Just a stop on the way

The journey to Bacalod did not involve as many connections as we'd feared and the majority of it was spent on a nice air conditioned coach. We then caught a high speed ferry and although the whole trip took about ten hours it was fairly painless. The stress of finding a hotel was also removed by a nice cab driver, we told him we wanted somewhere clean and cheap and that is exactly what he provided us with. The cheaper hotels here are commonly called Pension Houses, and we ended up at a particularly good one in Bacalod. It was in a good location, a little out of the centre of town but still within easy walking distance. The town itself is not very exciting, most people who visit use it as a base for seeing other sights in the area.

We had planned to visit a town called Silay the next day. It is renowned for it's large, old Spanish villas, remnants of an era when this was a major port and those who had grown rich on sugar lived here. However when we woke Adam was still not feeling well and we had both lost a little of our get up and go. Although we were enjoying our time in the Philippines, it had so far been slightly marred by illness and therefore we were now a little out of sync with the rhythm of travelling. We decided to go find some breakfast and see if we felt like making the trip later.

A Bunwich at Dunkin Donuts served as our breakfast, not exactly the healthiest option but it was surprisingly tasty. Better than the donuts that's for sure. We mulled over things a little, and discussed what to do. We decided to head down to the port to find out what time ferries to Cebu (our next destination) left the following day. We caught a peddle tricycle and as always I felt guilty. We sit there in relative comfort while they exert themselves fully in the baking heat. You do have to remind yourselves that more often than not they approached you and that they really want the money.

Once down at the pier it did not take us long to establish that there were in fact no boats from Bacalod to Cebu, which meant the map which accompanied our guide book had it's facts wrong and also that we would now need to get another bus. We were informed that there were regular buses to Dumaguete in the South of the island and from there we could catch a ferry to Cebu. It wasn't what we wanted to hear as we were both looking forward to just having to wake up, get on a boat and just relax until it was time to get off. However there was nothing we could do but accept the facts.

Feeling somewhat down heartened we didn't feel inclined to go to Silay, and instead walked to the local mall. It looked especially big from the outside but was less impressive once you were in. However it served its purpose and we wandered around in a slight zombie like state as our energy levels were fairly low. The lure of new, fresh, clean clothing was magnetic and we tried on a few items, only to decide that we shouldn't really be spending the money.

It was lunchtime and we decided to avoid all the usual fast food restaurants, so we walked back in to town and stumbled across a nice park area with a bandstand. They are very patriotic in the Philippines and there were a number of flags flying as well..

It was a pleasant little find, until Adam got accosted by someone wanting money, and then it was time to move on. Finding somewhere which isn't a fast food joint for lunch proved to be difficult and in the end, perhaps for the name more than anything else we decided to dine at Chinkys.

While we munched on our noodles we marvelled at how it could get away with being called this and thought about how it just would not happen at home.

The rest of the day was fairly frustrating, we needed to find an internet cafe which had a computer with a dvd drive but this proved to be near impossible. Most of the people who run the cafes don't bother having them installed because it keeps the cost down. When we did finally find a place which had one computer with the necessary equipment, we had to evict one of the employees to use it and therefore we gained an audience as he waited to get back on. In the end we decided the pressure we felt wasn't worth it and we left.

We headed back to the hotel and relaxed for a little while and then by the time we thought about grabbing some dinner it was about 9pm. We walked back in to town only to realise that it was closed for the evening and there was no where to eat. We had to settle for some fruit from a stall that was open late. Probably a good thing really, we need to get some vitamins to try and ward off any more illness.

Once we'd consumed a whole pineapple and a watermelon we headed to bed. The next morning we woke up and began our journey to Dumaguete.

More Soon,

Laura & Adam