Philippine Travel Notes

This is Part 6 of the Sights & Scenes On My Iloilo To Cebu To Tacloban Flights. Pushback: Iloilo Okay, so we departed at 11:16AM. Yes, "departed" as in abante agad since this was a small plane on an empty tarmac. No need for a tow truck to push our plane away! By the way, there was something I noticced with our schedule, though I didn't bother much about it. My ticket said 1120H, the gate TV said 1140H, yet we left 1116H. Ta! Takeoff: Iloilo This meant I would be arriving in Cebu even ahead than I expected (1210H). Yey! 1118H the plane was already positioning for takeoff at Runway 02. Looking great! Thrills & Chills I was seated right-side window of the plane, and at 1123H, I was above Leganes . Directly below me (foreground of photo) are brackish aquaculture farms of UPV near the Jalaur River. Far right is Iloilo city proper. Ahead (middle of picture) is Guimaras. Not long after Skytreats were served. They had to rush, this is a quick flight ...

My Negros Oriental Tour: Bacolod City to San Carlos City, NegOcc Homeward bound,yey! To Cebu that is hehe! As expected, at 30-minutes to departure time, I was sure any of the four front seats would have already been occupied. Yep, they were. So I settled at the next available that was right window side of 3rd row. I was not as excited about the scenery along the way since I passed by them yesterday anyway. Ows?! Really now?! Hehe, okay half of me was disappointed I didn’t get a front seat! Yes, I have seen them wonderful views yesterday, but somehow, I still wanted more on this return trip. “Sir, are you going to Cebu?” came a slender southpaw gay asking. I answered with “yes, why?” and the reply was “boat fare, sir”. Oh okay, so I learned it is paid in Bacolod, on the bus, before departure, even if the ferry crossing will happen yet at San Carlos! I looked at the amount, so I paid P170. I noted too that my seat number on that ferry boat was #175, gosh whatever that was hehe! I have a ...

My Negros Oriental Tour: Bacolod City, NegOcc Yes very briefly hehe! I left San Carlos at exactly noontime and was just about checked-in at Bacolod Pension Plaza before 230PM. That means travel time was faster than 2.5 hours. Probably because there were not so many passengers getting on and off our bus, or probably because there were not so many vehicles along the roads to block our way, or both! Immediately after dropping my things in the room, I opened the box of Napoleones that I picked over at Robinson’s and devoured its contents I finished two bottles of coke to down them all! Pigged out? Hear this… after that a-la tazmanian devil bolt down, I slept like a log and woke up at 8PM hahaha! So I asked around as to where I could find Pipeline Bacolod. Of those I asked, no one could specifically tell me where that place might be. Some even asked me back what it was! So I txtd a crew over at Pipeline Cebu and she told me details. It was actually easy, just took a cab to Rolling Hills (Ba...

My Negros Oriental Tour: San Carlos City to Bacolod City, NegOcc Exciting trip! Goodbye San Carlos and there I was on the way to Bacolod. The trip is on good roads going westward approaching the mountains. I think that posh residential village called South Villa was that one I could see from the city hall days ago. Hmm, nice big houses. Must be one affluent side of the city. Oh yes, there was signage that we were about to cross C1 (circumferential road 1) and it connects to the city hall. Ah, that only means this part of the city is just really near the new city hall complex. Nice place! Onwards, I saw a memorial park and clicked a shot as there were so many fresh flowers and this was definitely not an “all souls’ day”, to the extent that I went into thinking those were all fresh(new) entrants to the cemetery hehe. The conductor saw me ogling at it and remarked something like it won some award. Ack! Even memorial parks now have contests? Whatever hehe! He clarified those were not new g...

My Negros Oriental Tour: San Carlos City to Bacolod City, NegOcc What has Bacolod got to do with my Negros ORIENTAL tour?! Calm down folks, calm down hehe! The impulsive roamer in me, myself and I took the helm again, so there I found myself heading for Bacolod hahaha! It started this way… I was done with my last morning roam of the San Carlos City People’s Park and was checking out of Lola Nitang’s. I was all set for the Ceres bus terminal to ride back to Cebu via Toledo. But the courteous and caring staff at Lola Nitang’s had to remind me with “sir, make sure you check the signboard if the air-conditioned bus is going Cebu as some are going Bacolod”. I said “ok thanks” and remarked that I thought it wouldn’t hurt if I suddenly found myself in Bacolod. They laughed, I laughed… and I think somewhere in my lowly brain that joke of mine was taken all too seriously hahaha! The detour Well yes, I may have been joking at my very own self (I can do that, yes)! But fortunately or unfortunatel...

This topic started with this article Bacolod? Well, who would not know that it’s the city of smiles in Negros Occidental with an interesting and quite lovely Masskara Festival every October! Yes, indeed. But don’t raise your eyebrows if I told you that Bacolod is in the province of Lanao Del Norte in Mindanao and it kisses the tip of Iligan Bay! For indeed it is. The other town that is hehe! This lesser known Bacolod is a quiet little town but it has some nice little beach resorts and waterfalls that your Bacolod City does not have as its all urbanity. There is also quite a bit of history in this little town that can be reached from the cities of Iligan, Ozamiz or Cagayan De Oro. Now, now… is Bacolod town really in Lanao Del Norte or Lanao Del Sur? Ahh yes, there is also a Bacolod in Lanao Del Sur but its real name is Bacolod-Kalawi and that is the little poor town that kisses the Lanao Lake across from Marawi City. At times this little town is even called Bacolod Grande but I guess th...

O ha?! Ayan, nakasulat na sa pader! Intiendes?! At pag sinabi kahit saan that means KAHIT SAAN hehehe! So, when in Bacolod, hold your bladder. Kahit saan! Interestingly, the adjacent segments of that same wall have these... What caught our attention was thinking that it was just one continuous message on the entire length of that wall. Indi gali hehe! Oh well, the amusing random signs of our times!