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Hello travellers!!

How's everyone? I am soooo thrilled to write about my travel last week to the beautiful province of Negros Occidental. There are around 2,000 photos in my gallery right now (half of them are selfies of my friend @imje. Haha.)

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Negros Occidental is a province in Western Visayas, known as the "Sugar Capital of the Philippines."

I've always wanted to visit Bacolod City, the capital of Negros Occidental, because of its vibrant and stunning Masskara Festival. This has been on my bucket list for a very long time since I was still in college, and finally I was able to tick it off this year.

Our flight was booked in July 2018, when Cebu Pacific had a seat sale. Estimated cost of this 6-day trip including the airfare is about 15,000PHP or 300USD. Here is our itinerary:

The supposed highlight of this trip was the Masskara Festival, but we were surprised on how beautiful Negros is. From the breathtaking views, the delicious and authentic food (their Chicken Inasal is definitely the best), to the politeness of the Negrenses - this province is absolutely worth visiting.

I will be featuring some of the highlights of each destination but I will be making a separate and detailed post about it.

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You know how tricky travel photos are nowadays. Most often than not, travel destinations are way better in photographs than in the actual setting. Filters and photo editing apps are everywhere. Haha. But Perth Paradise Resort is different. This place is too beautiful that cameras won't be able to capture how charming it is. Though Masskara Festival was the reason why we came to Negros, I'd say Perth is the highlight of our trip. It was captivating. Truly, a paradise.

Another activity that we tried here is island hopping, snorkeling, and caving.

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After spending the night in Perth, we went back to Bacolod City, and from there we hired a taxi going to the Northern part of Negros. Our next stop: Lakawon Island.

It was already past 6PM when we reached the port going to Lakawon. We paid 350PHP as entrance fee and we divided the special boat trip of 1,500PHP (regular trips are only until 5PM).

We woke up early the next day for the sunrise and early morning walk around the island but we were a bit disappointed. There was no sunrise, it was low tide and the water was too far, we can't even go swimming. We had coffee and bread, while planning to go back to the mainland as soon as possible. Original plan was leave the island around lunch time, but we were already packing our stuff at 8AM. Haha.

I asked the group if we could wait until 10AM for the opening of Tawhai Floating bar, because that's the reason why I wanted to visit Lakawon. I'll just go check it and take pictures for about 30 minutes. They were hesitant to go there because they don't feel like spending 285PHP and get disappointed again. Haha.

After few minutes of deliberation, they decided to go as well. We packed our bags, checked out, left our things in a hut near the reception, then went to the docking area of the small boats going to the floating bar. We noticed that it was already high tide, and there, we were greeted by this beautiful view.

Upon seeing the view, my friends wanted to go swimming already. Haha. We head to the floating bar, and spent an hour chilling, taking photos, and just enjoying the splendid view of Lakawon Island.

I rarely post a photo of me facing the camera but I need to post this here because this cute shirt that I'm wearing that says "Far from home, born to roam", was a gift from @mermaidvampire for my birthday. Such a sweet gesture. I appreciate it Ate. I loved it. Thank you so much. 🤗

We decided go back to the mainland around 12NN because we were already starving. And we don't want to eat in Lakawon because the food is so pricey. Haha.

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On our way back to Bacolod City, we dropped by in Balay Negrense, an ancestral house of Don Victor Gaston, that was declared as a heritage house in 1994.

We paid around 60PHP for an hour tour. There we learned the lifestyle of the sugar baron and his family.

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This iconic landmark is the "Taj Mahal of Negros". This was the ruins of the grand mansion of another sugar baron, Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson. It was built for his wife who died while pregnant with their 11th child. The death of his wife made him so depressed that he decided to build this mansion in honor of his wife Maria. It became the home of his unmarried children, until it was burned down during the World War II.

During our trip, we met a local who has a different version of the story of The Ruins. It was a more interesting version. Haha.

The Ruins at night:

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On our 5th day, we went to this another popular destination in Negros, located in Talisay City, just less than an hour away from Bacolod.

There are so many available activities in Campuestohan. Aside from picnic and swimming, they also have outdoor adventure rides like sky bicycle, horseback riding, rope course, paraglide, and zipline.

If you're not an adrenaline junkie like me, you can still enjoy the place by going around and take a lot of instagrammable photos. Haha.

These cute indian inspired village is one their cute accommodations. They have different themed rooms ranging from 3,000PHP to 5,000PHP good for 3-10 persons for an overnight stay.

Another interesting feature of the resort is this huge dinosaur near the entrance. Its extremely huge that its one of the first things that captured our attention upon arrival.

By the way, going to the resort was easy, however, we had a hard time getting a ride back to Bacolod City. I thought we won't be able to catch the street parade, good thing the Masskara Festival started around 3PM.

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Finally, my favorite festival of all time. There's just something about their costume that makes me love it soooo much. The festival was held to bring back smiles following the MV Don Juan tragedy. It was also during this year that the price of sugar was very low, it was a tough time for the Negrenses.

No doubt, the festival became the source of motivation and brought back the smiles in this beautiful City.

It was so hard to get decent photos because there were so many people. It was really tiring (but worth it). It was impossible for me to get a shot with the dancers, everything is fast and moving. But I'm happy that I was able to have not just one but two photos with them - one in Campuestohan and another in SM Bacolod.

It was truly a beautiful experience to witness the most colorful and the happiest festival here in the Philippines.

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Before I end this travel post, let me just emphasize how delightful Bacolod's Chicken Inasal is. I think, the chicken oil makes this whole experience different. They are also famous for their cakes. I tried one in Felicias Café, it was a big thumbs up. And of course, don't forget to visit Diotay's for their seafood. It was so delicious at an affordable price.

Ang sarap ng pagkain sa Bacolod, promise!

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It was a super fun trip. Aside from minor glitches, we didn't encounter any major problem while traveling. It was worth the money, time and effort. An experience that we will always remember. Thank you Daddy God. Thank you Negros Occidental. 🙏

This is probably my last trip for 2018, it was indeed a save-the-best-for-last kind of thing. I would highly recommend this province to be included in your bucketlist, I swear, its totally worth it. I'm sure you will also fall inlove with the place, the food, their dialect, and the niceness and happy vibe of the Negrenses.

By the way, all photos were taken using my phone, and everything was edited in Adobe Lightroom CC and Canva App.

I hope you enjoyed reading this travel post. Its a wrap guys! Cheers to more travels. 💙

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