I want to ride my tricycle
Trip Start
Dec 21, 2010
1
8
18
Trip End
Feb 05, 2011
Dumaguete, Visayas, Philippines
Friday, January 7, 2011
Arriving at out hotel in Dumaguete (pronounced like above) after our super fast Air Philippines flight, took just over an hour, at 9am feeling city-sick from Manila and having nausea and stomach ache was not great... especially when check-in was only at 3pm! Is was a very nice hotel (Hotel Nicanor) if you can call these places hotels - probably one of the best in Dumaguete which is exactly what we needed after crazy Manila. I didn't think I was going to last another second (nausea, SO hot, asian sewerage smell, eeeeewness everywhere) so we told reception we wanted to 'check in to whichever room is available NOW'! So we got ourselves a fancy mini apartment: a family room with two double beds, tv, fridge, wifi, shower with hot water (luxury 1), a/c (luxury 2) and flushing toilet (luxury 3)!
I proceeded to pass out and have the best, totally deserved day nap EVER! Was a great chance for Luke to work and go walk the streets for Jollibee's: so much take-away is this part of the world! I wondered why so many of the Pino's are a little chubby compared to the Thais - burgers and fries! Anyway, I must say that those chips and coke were AMAZING! After another nap, haha, we decided to explore the cute little university town which is just like Manila and hasn't developed since the war.
We had a stroll along the promenade on Rizal Blvd. (Manila copied Dumaguete) and saw the square and the bell tower. We had a really nice dinner at Casa Blancas before heading back to the hotel for the night. Another great thing about the hotel before I forget is that it had a security guard at the door and the ATM was just next door so after drawing cash (which we had to do multiple times as there is no ATM or the like on Apo, our next destination), we could head straight into the hotel and leave the homeless stalkers, begging kids and dodge kinds on the street, kinda felt like a celebrity, eat my dust bitch!
Walking round the city was a lot more comfortable than Manila although we still got lots of stares, there were a few tourists around. I say a few, well we maybe saw 30 others so by no means a lot. The main mode of transport is the trike which is basically a motorbike attached to a sidecar and are also decorated any which way you can imagine. There were quite a few beggars and street kids which is never nice to see especially when they are quite persistent. We had a little kid follow us for about 300m playing his drums and singing a Justin Bieber song I think...."baby baby baby", before Jacqui shouted at him and he ran away. We must have bumped into him 3 times in half a day, but then again it's a small town you can walk around in a couple of hours.
After spending just one night there, more than enough time if you're not doing any day trips, we were picked up by a young, presentable Pinoy bloke with a young 'Miley Cyrus' Pinoy girl sitting in the passenger seat. We soon discovered she was the daughter of the Bygry Captain of Apo Island. What! We're meeting a Prince Harry! She also owns the place that we're staying at: Liberty's Lodge! We're diving with Paul's Dive Shop (part of Liberty's) and the story goes.... Liberty was born on Apo and then married Paul (English from Liverpool) and had Hannah whom we met in the van, and opened the resort and dive shop. They are now seperated and Paul lives in the UK but Liberty is still actively involved with the community on Apo Island. Crazy story! Apo Island next... more my style, good-bye cities!
Comments
U shouted at the street child!? Shame!
Wanna see the hotel room pls :) and shame Jacqui did u really shout at a lil kid and made him run away???hahahahaha!!!!