Note: I wrote this when I was 10 as one of my writing projects for my homeschool portfolio.
Location
Bacolod is in the region of Western Visayas, and in the province of Negros Occidental. It is the capital of Negros Occidental.
Fun Facts
Bacolod has two nicknames— “The City of Smiles” and “The Sugar Capital of the Philippines.” Bacolod is called the City of Smiles because of a festival. This festival was held back in 1980 during the time when the price of their main crop sugarcane fell because America’s corn syrup became more popular. That’s why the city decided to hold a festival of smiles to bring happiness to the people. This festival, called Masskara, is full of music and colorful masked dancers, that it will bring a smile to your face!
Another reason why Bacolod is known as The City of Smiles is because people are friendly, and the way they speak their language, Ilonggo, is very sweet.
Bacolod is also called the Sugar Capital of the Philippines because it’s the most important sugar-producing city. Since they produce a lot of sugar, it became their main crop.
Bacolod is also the second most populous city in Visayas after Cebu. Why? Because it has 561,875 people living in it!
History
Bacolod was founded as a town in 1755. It all started when some villagers moved away from the Moro pirates, and escaped to a hilly countryside. They called their new home Buklod, which later became known as Bacolod. Bacolod became the capital of Negros Occidental in 1889, and a city in 1938.
Climate
The wet season starts from May to January, while the dry season starts in February and ends in April.
How to Get There
The plane ride from Manila to Bacolod takes 1 hour. You can also ride a ferry if you’re close to Bacolod, like in Cebu, Guimaras, or Iloilo. Or you can drive there if you also live in Negros Occidental. Once you arrive, you can take Grab or rent a car to go around. You can also ride taxis, jeepneys, and buses.
What to Do
1. Go sightseeing
There are lots of things you could do in Bacolod! One thing to do is to go sightseeing. There are lots of historical places you could go to in Bacolod. You can visit The Ruins, Balay Negrense, the Hofileña Ancestral House, and more!
2. Go on a food trip!
One thing you should do when visiting Bacolod is to eat their delicious chicken inasal. Bacolod is known for their chicken inasal because it’s so yummy! Go to Chicken House or Aida’s to eat these delicious pieces of chicken! You can also go to Calea to eat some of their yummy desserts! One of the desserts I like is their Oreo cheesecake.
3. Go to the beach
Go on a 4-hour trip to Punta Bulata resort or go to Danjugan Island! You can do a lot of fun things on the beach. You can relax on the beach in Punta Bulata, or go on a wildlife tour in Danjugan Island.
Sights to See
Balay Negrense
Balay Negrense is an old mansion that belonged to a sugar baron named Victor F. Gaston in the late 19th century. Now, the mansion has been turned into a museum. This mansion is called a bahay na bato, or house of stone. But the mansion’s first floor is made from concrete. Since air conditioners weren’t invented back then, the mansion (and other houses) had huge open windows to let cool air in. Its foundations and floor were made from balayong tree trunks.
Some people think that this old mansion is haunted. Because of all the mirrors and old pictures, you might feel being watched. We also went on a tour of the mansion. Our tour guide showed us what life was like for the rich sugar barons like the Gastons during Spanish times. You’ll also learn about how they liked to party during that time!
The Ruins
The Ruins is another old mansion built in the early 1900s. The plantation is 4 million square meters. The Ruins is also called “The Taj Mahal of The Philippines.” Why? Well, because like the real Taj Mahal in India, a rich sugar baron, Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson, built this mansion in honor of his beloved wife, Maria Braga Lacson, who died from slipping in the bathroom while being pregnant with her 11th child. After Mariano and his 10 children lived in that mansion, it was burned down by the Americans in World War 2 into the ruins you see today. The Americans had to burn the mansion down to prevent the Japanese soldiers from using it as a military office.
This mansion was inspired by Italian architecture. Just like Balay Negrense, it has lots of huge windows to let cool air in. if you go inside the ground floor, you’ll find some stairs leading to a small garden inside. But, you can’t go up to the second floor because it burned down of course. The best time to see The Ruins is afternoon before sunset, and at nighttime. When you visit The Ruins during the afternoon, you’ll see the mansion sparkle because it’s made from cement mixed with egg yolks. But, night time is also good because bright, beautiful lights that surround the building will give you a nice, calm feeling.
Hofileña Ancestral House
This old house belonged to Manuel Severino Hofileña and his family, built in 1934. The style is called art deco.
Hardwood was used to build this house. The stairs and walls in his house were made out of ironwood, or balayong. The floor is made of narra and is polished regularly to keep it nice and shiny! The doors are wide and have callado, which is cutwork to let air and light pass through.
Now, one of the children, Ramon Hofileña still lives in this house and gives tours to guests who visits his house. Now since his family is very rich, they loved to travel around the world. From their travels, they collect souvenirs from their trips. Here, Ramon keeps collections of old things from the Second World War. He has toys, the first pocketbooks, and other things. In the tour, he’ll show you the world’s smallest doll! The doll is so small you’ll need a magnifying glass to see it clearly! He keeps the doll in a small box with a glass cover, so you can see it. He also collects paintings made by Juan Luna, Fernando Amorsolo, Jose Rizal, and more!
Where to Stay
Seda
This hotel is very new, because it opened in October 2017. But, even though it’s still a bit new, Seda is a good hotel to stay in if you want relaxation. Seda is also just 20 minutes away from the Bacolod Silay airport. It has 154 cozy rooms. It has a lounge, a small restaurant, function rooms, and a gym. You can also get a massage, or order in-room dining. It also has a rooftop bar that serves good drinks, and pica-pica.
There’s also another popular hotel in Bacolod called L’Fisher Bacolod.
Where to Eat
Chicken House
In this restaurant, you can eat delicious chicken barbeque! Also eat their crunchy chicken skin. Prices there are cheap, but the food is delicious! But that’s just some of the good ones. The Chicken House has lots more dishes made of chicken, like chicken wings and legs. This restaurant also serves pork, squid, adobo, pancit, and other Filipino foods.
Aida’s
This restaurant is one of the most famous restaurants in Bacolod. Aida’s is located in Manokan Country, a street lined up with other different restaurants. It’s very popular because it is known for its delicious chicken inasal! In this restaurant, all you’ll be eating is chicken! You can order pakpak (chicken wings), paa (chicken legs), and pecho (chicken breast)! Eat the chicken with chicken oil, it will put more taste to the chicken and rice. But, this restaurant isn’t comfortable. It’s out on the streets and DOES NOT have aircon! Even the fans there don’t make it cool! And you must remember that the weather is usually hot there, so you’ll likely suffer the heat while eating. But you should go there just to try the chicken inasal. But it’s your choice, suffer the heat or go eat the food they’re known for.
21 Restaurant
This fancy restaurant has very delicious batchoy, crispy pata, pork chop ala Bicol Express, toasted ravioli, and more!
Calea
Since Bacolod is known as The Sugar Capital of the Philippines, this dessert restaurant has very delicious cakes. The prices there are cheap, but their cakes are really delicious. Some of the yummy cakes you should try are the Oreo Cheesecake and the Chocolate Mudpie.
Sandok Comfort Food
This restaurant has good food for dinner. We ate KBL and Sizzling Cansi there. KBL stands for Kadios Baboy Langka. This dish is pork covered with boiling hot soup. Their Cansi Steak is yummy too! Lots of people like the Cansi Steak, so definitely try it!
Café Bob’s
This restaurant is similar to Calea because it also serves desserts. The differences between them are that this café also serves ice cream and has a souvenir shop. But they also serve Bacolod’s famous pastry called Napoleones. This pastry has flaky layers filled with custard cream and sprinkled with white sugar on top.
El Ideal
El Ideal is a famous bakery where you can buy delicious pasalubong like butterscotch, barquillos and more! They don’t just sell pastries, but also soups too!
What to Buy
Barquillos
Barquillos are yummy biscuit rolls inspired by the Spaniards. The wafers are made from wheat flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla flavor. When they made the wafer, you then roll it into rolls. Because of these ingredients, the wafer becomes sweet. Because Barquillos are very popular, lots of stores sell these rolls. They also come in different flavors, like ube, chocolate, buko, pandan, banana, and more! You can buy these delicious rolls of wafers in pasalubong or souvenir shops, like the very popular store called Bong Bong’s.
Piaya
Piaya is a popular delicacy in Negros Occidental. It’s a thin flatbread filled with muscovado. Piaya is made out of flour, salt, butter, water, sesame seeds, glucose syrup, and muscovado sugar. To make the dough, combine the flour, salt, butter, and water. Then, knead the dough. Combine the glucose syrup and the muscovado sugar together to make the filling. Then, fill the flat, kneaded dough with the muscovado mixture. After you fill the dough with muscovado, roll it into a thin, flat circle of dough. Finally, bake it. Piaya is very yummy, and you can also buy them at bakery stores.
Butterscotch
Butterscotch is a delicious, sticky small bread-like pastry. Its main ingredients are butter and brown sugar. Butterscotch is very tasty, that if you pop one into your mouth it will definitely water. If you want to buy some butterscotch, buy them in Trappist, Biscocho Haus’, Bong Bong’s, El Ideal, and Merci. But please buy them in El Ideal. Buy it there because it makes one of the best butterscotch I ever tasted. It’s not too sweet, but it’s very chewy.
Meringue
You can buy meringue in El Ideal too! Meringue is very sweet, and kind of looks like whip cream. It also might look like small onions!
Lubid-lubid
Lubid-lubid is a traditional Ilonggo delicacy. It’s fried bread coated with white sugar. It’s made of flour, refined sugar, oil, egg yolks, and butter.
Barquiron
Barquillos are like small barquillos but filled with polvoron! Many kids and adults like this snack, so you should defiantly try it! Its ingredients are flour, sugar, milk, butter, sesame seeds, and eggs.
Biscocho
Biscocho is crunchy sliced bread sprinkled and baked with sugar. Biscocho is very yummy, and sweet too! The ingredients are flour, sugar, butter, salt, yeast, shortening, and milk.
And that’s all for my Bacolod Travel Guide, I hope you learned a lot from me, and have fun visiting Bacolod!
