Sampaguita Gardens Kalibo

Text and Images by Ronald de Jong

The City of Koronadal, popularly known to the local population as Marbel, is the capital city of South Cotabato province, a bubbling, virtual melting pot of contrasting ethnic cultures and influences, many dialects and indigenous traditions.

Despite living in a troubled region many different people from all walks of life, different beliefs, different dreams, different hopes and different ...

... of Cotabato was once the largest in Mindanao. North and South Cotabato later became separate provinces. South Cotabato is one of the most blessed and accessible areas in Mindanao, a province with an interesting blend of culture, history and tradition. It has hidden treasures, warm and friendly people, scenic places, amazing and enchanting natural and man made attractions. In this land of flowers and fruits fields are planted with groves of rambutan, durian ...

... with a multiracial, multireligious society and the every day problems that go along with that. But despite all the experiences I encountered in my home country and also during my many travels abroad, this could not even prepare me for the culture shock I had during my first visit to Mindanao back in 1995.

My jaws dropped, it was an awesome experience. It is hard to even begin to describe how I felt, it was so impressive but very exciting. I was stunned by ...

The Ati Atihan festival is on the third weekend of January so we came here to book accomodation for that. Found a nice cheap place that had only trebled its price for the festival instead of five times as most other places seem to have done. Looks like this is going to be one big party! Preparing myself for carnage! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ati-atihan _festival

... especially for foreigners.

But truly, I don't think that Mindanao, and particularly the province of South Cotabato is more unsafe than many other places in the world. I've spent a lot of time travelling across this exotic island, living and laughing with the locals and I was fortunate to enjoy their hospitality and friendship at first hand.

My trips allowed me to get in touch with a distinctive culture that is a mixture of Asian, Spanish and ...

... Christmas trees for the multinational firm's executive expats. Because the resident managers and supervisors there now are mostly locals, the trees haven't been cut down for several Christmases so they've flourished in time.

Polomolok isn't new to me; I've been all over the place on several occasions in the past, but never in Kalsangi. I recently made it there because of the executive golf tournament held within ...

We got up quite early, checked out and took a jeepney to the bus station, where we got a "Holiday Bus" to General Santos. The main bus company here seems to be the Yellow Bus Line, but the Holiday Bus was ready to leave and was a little cheaper - P150 as opposed to P175, with no discernible difference in comfort. Buses run about every ten minutes, so, as is the case generally here, there is never much waiting time involved. The trip took ...

Sunday morning we headed off to Kalibo for Ati Atihan, the biggest party of the year in Panay! It is a celebration of the early native roots as well as the Christ Child. For days prior to this, residents have practiced and paraded the streets in bright coloured costumes, drums and other instruments. The parades go on for hours. While many communities have their own version of Ati Atihan, people come from all over the Philippines to celebrate. Many people darken their ...

We got back to Lezo late afternoon, and after unpacking we went over to Allan's aunts for dinner. Good eats as always. I was a little surprised when the house lizard ran out from under the lazy susan and past my plate onto the floor...Didn't really bother me, just was a shock. Also I think I met every eligible woman in the family that night. After dinner Allan and I went out to walk around town. I started feeling a bit ill and after we did a few ...

So the start of my first full day in the Philippines. We took at cab to the airport, this time the Manila Domestic Airport, which is about 20 minutes away from the International Airport, and the hotel. Driving through the streets I saw some public peeing stations, basically minimally covered buckets, that I guess go to the sewage. We got to the airport and got in line outside...no one gets into the building ...