Traveling to Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental Philippines: Sweeter the Second Time Around

Good day, Hiveans! How was your day? Hope you’re fine while reading my blog. Today is my first day trying to balance my work and my interests. I needed to have the correct time management so as not to sacrifice the latter. The adjustment is real. Anyway, for today’s blog, I want to share my experience of my travel to Dumaguete.

Dumaguete Boulevard

Dumaguete City is the city of Negros Oriental close to the southern part of Cebu. I’ve been to Dumaguete City when I was fourteen years old. It was when my father’s cousin from her mother’s side invited her relatives from Cebu to travel to Dumaguete City to celebrate her birthday. It was a free trip. My aunt sponsored all the expenses of the trip. Since it was free, only my father decided to accept the invitation and not to burden her cousin with the cost he didn’t bring another family member.

According to my father, when he arrived in Dumaguete City, my aunt asked my father why he didn’t bring another family member. My father shared how I cried a lot because I wanted to join the trip too. My aunt felt pity as she heard the story, so, she let me travel to Dumaguete City with her mother and my cousin. We traveled on a land trip, we traveled from our town, Tabogon to Santander. The traveling time was 14 hours.

As we arrived at Santander, I vomited since at that time, I was not used to long travel. When I was young, I easily felt nausea from the smell of the bus. Nevertheless, I was happy that time. Despite my experience, I was never discouraged but motivated to travel again. I spent the place for 1 week with free accommodation and food. It was a nice experience for a teen like me and traveling to Dumaguete City was my first island trip. According to the old folks, the child needs to travel to some island to eliminate the nausea when the child travels. I think it's true for me. When we went back to our town, I never vomited again.

December 20, 2024, It took me 14 years to travel back to Dumaguete City. This time, it’s not free. I’m the one paying my travel expenses. One of my colleagues wanted to visit Dumaguete City because her child wanted to get a Philippine passport there. Same as before, we traveled on a land trip together. We used a 4-wheel vehicle as our transportation. We contacted our relatives in the area and were able to experience again the free accommodation and food.

Dumaguete's Plaza
I’m happier as I go back to Dumaguete City. Never would I think that I could travel back to its place. I admit. It was sweeter the second time around.

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Author: Maureen S. O.
Photos owned by my husband: Paul Vincent M. O