quite unlike mainstream Filipino culture – from the unintelligible cacophony of the local language to the intriguing practice of horse fighting – it certainly is not like the Philippines that I am familiar with. And then there are the T’boli, the local tribes people best known for their colorful costumes who have a real knack for decoration and music and who fought very hard to preserve the traditions of their ancestral homeland. All this makes Lake Sebu a really beguiling destination which I had been longing to visit for years.

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Zamboanga: My Visit to the Latin City of Asia

April 3, 2013 by Bino 11 Comments

Perhaps it can be said that no other city in the Philippines piqued my curiosity as much as Zamboanga in the western tip of the island of Mindanao. There’s just so many things that differentiate it from the rest of the country. Nevertheless, I had to think twice about coming here. My main consideration was not really about the sights to see or the things to do but more about the reputation. As far as I can remember, newspaper datelines containing the name “Zamboanga” usually detail not so pleasant news. Not all of them paint an accurate picture of the city however – Zamboanga can actually be used to describe other points in the peninsula rather than just the city and most of those incidents that appeared in the papers actually did not occur in the city.

the zamboanga international airport

The city of Zamboanga is distinctive in a couple of things. First is their language – Chavacano. It’s an interesting Spanish-based creole that has mosly died off in other parts of the Philippines. In Zamboanga, it lives on and is commonly used in the public sphere. It was interesting to see the same print ads with the same celebrity endorsers that I often encounter in Manila but translated to the heavy Spanish slant that is Chavacano. The other thing about Zamboanga is of course, its proximity to the far reaches of the Philippines. By far reaches, I am referring to the provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi; places that are only a few hundred miles away but seemingly a lot farther based on people’s perceptions. This means that the city is a melting pot of cultures, and the modernist cathedrals, temples and grand mosques in the downtown area attest to this. To a greater extent, Zamboanga of course also functions as a jumping point to Sabah, Malaysia, and as of this writing there are plans to re-start flights between the city and Sandakan in April.

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One Night in Davao

January 12, 2012 by Bino 3 Comments

I arrived in the southern city of Davao on an evening flight from Cagayan de Oro. It was just a short hop over the same island and barely took an hour. The bright lights from the landmass below greeted us on our plane’s final approach, indicating to me that Davao is a much larger city than I had previously thought.

welcome to davao city!

davao at night

My initial impression of the city as we headed to the hotel was one of relative cleanliness and general sense of order which I definitely couldn’t say for most of the Philippines’ large cities. It’s a lot denser than what I had expected but nevertheless, there exists only one true high rise in the city, the Marco Polo Hotel which is also the tallest building in Mindanao.

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Asia’s Longest Dual Zipline, Pineapples and Alpine Scenery in Bukidnon

January 7, 2012 by Bino 3 Comments

Mindanao is not known as the bread basket of the country for no reason. All sorts of agricultural produce are grown here, and most notable are the bananas and pineapples which are exported all over the world. Most of the bananas and pineapples here in Singapore come from the Philippines, and I found the same to be the case in Hong Kong, Japan and New Zealand. What really surprised me though, were the bananas from the Philippines I saw being sold in the roadside fruit stalls in Iran, of all places.

the mountanous terrain of the province offers some spectacular views

Most of the plantations are concentrated in the central and southern part of the island. I visited one of these sites recently, in the landlocked province of Bukidnon. Although very scenic, the province has remained mostly agricultural until only recently when the longest zipline in Asia was built along with a couple of mountainside hotels.

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Camiguin: the Island of Fire

January 1, 2012 by Bino 30 Comments

A recent 6-day trip to Mindanao took me to Camiguin, that small pea-shaped island just off Cagayan de Oro City. I had wanted to come here for the longest time, friends and acquaintances only have good things to say about the wide variety of activities that this small province (the Philippine’s second smallest) has to offer. Camiguin is also known as the “island of fire” due to the presence of not one, or two but seven volcanoes in just 230 square kilometers of land!

sunken cemetery in camiguin

There are two popular ways to get to Camiguin – both involve passing thru Cagayan de Oro, where there are frequent direct air connections to Manila, Cebu and Davao. The first and quickest option is to take a fast craft (2 hours; departs at 8:30AM daily) from Cagayan de Oro for roughly Php 500 but since departures only occur in the early mornings, the most used method is the second one which entails a one-hour slow ferry from Balingoan (a small town that is about 2 hours drive from CDO) for Php 170 which takes you to Benoni in Southeastern Camiguin. The departures here are more frequent, and average about every 45 minutes in the mornings and afternoons.

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