Bais Breeze In

My Negros Oriental Tour: Bais City Arrival

I keep harping about the rain, but it turns out, in hindsight, I liked the whole evening of my first night in Bais! Where there’s a will to roam… there will always be a way hehe! But let us do the basics first. Bais is pronounced as “buh-ease” and not “base” or “bays”, aight?! Mind you, the “is” in Bais does not sound like the “is” in ‘this’ or even the English word ‘is’ itself as they sound near to “thus” or “us”. The name, when pronounced by locals, actually sounds like “buggies” just remove the “g”, yes both of them hehe! Now the “ba” in Bais does not sound like your “ba” in bat, batter or bad. Its nearer to the “ba” in bar or butter. Wheh, since when did I become a linguist?! Let’s go to my visit, shall we?!!!

As said in the previous post, I arrived at this city as if it were already nighttime, though it was just around 6PM. And the drizzles were still on and off. The provincial road passes by center of town and buses are allowed to let passengers off at a commercial area instead of the usual Ceres Terminal, which is at the public market that is a bit off the city center. When conductor signaled it was time for me to get off, I followed other passengers iling out. And voila, a policeman was standing right where I got off, so I asked which way was to La Planta Hotel. He pointed me the way, indicating to go straight on a street perpendicular to the highway, but suggested I take a trike since there was a bit of drizzle. So I did, and the pedicab costs only 3 pesos (I think I still remember that). Its actually just nearby.

Alright I checked-in, made the rounds and had dinner at La Planta Hotel. But don’t get excited. I wont’ cover La Planta here. I will instead do a whole article about that hotel later as it is a full story in itself! Anyway, even while having dinner, I learned some things more about Bais – thanks to the hotel’s crews who were mostly college students (tourism) doing their practicum. They peppered me with bits and pieces of information as early as during check-in until the 3rd day when I reluctantly left the place to move onwards with my sojourn. Examples? Well, one would be: “Bais” is a fish, an eel as told to me by one of them jolly kids. Then some of his classmates (also crews of the hotel) would ask “is that the fish that looks like a snake?” or “do they bite humans?” or “hala, wa pa jud ko kakita ana” (gosh, I swear I have not seen that yet). Then another would say “you have already seen that, you just didn’t know it was Bais”. Then I would offer a “you should know your history and remember them well because you are going to be working in the tourism industry eventually”. All noted that, I hope! Fun interacting with them!

After dinner, and it was not raining, I headed down to Jacob’s Grill just across where Ceres dropped me off. How did I know about the place? That was suggested by one of the waiters and he told me the place is also owned by La Planta Hotel. It’s a big hut of a night place at center of town – actually across the waiting shed and police station. I like the use of bamboo in just about everywhere of it. When I arrived though, there was no patron! Who in Bais would be keen going out on a rainy Monday night anyway hehe! I stayed awhile but thought I’d rather walk around the park when three dudes came to drink and croak hehe! The nice view of their city hall building was reason I got attracted to circling this park. Beautiful, right?

Anyway, as I roamed around for more pics, noticed some folks on a street north of the park (Juan Luna?) were watching me. They were curious but not alarmed when I went to the middle of the big grassy field. Who would do such a thing other than a fool like me, right?! But I also got curious at them though not alarmed, so I kept watch through my left peripheral vision. Why? It looked like they were drinking! So the place is probably a bar hehe? A prospect destination! When I was done taking pics of the city hall, I walked to pass by said place and indeed it’s a drinking place! A café something that also doubles as a sari-sari store. There are tables and chairs inside but some are brought out to the sidewalk at night! Hah, I noted that place and told myself… if I am still in this city tomorrow night, I can drink in this café hehe!

Back at La Planta, I was just on my way up to my room when one of the crews asked if I needed anything else for the night as their restaurant was about to close. Ack! So I ordered two more bottles of beer. They brought it together with a glass and a bucketful of ice up to my room. When the waiter was starting to remove everything from the tray, I requested him to instead just leave the whole tray on the table. He was obviously bewildered, so I explained… the room has no fridge, so them cold bottles of beer and ice bucket would be sitting at room temperature (even if airconditioned), thus, precipitation will wet the table. He smiled, scratched his head and said “ah oki sir”! Now I hope I helped in the education of that boy hehe!

It was not a boring night at all. Though I was hooked flicking between CNN and Discovery for the rest of the night… I slept not finishing the first of my two bottles of beer. Meaning? I had an exhausting-enough day despite the on-and-off rain! See?!

Tomorrow is another day…!


If you want to read the chronology of all stories on this tour, click the following:
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