Ironwulf.net Ver 6: En Route - Philippines, Travel, Photography

The Tboli tribe of Lake Sebu is one of the indigenous people in Southern Mindanao. Known for their excellent skills in weaving and metal works, they are able to produce their one of a kind Tboli cloth, the Tinalak and fine metal works from musical instruments to swords. Most of them also has talents in making wooden collectibles from beads to bracelets and other bling-blings you might think. Indeed, the Tbolis is one culturally rich and talented tribe if not also, one of the most colorful in the country.

After eating a Satti breakfast at one of the Satti shops in Pilar Street, morning finds us strolling the streets of Zambaonga City ending up at the imposing structure by the Zamboanga Peninsula Seas, which is the historical Fort Pilar. This venerable fort founded in 1635 yet still proudly stands strong until now, represents the rich colonial history of this region of our country.

Who said monks are restrained by their vow of silence and abstinence of worldy pleasures? I guess times have changed. Like our modern priest and nuns, monks are no longer confined to the walls of their convents or temples. They seem to be open nowadays to explore new things and the world around them.

I have been mentioning a lot about the scenic stilt houses down in Zamboanga Peninsula, and now it’s time to get deep inside one of these villages and take a glimpse of their life here. Enter Rio Hondo. Rio meaning ‘river’ Hondo meaning ‘deep’, is a deep river Muslim village on stilts of the coast of Zamboanga City. I heard Jessica Soho Reports featured this village a few weeks back, but I wasn’t able to catch it. I hope you’ll enjoy my feature on this scenic village on stilts as well.

I know a lot of people would ask, “Why the hell would you want to go to Basilan?” I mean, with all the bad publicity it’s getting because of the Abu Sayaff years back, the place had a negative notion of always being in a state of strife. I myself couldn’t believe stepping on this part of the country as it is the last place on my list. But since one of my travel buddy and fellow photography enthusiast wanted to visit this part of the region since he has seen most of the major areas in the Philippines, I thought, why not, so I tagged along with other 7 adventurous individuals and ventured where only the daring go.

For those who may have noticed, most of my travel trails covers a lot of UNESCO sites. I’m pretty sure you can never go wrong visiting one of their sites listed on their heritage list. In Cambodia, the Angkor Archaeological Park is not the sole UNESCO site in the area, nearby is the presence of a Great Lake, which helped the kingdom of Angkor Build their impressive structures and empire akin to how the Nile River build the Pyramids and the empire in Egypt. Tonle Sap, which means Large Fresh Water Lake, is the largest lake in South East Asia and was declared a UNESCO biosphere back in 1997. So a visit to Cambodia wouldn’t be complete without having visited this very important site and take a glimpse of life by this great lake.

Marooned four. That is what we have become. We didn’t plan on staying on this island since our flight is the day after tomorrow. But that is the reality of traveling, expect the unexpected. You could either react badly when something goes wrong or simply accept what have become. Still, we thought we were fortunate enough to be stranded here in Sabtang as the people of Batanes are known for their kindness and pride themselves for having virtually no crime. Though there were isolated crimes of passion, I doubt it if those who committed these crimes are natives of the region. Other than that, their jail cells have become a stock house since there’s no one inside. It seems hard to believe though that place such as this still exist.