Travel with Chichi

Bacolod City, Negros Occidental

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The city of smiles. The city of the sweetest accent. The city of Inasal. The city of mestizos and mestizas. Yup, only in Bacolod City.

According to Wiki, the reason why the city was called City of Smiles is that its people hid their worries, fear and doubt in an economic crisis in the sugar industry in the earlier times and till now they still try their best to put up their smiles.

Bacolod is also known for their festival called "Masskara Festival" that is being held every 3rd of October. Masskara means multitude of faces. It's sort of like a street dance carnival festival plus a lot of booze. I heard it's pretty wild. ;)

We had a couple of hours in Bacolod before we head to Manila. Top places to visit if you have around 5 hours: Ruins and Manokan Country.

Ruins

From Punta Bulata, we rented a van that costs around P4000. We asked the driver to drop us off at Ruins and Manokan Country. He has asked us for another P1,000 (P500 more for each additional destination). It's pretty decent since we don't really like hassle... so we agreed.

Ruins - the former mansion of Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson built in memory of his beloved wife Maria Braga, who died giving birth to their youngest child. They said it's best to go around sunset because of its dramatic lights (sorry for us, we cannot afford it because our flight is at 7pm.)

Inside, surprisingly, there is a restaurant that offers Mediterranean cuisine and cold drinks from their mini bar. It's pretty cozy. We spent around 10 mins to see the whole place and went off. (Yup, you don't need much time).

Btw, there are no taxis outside waiting in line. Best to arrange a cab or tricycle to pick you up and drop you off.

Manokan Country

First, set your expectations. It's not a high-to-medium class restaurant. It's more of a carinderia or a local eatery. I thought it would be at least airconditioned, but nope. I thought it would be just a single resto, but nope. :)

The place has multiple small restaurants in one place offering same food/menu but distinct Chicken Inasal flavors. Man, they have the tastiest and cheapest chicken inasal and fried rice ever. Unforgettable!

"Inasal" means roasted. Chicken Inasal is not only popular in Bacolod but in the whole Philippines (now, I'm really really hungry!). So here are some pics of what to expect and food prices.

Happy me and happy tummy! Eating authentic chicken inasal - that's a check on my bucket list! :)

Danjugan Island, Negros Occidental

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Punta Bulata & Ayu Spa, Negros Occidental

Thursday, May 09, 2013

We bumped into Punta Bulata booth during Travel Expo in SMX MOA. Since they're giving away huge discount (like 50% off their published rates!), we booked the premier room in the hotel for 4 days. Room #21 has king-sized bed and a balcony with view of pool and sea. I was very sold so I swiped my plastic money to book it. :D

How to get to Punta Bulata?

Of course, book your flights. PAL Express and Cebupacific have flights to Manila - Bacolod (Silay Airport). After touching down to Bacolod, you have to travel few hours by wheels. (Yup, pain before paradise).

Most convenient way - By Car:

Punta Bulata is located in Brgy. Elihan, Cauayan Municipality, Negros Occidental, Philippines, bordering Sipalay City. It is 158 kilometers south of Bacolod City. Getting to the resort by car takes approximately 3 hours. You can arrange the transfers from the hotel. It's P7,500-9,000 two-way (depends if you're going to rent a van or a car).

Cheap but inconvenient way - By bus:

Why? Because there's only 1 trip for an aircon bus (it's around noon)!!!! All the rest are non-aircon. The bus stops very frequently to pick up more passengers.

If I remember correctly, there are only 6-7 trips in a day, starting from 3am, then 6.30am, then 7.30am, etc. The rest are in the afternoon.

Details: From the airport, we took a taxi going to the Ceres Liner’s Southbound Terminal. That's P400 bucks. And then jumped into a bus going to Hinoba-an (look at the bus signage) and then dropped off at Cartagena (tell the driver) - P192 for the ride.

From the highway there will be a 4.5km or 15minutes ride on an unpaved road. The resort arranged a tricycle pick-up from the bus stop and we paid the driver P100 for each person. Total of P492 per person by commute. Took us 5 hours to get to the hotel - we were dead tired.

On our way back to Manila, since I was traumatized by the long, gruesome travel by a non-A/C bus, we just hired a van for P4,500. Luckily, we met a couple in the resort that had almost the same flight as ours, so we decided to just go together and split the rent.

Bacolod is the capital of Negros Occidental, known as the sugarbowl of the Philippines. You will see a lot of sugar cane plantation along the way. :)

The Resort

There are two types of accommodations in the resort

Punta Bulata Rooms (cabana/beach house type) - Rooms & Rate

Ayu Spa Rooms (hotel type) - Rooms & Rate

This was our room - room #21.

King-sized bed, jacuzzi (overlooking the ocean), veranda facing the pool and sea.

The other room is open so I took a picture. This is how the regular room in the hotel looks like.

Likes

The staff is very helpful and friendly. We cancelled our first booking a day before our trip (due to health condition - my doctor didn't allow me to travel), but the staff re-booked us without any additional fee
The resort is uncrowded. It's very peaceful and quiet. It's perfect for a relaxed getaway.
Our room which has a glass partition wall is facing the ocean - we can watch sunset while lying on bed (inside an air-conditioned room.. hehe..)
The room is huge and it has a spacious veranda where I have set up my hammock.

Can be improved

No wifi. I only had E (Edge) signal to access Internet.
The room looked a little bit old. It can look better if they clean/maintain it very well. I guess they need more people to do it.
No one carried our bags from the entrance of the resort. First impression matters.

Where to eat?

There is a restaurant in the resort where you can order from 7am to 9.30pm. They charge 20% for room service (that sucks!).

The staff (sometimes) helps us carry the trays (and beers) to our rooms free of charge. :)

Price range is P200 to P300 per meal. My favorites were fried bangus tinapa and chicken inasal (plus a lot of fried rice). Must try - Mirene pizza (pesto, anchovies pizza).

Btw, there are only fruit shakes, and no cocktails (Goodbye refreshing Mojito!). There are red and white wines sold. Beer is P80, a bottle of wine starts at P500.

Dining area

What to do in the resort?

Jet ski, kayak, paddle board, board games, swim, swim, swim.

For adventure, you have to go to Danjugan Island where you can snorkel, hike, etc. It's 30 minutes by boat from the resort. (I will blog about it after this).

SPAAAAAA! - I had the best massage with them. I fell asleep many times. Massage is only P500.