My Negros Oriental Tour: San Carlos City, NegOcc
“Good Morning San Carlos City” - so I said aloud in my room with 3 single beds at YM Busines Inn. Hey it was my first morning and I woke up unusually late! I think I was up at about 830 or 9AM hehe. Body over mind, I must say. And this was the day I was to backtrack to the Negros Oriental places I skipped yesterday. But I told myself to take it easy. There was no rush anyway, and obviously the mind was willing but the body was a bit already not cooperating hehe! Thus, lest anything untoward befall upon my royal physique, I opted to take an easy morning tour of San Carlos City. Decidedly, it was to see their city hall.
When I asked front desk about directions, the girl went at length to telling me to walk to this certain street and hop on a motorized tricycle from there. Hmm, I surmised it must have been a bit far. But I was at city center, weren’t I? Anyway, I realized they have a new city hall and it sits in a big complex on the western side of the city. I got off right front of the seemingly new building and I was awe-struck with what was in front of me! I was like in front of a smaller version of PICC! Well well well baho ka’g tiil, the city’s seat of government sits in a wide expanse of newly developed land. Whoa!
Okay, so I wandered around. OMG it felt like I was in the middle of Cebu’s Ayala Business Park of years ago, when only a few buildings were up then. Wowowow! Vast prime real estate with good concrete streets with mostly nothing but wide expanses and a lot of kalachuchi trees lining the sidewalks! There were some students walking to a nearby school or resting by the trees, there were some workers tending to the lawns, there were birds hopping from trees to grass, there were buildings far and before this complex, there seemed to be a village with fairly new houses outside the perimeter wall. There were criss-crossing wide concrete streets with nothing but grassy fields and there was a group of native-style huts that looked like they were shops or restaurants. So I went for them.
“Punyitera! I was here last night!” was all I could silently scream to myself haha! Why? Because I saw La Riqah hahaha! Its a big restaurant and the singing amidst the darkness last night was actually by the very main entranceway of the restaurant! Hah! And there are other such places nearby like Barrio Fiesta, Welynn’s etc. Their buildings (or modern huts) are all tastefully done probably by a renowned architect. Looking at the roofs, collectively they look like a mini-Tiendesitas. Ah what a place! Yep, this is a good one. And I thought this complex could be another IT Park or BPO Hub if marketed properly. In fact looking at its vastness, I think the place could be double the size of Cebu’s recent Asia Town IT Park.
That is excluding buildings and other government offices on approach to this complex. Hey there is a sprawling single-level place they call center mall (I think). There are gardens, commercial huts, trees, grass, the works! No wonder it felt like I was entering UP Diliman when the trike was approaching the city hall. It’s a fairly new complex that the city probably envisioned to be a new commercial hub as I did not see any residences. But OMG its such a big piece of real estate I would not be surprised if high-rises start mushrooming in that place anytime soon. At the end of all these (if you come from the city hall going towards the city) is ‘Mom’s Small Hotel & Restaurant’ and the side-entrance to Gaisano across it.
Alright, this may not already be part of the city hall complex, but ‘Mom’s Small Hotel & Restaurant’ sits by the road that leads to it. And I was also here last night, remember?! So I better take this up since I do not have much to say anyway. I dropped in for lunch as it was already past 11AM and I just remembered I did not have breakfast hehe. Ah, this is probably what makes the hotel tick… their restaurant is turo-turo style. The fare is all laid out in trays the way you would see them at many a turo-turo, you grab a tray, point at whatever you want, they scoop up a serving for you to put in your tray and you pay at the cashier. I actually saw all those last night and it had me salivating. Mind you, probably already knowledgeable of tourism standards, all of their food items are kept inside glass enclosures to keep flies from landing unto them.
Hey they even have lighted candles! Yep, I learned that from somewhere during my roams in this country, that lighted candles keep flies away. True or not, sometimes I find it true, but sometimes some flies are braver than others – probably depending on the place or how starved those pesky pests are hehe! Okay, I had a problem at Mom’s restaurant… I wanted to order too many of their dishes on display but I knew I could not finish them all. That only means something – their food looks and smells delectable and/or the place looks like or feels like cozy and clean. I think everything applies! Shhh, this one you need not divulge to everyone, but am giving you the privilege to know anyway… I finished 3 cups of rice, shhh again hehe! Must have been the tinola or the lumpia or the ampalaya or all hehe! I do remember something irked me a little – it was probably the heavy wood furniture that my hungry muscles could not easily nudge hehe.
A happy morning indeed! Ah I did not research on San Carlos, thus probably my wide-eyed surprise. But sometimes, it is not knowing what to expect when you get to be wowed by a place, right?! And OMG, San Carlos really looks like it is ready for a big tomorrow! Alright, filled with memories of the city hall complex… and filled to the forehead with delectable food at Mom’s, I hopped to the Ceres terminal to get to Canlaon City. And you know all about that from story #43 followed by Vallehermoso, Guihulngan and La Libertad which are stories #44, #45 and #46 below!Let’s do another San Carlos thing in the next blog entry!
If you want to read the chronology of all stories on this tour, click the following:
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65
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