Zamboanga City, Mindanao, Philippines
On the boat, one could change Malaysian ringgit to Philippine pesos. Still, it didn’t
provide sufficient local currency to see me to the next big town. Priority was,
therefore, to locate an ATM.
The Philippines is the world’s second-largest archipelago (after Indonesia),
featuring 7,107 islands and the plan was to visit a few.
The country sports a fascinating history. In 1521, the islands were claimed by
Spain, who constructed Fort Pilar, a 17th-century military defence fortress. The
British occupied it for a while but soon returned it to Spain. Then, the U.S. came
and started a war that officially lasted three years, but skirmishes continued for a
further seven, killing 600,000 Filipinos. Thus, I had to pop into Zamboanga’s
historic city hall, built when the United States colonised the Philippine islands.
After the U.S. eventually departed, Japanese troops came, and only in 1946 was
the Philippines granted full independence. If that’s not enough, the Filipinos must
further deal with volcanoes and typhoons, and during my visit, political violence
was still widespread. There were repeated warnings to be careful and NOT to wild
camp.
Sauntering about, the heavens opened and all scurried for cover. Temperatures
hovered around the mid-30°C and, being the wet season, it could rain at any given
time. Luckily, the rain came quickly and hard and didn’t last long.
Hailing a tricycle (more like a bike with a sidecar), the going wasn’t a great deal
faster than by foot. The driver located an ATM but, sadly, no roadmap.