Our last destination for the last two days of our trip was the beautiful province of Iloilo. Unfortunately, our time was cut short because we failed to catch the last morning Ferry trip from Bacolod back to Iloilo. We got back there in the afternoon after taking the 1 pm trip.
First thing we did was to check-in to our hotel. It was the biggest room we had so far. Yipee! Highway 21 Hotel is a family-friendly hotel, with a strategic and accessible location.
Ideally, we planned to go to a lot of places. But we had to limit them because of the lack of time. We dedicated the entire afternoon to going to the different churches in Iloilo. Our first stop became the Miag-Ao Church, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We stopped for awhile to see the intricate details the church was made of.
30 minutes of Jeepney ride later, we reached the San Joaquin church.
Our final stop was the Moro-Guimbal Watchtowers. It took around 15 minutes walk from the drop-off point to get to the watch tower which was quite near the beach front. I'm not entirely sure this was the one. (Is it? ^^) The folks there say the other watch tower looked exactly the same. It was getting dark so we headed back home instead.
We wanted to experience some night life. I had another friend who was as interested to go clubbing. But somehow, the 4 days of continual moving from place to place had suddenly toned that desire down. So we had a nice dinner with a rock band on the background at the famous night life spot in Iloilo - The Smallville.
We could not leave Iloilo without tasting its famous La Paz Batchoy. So for the next day, we had our breakfast at Ted's. They say when you get to taste it, "Lucky Me" would be outside your vocabulary. And yeah I agree. It tasted really great!
We managed to pull off an extra hour to buy some pasalubong. JD's Backeshop is known for its butter chewies (what I used to call butterscotch).
My friend was very much keen on getting a box of Biscocho Haus that he went to the nearest store and promised to catch up. But it turned out later that it can be bought at the Iloilo airport at an even cheaper price. But kudos to my friend still for the determination. :p
And there went the final (half) day of our trip. Although it was such a rush, and we wish we had more time, I really enjoyed it. It was not very long until we reached the Iloilo Airport. Our taxi driver was really friendly and hospitable.
Expenses Guide:
Price per group (6)
Price per head
Family Room (Highway 21 - Annex)
2000
Taxi (Weesam Terminal to Hotel)
80
Jeep (Hotel to Mohol Terminal)
10
Jeep (Mohol Terminal to Miag-ao Church)
35
Jeep (Miag-ao Church to Moro-Guimbal Watch Towers)
12
Jeep (to Mohol Terminal)
14
Taxi (Mohol Terminal to Hotel)
120
Taxi (Hotel to Smallville)
65
14
Taxi (Smallville to Hotel)
55
Taxi (Hotel to Ted's La Paz Batchoy)
100
So that wraps up our Bacolod-Iloilo-Guimaras reunion vacation. Those five days were epic, fun-filled, enriching, relaxing, longest time we've spent together and away from Manila. I wish we could repeat it. Hope this series of blog posts would inspire you to make the most every trip. We have managed to explore 3 islands in 5 days (4 and a half to be exact). Yes, if you will it, it is possible. Happy traveling! :)
It was the third day of our 5-day trip, time for us to move from Guimaras to the island of Negros and experience its richness in nature, history, architecture and gastronomic pleasures. 'Arrival in Bacolod
Upon booking round trip tickets to Bacolod via Weesam Express, we took the one hour ferry ride. When we arrived we seemed bombarded by a lot of fixers to get a cab. A lot of them were haggling for a very high fixed price to take us to our hotel. Fortunately, we took a metered taxi driver's offer not mainly to save but because we got annoyed by the commotion.
O'Hotel
Arriving to OHotel to finally get a little rest, we were greeted by their friendly staff. And it had the best room we had so far for this trip. :)
Mambukal Falls
A trip would not be complete without getting in touch with nature. At least, that's what I thought. :)) Our next destination consists of 7 waterfalls near the foot of a mountain by which you need to trek first in order to reach each of them and get a chance to dip into its cold and refreshing waters.
Getting there takes at least an hour by bus. We did not expect the trail to be a bit technical. I thought it would just be like a walk in the park and thus we chose to only wear slippers. But as we progressed, the trail got steeper and longer to get to the next falls. On the way down, we were generously showered with rain. We got soaked in the rain including some of our equipments.
But we survived it somehow with our friendship still intact. :p We did not reach all seven of them as some of the falls were forbidden because of a lack of a safer trail. It is not advisable to wear slippers, a strong pair of trekking sandals or shoes will make life a lot easier. And then we went back to our hotel, wet and exhausted, causing a bit of attention to the crew. :))
The Ruins - The Taj Mahal of Negros
Time to redeem ourselves from our little misadventure. After freshening up, we were off to be serenaded at this romantic site just around 20 minutes from the city of Bacolod. Dubbed as the Taj Mahal of Negros, this mansion was built by the owner for his beloved wife.
The Ruins captured at night
The place looks a lot more interesting at night with the lights, some music and dinner being served inside. We got the rare chance to go upstairs and get a view of the garden, the fountain and the golf course. All thanks to a tour guide Mars, who offered to take us to Silay City, often called the Paris of Negros, the next day.
Getting there: There's a public transport available but it won't take you directly to the site unless you hire a tricycle to take you there. If it's late, go for the metered taxi. It would be cheaper than taking a fixed rate which sometimes gets altered a bit when they ask for an additional amount.
After going to a nice beach resort in Nueva Valencia, it was time for us to explore what the rest of the Guimaras province had to offer. Hiring a multicab and a driver for the entire day, we headed back to the northern part of the island to do some touring.
Trappist Monastery
Midway from Nueva Valencia to our hotel in Jordan was a peaceful residence for monks. Aside from a retreat guest house, they also offer some home made products, mostly mango-based.
We grabbed as much as we could, having been 'stuck' in an island for a very limited selection for food. Must try includes their mango biscocho, mango otap, mango flavored barquillos, dried pineapple which was really good. You could probably get these from shops at the Iloilo airport but getting them from here was a lot cheaper.
Shirven hotel
We checked in to our hotel at around 1130am. The main advantage of this hotel is its close proximity to the attractions in Guimaras especially in Jordan. The staff were very accommodating and friendly as well.
Pinewoods Bee Park
We had our lunch at this really cute and charming park just a few minutes from our hotel. One hour before our schedule for lunch, we called them up so they would have time to prepare. From what I've heard, they serve honey-based food for lunch or dinner.
The place had a really nice and refreshing ambience. The food was excellent and really inexpensive compared to its quality. They also sell bottles of fresh honey for guests to take home.
We were greeted with a warm welcome, a brief tour of the bees and how they harvest honey.
Oro Verde Mango Plantation
In our attempt to bring home some Guimaras mangoes renowned to be the world's sweetest, our next stop was the largest mango plantation in Guimaras. We wanted to tour around an actual mango plantation as well. But we were surprised and quite dissappointed to find out mangoes were still off season. The caretaker told us the plantation were not as active as before since 2 years ago because of Agrarian Reform.
We came across this store on the way to the plantation, apparently the only place within the vicinity where we could get mangoes from.
Discussing how many mangoes to buy considering our trip's itinerary. :p
Neptune Pitmann's Garden
Quite similar to Sonya's Garden, only they have far more variety of plants. For only, Php50, one gets a walking tour around the garden, as well as the cottages, rooms and facilities they offer should one wishes to stay there. They also have a spa and offer a one-hour whole body massage for around 200 bucks. If only we had enough time.
It was a very interesting, educational and colorful tour. It would take such great passion to put up a garden with enormous variety of flora and fauna along with catchy details that all harmoniously fit together.
The rooms are very chic and worth the Php800 per person.
Roca Encantada
This ancestral mansion owned by the Lopez's offers a nice and calming view of the ocean. We were charged 50 bucks for the entrance. But no one was there to tour us, and they said we could not enter the house. we just stayed at the balcony and enjoyed the view for a little while.
McArthur's Wharf for Sunset Viewing
We planned to go to Balaan Bukid (the 'Mt. Samat' of Guimaras) but the sun was beginning to set, and it would take at least 40 minutes to get there from Buenavista. So we went to McArthur's wharf instead to shoot some sunset photos.
Finally, a dinner at a seafood restaurant on our way to the hotel wrapped up our day 2 in Guimaras. It was time well spent. Guimaras is truly a beautiful place to have a vacation - you have impeccable beaches next to gardens and farms, with great and incredibly affordable food. I can go back any minute.
This is the first in a series of posts about my 5-day pre-summer reunion trip with college friends covering three islands in Visayas: Bacolod, Iloilo and Guimaras.
First, I'd like to acknowledge Cebu Pacific Air's seat sale June of last year, and my manager, from whom I've found out Iloilo flights still had open slots, as we were struggling to find any place available. And that brought about this trip, our first ever out of town vacation as a group, which took more than half a year of anticipation and planning. :)) I'd like to thank all my friends who encouraged me to carry on with this trip which I initiated anyway. Thanks to my family, officemates for letting me... :) I now know what I would have missed.
Our first destination after arriving at the Iloilo Airport was a resort in Nueva Valencia in Guimaras, a separate island only 15 minutes away via pump boat.
Getting There
The Iloilo Airport is around 30 minutes away from the city, thus, the transportation cost would be higher. Thanks to the really friendly locals from the airport who gave us tips on how to save on transportation costs. Straight from Iloilo airport, we hired a van to take us to Ortiz Port, the terminal of boats going to and from Guimaras. Our desired destination was the Jordan Wharf, which can be found in the town of Jordan (pronounced as 'Hordan' :p). If you're going to the town of Buenavista in Guimaras, then the desired destination would be its McArthur's Wharf which is accessible via Parola port in Iloilo.
Ortiz Port, Iloilo
After registering and paying P13, one of the cheapest boat fare I must say, we rode the boat going to Guimaras. 15 minutes of tranquil ride, we arrived at the Jordan Wharf. We then registered at the Guimaras Tourism Board, where one can also get contact info of hotels and attractions found in the place.
We found the cost of renting a multicab exclusive for the group quite expensive given that we were few relative to its capacity, so riding the jeepney was the more practical thing to do. Our luggage were taken to the jeepney's topload. It was too late for us to realize they try to squeeze in as many people as possible by adding a bench in the middle of the jeepney. It was a fully packed one hour journey to the town of Nueva Valencia.
Kenyama Beach Resort
We stayed at Kenyama Beach Resort for one night. The rooms were pretty decent and have reasonable price. It had a restaurant, videoke machine, and billiards table.We arrived at almost 1pm and had our late lunch there.
The only problem was we all forgot to buy some supplies first before going to this rather distant town. No bottled water, no snacks, we had no choice but to fill our tummies with what we order at the hotel, and that's it. And for someone who gets hungry every two hours no matter how much she eats, this is a survival challenge. :)) We tried to check for restaurants or stores nearby and the closest thing we could get was a sari-sari store at the adjacent resort which had very limited supplies for sale. We found the food a bit pricey for the quality. But it was gotten even with by the really accommodating, reliable and friendly staff. :)
Beach Bumming
The beach in Guimaras was superb - white, pristine, relaxing. It was disappointing to visit it on a rainy day though. Thick clouds covered the sky and we were not able to witness the beautiful sunset tourists purposely visit, the hotel staff says. But we still had a great time to swim, play and chat by the beach.
Island Hopping
The resort we stayed at offers an island hopping tour for just P1200 good for 2 hours. I'd consider it more of island traversing since we did not really go to separate islands and only got around a big one. We woke up at 5am in order to take a 530am breakfast to prepare us for the 6am tour.
Our first stop was this cave (forgot to ask for the name). There's not much to see inside, no passageway to take you farther inside the cave. After some group photo ops, we head back to our boat.
First stop: Cave #1
Our next stop was another cave. This is a narrower one and there's not much light inside and similar to the first one the inside also is a deadend. We ran out of ideas on what to do this time. We tried doing some jump shots (inside the cave!) And sorry friends... take a peek on my impeccable sense of timing. :))
Second Stop: Cave #2 a la 127 Hours
Our last stop was the white beach. The sand was finer. It was still raining though. But it was okay since our goal was to get wet anyway. I forgot to wear my aqua shoes this time, so I decided to not take off my life vest to ensure I never step into the rocks. Yes, I'm that paranoid. :p We spent almost an hour enjoying the beautiful white beach.
Third Stop: White Beach
Guisi Lighthouse
The old lighthouse, only 5-10 minutes walk from our resort, opens at 8am and closes at 5pm. Because we did not know it closes at 5pm, we were only able to visit the next morning after the island hopping.
Going up the lighthouse is dangerous, not allowed (?)
It looked antiquated, the staircase were covered with rust. We were pressed for time so only some of my friends were able to go up. What you would see is a panoramic view of the beach and the island.
It would have been nice to capture it during sunset. But oh well, it's never easy to get along with the weather especially while you travel.
Getting Out
We asked the hotel to find a multicab for us to pick us up going to Jordan for our tour. We left the resort at around 10am. Details of our Guimaras tour to be posted soon. Hehe ;)
Despite the scarcity of food and water, and the continuous rain, for the impeccable white beach, the fun company of friends, going to this southern town in Guimaras was indeed worth it. Some pictures grabbed from Steph Buena (galing mong mag-document). ;)
Tips:
1. Items added to list of things to check-in to the airport: umbrella, tripod
2. When going to the outskirts, don't forget to stack up on drinking water and snacks/emergency food.
3. It's always safe to bring aqua shoes.
4. Bringing of hairdryer turns out to be more than just for vanity especially after getting things wet/swimming.
5. It helps to bring a flash light in case there's a brownout. Good thing our resort had a generator.
6. Ask the tourism board for tips and contact info of known places to visit.
