Philippine Travel Notes

My Negros Oriental Tour: St. Augustine of Hippo Church Leaving the beach park, I walked towards the church that faces the beach. Looking at the façade, in my mind, I was saying fairly regular old church and they have refurbished it with brown clay tiles which had never been the look of any aged church in this country. At least the base of that façade’s wall are probably still the big limestone blocks. And that big and towering belfry seems to have kept some original material – in color, that is hehe. So I entered… “Dizzying” was my first impression. Why? The floor tiles. It comes in a design with many little green squares most commonly used in bathrooms and beauty parlors hehe. At least the center aisle is spared of the ridiculous design. In great contrast, this aisle is made of ultra-sized slabs of… is that marble? Well, marble or concrete, at least it does not have the little green squares and white octagons for a design hehe. Oh, the wooden posts that support the choir loft seem to ...

My Negros Oriental Tour: Municipality of Bacong Moving on from Dauin, the town of Bacong was naturally my next destination. That’s pronounced ‘buh-kong’ and not your tasty bacon with an added g, okay?! I heard that this is the smallest town of the province so I did not expect I’d be roaming here for long. But what a place! This town is actually a suburb at just 9 or so kilometers from Dumaguete but waaay far from noisy with motorcycle, tricycle and car sounds. And the place actually rings big in history – at least for me, I think! I arrived at this “little” town getting off exactly in front of the big big lawn (park?) fronting the cute municipal hall. Ah yes, like some of the previous towns, big big lawns fronting (or beside) the town’s seat of government. So I walked right in to middle of field hehe! To meet someone… Leon Kilat. Aw, what a learning! The big park has two prominent monuments flanking the town hall (while a bigger 3rd at center is in progress). The other is Rizal, so I n...