⌛ greetings from a newbie

hi,

greetings to everyone. wishing you all a blessed year. i am scheduled to go to dumaguete 2 weeks from now. it is my first time. would appreciate sugggestions and recommendations as to where and how i shud spend my 4-day vacation there. my e-mail is vyy53@yahoo.com. thanks.


chambero

 

hey chambero,

welcome to the board what did you have in mind? there's a lot to do if you know exactly what you're looking for to entertain you.

 

hey cheskaraul,

Thank you for responding to my post. I am interested in the
1) local way of life
2) it's natural beauty
3) its history and culture
and thus experience what makes Dumaguete unique from all other places. I plan to stay at one of the hotels along Rizal for 2 nights and one night at a resort hotel to better immerse myself in the local sites. What hotels do you suggest? Thanks again for your help.

 

Hey chambero.

Oh you're from manila huh. Well most of the people who go visit Dumaguete usually stays in Bethel, that's along Rizal Blvd. As for a resort I could recommend either Pura Vida or Antulang, more on Antulang though.

Basically as long as you stay within downtown Dumaguete you'll see how we all live. For history and culture, there are tours (i used to laugh at the fact that there are tours). You'll see Silliman University, The Bell Tower, Freedom Park, etc.

Natural beauty? Dude we've got a lot of those. None of which you might be able to do in your four day stay. There's scuba diving in Apo, whale/dolphin watching in Bais, Trekking up Mt. Talinis, Going to Balinsasayao/Twin Lakes.. blah blah blah.

You wanna experience Dumaguete? Well it's to learn how to act like a local really. Go where the locals go and not where the brochures tell you to. We can spot outsiders a mile a way

 

As an American who visited Dumaguete I can also recommend not strictly adhering to the "tourist trail". I don't understand why some people will travel thousands of miles just to stay at a luxury hotel and never dare to experience real native culture (i.e. never leave their comfort zone). If I wanted to experience a warm climate I could just go to California or Florida or Hawaii and find a room overlooking the ocean (not that I could actually afford that). However, my desire was to immerse myself in an entirely new culture, and be blessed by the experience (which I was).

I was glad that my Dumaguetena friend allowed me to have a glimpse of her daily life. While I think some of those well-known tourist attractions are worth seeing, I certainly would recommend taking a pedi-cab ride (at least if you're a Westerner), having a walk through downtown Dumaguete, and stopping for lunch at Jo's Chicken Inato

 

Hey Kuya,

You did the right thing. The best way to experience Dumaguete is by acting like a local. Seriously, if you act like a tourist you wouldn't get to experience Dumaguete. Right?

You are lucky to have known one of us locals Kuya, others don't really know anyone so they have to stick to their travel guides. Eck. hahaha

 

Oh, I definitely was far removed from my own culture. We hosted a dinner one night with my fiancee's friends, and most of the time I just listened to these conversations in Bisayan. Someone would talk...then everyone would laugh...and my fiancee would just tell me it was a joke that could not easily be translated into English. Needless to say, I felt a bit lost that night

Anyway, I was fortunate to have my own "guide". She would be the one to negotiate prices with pedi-cab drivers so we wouldn't have to pay the "foreigner price", and once I got brave enough to ride with her on a motorcycle she handled the Dumaguete traffic with no trouble (which means she was changing lanes and passing vehicles and honking her horn...almost constantly )

It certainly beat sitting in a secluded resort all day, having no contact with the outside world. :p

 

Hahahahaha. What you should do Kuya is try to pick up on the dialect little by little. There are some things that are so funny but once translated to English it just doesn't seem as funny. My cousin's friend from London visited him and we took him around, needless to say he was wide eyed the whole time when we'd start yakking away in Bisaya. hahahaha

Oh yeah those pedicab drivers know how to cheat people with their prices. I'm a local and still they try to get more out of me, I end up causing traffic debating on why I should be given a cheaper rate. Hahahaha. You indeed were very brave to ride on a motorcycle through Dumaguete 'traffic'. If we run into each other sometime I'll show you my scar from a motorcycle burn one happy drunk night where my friend thought the sidewalk was still part of the road.

Beats resort life anyday huh