Philippine Travel Notes

My Negros Oriental Tour: Bais City Let’s float back to some 3 days ago. Of the five lodging places suggested by the visitbaiscity website that I happened to have surfed through while on the bus from Dumaguete, this one hotel had the greatest pull. Thanks to the web really. It is now as easy to look and see where is a bit central, where is commercial area or business center and so on. Considering all the criteria in my head, La Planta Hotel & Restaurant emerged as my best choice. And I can say now, I was never wrong – I think. You already know how I got to this place, so let’s get to how is this place and make the rounds, aight?! First on the plate must be why the name. I actually suspected so, and I was never wrong. La Planta is Spanish for ‘The Power Plant’. No this is not the mall over at JP Rizal in Makati. They both just have the same history – previously a power plant. The real power plant area of La Planta Hotel and Restaurant is actually just the restaurant and function room...

My Negros Oriental Tour: Bais City The San Nicolas De Tolentino parish of Bais City. It’s a squat fat church if you see it from front and am not sure I have seen anything like it. Ah am not familiar with era architectural styles, but this one old church does not seem to belong to any one of the more commonly described Philippine churches on the web. I can almost declare it is ugly hehe. But who said there’s a standard on building churches? Remember the church in Oroquieta? Or the church in San Jose of this province? To each his own really! If anything, this church did command my attention, mainly because it looks ancient too. If many churches I have seen and described lately have big big lawns or fields for frontages, the Bais church is different. It has nothing but a street right at its very door. There is even no sidewalk nor road gutter. It’s the very street that the front walls and entrance of the church hug! No need to fret though. The san Nicolas De Tolentino Church of Bais is no...

My Negros Oriental Tour: Bais City Back in Bais for the night and the rains were already far in between. But nothing spectacular that I encountered or did except… do the same thing as last night hehe. The following day was my second day in the city and I got to bum around before heading off to my next destination. As promised three or four blogs away, I have to tell you what else I discovered in Bais other than that outstanding ozonized water project. But if you’re still hoping and waiting for the dolphins and sandbar, drop it! I dropped that idea altogether, and thanks to the sporadically dripping skies hehe! So here we go… City Hall. The city hall sits just beside the church. I have seen this place last night and the night before, right? Yeah, really… and on a rainy day, this city hall looks better at night than during the day hehe! This one city hall is sprawling. I mean, the building’s growth is lateral instead of vertical. It has two levels only on the central portion, but elsewhe...

My Negros Oriental Tour: Bais City Center Were you expecting me to tell about the dolphins, whales and sandbars?! No way, Jose! I’m sorry. The way I crossed from Malatapay to Apo Island a few days ago was still real cold-fresh on my mind. And this was still a rainy day. Would I dare go out to sea? Never! Dili ko, Ayaw ko, Nunca!!! So instead of ‘the usual’ dolphin watching and sandbar experience, I bummed around center of town. And I was not disappointed. This time, I can say, Bais is not all about the Dolphins (on Tanon Strait) nor is it just about the white sand bar (that is even part of Manjuyod anyway). Really! Alright, before I regale you with the usual (church, plaza, city hall, etc) hear this… Bais serves FREE Ozonized Drinking Water to its constituents. And they don’t only have one but two water refilling stations for that! Interesting! Yes, interesting at least to me since this was the first time I have seen such a free thing in any of the places I have visited in this country...

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 pa...

My Negros Oriental Tour: Dumaguete To Bais Trip Time to move on towards the northern half of the province and change my ‘base of operations’ hehe. Had to make a quick change to this planned move, but I like it anyway. Plan was ride a bus to Tanjay, roam around and stay there overnight. But things were muddled by some semi-official errands at Dumaguete so that I was only able to leave late in the afternoon. And argh, it was raining! At the Ceres terminal, I spotted a bus bound for Manjuyod and wondered why :) Maybe they do have a hub there, and I wonder why hehe! Anyway, when conductor asked me where I was destined, I suddenly said Bais. A re-plan was already working in my head. I would instead go straight to Bais in lieu of Tanjay for I would reach any of them by nighttime. Why? I thought I would be happier spending the night in Bais instead of Tanjay. Why? Because the reviews I saw on the web are better for La Planta Hotel (Bais) than Hotel De Tanjay (La Residencia). I was almost sure...