Post #265195 by Thomas on Wed, Nov 8, 2006 6:07 AM

My wife is from Zamboanga. It's a beautiful port city with lots of old charm, and is thriving despite the bad news often associated with it. One thing to bear in mind is that if separatist violence occurs, say, 100 miles from Zamboanga, the story will be "datelined" Zamboanga as it is the biggest city in the region. This often gives the impression that the problem occurred in the Zamboanga City, even when it didn't. To paraphrase the old Merril Lynch commercial, we're bullish on Zamboanga.

Of likely interest to many TCers, there is a famous bamboo tree house in Pasonanca Park in Zamboanga City. Google and/or Google Images " pasonanca park zamboanga tree house " and lots comes up. The following is from http://www.jetlink.com.ph/~zambo/tree.htm :
**
TREE HOUSE
at Pasonanca Park

Any visitor, foreign or native, who comes for a brief sojourn hereabouts may ask for a reservation of the Tree House through the Office of the City Mayor. The stay is for FREE, but it is only good for a night or two, to give everybody a chance, it being the one and only of its kind in the city and in the country...

ZAMBOANGA TREE HOUSE
Elizabeth Stafford
Pasonanca Park Tree-House
September 30, 1963

From the heart of an Acacia tree
Come these words from me to thee
In a tree-house I now stay
My third day, out Zamboanga way.

Leafy boughs frame screen-tight windows
and sky is etched in swaying palm-frond rows.

Beyond shines the Celebes Sea
while close around "my" tree
Brilliant bougainvilla reaches up to me.

The rainbow tips a bird's wing
While friendly Filipino voices sing.
In pretty Pasonanca Park
Where Tree-House living is a lark
A stream-fed pool
Invites a swim that's cool.

There's room for two
But one alone "can do"
With frig and lightss
And comfort for all rites.

At dusk and dawn
A cricket combo will help you yawn.
Rare fruits tease
Sun-sweet breezes please.

How much: much No price!
It's just to be nice
To City Guests who stay
Out Zamboanga way.

But of pesos -- leave a few
La Lavandera will wash for you.

This sweet little scheme
For enchantment - whose dream?
That of Cesar Climaco, a mayor
With imagination of his mind plus hair.

For every visitor out Zamboanga Way
This my heart is glad to say.

Impressions of other guests:

PAKISTAN AMBASSADOR MALIK: "To live on the tree top without being uncivilized is heavenly." 1963

American actor, JEFFREY HUNTER: "The perfect story of romance! An adventure in a tree-house in the distant reaches of the Pacific! Zamboanga, a name that fires the imagination, a name that is synonymous with friendly, smilinmg people. More wonderful than fiction is the fact that Zamboanga is now our most treasured memoir of the Philippines." 1962

PAULINE BUSS, 4-H Club, Michigan: "I will always remember my night in the tree house. It was so much fun. This house and park really add to the beauty of Zamboanga." 1965

(end of quote)

By the way, that ditty about the monkeys with no tails is suddenly and inexplicably sung by the female lead in the Frank Sinatra movie, A HOLE IN THE HEAD, which is rather corny but hey, is in Miami in 1959, which makes it cool despite it all. It was the first time my wife and I ever heard it and we suddenly turned to each other with shocked expressions (then rewound the video and relistened to it about five times to make sure). A funny moment.