Category Philippines

Traveling around the Philippines.

May 6 2023

Domus Resto: A place that feels like home

Domus Resto. I wonder if I found this place while scrolling through Facebook, or while reading Ian Casocot’s blog (often one of my sources of new places to try). Coming to this place had often been on my mind since it wasn’t too far from work, but the opportunity to visit finally presented itself one somewhat humid evening in March. Aunt and I were both at the office after regular work hours and decided that since we were hungry and I needed to pick my uncle up from the airport later in the evening, we might as well have dinner nearby.

Aunt guided me to a somewhat shortcut that took us through EJ Blanco, into Amigo Subdivision, until we got to Domus Resto. Another more straightforward route would have been to drive through Silliman Uni and Hibbard Avenue until we got to that entrance to Amigo Subdivision. The place was small and well-hidden if you didn’t know exactly where it was; the fact that it’s in an old house and not a stand-out building makes Domus Resto blend in with its surroundings even more. There was luckily one spot for parking a car and it was free, otherwise we’d have to park on the already narrow road headed into the subdivision.

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Mar 5 2023

Staying at Summit Hotel Magnolia

I mentioned it in a post last January but in December, I had to fly to Manila somewhat last minute to attend the wake and funeral of my uncle. Since I was going to be with my uncles and aunts from here, and because I was going to be around other people in an enclosed space, I opted to book at a hotel instead of staying in our house. The hotel that was conveniently located close to the location was Summit Hotel Magnolia, so it was our main priority choice to stay at. Not surprisingly, December is really a busy time for hotels so expect a lot of difficulty booking rooms, especially in our case–last minute.

Because of the peak season, I ended up with 3 different reservations under 2 different room types. In the middle of our trip was a day where the hotel was fully booked so we couldn’t get a straight stay and ended up with 2 bookings to at least lock in rooms for the majority of our trip. Luckily, on our first day check-in, we inquried at the Front Desk and someone cancelled their reservation last minute. We got that room.

Photo taken from Summit’s website

Location: Summit Magnolia is located adjacent to Robinsons mall, which is great bec you have access to a lot of shops and restaurants. The mall portion is facing Aurora Boulevard, one of the main accesses to get around Metro Manila. It is also located about a 5-10 minute walk from the Gilmore LRT station. From inside the hotel, there’s direct access to the mall (private door) so it’s convenient to go in and out. The main entrance to the hotel is facing Dona Hemady Avenue, and along the line of the entrance are a few cafes and even a Mcdonalds.

Sadly, what makes the location great also has its downs. The entrance to the hotel is by the driveway leading to the mall and parking, so during busy mall hours it is very inconvenient to stop here. The drop-off space only has an allowance for one car and cars waiting to reach the hotel will have to make sure they’re parked to the utmost right to give way to cars parking for the mall.

Service: Front Desk was mostly very helpful and friendly during my stay. Staff in the halls and elevators would greet guests who came by. Housekeeping though is a little on the slow side (I am not sure if the number of guests at the time are too many and they don’t have enough staff on hand), because it took them over 15 minutes to deliver towels that they forgot to place in our room. I did have one not-so-good experience when I was moving rooms & needed to check in again: my room wasn’t ready by checkin time so I was asked to wait on the side until they called me to say it was ready. 40 minutes later and they still hadn’t gotten back to me, while I saw guests who arrived later than me being checked in. Apparently, front desk forgot about me (what the person at FD literally told me). I understand that the number of people coming in and out at the time was a lot and staff might feel overwhelmed, but it’s just good to note that next time I should sit somewhere where staff can see me so they don’t “accidentally forget” during times like this.

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Jan 23 2023

Food Review: Dong’s Kitchen

Name: Dong’s Kitchen

Address: EJ Blanco Drive, Daro, Dumaguete City (near the intersection of Mango Avenue, right beside the Baptist Church)

Rating: 9/10

Business Hours: Mondays to Thursdays (11am to 9pm), Fridays to Sundays (11am to 10pm)

Telephone Number: (035) 528-9271

Website: Facebook Page

Visited: November and December 2022, January 2023

Dong’s Kitchen is a small hidden restaurant located in Daro in Dumaguete. Daro is right outside the downtown business area and is home to a lot of great places to dine at. Dong’s Kitchen is fairly new, and I say it’s hidden because it’s located within a private property that does have signage but isn’t noticeable unless you’re looking out for it or know where it is. This place is easy to get to, whether you have your own car or motorcycle, or take a pedicab, as the area is near to a lot of heavy foot traffic locations. I like to think it’s a place not many people know of YET because I’ve been here a few times and they’ve always had room to accommodate. But if you want to be sure that they do have room to accommodate your group/party, do give them a call ahead of time.

The atmosphere of the place isn’t like your typical restaurant. It has an industrial feel with cemented floors and walls, wooden tables and chairs, and a high ceiling. The neighbors of Dong’s Kitchen aren’t open so far, or they use their space for storage, so there are a lot of parking spaces on the property where the restaurant is. Even so, the inside of the restaurant is teeming with energy and conversation during the dinnertime hours.

I enjoyed the service of Dong’s Restaurant during my visits. Staff are really friendly and welcome to recommending their house specials to you. If you raise your hand to call their attention, they will easily respond. Ask for extra cutlery or bowls, they will have it ready for you in a jiffy.

I would call their food a sort of Asian and Western fusion. The servings are fairly large and will definitely keep you full, and the prices are reasonable considering the quality of food and service you get.

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Nov 17 2022

Staying at Seda Hotels BGC

I recently wrote about flying home to Manila. Since we’re still living in a Covid Era, I didn’t want to go directly to our house from the airport while bringing possible Covid (or other things) to my family since both my parents are already seniors. Being at the airport, or traveling in general, you are exposed to all these other people on the airplane and the airport. They themselves might have been exposed to others during their travels. As a safety precaution, staying at least one day elsewhere and then being able to take a warm bath (or two), and shrugging off some of whatever I may have been exposed to, was what I decided to do.

We ended up choosing Seda Hotels BGC since the location is ideally not too far from the airport, the area is very safe with so many restaurant and shopping choices if I need to go out and eat or buy something, and lastly that I’m very familiar with the area.

Upon arriving at Seda, some staff where kind enough to meet me right at the entrance to take my bags from the car. I was brought to the check-in counter and I had a quick check-in process. I was only asked to fill out a few details on their registration sheet before handing out my ID and my vaccination cards (I don’t think this is required but I handed it in anyways) to the front desk staff. Then I was handed my room key, a welcome letter, and showed to where the elevators are. I decided to just carry my bags to my room on my own since I only had 2 luggages.

After being prepped by housekeeping, rooms have a sticker on the door that label them as sanitised and ready for checkin. The stickers though are not completely thorough as I was able to open the door with the card, without breaking the sticker seal. If I went in and then came back out, I could be able to put the sticker back in place as if nothing had been touched. I made sure to tear the sticker on the door to ensure housekeeping that the room was in use. This was later removed from my door by the staff.

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Nov 11 2022

Ignorant to Dumaguete’s Arts Scene

It’s one way to excuse yourself regarding anything “cultured” because there’s just so much going on in life and in your city, like when I lived in Manila. Back then, you would be hard-pressed to see me dressing up for an arts event because the traffic is horrendous, and there’s just too much preparation needed for those things. I have been to a handful of such events, but usually at the prodding or encouragement of other friends.

Dumaguete on the other hand, is a smaller place, yet it’s brimming with so much culture and arts that being an adult with adult money, with a job, and with a good educational background, and not knowing these things makes me feel like some uncultured swine. I get a lot of my arts and culture (and even food) updates from Silliman University’s FB pages, or from eloquent Dumaguete-based writer Ian Casocot (whose written works and blog I occassionally read/follow). At the very least, I can say that I have attended a few plays/performances at Silliman’s Luce Auditorium (such as Song of Solomon, RENT, M Butterfly) since moving here, owing to the fact that it’s closeby and the traffic going there is not as bad compared to Manila. Plus I now know people who are passionate attendees to such events. All those things have helped develop some sense of being cultured or at least lesser ignorance.

I was kindly reminded by friend and fellow blogger Thea when she asked me about Julia Barretto’s Dumaguete vlog from her trip a few weeks back. Since Julia’s vlog about our city was posted to her Youtube, I decided to immediately check it out to see what fascinating things and places she had to showcase.

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Sep 12 2022

Dumaguete’s New Coffee Place by the Seaside

First, Starbucks finally came to our little town back in September 2019. A lot of my family here know that younger me said I would never live in a place like this that had no Starbucks. Of course, I did move here even without Starbucks, but at least I can check that off that list. And then after Starbucks, I started craving CBTL because of all the newsletters and promos they kept sending me which I ultimately couldn’t avail since we didn’t have that here.

So we reached this point: I’ve been meaning to write about my trip to Dumaguete’s first and only The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (CBTL) branch, which I visited in early July. But like many things, they tend to be forgotten or pushed aside when other things come up.

As it turns out, CBTL Dumaguete opened sometime in May, about 2 months before my July visit. It’s located on Flores Avenue, just north of the Port of Dumaguete but a little before you reach the row of restaurants like Lab-as/Hayahay, Cafe Racer, and Lantaw. The place is about a 5-minute drive (less without traffic) from the downtown area and Rizal Boulevard. The front facade of the building that houses CBTL and other restaurants had been boarded up for months, though we did receive news on some Facebook pages that they were planning to open up that area for some time now. So it was a surprise when it actually finally did.

Leading to frontage

The front of the building is right by the highway, which is also right beside the sea. If you’re driving by and have no idea if you’ll drive past, you can’t miss it as the facade is colorful and eye-catching. You get a great view of the sea, and part of Cebu and Siquijor from here. You can easily take a pedicab here, or your own motorcycle/ car, but there is no front-side parking so you’ll have to enter a small road (facing the building it’s on the right side) leading to the back area where the parking is.

The building from the back/parking area, frontage looks similar
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Jun 12 2022

Food Review: La Mensa Italian Chophouse

Name: La Mensa Italian Chophouse

Address: EJ Blanco Drive, Piapi, Dumaguete City (entrance to property is beside Hotel Dumaguete, on the same side as Lantaw and Cafe Racer)

Rating: 8.5/10

Business Hours: Wednesdays to Sundays, 6pm to 10pm

Website: Facebook Page

Tripadvisor: Tripadvisor Page

Visited: Feb, March, and May 2022

La Mensa is one of the fairly new places to eat at in Dumaguete. I’ve been here 3x in the last 3-4 months, all for dinner. This gem of a restaurant is well-hidden, so you wouldn’t know to look for it unless someone told you where to go, or you used Google Maps/Waze to get there, as the building itself can’t be seen from the road. Even from the main road, you do not see the structure immediately, so when you drive/walk/ride into the property you get a really good slow-mo introduction to the building/restaurant that oftentimes leaves me awestruck despite my many visits.

Location: La Mensa is the evening version of Buglas Isla Cafe. The entrance is located right on EJ Blanco, right across from The Food District. There’s a sign at the entrance of the property that you may miss if you’re not looking carefully. The place is most accessible by car or motor as it’s still a few hundred meters from the gate to the actual restaurant. Commuting here is possible, but best to get your tricycle/pedicab to bring you all the way in versus dropping you off at the gate. You do have the option of walking in from themain road as the way in, though pebbled, is fairly well-maintained.

Parking: There is ample parking space at La Mensa which can fit multiple cars and motors. Even on a busy night, you can probably fit around 10 cars or more.

Booking: The best way to eat here is to call ahead and book. I’m not sure if they readily accept walk-ins but it’s best to just call them first in case there happens to be a big crowd for the evening. La Mensa opens at 6, and is usually closed after Buglas Isla’s morning to afternoon run, so best to plan ahead especially if you’re a big group.

Night view from outside
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Jan 18 2022

Resort Review: Salaya Beach Houses

Review On: Salaya Beach Houses

Address: (Before Municipality Proper) Dauin, Negros Oriental

Rating: 8.5/10

Website: salayabeachhouses.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/salaya_beach_houses/

Visited: End of September 2021

Enjoyed a wonderful overnight stay at Salaya a few months ago. We had the entire place to ourselves as our reservation was for the middle of the week.

Salaya Beach Houses is a private resort located just a few minutes before the Dauin municipality proper. It’s about a 30-40 minute ride from the Dumaguete (Sibulan) airport depending on the traffic, with the airport just north of the city capital, and Dauin two municipalities south of it. The resort is aptly sized, not too large that it feels overbearing, or too small that it feels cramped. There are just a couple of buildings, each housing 2 types of rooms, so it’s not a place you’d expect to get overcrowded if you’re staying in.

A view of Apo Island in the distance
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Mar 19 2021

Photoblog: Swimming with the Whale Sharks

With a lot of seas surrounding a lot of islands, the Philippines has a lot of sea-oriented activities to enjoy. Oslob, where the whale sharks are, is coincidentally in Cebu island but it is much closer to Dumaguete in terms of travel time: Dumaguete to Oslob is about 2.5 hours, while Cebu City to Oslob takes about 3-4 hours.

A few years back when my aunt and uncle told us they were planning on taking us to go whale shark-watching in Oslob, I was quite excited since I heard a lot of people do it before, but I had personally never done it myself. Oh, I was quite frightened too since I am afraid of being far away from the shore.

Can’t believe it’s been 5 years. It reminds me of all the traveling (local, domestic, and international) that everyone is not doing because of Covid19.

I’m just fondly reminiscing about the days when traveling was a thing. And the days my cousins and I could actually go out traveling since work responsibilities weren’t as busy as they are now.

I hope we go back to those kinds of days, soon.

Aug 19 2017

Photo: Docked at Sea

Boats docked at the Rizal Boulevard

It’s one thing to get used to living by the sea and everything that comes with it, such as constantly seeing boats, watching the sea shift from high tide to low tide and vice versa, feeling the smell of the sea, or even hearing the horn from boats at all times of the day. It’s another to take personal notice of big ships that dock off port for days at a time. Such was the case last month when I first noticed a few large ships docked at sea, very early in the morning. I was on my way to school when I caught sight of these ships, which looked strangely large against a background of sea and sky. Coming back from school, the ships were still there. They were actually docked at sea for about a week (maybe a little more or less), each carrying some surprise array of items in their hold.

The sight was something I hadn’t really seen, or maybe hadn’t simply noticed before. It was an interesting side-project to head on over to the boulevard to take photos of how it all looked like, especially since Rizal Boulevard was practically empty at the time that I went, since it was close to noon and the sun was at its highest and brightest.

As always, Rizal Boulevard is one of my favorite places to take panoramic photos within the city.