Yeah it's August and last year, James and I went to Dumaguete City for our third year anniversary celebration. This year, we are again gonna go back to the city I fell in love with. Tanya, my good friend will be going home for her nephew's first birthday celebration and we are gonna be tagged along too though James, Darwin and I will be going on Saturday while Tanya is going tomorrow.

I am quite excited about this trip because we are going with our own Baby Mia. This will be our first long trip together and we are gonna cross seas so it's really adventurous.

Here's the story, I logged out of work at seven morning last Friday, went to Jollibee with Jsames for breakfast and rode a cab to Cebu City's port number three. It was already eight when we reached the ticket booth for Starcraft bound for Tubigon. Was a bit frustrated and disappointed because I missed the 8:30 schedule, said it is already fully booked. Since I can't do anything about it, I went ahead to the waiting area and patiently waited for 10:30 boat. While sitting alone (James went back immediately due to a stomach ache) a woman of her forties spoke to me about the travel schedules. She had just exchanged her ticket from via Tubigon to via Jetafe because the latter departs earlier and she was like inviting me to do the same. I talked to her for awhile out of courtesy until I realized that Getafe is actually after Talibon and Talibon is just a few hours to Ubay and that means it's nearer my town. 

I jumped off my seat and went on asking how I could possibly change my tickets too. Good thing the Getafe craft don't have that much passengers and the person in charge allowed me to just get into the boat without changing tickets. Happy me!!!

Now the surprise didn't end there actually because when the fast craft started sailing it's butt off, it had also played the avengers movie. Yeah I know it's not yet on DVD but you know how pirates work right? So though the copy doesn't have a 10/10 quality as well as its audio, I was still keenly watching it. I love to see the actions you know. Unfortunately, we reached Getafe at ten so that was an hour of travelling and I didn't finish the movie which was a bummer. I swear I would get a copy of that movie with subs in the future.

Right after the group swam with the friendly whale sharks in Tan-awan, Oslob, [click here to read story] we headed to this not-too-famous natural falls in the said town.

From Tan-awan, we rode another ceres bus to Barangay Saging where we had drove on some motorcycles, locally known as habal-habal. It was a 5 minute drive from the national highway up to the mountainous place called "Calin-ay".

It was a breather reaching that area, away from the pollution from bus smoke and away from the tall buildings in the city. We had to walk a bit to reach the falls, it was indeed beautiful . There was zero entrance fee, it was just one of the few falls I had ever visited.

What was good about the Calin-ay Falls is that the water was distributed through the whole rock wall. It had created some hollow corners which makes shelter. The water was pretty falling from the above portion, it was a nice feeling yet if you would stay any longer, it would hurt you. I felt like I was having a massage though. Check this video we took:

Let me start this post by asking, how would you feel if you would see face to face a live whale shark?

I am very excited to share my new life adventure; I bet you have heard about the friendly whale sharks in Cebu. There had been news over the internet and on TV about these live creatures. It is really a great experience to personally see them swim with you.

The whale sharks, Butandings (Tagalog term) or Tuki as locally known are plankton eating mammals. There are whale sharks in some part of the Philippines and luckily, we have at most 14 in Oslob, Cebu. I had wanted to see them up close since last year. We originally planned to go there last January 22 yet because of some circumstances we moved it last February 5. Since I had just celebrated my 24th birthday last January 31, this was a wonderful gift. 

We left Cebu at three in the morning and reached Tan-awan, Oslob at five. There were a lot of people in the vicinity already; talks were it has been two days that the Butandings were not seen in the area so most of us were worried if we could actually see one. Everyone jumped for joy when a fisherman reported that they had seen one.

As early as seven in the morning, both of us were already out in the streets of Dumaguete City. I love the silence and though it is a city, there were only a few vehicles roaming around. We were really strangers out there, we didn't know what to do and where to go, blame it to the planner. Well, we were not serious of planning where to go before we reached here. Anyway, since we were already there, we just enjoyed it. 

We reached this moto-lending stall, I was not interested in borrowing one and driving the whole city but James was persistent. He said we will just ask how much but after awhile, I found myself riding it already. He doesn't have a driver's license so I was forced to drive. This is my first time to drive in a city and I was really nervous. I can't drive straight! Good thing there weren't jeepneys and huge buses there. The city reminds me of Tagbilaran City where the means of transportation is just tricycles. 

It was good to have a motorcycle to tour around the city but it was a hassle because we don't know where to go, we were just driving around in circles. BTW, we rented the vehicle Php150 every five hours. Since Robinsons is a bit far from the main city, we decided to go there but since it was too early, the mall was still closed. We just toured around the area.

Way before going to Dumaguete, I had already asked Mr. Google about the affordable hotels to stay in in the city. Among the list, I chose Hotel Nicanor because so far they had the best webpage I had seen and the accommodation suited what I had expected. I would say that their webpage would be one of the things that hotel owners must develop well because today's generation is a web-based one. So people most specially travelers would consider checking on the net first before going to a tourist spot. The hotel is also accessible because it is just a walking distance from the city stores and of course the Rizal Boulevard.

Anyway, we were greeted by a hospitable front desk officer and was immediately taken cared of. Opted the Matrimonial one for Php 1050 and so we were accompanied by a housekeeper towards room number 409. The hotel uses a switch card for access.

The lobby:

How would you feel if you travel to a different island with your loved-one? Ofcourse, you'd be happy, right?! 

Aside from Bohol and Cebu, which are our own provinces, James and I haven't gone to any other different island yet and so we had thought of going to somewhere near yet an interesting one. And Dumaguete is the best place! We decided then that we will definitely be going to the island for our third year anniversary and I am just so glad because we made it and yesterday, we were in Dumaguete!

To the South:

We rode on a Ceres Bus Liner via Cebu South Terminal to get to Bato Santander port. Our seat numbers 39 and 40 and at exactly 1:00, we were on our way there. It would take five hours to get to Dumaguete City. The truth is, there were two options, we can either take a bus to Liloan port and take a boat towards Dumaguete or just simply ride on the ceres bus until it reach Dumaguete, which means, the bus will be shipped via a barge ship to Dumaguete. We opted the second. Bus ride costs Php 200 per head.

Yesterday was a tiring yet amazing day, James and I celebrated the 35th month of our relationship and it was a lovely day to go out and spend the day with each other. We first thought of going to Taoist Temple in Lahug, I was still four I guess when I visited that place together with my family and the picture of the place is vague now. James has been there when he was still in secondary school so yeah, we planned to get there that day. Unfortunately, we have no hold of what the weather would be and surprise! It rained again, bummer! But my prayers were still granted because it was just a light rain compared to the other day's. So while James, I and her sister (yeah, he brought a chaperon, hehehe) were having lunch at Jollibee-P. Del Rosario branch, we decided to cancel out the Taoist Temple and just look for something else near our spot. 

The rain stopped before we finish eating but the sky was still dark and sad so we just went our way to this museum featured in one of those local TV shows we watch. We actually have no idea on its name, all we know is that it is near the National Heritage. So, from P. Del Rosario we walk towards San Carlos University and rode a Jeep route 01B to Parian. On National Heritage's left we found the museum itself!