Day 1 – Our trip to Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental started here…syempre, all trips started here inside the airport. I went to our NAIA terminal 3 airport at around 5am, to meet Raffy and Ron who will travel with me going to Negros Occidental, it will be our first time to go in Kabankalan City, and we are excited because we will attend our very Sinulog festival, as the locals said that Sinulog started first there in Kabankalan City. Also joining in the flight is our new friends at Loqal and Choose Philippines.
When we receive the invitation about Sinulog, the three of us are so excited because we will attend and also cover the Sinulog 2014 festival, at first we thought that we will fly to Cebu on a Friday morning, but when we receive our airplane ticket, we are surprised that the trip is going to Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, we started to think and build our own speculation, we might ride a boat somewhere in Bacolod going to Cebu City, but then we later learned the real deal after inquiring and double check it with our PR contact, we really are flying to Bacolod City and then go to Kabankalan City to attend and cover their Sinulog festival.
Our excitement suddenly changes and then we did some google-fu to find out if there is really a Sinulog in Kabankalan City, and then after viewing some web pages, reading the Wikipedia, browsing some Flick photo sets and reading some blogs, then we are convinced that there really is a Sinulog festival in Kabankalan City…dubbed as Sinulog de Kabankalan and its their 38th year to organize and host the festival, I heard that it is 7 years more older and way ahead vs. Sinulog in Cebu City. Some old folks even said that Sinulog started there in Kabankalan, but I need some accurate readables to support the info and hearsay
but then after some research..
here’s Sinulog in Kabankalan City
”Initially staged in 1976 as a festival, the Sinulog has grown to become one of the major festivals not only in Negros Occidental but in the whole of Western Visayas.” - http://www.choosephilippines.com/do/festivals/1026/Kabankalan-Sinulog-History/
here’s Sinulog in Cebu City
”The first Sinulog parade was held in 1980, organized by Dávid Odilao, then Regional Director of the Ministry of Sports, and Youth Development. The parade was composed of students dressed in Moro costumes, dancing the Sinulog to the beating of drums.” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinulog
Okay.. sige na nga, but its not important who started it first, the most important part here is that this festival invites millions of people to come and celebrate it in this two cities, and its one of the 1st festival of the year that shows how we celebrate it in a fun and good way, and how we show to the world our unity and our hospitality to foreign visitors who want to join and witness the festival.
But before we board the plane, we took a pit stop here in Chai Kofi to eat our breakfast.
Raffy of www.pinoytravelblog.com is busy checking out that Kata smart phone, he’s doing a fast unboxing coverage of the new smartphone. And here’s Ron of www.wahpinas.com copying some of my movie files from my tablet to his tablet.. naks..kami na ang may new tablet hehehe. It’s a one day old Devant tablet, a giveaway from the American Idol 13 event the other night.
My breakfast – hot tea and a bacon, egg, toasted bread meal.
Its just a quick breakfast, I usually eat a meal inside the plane, but for this time I’ll eat my meal in this café, because I have no sleep for that day and my plan is to have some sleep revenge while in flight.
I don’t have any photo of the plane during the entire of our trip, we boarded the Cebu Pacific airline going to Bacolod and also going back here in Manila. Here’s my sleep revenge photo hahahaha. Taken by Ron (lol….)
After 45 or 50 minutes, we arrived in Silay airport in Bacolod City at around 7:15am. It’s a bit cloudy and cold here in Bacolod due to the low pressure area that sits for days in Southern Visayas and northern Mindanao.
bloggers – me, www.pinoytravelblog.com, www.wahpinas.com together with the online media – www.loqal.ph and www.choosephilippines.com were accompanied by Mr. Alfred Otea, provincial tourism officer of Kabankalan City.
Uy..my favorite Biscochio maker is based here pala!!! ohh wow!!! I started to be giddly when I saw this logo, you know that I buy Merci products in a store in Tagaytay City.
We took a short pit stop in a Mcdonalds store in Bacolod City, we ate our breakfast there and started to heat up our bonding moments with our new friends from the online media industry. It was a good chat with them, we learned that we work with the same passion and also mission to bring awesome content for the online world.
Here we received our media kit and also this historical background of Kabankalan City. It’s a sad and not good story, but that’s how history is being made… be part of Christianity or not – is a usual story that happens in different islands here in the Philippines, thanks to Ferdinand Magellan and Lapu Lapu for the history.
After reading this paper…I’m curious and want to visit the site of the Manyabog people.
in Bacolod – here’s a funny view..Mcdo and Jollibee facing each other, and here’s a local transport vehicle here in Bacolod City.
Photography mode – Ron and Raffy
I also noticed that the scene here is like in Manila… there are street kids who begs early in the morning, they stay near the fast food to beg.
Hello KM 00
It’s located infront of the capitol of Bacolod City
The fast food trio -- Mcdo, Jollibee and KFC
Capitol bldg of Negros Occiental
I’m a bit jealous that they have a nice children’s park here in the province, with grassy field and lots of trees.
spotted two lovers early in the morning…dating at the playground
colorful trails for kids
Spotted.. mom and baby early in the morning..photo op at the park
Carabao and lady statue at the lagoon
Capitol bldg
me and the lagoon view
And they breed lots of tilapia here at the lagoon… awesome sight
Fish feeding activity
Time to go back to the van
just an attempt to do photo art
more playground at the other side.
I’m impressed that the park is clean and there are lots of garbage bin, I hope that we can have the same set up here in Manila.
We rode the van and went to Kabankalan City, it’s a 2 hours land travel going to the other city, there are lots of road repairs and bridge renovation going on along the way, so our travel was bit slow, but that’s okay, the view from my window is very picturesque, I just want to drop off and stop and want to take photos of the view of the fields, mountain and also sea.
watch out next for my part 2 blog post, were we arrived in Zaycoland Resort and Hotel in Kabankalan City.
KABANKALAN CITY, NEGROS OCCIDENTAL
Kabankalan City provincial government website : http://www.negros-occ.gov.ph/about-negros-occidental/cities-and-municipalities/cities/kabankalan-city.html
Kabankalan City tourism page: http://tourism.negros-occ.gov.ph/places-to-go/cities/kabankalan-city/
Sinulog de Kabankalan Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sinulogdekabankalan
Thanks and credits
*** Many thanks to Mr. Tootsie and Pie Zayco for inviting us here in Kabankalan City. Thanks also to Mr. Alfredo Otea, Kabankalan City tourism officer, for touring us around the city, you may contact him at +63 946 2832510 if you want some info or tour around the city.
Thanks also to my travel blogger mates Raffy of www.pinoytravelblog.com and Ron of www.wahpinas.com for being the best company in every travel and gimmicks…and also nice to meet and thanks to Belle and Renz of www.choosephilippines.com and Nikka of www.loqal.ph . and last.. thanks to Mika, our PR contact for arranging and coordinating with us for this trip.
Its nice to meet you Kabankalan City!!! see you in our next visit.
Visit my travel blog post under “travel” tag - http://azraelsmerryland.blogspot.com/search/label/travel
For more Kabankalan City trave blog post, just click “kabankalan” tag in my blog - http://azraelsmerryland.blogspot.com/search/label/kabankalan
and for Sinulog 2014 - http://azraelsmerryland.blogspot.com/search/label/sinulog%202014
If you love my photos and want to save a copy…or if you need a copy to be published in print, tv or online, don’t hesitate to ask me and email me at azrael@gmail.com
