It's been a long time since we last went out of town, and here are the highlights of the trip:

GET THERE:
This time, it's by air. We took Cebu Pacific. Yes, the planes are new.

gigil!  at the MIA	the Cebu Pacific Ladies teaching us how to survive a crashing plane hehe

Being the City of Smiles, Bacolod celebrated it's Foundation day with a huge (and i mean huge) parade of marching bands and lyre groups. Locals and tourists alike are flocking the streets to see this, and this ain't the main event yet!





ABS-CBN's MASK MAKING COMPETITION
They say that it's been a tradition long been upheld. And more and more organizations and institutions are participating in month long activities for the Masskara Festival.

happy and sad	laughing	larger than life-size hehe

MANOKAN COUNTRY
The perfect pig-out place in Bacolod City. You get a plateful of fresh oysters for P30 and chicken inasal for P45! Manokan Country is a strip of open-air canteens which serve chicken inasal and fresh oysters as their main dishes. Actually hindi ko alam kung may binebenta pang iba. We ate there twice and never looked at a menu dahil alam na namin agad ang order namin: inasal and oysters! Kung oyster lover ka and you live in Manila, you'll definitely take advantage of the low cost -- hanggang mahilo ka. Ang isang platong Oysters sa "Dampa sa Timog" ay nagkakahalaga na ng P100. Sa Kamay Kainan, kailangan mo munang mag-eat all you can, sa mga bars, walang bababa sa P140 ang isang order (take note, approx. pitong pirasong talaba lang yun!) Nakaka-high talaga ang murang talaba!

at the manokan country!	fresh oysters and authentic bacolod chicken inasal!!!	yum-yum-yum-yum-yum!

MAMMA MARIA's PIZZA
The BIGGEST PIZZA IN THE PHILIPPINES can be found in MAMMA MARIA's at Lacson Ave, Bacolod City. Ang pizza nila na kasing laki ng biggest Yellow Cab Pizza ay P355 lamang! And there's even another size bigger than that. Kasing laki na ng typical round table ng inyong old school garden sets ang biggest pizza nila! :) Kung hindi niyo ma-imagine, teka't kukunin ko ang flyer para sa exact diameter.

Gian, Tracy, Pat and Nats	Home of the Philippine's Biggest Pizza. No kidding!

CHICKEN DELI
There's also Chicken Deli at Lacson St., of course, we just did not have the photos.


ENCHI in concert @ Chez Andre
The reggae band from Dumaguete (who did the reggae version of Yano's "Tsinelas") Ang sarap makinig ng bisaya reggae!


27TH MASSKARA FESTIVAL - STREET DANCE COMPETITION
We were in awe. The festival exceeded our expectations.

Some of the photos I took. :) See related article here

Akala namin hindi na kami makakapasok sa main stage dahil naubusan na kami ng gate pass sa dami daw ng foreigners na dumayo para lang manood. Pero dahil maabilidad kami, next thing we knew, katabi na namin ang media people at professional photographers documenting the event. Nasa harap kami ng judges. Sa harap ng mismong performers!

Walang sinabi ang mga pictures ng past masskara festivals. It's totally different seeing them in action. The dance steps are well choreographed, the costumes are elaborate, may bonggang production design pa complete with props and moving set! Siyempre hindi mawawala ang mga pasabog na confetti.

Pa-picture naman para documented :)

Boracay Island October 21-23, 2006

BORACAY's JUST a few hours away!
Of course we didn't let the opportunity pass. We took a ferry to Ilo-Ilo and rode a bus to Catiklan. It was a 5-6 hour trip. We stayed there for 3 days, but half of my time was spent doing a promo website or entertaining business calls. I even left our office's thumbdrive at a net cafe! I only realized that I left the poor usb drive with the jpeg web studies when we were already at the boat from the island on our way to Kalibo. There's no turning back.

looking out for Boracay Oceanjet Ferry from Bacolod to Iloilo	looking at Boracay	Boracay is still charming  specially at off peak seasons like now

Oompa at the Grotto	Ponkee at the Grotto	At some carinderia	fun in the sand

We DID have FUN even though I WORKED during our vacation. Our first night was spent listening to live acoustic reggae music while drinking red horse at a reggae bar. We had the best and most sulit buffet experience too! P179 pesos for a buffet of Oysters and Crabs! Grrrr...

Don't forget to bring home the famous Boracay Lamps and the memories!

colorful	memories

DUMANGGAS SIDE-TRIP
We missed the last trip of the ferry from Ilo-ilo to Bacolod. The next ferry trip is in the next morning at 5AM.
We were silently panicking -- we had no idea how to get back to Bacolod before our 6AM flight to Manila the following day. Everyone else is telling us we can just spend the night at a motel because there were no more ferry trips at night.

A security guard told us that there are still 8PM RORO trips at the province of DUMANGGAS. I texted my friend from Bacolod and she warned us to be careful because the province is known for ASWANGS. I didn't know what to feel/react when she advised us to bring bawang and not to eat anything from there, especially meat. I wanted to regard it as an advise not to be taken seriously -- but we were really new to the place. We didn't know anyone and everyone else spoke in Ilonggo. We hired a taxi for P550 and waited at the port area for two hours. We were back in Bacolod by midnight. :) We were relieved. Nakabalik kami ng buhay after we made our way past the talahibs, mini-kaingins, dark roads and most especially, aswang threats.


MINIMUM JEEP FARE: P5 LANG!
Thank you so much Jellie, Sol, and Lola Caro for providing us the spacious, cozy room.
 

our room	souvernirs!

Salamat din jay AFP-Antonio Chavez sa pag-alalay sa amin para sa dokyu namin sa Masscara Street Dance Competition.

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text and photos by altum_viditur and wonderzomboy.