"The Ruins in Talisay City Negros Occidental (Near Bacolod City Negros Occidental)

It is the remains of a mansion built in 1900’s. Inspired by Italian architecture, this mansion was built by a sugar baron as testament for his love to his wife. The structure was built on 440-hectare sugar plantation. However, it was burned down by Filipino guerilla fighters during the World War II, to prevent the Japanese Invaders in using it as their military office. Despite the fire and losing the majority of the structure, it’s ruins has been recognized as one of the architectural wonders of the country.

TIP: Visit the place in the afternoon till sunset, seeing the ruins against the glimmer of the sun while it sets gives it a more dramatic and fascinating effect ☺️"

"Our city, prides itself on having one of the most colorful and lively festivals in our Province.

The Tawo-Tawo Festival of Bayawan City, Negros Oriental. As an agri-city, the festival is celebrated every February. Dancers danced to a lively drum beat on our city streets and ends with a final showdown. Participants are being judged in 2 category the Street Dancing and Showdown.

The concept of the festival is celebrating bountiful harvest through parading the representations of farming like the carabao as well as the crows or maya birds which are one of the “enemies” of farmers especially during harvest season. In order to drive and scare them away the farmers invented the Tawo-Tawo which means person-person or person like, which we now know as Scarecrow."

Our go to place to beat the heat is this hidden gem located in the hinterlands of out City. There is nothing more relaxing than spending time with mother nature, just listening to the waterfalls and the chirping sounds of the birds around.

There are 2 waterfalls in the area as seen in the photos. We were fortunate during this visit as it rained the previous days, so the waterfalls are quite full/strong 😄

📍Bayawan City Negros Oriental, Philippines

Our go-to place for Al fresco dining is Hayahay Square. It is a local food park where you can have a variety of food choices, from grilled seafood, barbecue, and some all-time favorite Filipino dishes like lechon and other street foods.

It is open every day/every night.

📍Hayahay Square, Bayawan City Negros Oriental Philippines

Want to have an up close and personal encounter with cute rabbits? You can have this experience in Rabitton located in Pamplona, Negros Oriental Philippines.

Here, you can pet and feed these cute creatures. The place also has other farm animals but the highlight and star is the different breeds of rabbit thus the name Rabitton. If you want to take them home, you can also buy them at the farm. They also have a cafe where you can have and taste rabbit burgers and other menus made of rabbit meat. Personally, I did not try it because I can’t imagine eating the cute rabbits that I just pet & feed. You can also buy some herbs to plant and grow at home. They also grow their own produce that they mostly use in their cafe.

📍Bacolod City, Negros Occidental:

When in the City of Smile, these are some of the must-try dishes:

- Chicken Inasal - Bacolod’s famous dish

- Cansi - beef sour soup, like sinigang. They used local fruit called “batwan” to make the soup sour and also atswete for added flavor and color.

- Seafoods. My favorite is the grilled stuffed squid and butter garlic shrimp (even if I’m allergic to it)

TIP:

Visit the Manokan/Inasal country to have more choices of Chicken Inasal restaurants/stalls. I recommend to check Aida’s Chicken or Nena’s Rose

📍Campuestohan Highland Resort:

This is a family-friendly resort where children and adults will have a great time exploring the vast resort. You can swim, have a picnic, and experience the different activities the resort offers. They have a zip line and a hamster wheel, you can also try your skills on their rope course and have some adrenaline-pumping riding on their sky bicycle among others.

Tip:

- wear comfortable footwear especially if you want to try their adventure activities as they do not allow slippers when doing these rides/activities.

- the resort has its own shuttle service for those who do not have or are not bringing their own transportation.

- The resort has restaurants but you can also bring your own food without a corkage fee.