Negros Occidental: Bacolod, Talisay and Silay

 

 Bacolod, Negros Occidental, city of smile  and home of the famous Maskara Festival .

they called city of smile because of the Maskara festival which usually portraits a smiling

mask. the festival began on 1980 because of the tragedy happened to the citizen of Negros

M/V Don Juan a passenger ship collided with the tanker M/V Tacloban City and sank. hundred of the passenger were died in that accident mostly Negrense. In the midst of this tragic events, the local government and other private organization  decided to create this festival to sweep away the pain cause by the accident. Maskara Festival symbolises that no matter how tough the time was, Negros people is going to survive and will never give up.

I took the early flight bound to Bacolod City from Manila with my friend Kuya JP, this tour is a part of multi provinces tour including, Negros Occidental, Guimaras Province, Iloilo, Antique, Aklan and Capiz. from the airport we took a trike going to Silay and paid about 50.

Silay used to be the Paris of Negros because it is a cultural and intellectual hub of the people before, numbers of mansions built there during the sugar cane industry success. hectare of sugarcane plantation can be seen until today. We visited those Mansion and took some pictures of them. those mansions turned into musuem and can be toured inside. unfortunately, we were so early that time, so we are not able to get inside.


this is not one of those beautiful Mansions it is just a replica.

One thing I noticed from this place is that not all the residents are aware that these mansions are existed. we asked for a direction where to find the mansion of Silay and they directed us to the picture above. speechless, we just took a picture of it.

the most famous of the Mansion



 

 

Since we are not allowed to go inside, we decided to enjoy the external beauty of the Mansions. I wondered the feeling of living on those times when these Mansions was built, no cars, no pollution and no technology. People of Negros, specially the bacolodians, possess the sweetest voice accent in the Philippines, their language is Ilonggo and you will never notice if they are mad or not.

Hilofena Museum

After our short tour in Silay to see mansion, we decided to go to Talisay, home of the famous The Ruins and considered to be the Taj Mahal of the Philippines. We took two rides to reach Talisay City, it is about an hour away from Silay. a jeepney driver offered his service to bring us to The Ruins and plus waiting time, we paid him for 200 pesos. the way to Talisay was really exciting we were able to see hectares of sugar plantation, the road was paved and there will be no problem on bringing your own car there. 

 

The Negrense are friendly people, the picture above is the student who helped us to locate the right jeepney going to the Ruins, she never left us until we found the right one. Thank  you Ate

Sugar Crop Plantation

 

THE RUINS:

entrance: 60 pesos

available time: 8:00am to 8pm

souvenir shop available inside

food store available inside

best view: night( because of the beautiful light around the mansion)

 

The Ruins, one of the most famous landmark in Wester visayas, the Taj Mahal of the Philippines, like Taj Mahal the Ruins was built for the love of Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson for the love of his life, Maria Braga Lacson a portuguese from Macau. the mansion used to be the most beautiful establishment that time until the world war 2 broke out where the mansion burnt by the american soldiers and filipino guerillia to prevent from using it  by the japanese as their fortress.

 

 

 

 

 

The Ruins has its own garden that has beautiful fountain, plants and where the souvenir shops and food store is located. there are other things to see outside like the big chess where you can use to play or simply take a picture with.

 

Souvenir shop is available inside, they have keychains, shirts etc. the price is little bit higher than the ones you buy outside but rest assured that the quality is great.

 

 

Kuya Mars our tour guide in the ruins, he was  really friendly , . the tour became so exciting because of his story about the Ruins. after the tour, we thanked him for his good service and tell us his personal success story. can you imagine a funny tour guide with Ilonngo sweet accent?

anyway, after our tour in the Ruins and bought some souvenirs in the souvenir shop, we went to Bacolod city to try their own delicacy, Inasal.

according to the locals the best place to try their Inasal is in the Manokan Country just a few minutes away from SM bacolod, the whole place is mostly dedicated to sell Inasal, it was really hard to tell because everyone is selling the same thing. We ended up to Nena's Rose Inasal, why we choose this? because there was a poster outside her eatery where she had a picture with some celebrities and according to her, the eatery was featured in a tv show before.

We made no mistake her Inasal was the best Inasal I ever tried, I dont remember how many cups of rice I consumed, I just remember how satisfying our tour in Bacolod eating their own proud recipe of Inasal bare handedly.

Inasal grilled chicken with cooked rice

after our lunch in Inasal, we went to the San Sebastian Church in Bacolod City, we thank God for giving us a safe trip from Manila and giving us a chance to see how beautiful our country is.

 

 

San Sebastian Church in Bacolod City

I always buy keychain whenever I go to a certain province, I bought keychain in Bacolod City located just few meters away from the church, they were cheap but beautiful, you can asked them to engrave your name or someones name on the keychain itself, they only cost about 15 pesos each, perfect gift for my friend when I get home.

SM City Bacolod

after our tour in Bacolod City, we decided to go to the ferry bound to Iloilo, we chose Supercat and the travel took about 2 hours from Bacolod, it cost us about 200.

 

Bacolod City in the province of Negros Occidental is the first part of the interconnected provincial tour and we really had a good time ther., I will surely go back to this province to explore more of Negros Occidental.

 

 

How to get ther:

Cebu Pacific and PAL has flights going to Bacolod, flight takes about an hour. from Iloilo you can take a ferry going to Bacolod City.

 

Thank you for reading. Godbless :)