Rizal Boulevard and Kamalig

Afternoon in Dumaguete is best spent strolling along Rizal Boulevard. I love this place so much that I thought, hmmm.. I could retire here. Could die here even. Cebu City in my opinion could need a clean promenade facing the Mactan channel with a park loaded with big trees and restaurants nearby. I once saw a huge billboard in the old bridge advertising Mayor Radaza’s grand plans of such promenade BEFORE the election but as what Bisayan would call it, “Char Char ra!” (Just Bullshit).

Anyway, one downside about Rizal Boulevard is that men tend to just stand at the side of the promenade, face the sea and PEE! That’s just gross.

After our walk, its dinnertime and for our last night in Dumaguete, we dined at Kamalig which is just a walking distance from Harold’s Mansion. I was craving for fish but Bangus (milkfish), Philippine’s National fish was just too big for me that I asked to share it with one of the girls and we split the cost of the fish of course. I also have acquired a new favorite dish when I ordered Itlog na maalat (Salted Egg) and this is served with tomatoes and onions.  I find it appetizingly delicious that I was able to finish all of my rice.

All in all, my dinner at Kamalig cost me 45 pesos on Salted egg, 49 pesos on half-priced Bangus, 50 pesos on mango shake and 20 pesos on plain rice for a grand total of 164 pesos.  A bit expensive for my normal budget but well, I’m on a holiday and I could afford it.

Casaroro Falls After Typhoon Sendong

Dumaguete is known to be the City of Gentle People so I didn’t really prepare any detailed itinerary. My plan was to ask away and it works well for us on this trip.

How to Get to Casaroro Falls from Harold’s Mansion:

1. Take a tricycle to terminal for Valencia. Minimum fare of tricycle in Dumaguete is 9 pesos which is 2 pesos more expensive for the tricycle rate in Cebu City.

2. At Terminal for Valencia destination, one can take a bus or a jeepney. We chose the jeepney which cost us 12 pesos each.

3. At Valencia jeepney stop, There’s a signboard for the fix rate of habal-habal per destination. Going to Casaroro Falls would cost 100 pesos per person for one way but if there are 2 passengers per Habal-Habal then we only have to pay 50 pesos each for one way. Habal-Habal is like a motorbike taxi.

Although we have availed of the free breakfast at Harold’s, the girls were longing for rice first and one of the motorbike drivers was kind enough to show us Estrella’s Food House which is just a walking distance from the jeepney stop in Valencia. This eatery is where most of the government workers of Valencia dine so not only the place was clean and delicious but cheap too. My lunch cost me only 50 pesos (about 0.9 Euro) which consist of rice, ampalaya (a kind of vegetable), a bottle of water and banana.

After our second breakfast, we were then ready to head for Casaroro Falls. The road to casaroro falls are not paved all the way so we had to get off the motorbike sometimes and walk while the motorbike driver will go on ahead to wait for us. At the entrance of Casaroro Falls, there’s supposed to be a 20 pesos entrance fee but nobody was around so we saved 20 pesos. Yippee!

The motorbike drivers warned us of the 374 steps down to the ravine but the girls liked to joke that this is a lie because it didn’t count the hundred steps/climb over huge rocks. You see, it used to be easy peasy to get to the falls with the help of concrete path and steel hanging bridge but after Typhoon Sendong on December 2011, these were all destroyed.

Some girls wanted to cancel the trip after seeing the big rocks looming ahead but our motorbike drivers, who came down the ravine to guide us, urged us to push through and I’m happy that we did because it felt good to conquer the rocks and be rewarded by this beauty below…

How to Get to Harolds Mansion Hostel, Dumaguete from Cebu City

We’ve planned this since last year and although Harolds Mansion wasn’t exactly our first choice of accommodation in Dumaguete City because we found something much much cheaper but not many businesses were diligently hooked up online so Harolds it is.

Friends and I met in South Bus Terminal at exactly 3 AM (everyone was on time too, yay) and was told that Door 9 is where the bus awaits that will take us to Puerto Del Sur Passenger Ferry Terminal in Lilo-an, Santander, Cebu. One way trip in Ceres Bus cost us 162 pesos each. Trip took 3 hours and since I only had 4 hours of sleep that night, I took advantage of the empty seats to get some shut-eye.

The bus stopped exactly where the ferry terminal was at around 6:15 AM and we immediately purchased our ferry ticket at 62 pesos per person. Ferry to Sibulan, Dumaguete took about 15 minutes only.

At Sibulan, there were several tricycles waiting at the port but we decided to take a few minutes walk until we get to the road and took a jeep to Dumaguete at 10 pesos only. Tricycles in Sidulan cannot go to Dumaguete City so they will drop you off at City limit only and then you have to take another tricycle to get you to your destination.

People in the jeepney were quite friendly and helpful so they told us where to get off in Dumaguete City to get us to Harolds.

We were given two options by one helpful woman, either get off at this certain place and then take a tricycle to Harolds or get off at Silliman Avenue and then WALK to Harolds for about 5 minutes.

We took the cheap route of course and on the way, we passed by Silliman University before finally reaching our home for 3 days: Harold’s Mansion Backpackers Hostel.

Laguna Cafe in SM NorthWing Cebu

After our bentusa massage at Langkawi Discovery Spa, we took a jeepney from ParkMall to SM City Cebu for our lunch at Laguna Café. It’s part of our post valentine itinerary in celebration of womanhood, singlehood and lifehood. Oh yeah!

I’ve always thought that Laguna Café is ridiculously expensive but I was wrong. For 8 people, our total bill was only 3540 and since this is a KKB event (kanya-kanyang bayad or Dutch style), my wallet only bled 442.50 pesos. One foreigner guy informed me that he would love to join us 8 women but I frankly told him that unless he is ready to pay the entire bill, this is NEVER a good idea because unfortunately, a lot of Filipinos will always expect to have a white guy pay for EVERYTHING.

So about our lunch, my favorite food was paella and the seafood platter. Paella is one of my sister’s favorite dishes and she kept telling me about this that I became curious. I wanted to be able to relate to her so I suggested that we order paella. I don’t know if paella in Laguna Café is different from what my sister had in Belgium or Spain but the paella that I’ve tried sure was lovely.

Below is our order and the bill receipt…

Lumpia Shanghai 196.43 pesos

Laguna Fried Chicken 191.96 pesos

Crispy Pata 294.64 pesos

Nilagang Baka 218.75 pesos

Pandan Chicken 191.96

Seafood Platter 531.25 pesos

Paella Large 513.40 pesos

Earthquake sa Cebu

The floor was shaking and the glass along the wall was rattling.. I looked at my seatmate. We were all frozen. Then someone shouted: DOWNNNNN…

As seatmate and I scrambled fast to get under the table, something hit me on my head. I thought the roof was falling down. It turned out to be my earphone…

While under the table, my heart was beating so fast. I thought of the possibility of dying any second and I was like “Oh wow, no jerjer (sex) forever and ever? I can’t die just yet”.

When the walls finally stopped rattling, again someone screamed: OUT!!!

While some co-workers were busy getting their purses to bring with them, I just bolt heading for the door. I have never run so fast in my life. I run for safety. I run for the possibility of future jerjer.