dumaguete diary, part 1: the best ten pesos i ever spent

they were accusing me that i had balat sa pwet. it was our first day at dumaguete and our first meal, sad to say, was at chowking. we then boarded a trike going to the jeepney terminal, and then a jeep bound for valencia. our goal was to see casaroro falls after risking our lives riding motorcybles without helmets.

of course en route to valencia, it started to drizzle. by the time we got there, it was drizzling more, and worse, we were swarmed by motorcycle drivers all offering to bring us up to casaroro. the group hadn't really discussed what we were going to do; in fact, we were all relying on thina to tell us where to go, what to do, and how much to pay. so when she turned to us to ask if the deal she was brokering was okay, none of us could give an answer. we asked the motorcycle drivers to leave us alone, just so we could meet, but they wouldn't let up.

so in the end, we decided to ride a tricycle and just go to forest camp instead.

on the way to forest camp, we spied what seemed like a resort. there were pools behind chicken wire fences on either side of the road, and there were cabanas around the pools. one pool was fed water from a man-made waterfall composed of several levels, while the other one was below street level. it was pretty, and given the rain, the cold, and the difficulty we were going through, i'd be very glad if we could just stay there and swim.

however, since we were on a trike, and i couldn't exactly jump out of it, i stayed inside the trike until we got to forest camp. entrance was P80 and while that was affordable, the place didn't seem enticing. so we just decided to have our pictures taken in front of the sign, and then we made a beeline for the resort we passed by earlier.

turns out, it was the municipal pool. the entrance fee? you guessed it right: P10 pesos.

i loved how it wasn't chlorinated water, but cold water from a stream that they simply channeled onto the man-made pools. there was a "drain" on the pool on higher ground, and with the water passing through the tunnel beneath the road, the pool on the lower side was being fed as well. we swam even if it was raining, even if we were "overdressed" (or should i say underdressed since we were the only ones in swimsuits -- most were in t-shirts and shorts, one was even wearing jeans!), and even if it wasn't exactly what we had planned for the day.

later on, we were surprised that a lot of the places we would visit would only require a P10 entrance fee (except apo island!), but this remained to be the best P10 we ever spent.

note: the place is actually known as tejeros resort or banica swimming lagoon and it is fed by banica river. to learn more about valencia, here's the wikipedia link.