We eventually get to Balamban, but there has been so much new construction that I don’t know where the city started and ended. We make a turn right and start going down the highway road. We took a guess and told the driver to stop and we unload our bags and get out.

We were looking for a place to stay when I see this girl on a bike pass by us – it was Analyn!  Analyn is our good friend that we met back in 2006.  We knew their entire family and got to know them well during our time in Balamban.

Analyn told us about a small hotel that was literally down the street and come to find out, they have vacancy! It was a comfortable place that had a great location.

After checking in, we walked around town to the city market. Balamban has a much slower pace than Cebu City. It’s very relaxed and laid back – much more like how I am. We found some buko juice, fresh fruit, and found a good restaurant to eat at. There are a lot of places that I still recognize from 2006. I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. It was like I was still there in Balamban.

Even though the market was fun, we were really looking forward to meeting some old friends. We spent the rest of the afternoon seeing old friends and making new ones.

Balamban has changed. There is now a Jollibee’s restaurant and many other new shops and even a small mall. The city market was about the same. I think it is a little bit bigger now though.

There are about 100,000 people in the greater Balamban area, but you wouldn’t know it. Most of the streets have trees and bushes right up to the edges, perfectly concealing most of the city.  There aren’t high rises or gigantic malls here though.

After resting for a bit it was night time. We met up with Analyn and the rest of her family at their home in a place called Cantuod. They made us a delicious dinner and we brought some chocolates and American candy to share with them. It felt soooo good to be there with them again. We just picked up where we left off over 12 years ago!

We were still exhausted from our flights and travelling and it was time to go back to the hotel.

After church service we went to lunch in the market and ordered almost one of everything from a small cafe. I ordered some ginamos, humba, some veggie dishes, and minudo. We of course, had to get several Sparkle drinks. One of our good friends took us around town in his multicab. I told him I had some laundry to do and he went up to a local laundromat and told the lady at the front desk “do this batch first, ok? We will pay later!” haha She obeyed his command like it was a no-brainer.

Later that night we got invited to a dinner at a friend’s house and had a great time. I don’t think I have ever eaten so much food!

We came home and went to bed!

Today we planned on going to a local cold spring north of Balamban called Molobolo Spring. I had no idea, but the family that we were going with woke up at 4:30 am to do shopping and cooking for our outing. It meant so much to us. We packed in the same multicab and made the trip north!

The springs are setup as a resort. You can rent a pavilion and videoke (karaoke but with video) and spend all day there if you want. We really enjoyed the springs! They weren’t really that cold, but compared to the outside temperature they are cool. The springs are right along the ocean underneath huge canopy trees.

I made it a point to try and find some sandals to buy. The resort had a few selections and once they saw that I was an American, the price magically went up double. They were still about $3, but I asked her in Cebuano why the price doubled when the tag on the sandals said 75 pesos.

She looked shocked and said that the price increased because its the last one. I said, “Nope. I’m only paying 75 pesos and that’s it.” we haggled back and forth for a minute and then we both agreed that I would pay 80 pesos instead. It’s a minor annoyance, but knowing the language definitely helps you keep prices reasonable.

We spent several hours at the springs and eventually came back to town. We rested a bit then went out to the market to find some lanzones (small delicious fruit) and other fresh fruit to snack on. We then came back and lounged around the rest of the night.

Waking up early this morning was difficult. I was still so tired and even a little disoriented. We got another ride from our friend in his multicab and we drove south to Toledo City to get a ferry ride across the straight to San Carlos City. San Carlos is on Negros Island and we were trying to get to Dumaguete City which was several hours away from there.

When we got to the port in Toledo, a few guys came up and started taking our luggage and saying they will take it to the ship. I knew what they were doing and insisted that I take my own luggage. They wanted a tip. I took back my bag and he was still aggressive and just followed us the whole time. When we boarded the ferry, he insisted that I give him $4 in USD for his services in dragging my luggage a whole 10 yards. I told him that that’s way too steep for being intrusive and aggressive with us. We quickly boarded and got to our seats.

We paid an additional 50 pesos or something to get VIP seating. I think VIP seating just meant that we get to sit in a smaller private area. It was worth it.

The ride across the straight was beautiful and exciting. We were going to somewhere new and I was looking forward to what the day would bring.

We got to San Carlos and tried to figure out where the local bus terminal was located. We had no idea where we were going so we asked a man walking by and he told us the terminal was far away. There aren’t taxis in this city, so we were forced to take a habol-habol, which is a small bicycle mode of transportation.

The terminal was small, but it had some shops for snacks and water. A man approached us and asked where we were going. We told him that we were going to Dumaguete City and he took our payment. I spoke to him in Cebuano and he spoke super fast Cebuano back to me. I only understood about 20% of what he was saying! 

They speak with a little bit different dialect on Negros Island, so I already was having a difficult time understanding some things.

I kept thinking to myself “wow, I really do suck at the language now.” But in actuality, I wasn’t doing so bad. I was making mistakes of course, but I was just trying to warm up my tongue to speaking Cebuano again.  It was a struggle to speak the language until about our last week where the language just suddenly came back. It was odd and freeing at the same time.

We walked around the city a little bit and went down to the ocean.  It felt good to finally have some time to walk around and not be travelling.  We were excited to be in Dumaguete.  I had lived here for two months and loved every minute of it.  We planned to do some great things the few days we were here, but first we needed to get some rest!

I love Dumaguete.  It’s even more laid back than Balamban is, I think.  I can’t wait to show you what we are doing tomorrow here!