Miss Tims: Trip to Negros Occidental

My trip to Negros wasn't just for leisure, but to attend a pre-screening exam which I don't know if I had done right. Well, at least Negros Occidental was already checked on my list as one of the places I've been to.

First of since this is my first time traveling to the province I wasn't really confident of traveling alone despite gearing myself with google maps and checking out routes to the place I am going to. So, my mother went with me which I was really glad cause I never pushed her to come. She might have sensed my inability to go on my own at that time. :D

But I promise myself that I will travel alone for future trips to test how far I can go and survive by myself.

Place where I went.

People in Negros speak "Ilonggo" which is their dialect. It was like a mixture of Cebuano, Waray, Bicolano cause they do have words related to these dialects. So they do understand a little Cebuano and Tagalog hence I had no trouble conversing with them properly.

From Bohol, we ride on a boat bound to Cebu. The cheapest and easiest way was tracking. So we hurled a taxi to North Bus Terminal where all bus is bound to Negros Occidental.

It was almost two and a half-hour ride from the terminal to Toledo City Port, we sailed on a barge to San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.

This the Lite Ferry bound to Negros.

The lite ferry wasn't comfy at all. I haven't got a nice sleep, but I still chose to lie down than to get a view of the sea (which I'm very much used to already :D)

Negros Island can be seen from the port, so the voyage was not that long.

Arrived at San Carlos Port, Negros Occidental

The bus was really comfortable so we really had a great look at the wonderful views. Most of the farmers plant tubo (sugar cane). When I asked one of the residents in Murcia, he said that there is a large plantation of sugar in Negros. One ton of tubo would cost 2, 500PhP or more. And a hectare of sugar cane farmers will earn 30,000PhP to 40,000PhP. That's a lot of money already. Yet, most of the tubo farms are owned by big people so they come to Haciendas and they earn a lot from it. Well, at least now I know where most of our sugar comes from. :D

They also have rice farms but not like in Bohol where you can see plenty of it. I was fascinated by these rice terraces along the way.

Amazing right?? Well, I don't want you to agree with me. But I was awed by this view at first cause I thought I can only see this in Northern Luzon.

additional view while traveling.

After almost four hours ride from San Carlos to Murcia, we arrived safely at the place. The accommodation was great and I had a safe and sound sleep. Since we slept on the rooftop, I managed to take some pictures of the rice fields.

sunset

This the sunset from the place we stayed at... Well, you can't fully see the sun though... :D

PhilRice Farm

This is probably the largest farm at Negros Occidental owned by PhilRice. They said that it has 90 hectares of rice fields which are for experimentation. I also saw an albino carabao there but failed to catch a picture of it.. tsk tsk tsk...

View of Mount Kanlaon

We traveled back the day after we arrived. We were hoping to catch the barge but it went off already. So we had to stay one night in San Carlos City. Glad to have a one-room still available to stay at. With had no choice but to stay in this tiny room since all rooms were reserved.

Yoyong's Travellers Inn

We had a mouthful dinner at Gaisano, where only a few people go to. I was really surprised how can such a mall have few people. Mind you they don't have McDo, so you might as well switch to Jollibee cause it definitely has no competition. Well, in our case, we had to eat somewhere else to satisfy our palate.