Visayas State University Accommodations

VSU Hostel. I mentioned that on the last line of the previous story, right? So there is a hostel, other than the one we stayed at? Yes, and there’s even more!

VSU Hostel is at the southern end of the beach. Though the lobby, front office and café are in a single-level building, the rooms are in a multi-level structure (am not sure if 2 or 3 or 4 floors - I did not look closely since there were too many guests). I just chanced upon it during my morning walk, am sure my companions did not know about this hostel too. Otherwise we probably would have chosen this. It sits very conveniently beside a convention building where some seminar was about to start (reason probably why this hostel had a lot of guests).

Those are some of the guests going out of the hostel's lobby towards the convention hall and that girl is one of the hostel’s crews. She’s emptying the contents of an unfinished red-horse can that she picked from the sidewalk. Hmm, let me guess who did that last night! To think that I saw at least 2 trash bins not even 5 meters away from this place.

Look here, there’s more hehe. Can’t say who left those there since I saw guests who seemed unrelated to the agricultural seminar. There were teachers present for another event, and there were yet more teachers who were heads or coaches of students from other VSU campuses as today was a university intramurals day! Anyway, how did I know about the “guest demographics”? Uhm, I asked the girl, since she is also front-desk clerk (probably a student on internship) when I went to ask about rates. That's the first picture above. Cheaper than our Apartelle.

Now, if VSU Hostel is at south end of the beach, the northern end is VSU Beach Garden Resort that I mentioned in the earlier story.

The ‘Apartelle’ (where we stayed) is somewhere in the middle of the entire VSU beach length that is probably half a kilometer or more. Note, the beach stretches all the way north and south beyond the university’s demarcations. Anyway, that is the Apartelle’s back viewed from the beach, and the first two rooms was ours. Oh, they call the back area porches as “terrace”. Whatever, basta that is where we drank our Tubahalina last night!

I cant believe I don’t have pics of our room’s interiors! Ah well, probably I found it not worth taking a shot at since my companions immediately scattered their things once they entered the room last night – ahead of me. Anyway, here is the facade and front office of the Apartelle. Can you see the big coke freezer? That was what made me say “I can live here” last night haha! And wifi is strongest at this lobby area.

One more interesting thing, beside that coke fridge is a water dispenser where guests can get their drinking water anytime. I read the label and learned, OMG, they make their own! The smaller fonts say “A Product of the Visayas State University”. Wow ha?! I asked front-desk if it was really owned by VSU or just some business that decided to call their product VSU Spring Water. She educated me that that is actually a product of their water laboratory and they supply not only campus establishments but even so many clients in “Visca”. Cool ha?!

I asked why she used “Visca” when everyone knows it’s the old name of VSU. That is when I also learned from her, that the big place where VSU is part of is called Visca! Much like 'College' which I learned means the place where UPLB sits hehe. But when the school became a university and renamed as VSU, the barangay (of course) may not re-christine itself just like that hehe. Interesting!

Okay now, we’re not yet done with these accommodations. I just described three of them right? Yep, VSU Hostel and the Apartelle. While still at front desk, I asked the girl what were those beautiful-looking houses, cottages, buildings, whatevers across the street since they all did not look like classrooms to me. She said more rooms, though I didn’t clearly get it if those are still part of the Apartelle or if they have their own names. In no time, probably wanting to dispatch my inquisitive presence at her front desk, she called a colleague (another working student) to show me some of the unoccupied rooms. My companions joined us, of course!

This one (below) looks exactly like our room, except that we have two beds and that door beside the air-con does not open unto a terrace with a view of the beach. So ours was still more fantastic hehe.

These are some of the dorm-type rooms. Clean and cozy! Some are for 8 people, some are for a dozen heads. At P200 per person, not bad!

And this is one of the family suites with two separate rooms, a sala, a dining area and a fully equipped kitchen! I guess this is what they call the Lanada Cottage. At just P3,500 a day, whoa, you can have a party! They don’t (btw) mind how many you are going to sleep in that cottage. Imagine?!

Hey, that was not all! Those are only what I saw. But on the way to breakfast, we saw these signages at the corner of the street. Oh ha?! Andami pala!