Day 1 - Dumaguete City and Valencia

DAY 1 - SEPTEMBER 30, 2008, TUESDAY

My first time to use the NAIA Terminal 3. Maganda ha pero di pa tapos. The pre-departure areas were spacious and much better than the domestic airport pre-dep. Comfy seats. Clean CRs. Expensive food as usual.

The Cebu Pacific people announced that our trip might be delayed due to poor weather conditions in Dumaguete. Boohoo. It cannot rain there!!! Most of the places we wanted to visit were only accessible by boat. Therefore, it must not rain. Hehe.

Finally, we were allowed to board a little past 7. Yahoo!

The flight to Dumaguete was okay. No turbulence, no rain, etc. But when we got there it was drizzling. Basa ang kalye. Huhu. Bad sign.

Our sundo from Harold's Mansion was waiting for us. 7:30 palang daw andun na siya. Hehe. Umangal daw ba, di naman kami late.

Harold's is okay. Building siya. Madali lang ang check-in. Accessible to public transpo. Mga P670.00 per night. With continental breakfast (bread, jam and coffee or tea). All rooms with CR (maliit nga lang). Airconditioned rooms although the aircons are quite defective. Pero winner si Harold. He's a very nice guy. He knows Dumaguete so well, you can ask him anything. Lalo na sa mga kainan.

We freshened up a bit. Then we called people for our trips to the other towns. Galing naman kasi we were able to plan things in less than an hour. Magaling considering that we didn't really have a detailed plan.

First place we visited was the boulevard. The boulevard itself is okay. Malapad ang sidewalk. Malinis naman. But the sea was dirty. Mabaho. May basura. Disappointing. They also have beggars there so di mo na rin talaga ma-feel na probinsya siya.

Then we went to Sans Rival to order our pasalubongs. A block (hehe) of sans rival costs P280.00 while the sylvannas cost P100.00 per box of 10 pcs. You have to pre-order these 2 kasi mabilis maubos.

Time for brunch. Andrew read somewhere in the internet that Taster's offered yummy burgers. So dun kami pumunta. Hehe. Wala na ngang fries, di pa ganun kasarap yung burger. Mura naman pero we didn't like it. Buti na lang gutom kami. Haha. Andrew's tacos didn't taste good din daw.

Ikot-ikot ulit sa Dumaguete until we got to Silliman University. It's nice. Parang UP. For some reason though, konti ang nakita naming students. Mahal na raw kasi ang tuition sabi ng jeepney driver. The buildings are really old but are well-maintained. Galing.

We were thinking of going to Valencia, a nearby town. When we saw a Valencia jeep inside Silliman, we decided to ask the manong driver about the terminal, fare, etc. Pinasakay niya kami. He'll take us to the terminal daw. For free pa daw. Good. Hehe. But when we got to the terminal, he decided he wanted to go back to Valencia at di na daw siya kukuha ng ibang pasahero. Better. Hehe.

The trip to Valencia reminded me of trips to different towns in Eastern Samar. Long drive. Fresh air. But they have better roads in Negros Oriental. Hehe.

The manong dropped us off in the tricycle terminal. We decided we wanted to see Forest Camp first. It was featured in the Philippine Star and it looked nice. Mahal nga lang ata ang cottages. The trike ride to Forest Camp was quite long. It was in some secluded place. Mukhang madalang ang tricycle so we asked our tricycle driver to wait for us.

We paid P60.00 per person for the entrance. The place was okay. Nothing spectacular. Mukhang maganda nga lang sa picture yung hanging bridge and the landscape and the batis. Hehe. And well, masarap magbasa ng paa sa batis. But other than that, you won't really see that much.

The trike driver brought us back to the Valencia town proper. We were thinking of going to Casa Roro (popular for its waterfalls) or the Japanese Memorial Shrine (?). However, both places are only accessible by habal-habal (motorcycle). P150 daw ang bayad sa habal-habal tapos medyo rough roads pa daw because it rained. So wag na. We decided to go back to Dumaguete.

We rode the jeepney. Haha. Sa bangko kami sa gitna pinaupo. Winner. Buti sanay ako sa probinsya.

When we got back to Dumaguete, we decided to see the other Silliman buildings. Hiwa-hiwalay kasi eh.

First stop was the Marine Laboratory. Medyo malayo siya. We wanted the trike to wait for us but he was asking us to pay P150.00. Tse. Good thing we did not give in to his request. May mga dumadaan din namang trike eh.

The Marine Lab has bones of whales, sharks, etc. It also has crocodiles, clams, fish, etc. I love the blue fish na umiilaw. We were lucky to have a volunteer tourist guide, Isabel. She's an agriculture freshman student from Siliman. The people in Dumaguete are amazing because they know so much about their place. :)

 We also checked out the Silliman beach which was just behind the Marine Lab.

Next stop was the Centrop or the Silliman Zoo. Mmmm, it's not really a zoo kasi they only have deers and birds. May snake daw but we didn't see it. Sana they'll put more animals there.

We were tired so we decided to eat some merienda. Pero alanganin na, so we ended up having dinner along the boulevard. We tried their tempura and squid balls which cost P4.00 each. Yummy naman. Sabi nga lang ng ale, galing daw sa isda ang tempura. Hehe. Masarap tumambay sa boulevard. A singer with a guitar table-hops and sings different songs. Daming nakatambay dun. Kwentuhan lang, pahangin. Ahlavet.

Then it was time to go home and rest to prepare for the next day.