Ricomar Pension House

Ricomar Pension House Ipil , Mindanao The bus ride from Dipolog to Zamboanga is a long but easy ride. If you choose to take a break along the way consider overnighting in Ipil, a city about 3 hours before you would arrive in Zamboanga. There are not any major attractions there that I am aware of but I stopped there one time and had a nice evening. It's interesting to me to travel in the daylight so I can see the landscape as it passes by. The scenery on this route is not particularly stunning but you can pick up on subtle things like the Mormon churches, Seventh Day Adventist churhes, Mosques and other indicators of what type of the people are living in the area. There are many checkpoints on the road but most of the time the drivers just slow down and keep right on going. There is a strict firearms ban the closer you get to Zamboanga but we were never boarded and searched. Everything is just in place in case things flare up and there needs to be a crack down by the military. Comlec (Commission on elections), PNP (police), Army, and local Barangays all have checkpoints along the route. If you are staying in Ipil you can get good internet connections for 10 pesos an hour. There is the standard market that you find in all sizeable Filipino cities, a Jolibees, and an Equitable bank with an ATM machine. I was pleasantly surprised with the Ricomar Pension House. They had nice single rooms for 500 pesos and doubles for 600 pesos a nite. The deluxe room with green floor tiles runs 900 pesos per night. It had been a while since I had caught up on CNN and BBC so I had a great relaxing and what most might consider, boring evening. For me it was great but even in this area the security guards have loaded automatic weapons and the Jolibees has 2 to 3 armed guards. I enjoyed talking to some of the people and got a prepaid "load" for my phone (Globe). I paid the vendor 100 pesos but there was heavy cell traffic that night and he had to try 5 times to get through. 100 pesos showed on the message and I told him I would return if more load showed up on the phone later. He agreed. On the way back to the Ricomar I recieved a message that another 100 pesos had been credited to my account. I went back to the old Muslim  trader and paid him the extra 100 pesos much to his delight. Bad kharma will follow you if you do the wrong thing. The Rural Transit bus line has a stop by the market on the National Highway. You can hop on the bus and be in Zamboanga in 3 to 4 hours for 168 pesos. 2008   www.dutchpickle.com

 

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