KEY Thread If not Dumaguete then where?

I just got back to the USA after 3 months in Lapu-lapu city, Cebu. This was my test run to see if I like it. Well, food poisoning twice, phone stolen, clipped by a motorcycle, Filipina who couldn't stay faithful. Yes I like it in spite of all the bad things. I read people complaining about traffic in Dumaguete and I say "try Cebu traffic". From Lapu-lapu to the new seaside mall by Talisay would take me 2 to 3 hours during the day. Aargh.
Well the reason for this post is what places would be good besides Cebu? Well let me put some of my criteria: A mall within 20 to 30 minutes (means a town of at least some size is available), within 30 minutes of at least an ok beach, somewhere relative safe, and not expensive. I don't need the night life but do want to find a pretty lady. As a reference I really liked Tagbilaran/Panglao island when I was there. I welcome comments on this matter and I know this is a very subjective thing.

Salamat

 

Define decent beach? I decided I wanted to take in a movie at Robinsons Mall Dumaguete. I was in Sibulan 10km away. It took an hour to get there in my jeep. I've driven in Cebu if you are going at off peak hours, it was not bad. Duma traffic is not that bad at off peak hours and I would drive in for a late lunch and shopping frequently in the 1:15 to 3:pm bracket. If you lived south of Duma, say in Bacong, Robinsons Mall is right on the highway and Hypermart isn't far enough away to make traffic unbearable most times of day. Dauin fram Bacong is probably within 30 minutes drive of Bacong most days and has fair beaches. A note on Robinsons mall. It is not like a major mall, it does have a movie theatre. Depending on where one lives in Bacong, you might find the internet lacking. Valencia would be a good choice for many although they have now blocked the street at the public market and it is full of carts and no car parking. A sub optimal solution in my eyes.

Robinsons mall is not fantastic, it has a movie theatre. I think a mall that doesn't have a movie theatre is just a big co-operative department store. Basically a Wal-mart in the US, with not as much stuff. I don't know where the next nearest movie theatre is but I wouldn't be surprised if it were Bacolod. Robinsons Duma is probably too small for the population it serves, but it is the only game in town at the moment. I don't know what is going to be in the new mall when it opens, whether it will have a theatre or whether it will be exactly the same as Robinsons. Someone told me there were at least 10 malls in Bacolod. I didn't look. I saw a couple that were as one would expect a mall to be in Cebu, saw it was accessable and that was all I needed to know.

Don't expect to get anywhere quickly in Duma unless you are on a motorcycle and then you will have to do things you wouldn't do elsewhere. I don't think Wrye is kidding when he calls the sidewalk just another lane to use. d*mn few useable sidewalks and most people walk in the street anyway.

I was looking at moving to Bacolod for liveabulity and I was fairly impressed. I took pictures of the wide streets to show people in Duma that I walked out in the middle of the street at 12 noon and took several pictures in both directions. That would be suicidal in Dumaguete. Of course after that the lunch rush started but that is everywhere. There is car parking in Bacolod downtown, d*mn little in Duma. I didn't start looking at beaches in Bacolod because I don't go in the water that often and any kind of beach is fine if you are just going to sit, drink beer and eat barbecue. When I want to go in the water, you can drive to a nice beach.

 

Mom's basement?

Retirement home?

Rehab?

 

I lived in Bacolod for about 9 months and just couldn't take it anymore. I liked the city and malls part of it but there is such a lack of green and friendliness was non existent. But beaches was a huge issue. In Bacolod their is even no half decent beach within distance. You'd need to drive an hour and a half or more. One I found I heard was *alright* the lady and I both got extremely itchy from and it wasn't a nice area either. I'd rather go swimming in the boulevard that any of the *beaches* I could find closer to Bacolod.
Bacolod was also hotter as its more built up taller buildings and much more crammed together. Also though going outside the city to where it was a little green and more open and the internet options plummeted massively unless your in a high class subdivision.

But if you can do w/o beaches, friendliness, green, and much in the way of internet or if you don't mind 25-60k a month rent for a high class subdivision it could be just fine. But if you get there look up Gary from the livinginbacolod yahoo group. Good guy fairly helpful.

 

I live 4 years in Bohol, 3 of them in Panglao. I moved to Dumaguete last year in juli. People are different, thanks god, some like city other countryside. Couple of reasons I move here to Negros. Panglao is a touristplace, now international airport will open december 2017, at least that the plan. Much more tourist on the way, and there already a lot, more and more koreans to, prices goes up, already not a cheap place to live, when you compere to other areas in Philippines. All tourist areas attrac scammers/criminels, its here the money are. I started out living in Tawala, few hundred meters from Alona beach, restaurants, bars and diving shops side by side, nice place for party, thats for sure. After playing tourist 8 months, rent hotel appartment, I moved to north of Panglao, near Mommo beach, more peaceful, and still only 10-15 min on bike to Alona. I need malls like you Billybob, not to hang around, but for shopping, want some imported stuff, cinema, bank, postoffice, maybe hospital, dentist with out travelling far away each time. I had good time in Panglao, but main reason lo leave, I don't want live in really crowed tourist area, With all the negativ sides it brings. Why Negros/Dumaguete ? I visit here many times and find people here more friendly, same say my friens from Bohol who visit here.From Dumaguete, like Tagbilaran, easy to reach other places in Philippines by plane or ferry. Important to me is optiens to do what I like to do, hobbys. I like go around on bike see new places, meet locals, yes you can do that every where, but Negros are new to me and bigger than Bohol, with a big city Bacolod near by. After 1 month in hotel appartment in Dumaguete and nearly 2 months in resort south of Dumaguete, roming around to find permanent place, I feel lucky find appartment in Bacong 20-30 meter from sea, water here is clean.Fishing is one of my hobbys, bought small boat of a member in this site, design for fishing, fishfinder, steeringwheel, 10 hp Kohler engine, really nice playtoy, if any members have same interest, your welcome to contact me and we can go fishing togheter. Already visit Panglao in boat even its only 5 meter/15 feets long, exciting trip.
Sorry for my lack of english, sure there are some grammer and spelling mistake, Im danish, hope you bear over with me

 

I don't know. Dumaguete doesn't seem as friendly to me as it does to you. I mean just look at the bile spewing hate against foreigners in the Negros Chronical? That got past an editor. This tells me it's pretty well accepted.

I will also reiterate that people who say they love Dumaguete? Many of them don't live there. There are reasons for that. As for having to drive 1.5 hours from Bacolod to get to a decent beach, with the quality of the roads there I could be all the way to Kabankalan in 90 minutes without pressing my luck. Iloilo is just a short ferry trip away also and I know people there and they tell me it is pretty reasonable cost of living there and they also have streets where you can drive and park cars.

True of city living just about anywhere, people may not be as friendly but I find it's on a case by case basis. I do find that they tend to stay out of your business more, maybe it's one of those give up something to get something deals? I will tell you this, Dumaguete was not designed to grow but it will keep growing anyway and it is going to choke. There is not enough money to expand the infrastructure and much of the historic parts of the city would have to be laboriously moved or bulldozed and lost. I take no pleasure in saying that. I have always said that Dumaguete's greatest asset is it's people but in the future is that going to be enough? I have been having a bit of conversation with a man who tells me he is going to settle on Dumaguete and buy his GF a house. He doesn't even know that Dumaguete is a city and not an island. I thought Duma was ok in 2013, I probably would have much preferred it in 2011. I'm fairly certain that I will not favor it in 2020. I don't get any joy out of knocking someone's city. I would think that if you wanted to preserve Duma as good as it is right now that you would be saying "You go Robert!" Because Duma is right now a 5 kilo bag with 7 kilos in it. By 2030, I expect it will be 10 kilos. I have no axe to grind, nothing to be made. The city was just not laid out to grow. I've lived other places where the streets were laid out for horse drawn wagons. I will say that they had the good fortune to NOT become capitol cities. They grew slower and had much more time to adapt and what used to be the town became the historic city center....surrounded by the rest of the city in military grid design. I don't see that happening in Duma. It won't have a chance to happen.

Just my opinion and you are welcome to yours and I wish you all the best and I'm glad you will be saved most of the growing pains since you are in Bacong.

 

Bacong is a pretty good location in terms of getting to the Robinson's mall or Dauin beaches/dive resorts in 10-12 minutes. There are actually a couple swimming beaches here. No nightlife though. Traffic getting worse going to town but not nearly as bad as to town from the north. Restaurants, well we have Chris's place for a burger and beer.

 

I agree with Wrye. When someone tells me their phone was stolen and it wasn't a snatch, strongarm or at weaponpoint hold up, I presume it was just lost. I have heard three or four times people say they had their pocket picked in an easyride. The thing is that I have seen people's phone fall out of their pockets about that many times from climbing into an easyride. The seats are low also and if you have long legs, change and everything else can fall out of your pockets while you are riding inside. Get some clothes with zipper, Velcro or button down pockets and you won't lose near as much stuff. Not saying there are not pickpockets out there but they are not everywhere.

 

Very good analysis. This city has a very inefficient traffic flow pattern, with streets too narrow and minimal parking. It will only get worst as more cars are incorporated into the city. I have not driven a car in this city since I moved here over 4 years ago, and most likely may not in the future. You just can not move quickly through the city in a car most of the time. Motorcycles rule the road here, but not in a benevolent way. A period of time ago this city took a path toward encouraging calls center to locate here. It was an effective program, and brought call centers and gave the English speaking youth very good paying jobs. That brought in a lot of motorcycles with young owners who stayed here. Now Dumaguete is trying to become a tourist and retirement community also, however there is not much of a growth plan... just a lot of "fun" slogans, and denial of reality of the problems that do exist. It is not a bad city, but like most over sized cities it does have growth and particularly transportation problems. Some expats like the trikes and that eliminates a lot of problem for them. So you have choices, but be ready to determine your own destiny with the traffic here... the city does not seem to have the ability, or the power to implement a good traffic program... however they are grasping the concept there is a problem that needs to be fixed.

So why am I still here? Dumaguete really has everything I need, but most likely only one of them in the whole town. It is an adventure to find what you need, but fun as you meet many friendly people. If you see something you like... buy it because tomorrow it may be gone and will not be back in stock" until next month,.... MAYBE" . This is not a first world city or county and probably never will be, so you have to accept what it has. The good part it really has about everything... yes it can be dirty in the city with horrible motorcycle traffic, but it can also be green and calm by moving out of the city in the right direction for a short ride of 10 plus minutes... if you go east in the wrong direction toward Siqulor you will be all wet, as you are in the ocean. Go north, west or south, in that order. Look at Valencia or Bacong, as they are both out of the "urban" sprawl areas. They offer green, Valencia more than Bacong, and a safe area to live if you research out the neighborhood you plan to move into. I can not emphasis enough the need to research the area you chose to live, spending nights, and weekends... discovering where the resto-bars and Karoke bars spring up on the weekend. Locate the Rooster ranches, and try to deter what will influence you stay. Never rent an house or apartment with out spending a weekend night in the area of you intended rental.

I think Dumaguete still has some good years ahead, but not particularly in the City itself. However the close outskirts has a lot of good areas left. Remember most time you can be in the City for the nightlife, or the Boulevard in less than 15 minutes, while living in a green environment during the day. Everything has good points and bad, you just have to decide what issues ring you chimes favorable, and what issues just ring your bell.