Negros

The Dumaguete waterfront

On Friday the 14th I took a ferry from Siquijor back to Negros, to the town of Dumaguete.  Dumaguete is the largest "city" in the province of Negros Oriental (the island of Negors is divided into two provinces).  It's not a big place, but at over 100,000 people did feel like a city after Siquijor, with less than that living on the entire island.

I had arranged to meet a local named Rodney via couchsurfing, and he picked me up at the pier with his motorcycle.  Luckily his was an upgrade from my scooter, because the one I rented could not have handled two people and my luggage.  I had my backpack, but was also carrying winter clothes for the trip to Germany.  Those, along with my laptop case, were a heavy load.  I met up with Rodney fairly easily and we had lunch before heading to his house, in the town of Valencia.  Valencia is essentially a suburb of Dumaguete and mainly residential.

He introduced me to his family - his parents were not there but I met his grandmother and three of his sisters.  Since he had hosted several times before they were used to seeing travelers and not overly excited to meet me.  I was used to lots of stares on Siquijor, as well as many friendly smiles from locals who don't often see white tourists.  I've heard that the Philippines is famous for its smiles, and I'd have to agree.  Overall the people (some taxi and rickshaw drivers aside) may be the friendliest I have encountered on my travels.  It helps that most subjects in school are taught in English and Filipinos are comfortable conversing with foreigners - much different from Korea, where even if the locals know English they are often afraid to use it with strangers.

One of the original buildings in Silliman University

I spent two nights in Dumaguete with Rodney.  On Friday afternoon he showed me around the city as we rode in his motorcycle.  I visited his university, which felt surprisingly like a US campus (maybe because many of the buildings were donated by the US government or private American citizens).  On Friday night I went out with a few of Rodney's friends for drinks at a strip of bars along the ocean.  It wasn't a particularly wild or drunk night, but we were still out until 4 am and got up at 9 the following morning.

On Saturday we drove inland with his sister and her boyfriend.  We went hiking around a lake and took a dip in a nearby waterfall.  On the way back we stopped at an animal sanctuary created by a Filipino American.  He is dead now but managed to build a small zoo and museum during his lifetime.  Quotes of his littered the wall of the museum, most of which concerned world peace and love.  In a turn for the crazy, he predicted that the world would end in 2000 and tried (unsuccessfully) to build a spaceship.  Luckily his prediction, like all end of the world crap that grabs our attention too frequently, amounted to little more than a crapshoot.

Not exactly warm and cuddly

The zoo had among others, monkeys, crocs, and several bird species.  One highlight was being attacked by a duck - apparently I offended him (or her) and he charged at me, harmlessly poking me in the leg with his beak, then backing off.  The second was holding a python one of the caretakers had nicknamed baby and was creepily fond of.

Sunday morning we went to the local market to buy produce for lunch.  I made a salad (yes, I managed to cook something) but we didn't need much of the supplies.  We ended up joining a family reunion in the town of Valencia.  I'm sure the food there was better than anything I could have come up with.  After the feast I headed back to the house to pack up.  Rodney drove me to the airport - complete with one runway - to catch my flight to Manila.