112
{
}
T H E U L T I M A T E S H O E S T R I N G A D V E N T U R E
In Cotabato City, I tried speaking to
people in the local dialect, only to
learn later that Tagalog is spoken here.
I had a much easier time ordering
food, buying souvenirs and asking for
directions, and therefore covered more
ground in less time. I saw Masjid Sultan
Hassanal Bolkiah or the Grand Mosque,
the largest in the country. I felt dwarfed
by the enormous and grand structure.
I hopped aboard a bus to get
to Malaybalay, Bukidnon where
temperatures dropped and I needed,
for the first time, to bring out a sweater.
I traveled through Cagayan de Oro
then Iligan, and Marawi City, then to
the Zamboanga Peninsula stopping at
Pagadian to meet fellow travel bloggers
Wendell Cagape and Gael Hilotin,
who then traveled with me as I visited
Zamboanga City, Sulu Province and
Tawi-Tawi via an overloaded ferry boat.
I’d never met warmer people than the
Tausugs in Zamboanga and Sulu.
At the arch near the oldest
mosque in the Philippines at
Simunul, Tawi-Tawi; (top) the
Grand Mosque in Cotabato City
G
o
i
n
g
t
h
e
d
i
s
t
a
n
c
e
Day
63
PHOTO
FERDZ DECENA (GRAND MOSQUE)
