Have you ever been on a completely spontaneous trip? One where you had zero plans whatsoever and your decisions were made on the spot, including the main destination? Then you know the anxiety, the rush, and the excitement that come with it.
I went on this kind of trip about 4 years ago. I remember going to the bus terminal in the morning and bringing a tent because the initial plan was that we were going to the beach in the northern part of Cebu (Philippines).
When we arrived at the bus terminal, there were so many people. It was Holy Week in the Philippines and that meant a long holiday where people would go home to their hometowns.
The line to the bus for our intended destination was endless and my companion and I did not have the patience to wait that long. Frustrated, we aimlessly walked around the terminal and something caught our eyes. There was a bus that had no line. The sign on the bus read BACOLOD, it's a city on an entirely different island. Suddenly my companion asked me if I wanted to ride that random bus and go to Bacolod. I was speechless.
Why would we go to Bacolod? What's even in there? Where would we sleep and what would we do? Did we have enough money?
All of these questions ran through my mind. I was worried but I had little choice. I didn't want to wait in line but I also didn't want to go home and spend the long weekend without doing anything. And so I agreed. We walked toward the bus and went inside.
My heart was racing. I'm a heavy organizer and I always plan my trips. I thought I was going against my nature. But my "planning self" prevailed. The moment I sat down inside the bus, I immediately looked up where we could stay in Bacolod. Through Agoda, I booked a hotel in the middle of the city where the bus could drop us off. I searched for tourist spots around the city and made a rough itinerary. And that calmed me down. Little did I know there would be some problems we'd have to face later.
When the bus was about to head off, the bus conductor approached us and asked for a number. We didn't know that each passenger was given a number before they went inside. There were two people behind the conductor who said our seats belonged to them. I was nervous but fortunately when I looked at the back of the bus, there were still two seats available. We asked the conductor if we could take those seats instead. He agreed and so we transferred and the bus finally headed off.
Our bus was headed to the port in Toledo, a city in the southern part of Cebu. It took a couple of hours before we arrived at the port and there, we encountered a big problem. As the passengers went out of the bus, they were presenting their boat tickets. We didn't have boat tickets. Then we found out that we were supposed to buy the boat tickets at the bus terminal. I was nervous again. I feared we would not be allowed to get into the boat because we didn't buy the tickets at the terminal. After a few minutes of talking and asking nicely, we were able to convince the boat official to let us get on the boat and buy the ticket there.
Our bus rolled onto the boat and we climbed up to the passenger area. We looked for comfortable seats and waited for the boat to start its course. The weather that day was a bit gloomy but the sea was calm. I started to relax as the boat drifted away from Cebu and traveled towards the island of Negros (yes, that's the name of the island).
After two hours, our boat arrived in San Carlos City. There, we rode the bus again and went on another 2-hour trip. My butt was already aching and it did not help that the road was constantly winding. The only consolation of the trip was the amazing views you could see when you looked out the window. You could see beautiful mountain ranges and the wide sea. On the other side, you could make out Mt. Kanlaon, the volcano on the island.
After almost eight hours of sitting and riding, we finally arrived in Bacolod City. It was already dark. After a few minutes of setting our things in our hotel, we roamed the city streets to look for food. We passed by their plaza that had black and white tiles on the ground. There was a huge gazebo honoring some of the greatest artists. The names of Wagner, Mozart and other artists were inscribed.
The city center was lively but it was not too crowded. Then again, it was Holy Week and people tended to stay inside the house at night except during processions.
Bacolod City is famous for its chicken inasal (roasted chicken). We found Manokan Country, the strip of restaurants that offered roasted chicken and oysters. Of course, we ordered the chicken and included some oysters. And they were right. The chicken was so good. I couldn't get enough of it. The oysters were okay. They were fresh but what impressed me was the price. The oysters there were cheap.
After having dinner, we looked for a place to chill and have a few bottles of beer. We found a hip place behind a hotel and stayed for a few minutes before deciding to back to our hotel because it was getting late. We passed by their local delicacy store and bought some treats for our family back in Cebu.
The next day, I was excited to do everything on my itinerary. However, we found out that there were tourist spots that were closed because it was a holiday. The only place near that was open was Campuestohan Highland Resort. I have never heard of it before and I didn't know what to expect.
It was located high up in the mountains of Talisay, a city located north of Bacolod. I found out online that we could get there through their shuttle service that traveled according to a schedule. Google Maps told me that we could get to the shuttle on foot from our hotel. We headed off and walked for a few minutes when we realized that we were getting farther from our destination. We were going the wrong way! We quickly turned around and doubled our pace. We weren't sure if we could make it on time. Then, we saw the shuttle and ran towards it because we knew it was about to go. Luckily, we made it just in time.
The travel was short as we ascended the mountainous parts of Talisay. A sign said our destination was only 3 km. When we arrived, I was impressed. The entrance of the resort had these statues of animals that were well made. "Campuestohan Highland Resort," the sign read.
We went inside and I was even more impressed! There were two huge dinosaur statues, one was a T-rex and the other was a Brachiosaurus. The dinosaurs towered over the buildings and structures in the resort. We marveled at the statues for a while before deciding to look for shelter because it was such a bright and hot day. We passed by a statue of a mammoth along the way.
After resting for a while, we set out to roam around the whole resort. We discovered it was much bigger than we thought. There was an entire Indian Village for their accommodations. There were more rooms in their cabins and other houses. The Indian Village houses were colorful and there were more statues to marvel at. Aside from the houses, there were also countless cottages that people could rent.
We could see how high up in the mountains we were because we could see the plains and the sea down below. We took pictures of a statue of an Indian warrior before we moved to the next location. Looking at the pictures, I think the statue was too light-skinned.
Again, I went on this trip in 2018 and their Dinosaur Park was still under construction. It's fully operational now but we still saw quite a number of their dinosaurs back then. There were statues of little dinosaurs that moved. At the entrance of the park, there was this huge snake with its mouth gaping open.
I thought I would want to return to the place because I wanted to see what the Dinosaur Park would look like once it was completed. We took a few pictures of the dinosaurs. I posed inside one of the dinosaur eggs. There was this majestic Triceratops that looked very detailed. I just had to pose beside it.
We spent the whole day at Campuestohan and got to see all the other attractions like their wave and foam swimming pools. Their statues of King Kong, Kung Fu Panda characters, and a great white shark. We also went on their sky bike and rope course. I will be sharing more of them in the next part of this post.
And that's it! It was fun reminiscing such spontaneous adventures to an unfamiliar location. I want to return to see their operational Dinosaur Park. Traveling between islands in the Philippines is now easier but I think restrictions will soon be stricter because of the fear of the Omicron variant.
Keep a look out for part 2 of my adventures in Campuestohan. See you in the next post. Cheers!
