Dumaguete – Goodbye to Negros Oriental

After leaving Sugar beach we needed a boat, 3 buses and a tricycle to get to Dumaguete, capital of Negros Oriental. Being the capital and having a university, Dumaguete is considered to be the most buzzing and hip city on the island (it was one of the few places with a reasonable selection of western style restaurants). The first thing we noticed is just how much busier it was than any where else we have been in the Philippines; cars, tricycles and motorbikes clogging the roads. Although there isn’t much in Dumaguete itself it is close to quite a few tourist attractions, so we had a couple of days of sightseeing planned before leaving for Bohol.

On our first day we went to Apo Island, a marine reserve and a diving and snorkeling hotspot. Taking a bus 30km out of town we arrived at the port and were grouped onto a boat with 7 other people to be taken out to the island. After paying our entry fees and picking up snorkels we were free to explore for the rest of the day. Bizarrely a large section of the sea in front of the beach was marked out with Bhoys, and you could only enter it with a guide. We decided not to bother with what seemed like a way for them to extract more money and headed to the end of the beach with the majority of the other backpackers. From here we went straight in the water and within the first 10 minutes we had seen 3 or 4 turtles. Ironically so many of them were in this area that many of the guides had brought their groups out here as well.

Stopping for lunch in one of the hotels on the beach we reflected that although Apo Island was nice it probably wasn’t as good as we expected. If you just visited Dumuguete it would be worth a day trip but compared to other places we had been the beach wasn’t that picturesque and we had already seen turtles in a couple of other snorkeling spots. Maybe if you aren’t travelling around that much of the Philippines or focusing your trip just in Cebu it would be worth it. After lunch we went back in the sea and tried to get a few snaps of us snorkeling with the turtles, rather than videos, it was only later that we realised the faux pro case had been very clouded so we were only visible in a couple of photos! Not long after it was time to set off for the main land as all day trip boats have to leave by 3:30pm.

The next morning we hired a moped so we could go to the twin lakes national park. We did a bit of research and found that this would actually be cheaper than getting public transport, which makes sense when moped hire is only about £7 a day! Getting out of the city was pretty chaotic as the crossroads don’t have any form of traffic control, so making any turning is a free for all. But once we were on the main highway we had a nice ride along the coast before taking a turning up into the hills to reach the twin lakes. This was a particularly nice section of winding roads with stunning palm tree covered hills dropping into deep valleys.

We eventually reached the top and made our way along the 1km trail to reach the viewing point between the twin lakes. For the most part the trail required walking over large boulders, ducking under or climbing over fallen trees, not the easiest of walks. At the viewing point you are perched just between the lakes, with a panoramic view. A guide explained how they are within the crater of a dormant volcano, with an altitude of 900m and 860m (which explains why we were driving uphill for half an hour). We were surprised that there were so few tourists around but as there are only a couple of short trails and you can’t swim here I guess people don’t think it’s worth the money. Before heading back we went down to the water’s edge and found a tree had fallen into it right at the shore, creating an irresistible Instagram shot for Dominique! With that complete we made our way back to the moped and coasted back down the winding road.

About halfway down we stopped at a sign for a restaurant. We weren’t expecting much but taking stairs down from the road we found a huge room with views out across the hills and the sea in the background. With only a couple of other customers (including the obligatory pension aged man with not one but two young Filipino women) we grabbed a table on the balcony area and spent over an hour enjoying our food and soaking up the views.

Our next stop was the Pulangbato falls, recommended by the moped hire guy… To get there we had to take a few very local roads, which weren’t much more than dirt tracks. The falls are over red rocks, supposedly a result of sulphur from hot springs in the area. So when we passed through a steaming sulphur field we knew we were getting close.

At the falls is the famous red waterfall, but also a couple of other nice pools. After a long and hot day on the bike it was nice to jump in and cool off (although it was too cold for Dom). Feeling refreshed we made our way back to the city, enjoying the sea views for our last night in Negros.

Our next stop is Bohol.

Tim