A NATIONAL HERO'S HOME IN EXILE

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January 31st 2010

Published: February 13th 2010

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Viajerong Pinoy

Dapitan

death of a hero, painting at Rizal Museum

Last minute decision to head to Rizal's Dapitan. Jose Rizal is the Philippines' national hero and was exiled here during the Spanish era for rebellion against the Spanish rule. It was about 2 hours by bus from Oroquieta and the deluxe bus is slow, waiting for passengers everytime. it rained on and off and I fell asleep again waking up as we got dropped off at a junction. Trike touts fight for our fare, we took one to the Rizal Park near the waterfront. This is a quiet town, I think I will like it. we arrived at the park and it is huge, and it's free! The museum is to the right and we checked out all those Rizal memorabilias, normally I am not into museums but this one is cool, Rizal was a civil engineer, a scientist, poet, writer, and a medical doctor! wow! No wonder the Spaniards hated him. Oh yeah we also saw pictures of the women in his life, hey if you have the brains you can be a playboy too, why not!? the Japanese wife looks hot! Anyway moving on, we checked out the houses on stilts, his house, the dorms etc.

There were

Dapitan

fishing boat

bunch of University students here on a field trip but since the place is huge it did not bother us much, the trees are big, lots of green and is next to the sea wall, great location, if i was exiled here I would have not mind it at all. He bought some land to plant tropical fruits which made my mouth water looking at the photo in the museum. Rik went out to find rice so we an have lunch, what's for lunch? well the sikad sikad we bought in the public market in Oroquieta, they have cooked sikad sikad there, a blessing! The meal was great and I need to use the toilet, guess what, it's airconditioned! You pay 5 pesos for the privilege though. After the pee we went and explored the surroundings, following a trail up and around the property.

The houses here are all replicas but they give you an idea how Rizal lived then. At a mini amphitheatre there is a Spanish version of a song "Hymn to Talisay" I was surprised to be able to understand most of it, then I stopped reading cause i got a headache trying to remember all

Dapitan

junction waiting for our bus

the Spanish I learned. Talisay is where the park is located, this is where he lived during his exile. Anyhoo, thirsty and tired we went for a walk at a convenient store to buy some drinks, they have "tuba" so I had a half liter to drink and be merry and rest from the heat.

They have an Enchanted Kingdom here, a sort of recreational park with rides but they open at 4pm and we can't be bothered to wait so we took a trike to get us to the center of the town. At the church a wedding is being held then I saw a billboard giving strict instructions on what the wedding party has to wear at a "proper" church wedding, ridiculous!! No bare shoulders if you want to get wed in the Philippines! a grass relief map of Mindanao is in the park across the street and bunch of kids playing sepak takraw entertained me for a bit, then we had enough and we decided to head back to Ozamis, next time I will stay here for couple nights to chill, cool place to visit. The trike driver doesn't have any change to my 100 peso

Dapitan

Rizal Museum

bill, annoyed I scolded him, it's 3pm and you still have no lose change? Dude this is how you make a living, make an effort to get change when I pay!(he made us change it at the sari sari store) I gave him a 50 pesos i think and told him if he can't still give me a change I will confiscate his trike and drive it myself!

took us 30 minutes to wait for the bus to Ozamis and it was full when it arrived, i was standing up in the aisle for good half of the trip, it was raining outside and we arrived in a drizzle in Ozamis and quickly took a trike to the crappy Palace hotel, expensive and smelly. Just for one night though..

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