City of Smiles and I'm All Smiles

06 January 2013

Second time around, and I just fell deeper in love with Bacolod. 

Cebu to Bacolod - Silay International Airport. 

We've booked this flight way before I booked my flight back to the Philippines, and I am just so happy that we did. Even if until the day came, we still did not have a concrete itinerary. It's fun having unplanned plans! 

From the airport, we took a van (50Php each) to take us to Silay city and start wandering from there as it's nearest the airport.

Just 10 minutes, and we got to Silay City's plaza.

A quick stroll, some taho (yey, at last!) to warm our tummies, swinging in the kids area and laughing at the tiniest thing, and a visit to the church.

We knew that there were museums and ancestral homes around here somewhere, so we asked around, got lost and found our way. 

And there it was! 

Balay Negrense

Not even 9 am yet, and we were knocking at these houses. It was too silent and gloomy we got the goosebumps! The ancestral houses and museums open a little past 9 I guess, so don't be too early, ayt?

Hofileña Museum

Walking along the strip, we located another ancestral home and waited until someone inside notices us and opens the gates. After a drizzle and the sunshine and then the rain pouring softly again, a caretaker went outside to feed the dogs and saw us! Finally, we were welcomed inside. 

We had a tour and a pretty long art and history class the morning through, led by a direct descendant of the family.

I tried my hardest to store those lessons in my head, but after 2 months, my memory has failed me.

A huge thanks to Mr. Ramon Hofileña for taking the time to take us around the house even when you haven't finished your breakfast yet. :)

There were more places that could take us back in time, but we didn't have much time or enough stamina to get there. We were famished! It sure was a long morning for us and we just had to head on for some breakfast. Initially, we planned to go to El Ideal Bakery, but with some suggestions from the locals, we decided on trying out a lesser known place to tourists, but a go-to place for locals - Cafe 1925.

We had grilled cheese and some crab meat sandwiches, and churros with chocolate dip. Super good! We then dropped by El Ideal to grab some pastries for pasalubong and try out their ever-curious guapple pie. We had the pie for take away and forgot about it, so we really weren't able to have a taste. :(

So that was Silay City. We hopped on another van to Bacolod City (15Php each) and a tricycle (20Php each) to take us to where we could stay for the night. 

Hang in there for the second part of the day.