A Treasure Worthy To Be Found: Basilan (Part 1)

On the first week of February this year, my aunt and I went to visit one of the places people seldomly go to because of the conflicted  state that the news allegedly reports its at -- we journeyed to the province of Basilan. Although I stayed there for just a short period of time, a 3-day,2-night stay to be exact, I brought home bountiful snippets of the province's treasures through photos, local items, and stories.

When I was telling some of my friends about my plan to visit Basilan, I was not surprised when the first expression they always gave was a feeling of concern with a dash of fear. I won't blame them because the news kept on showing the war going on in some places of the province between rebels and the army. In truth, I was also a bit concerned for my life. With all these kind of news going on, I also had my own doubts due to safety issues. But, what the hell, I just turned to my mantra about death, "If it's your time to join the Lord in Heaven, nothing and no one in no circumstance can stop that time." "Kung oras mo na, oras mo na," is how we say it in Filipino.

Perhaps, that initial expression my friends gave me was also taken as a challenge from my end. Deep down, I then had the urge to face the doubts I had and at the same time show my friends that Basilan is a friendly place.

And so I pushed on with my journey. And I didn't regret any part of it.

Simple

Zamboanga Int'l Airport view
from the runway

We flew to Basilan via Zamboanga City. As such, I also had the opportunity to visit Zamboanga International Airport. It reminded me of the old look of the airports of Cebu and Davao where some of the buildings were still made out of wood. It was consisted of just one floor and the arrival system was also just simple -- you walk into the airport, get your check-in baggage, and exit through the arrival gate.

View from outside the
arrival gate

So, yes, it's not quite developed and modernized yet in terms of structure, but I loved how simple it was. Maybe because I just also love the idea of simplicity itself. Being simple means no pretentions, no sugar-coating -- just being an airport for the sake of being an airport.

My aunt's friend fetched us and accommodated us first in their convent where we had lunch. After, we then headed to Basilan via the Supercat.

While on-board the water vehicle, one distinctive sight I encountered were the white-sand shores of the islands we passed by. According to my Aunt, almost all the islands of Basilan have white-sand beaches, some of them even untouched. I was just amazed on how abundant they were of white-sand beaches. Samantalang ang laging pinupuntahan lang ng mga turista ay Boracay, Palawan, at Puerto Galera where the visitors are all crammed together, especially during summer wherein there are many potential tourist spots in this part of Mindanao.

Notice that white strip between the sea and the trees?
Yep, that's just one of some their islands' white sand shores!

  

Abundant

Upon arriving in Isabela, the capital city of Basilan, Brother Joseph Villarin of the Claretian Missionaries, and who I am working with for the Bajau community, met us and brought us to the town of Maluso where we'll be residing for the rest of our stay.

During our 45-minute travel from Isabela to Maluso, we encountered many checkpoint stations along the way. The driver and Bro. Joseph testified that encounters between the rebels and the soldiers really happened in some of those areas before. They even pointed the places where a certain priest was abducted. But, lucky for us, the towns we're passing through were safe as of that moment.

Upon our arrival, we were welcomed by Fr. Edgar, the town's parish priest, who happened to be my aunt's grade-school classmate, too. They graced us with plenty of food, particularly fish, chicken and vegetables. They shared with us that seafood in Basilan, as well as crops, was many and cheap. Indeed, their seafood were bigger and more stuffed than the usual ones we eat here in Manila. We were always and very full during our whole stay.

Breath-taking

The original reason why I made the trip to Basilan is to meet and experience the Samal Bajau village. But, our hosts were very kind enough to take us to one of the beaches of the province during the first day of our stay. As I have seen the many white-sand shores we passed by a while ago, I got excited since I'll have the chance to actually experience it.

 Before going to the island, we were first escorted by a real army team in a real army truck! It's the coolest thing that happened in my life so far! I was so amazed! We were escorted because Fr. Edgar was with us so we needed necessary precautions. After riding the army truck, we rode an army boat to reach the island.

Pardon the color setting of my
camera. The original color of the sand
is really White.

The island we went to was named "Taikila" and it indeed had white sand and blue waters. It. Was. BREATH-TAKING. I wouldn't have thought islands like this would exist in Basilan. I actually thought I was in Boracay. Minus the hustle and bustle. Minus the overflowing number of people. Minus modernity. I just wanted to stay there and immerse myself and take every single bit of that shore in. It was just so beautiful. But the water was a bit more salty compared to the beaches I've gone to in Boracay, Davao, Bohol and Batangas. So I just stayed on the shore most of the time while eating snacks that my aunt's friends brought.

As we left the island, we were fortunate enough to witness the sun set over the sea. Another breathtaking scene I'll never forget. I don't know, but the sun was redder and brighter at that moment. It was lovely. It was peaceful.

Our scenic sunset encounter

Please check out my next post for the continuation... :)