Negros Oriental: The town villages
We enjoyed enormously the serene, unsullied, and natural town villages of Negros Oriental. They can be likened to a breath of fresh fragrant air. Nature and beautiful scenery came together as our backdrop in our laid-back nomadic rides with the rented scooter. The people were wholesome and very friendly, and the culture... local to the core. Our experiences in this trip can be summed up as: pretty much wonderful.
Because sitting on a moving scooter for an extended amount of time (say an hour), is uncomfortable - our bums began to feel very funny like we have gazillions of ants crawling out from them, we didn’t reach as far as Siaton in the south, Amlan to the north, and Valencia towards the mountains.
Our favorites were the villages in the south of Negros Oriental and the mountainous Valencia area. Here are some of our foto souvenirs:
This was before reaching the proper town of Siaton. Ricefields and a nipa hut with children.
Siaton town hall with a pretty well manicured park in the foreground. Second foto are the trike bikes, popularly used by the locals there for public transport.
Left is me, the dried fish princess with boxes of them. Dutchman says they stink and are super gross! Too bad, poor Dutchman, I can only laugh - Ha-ha!
Siaton Catholic Church; tobacco vendor - those are real tobacco leaves; and the grumpy-looking Balut vendor, she actually smiled after I took her foto.
And, here are some of the videos!
Cruising Negros Oriental with our rented little scooter... we paid Php 1,000 for 24 hours x 4 days (downpayment of 2 days, balance paid upon return of vehicle).
...............
The roads in the south of Negros Oriental are good. This is just before Dauin. Check out the jeepneys, motorbikes, tricycles, and even the cows grazing along the highways.
Dutchman was so intrigued and amused by the bashful qualities of the Touch-Me-Nots, a tropical flower/plant that can be found abundantly in the Philippines, so he filmed them.
...............
Watch the leaves fold. She is too shy... touch me, not!
In the meantime, more countryside pictures we took down south -
The rice planter - she stopped planting on purpose and posed for us. Such a sweetie. And two little boys going home from school with their carabao. So cute!
And fotos in the mountain village of Valencia. Also Amlan to the north.
Young students from a private school across the Valencia open field were having fun with us. These kids kept shouting - Take a picture of us! And, the river falls in the mountains of Valencia.
To the left are two fishermen dragging their boat to the sea. Taken in Amlan (to the north of Negros Oriental).
In the resort we stayed at we ran into a wedding reception of a newlywed Fil-West couple. Great timing as the couple was preparing for their walk to the restaurant with the personnel (waitresses) of the resort as their entourage. The bride even said “Hallo” to the camera! Neat!
...............
The wedding reception entourage walk at the resort.
It is also not a secret anymore that “love tourists” coming to the Philippines have in recent years skyrocketed in numbers. Just a little bit of enlightenment here to prevent people from misreading and taking this post out of context: Please do not confuse love tourists with sex tourists. They are not the same.
...............
This was taken at the resort where we stayed. They were right across us from the pool restaurant.
More pictures of course!
Malatapay Market is a popular tourist attraction near Zamboangita (which is after Dauin going to the south). The market is only open during Wednesdays and we took this foto on a Saturday thus it was pretty much still. Next foto is what I call - A happy carabao.
A resort we visited with the view of the Apo Island. The resort manager was so accommodating to us, she gave us a tour! And sunset at Bacong - just before reaching Dauin from Dumaguete.
And more, more videos we took in Dauin --
We were exploring the areas surrounding the resort when we came across the old and almost dilapidated state of Dauin’s Catholic Church and its very modest town hall painted in pastel moss green. We hit upon a gathering in the town hall grounds. The servants (employees) of Dauin town was carrying out their every Friday afternoon ritual – singing the Philippine national anthem and lowering of the Philippine flag. Check out the video below.
...............
A woman bystander told us that on Mondays, its the raising of the flag.
This next video is a continuation. After the Philippine flag was lowered, the group sang another hymn, in Visayan dialect - I think it was the town’s hymn, and this time they lowered another flag... let me guess, Dauin town’s flag?
...............
A close-up version of Dauin town’s servants (employees) fulfilling their duties and singing the town’s hymn.
Afterwards, the adventurous Dutchman went riding through unpaved roads!
...............
You can see in this video how some of the locals live - chickens and pigs right in their front and back yards.
More fotos can be found here:
Siaton town
Bacong and Dauin towns
Amlan and Valencia towns
Because sitting on a moving scooter for an extended amount of time (say an hour), is uncomfortable - our bums began to feel very funny like we have gazillions of ants crawling out from them, we didn’t reach as far as Siaton in the south, Amlan to the north, and Valencia towards the mountains.
Our favorites were the villages in the south of Negros Oriental and the mountainous Valencia area. Here are some of our foto souvenirs:
This was before reaching the proper town of Siaton. Ricefields and a nipa hut with children.
Siaton town hall with a pretty well manicured park in the foreground. Second foto are the trike bikes, popularly used by the locals there for public transport.Left is me, the dried fish princess with boxes of them. Dutchman says they stink and are super gross! Too bad, poor Dutchman, I can only laugh - Ha-ha!
Siaton Catholic Church; tobacco vendor - those are real tobacco leaves; and the grumpy-looking Balut vendor, she actually smiled after I took her foto.
And, here are some of the videos!
Cruising Negros Oriental with our rented little scooter... we paid Php 1,000 for 24 hours x 4 days (downpayment of 2 days, balance paid upon return of vehicle).
...............
The roads in the south of Negros Oriental are good. This is just before Dauin. Check out the jeepneys, motorbikes, tricycles, and even the cows grazing along the highways.
Dutchman was so intrigued and amused by the bashful qualities of the Touch-Me-Nots, a tropical flower/plant that can be found abundantly in the Philippines, so he filmed them.
...............
Watch the leaves fold. She is too shy... touch me, not!
In the meantime, more countryside pictures we took down south -
The rice planter - she stopped planting on purpose and posed for us. Such a sweetie. And two little boys going home from school with their carabao. So cute!
And fotos in the mountain village of Valencia. Also Amlan to the north.
Young students from a private school across the Valencia open field were having fun with us. These kids kept shouting - Take a picture of us! And, the river falls in the mountains of Valencia.To the left are two fishermen dragging their boat to the sea. Taken in Amlan (to the north of Negros Oriental).
In the resort we stayed at we ran into a wedding reception of a newlywed Fil-West couple. Great timing as the couple was preparing for their walk to the restaurant with the personnel (waitresses) of the resort as their entourage. The bride even said “Hallo” to the camera! Neat!
...............
The wedding reception entourage walk at the resort.
It is also not a secret anymore that “love tourists” coming to the Philippines have in recent years skyrocketed in numbers. Just a little bit of enlightenment here to prevent people from misreading and taking this post out of context: Please do not confuse love tourists with sex tourists. They are not the same.
...............
This was taken at the resort where we stayed. They were right across us from the pool restaurant.
More pictures of course!
Malatapay Market is a popular tourist attraction near Zamboangita (which is after Dauin going to the south). The market is only open during Wednesdays and we took this foto on a Saturday thus it was pretty much still. Next foto is what I call - A happy carabao.
A resort we visited with the view of the Apo Island. The resort manager was so accommodating to us, she gave us a tour! And sunset at Bacong - just before reaching Dauin from Dumaguete.
And more, more videos we took in Dauin --
We were exploring the areas surrounding the resort when we came across the old and almost dilapidated state of Dauin’s Catholic Church and its very modest town hall painted in pastel moss green. We hit upon a gathering in the town hall grounds. The servants (employees) of Dauin town was carrying out their every Friday afternoon ritual – singing the Philippine national anthem and lowering of the Philippine flag. Check out the video below.
...............
A woman bystander told us that on Mondays, its the raising of the flag.
This next video is a continuation. After the Philippine flag was lowered, the group sang another hymn, in Visayan dialect - I think it was the town’s hymn, and this time they lowered another flag... let me guess, Dauin town’s flag?
...............
A close-up version of Dauin town’s servants (employees) fulfilling their duties and singing the town’s hymn.
Afterwards, the adventurous Dutchman went riding through unpaved roads!
...............
You can see in this video how some of the locals live - chickens and pigs right in their front and back yards.
More fotos can be found here:
Siaton town
Bacong and Dauin towns
Amlan and Valencia towns
