Exploring the Philippines and Asia - Dumaguete, Negros Oriental

We stayed two nights in this city and both nights we just sat on the best spot in Dumaguete City.  Rizal Boulevard is so beautiful at night, the street is lined with really big, old Acacia trees, with lots of hanging small lanterns which are fully lit at night.  This long stretch of shoreline becomes a romantic place at night, with the sea breeze giving a most welcome comfort.

Rizal Boulevard is lined with all kinds of restaurants from budget to high-end and from local food to international cuisine.

Dumaguete City is where Siliman University is located.  I think this university has made this city booming.  Filipino youths from the Visayas come to this city to get a university education.  We've noticed Koreans also found this city a good place to live in.

Sans Rival is a cafe famous in this city for delicious, melt-in-your-mouth Silvannas.

My husband asked yesterday - " so, is Dumaguete our favorite city?".  I responded - "yeah, so far, we can live here".

Exploring the Philippines and Asia - Land Trip Bacolod to Dumaguete

The airconditioned bus we intended to take at 1140am yesterday was "broken".  Instead of wating for the 2pm aircon bus, we took the not aircon Ceres bus which promptly left on schedule.  It was an unpleasant 6.5 hours trip. Fare was Pesos222 per person while the aircon bus was just a little bit more at Pesos266.

The sceneries however was good.  Now and then, you can see mountains on the left and the blue sea on the right.

At one stop, which took 30 minutes, a lady preacher stepped inside the bus and preached in a Visayan dialect.

The main farming crop is sugar cane.  On the road, there were several truckloads of harvested sugar cane on the way to the buyer.

Houses vary from small ones made of native materials to middle class homes in middle class subdivisions to huge houses and sometimes mansions.

At past 6pm, we arrived in Dumaguete.  My husband's GPS indicated the corner we had to get off from the bus to reach Harold's Mansion, a backpacker's hotel.  We found a nice restaurant on the way and since we are really hungry, dinner was first on our mind so we ate and a short walk later, which was welcome after sitting on the bus for 6.5 hours, we found Harold's.  A huge room with aircon, tv and private bath is Pesos801 per night.  A bread and jam breakfast is free so is unlimited, all day coffee and tea.  The room was clean.