When one of my best friends (Tok) booked a flight to General Santos City last June (flight scheduled five months after), we didn’t expect anything great to happen. We didn’t know anything about GenSan except that it is the Tuna Capital of the Philippines. Period. But we still booked a flight anyway! Bahala na. We landed on my birthday in GenSan and like any other local tourists, we headed to a SM City branch. There, we met Butch. A gay supervisor of a food booth (Chona’s) at the Food Court, who promised to take our group South Cotabato… particularly, Lake Sebu.
The following day, we had lunch at SM General Santos City where we took the tricycle to the bus terminal. We met our new friend (together with his friend, Archie) and we rode the Yellow Bus together. From there, we took a less than two hour trip to Suralla Integrated Public Terminal in South Cotabato where we transferred to a yellow jeepney to take us to Lake Sebu! It was packed! Aside from the sweaty passengers, the vehicle was overloaded with mishmash of everyday things (plastic gallons of water, fruits, school bags, and on the roof, sacks and sacks of rice etc). My pitiable ass was unable to find a comfortable position on the seat for the first 30 minutes. That trip cost P40 pero discounted daw ako dahil PWDs only pays P35. Thanks! Buti pa sa probinsiya, may kunsensya ang tao.
Anyway, the ride took us almost an hour to Lake Sebu. Matagtag, masikip at yes, medyo hindi maganda ang smell. But, I always say... It's part of the adventure! We went down the jeepney (finally!) right in front of Nadine Lake Resort where rooms can be rented for P400 a night (only resort with available rooms that time).
We learned a lot about South Cotabato from talking with the locals. I didn’t know that South Cotabato is a Tilapia Capital, well, of Mindanao at least! Natives depend so much on the freshwater fish. In effect, they have quite a list of Tilapia recipes and two of them we had for dinner: Chicharong Tilapia and Paksiw na Tilapia together with Lomi and Garlic Chicken. The deep-fried, bite-sized Chicharong Tilapia with banana catsup, I love!
I was forewarned of the Cotabato version of Garlic Chicken. I was mildly surprised by the fact that their version looked like Adobo of Manila. It’s really salty and the sauce tasted like uncooked soy sauce (it was uncooked soy sauce!). After tasting it, pass muna ako. Then, there was the Paksiw ng Tilapia. First time I saw a black Paksiw. There were a lot a not-so-nice images playing on my mind that after two bites, pass ulit ako. By the way, just like the Garlic Chicken, this one was also salty.
We slept soundly that night considering that the inn didn’t have neither airconditioners nor electric fans. Like what I would always say again and again, its all part of the adventure! True! True!
Tricycle Ride
from SM General Santos City to the GenSan Terminal
Bus Ride
to Suralla Integrated Public Terminal
Jeepney Ride
to Lake Sebu, at last!
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