Discovering Dumaguete 3

As I mentioned in the end of my last post, the Rizal Boulevard in Dumaguete is "Expat Central" in the region. All tourists gravitate there for the obvious reasons of ambiance, restaurants, dive shops, banks, and cafes. By day the boulevard is a busy and attractive street lined with Coco palms giant Acacia trees.

From Rizal Boulevard

The boulevard is a haven for walkers and tourists who want to enjoy the street side park and walking path running the length of the downtown segment of the avenue.

From Rizal Boulevard

Dumaguete is Home to the Why Not Disco, restaurant, and delicatessen. This business is famous throughout the Philippines I have come to find out. Everyone who has been to Dumaguete knows the Why Not. The restaurant has outdoor and indoor seating and affords the guests a front row seat to the busy street scene unfolding in front of them.

Mamias, an upscale restaurant, sits adjacent to the Why Not. This establishment is owned and operated by Mayor Perdices son. Coco Amigos a Mexican motif restaurant is the Expat anchor at the other end of the Boulevard. Between these two places you will find a variety of shops and cafes, including Mike's Dive shop, Happy Fred's Bar, and other local establishments. All cater to the tourist and affluent local crowd.

By night the atmosphere changes somewhat. Prostitution is quite apparent and the girls and gay pimps roam freely and unhindered around the expat hangouts. The seedy but unavoidable side of life in the Philippines. The girls and ladyboys (gays) range in age from 15 -30. Sadly there is much mesoginistic behaivior going on due to the influx of European single men coming to Dumaguete to scuba dive, as well as older men comming to the Philippines as sex tourists.

I don't like to talk about the negative side of life, but this is something that eventually caused me to retreat from hanging out on the boulevard and move to the countryside and get a chance to meet the good people of Dumaguete. These being the families and native residents who enjoy a normal life style, raising children, going to school, and working. I was going to stay for a while it seemed.

I first moved to a run down resort in Sibulan named Babayan. Actually a clean quiet place with a swimming pool. It has since been bought and has undergone extensive improvement. At the time in 2006, I was happy to be away from living on the boulevard, with the noise of the Why Not pounding through the walls of my room at the Honeycomb Pension. I stayed for a ten day stretch. Somewhere along the way I meet a girl and decided I would look for a house to rent in the area. I bought a motorbike, and began my search for a suitable place to live. I was putting down roots in Dumaguete, and quite without making a concious descision to do so, I was attracted to Negros Oriental because of it's natural beauty, and I had begun to make friends.





By night

New Look!

I have decided to give this Blog a new look. several things prompted me to do this. First, the links and titles of some of my news feeds were difficult to read, and secondly, its just time to try on a new face. I hope you find the changes pleasing. Updates will begin to increase as I settle in to a routine in my new place.
Enjoy!

Discovering Dumaguete 2

The jeepney ride from Sibulan was typical. Crowded full of local Negros folks, and me a tall out of place foreigner. I was soon put at ease. several passengers helped me with my luggage, and with the info on the proper fare to pay. As we approached Dumaguete, I strained to look out the narrow side windows of the van. I could see very little as we jostled along the National highway, but did notice the diminutive and round faces I came to associate with provincial people. We passed several schools, universities among them, and it seemed Dumaguete was indeed a college town, bustling with students, motorcycles, and tricycles.

I had called ahead to the Bethel guest house, but they had no available rooms. They did recommend an alternative, the OK pension... As I had no idea where to go I asked a fellow jeepney passenger, and they were very polite and helpful, directing the driver in visayan to the pension house. Dumped in front of the hotel with my three bags, I sighed in relief that the long days trip was now over. It was just a matter of checking in, and flopping on a bed in an air conditioned room to relax for a while. I had arrived in Dumaguete, not quite knowing why I was here or what I was going to do. In any event it was a fateful and profound step in my quest to assimilate into the Philippine culture, as much as a foreigner could.

The OK Pension proved in fact, not to be so OK, so after two nights of cats fighting in the open courtyard just outside my room, I transferred to the Honeycomb guest house on Rizal Boulevard. I negotiated a rate for a ten day stay not knowing if I would remain after that or move on. The Honeycomb is an old Spanish style mansion dating to the beginning of the twentieth Century. Converted to a hotel, it was charming but somewhat rundown from lack of routine maintenance, never the less a nice place with friendly young girls at the front desk.

There I was smack dab in the middle of expat central, not knowing this at first, I quickly became aware of the charms and pitfalls of the so called "Boulevard", as it is known locally...

Discovering Dumaguete

The first time I heard the name Dumaguete, I was sitting at a seaside cafe in Moal Boal. A divers resort, Moal Boal and nearby Panagsama Beach lie on the south western coast of Cebu Province.

As I dreamily contemplated the looming mist shrouded mountains of Negros Oriental, I ask a waitress what that place was over there, pointing across the Tanon Straight. She replied "That's Negros, and it's my place." I asked her what it was like over there. She replied, "It is very green, many farms and fruit plantations sir." I said "ahh, a nice place?" "yes" she replied, "friendly people and a quiet clean place." Sitting there it looked primordal in the hazy orange sunset of early evening. What town is over there I wondered, what kind of people inhabit that place of large dormant volcanoes and verdant forests? Further conversation yielded the name Dumaguete as the principle municipality in southern Negros Oriental.

I stayed two more weeks at Panagsama beach. I enjoyed the white sand beaches, the nightlife, and touring around on a rented motorcycle. I kept wondering about Negros, it was getting the best of my curiosity. I canceled plans to return to Cebu city and bought a bus ticket to Bato, where I could catch a ferry to Sibulan, just north of Dumaguete. It happened that fast, an impulse to visit a seemingly enchanted place of waiting adventures and discovery. It was a trip that changed my life in so many ways. What follows here is a retrospective of my personal discovery, my journey to Negros, a journey to myself, and a journey to understand the Philippines and it's people.

Who is Visiting Dumaguete?

I pulled this interesting statistic from a local news article. It shows quite clearly the trend in tourism and visitors to Dumaguete. A 13% increase in visitors from other countries with Koreans leading 3:1 over Americans, the next highest number of foreign nationals.

"Negros Oriental Alien Control Officer Peter Bueno disclosed that his office collected P13,826,110 (US$307,797) in 2007, almost 14 per cent higher than the 2006 collection of P11,915,029.65.

Bueno said the bulk of the fees collected was from tourists who visited the province last year.

Records show that in 2007, almost 1,000 tourists had visited Negros Oriental, with Koreans topping the list at 330, followed by Americans, 105, British, 46, and Germans, 25, and Japanese, 22.

The Bureau of Immigration is an attached agency of the Department of Justice and collects fees from foreign students, tourists and aliens taking up temporary or permanent residence here."