Hello from the city of smiles

It's a quick trip to Bacolod for leg 2 of our Vismin tour and my first time to step foot in the land of smiles as sweet as their sugar. Arrived at Silay Domestic Airport at approx. 4:40 PM after an EE (exceeds-expectations) flight from Zest Air. :)

Bacolod is gorgeous at first sight. Greetings for the landing plane were beautiful fields of sugar cane. I've never seen more organized farmland. It's different from Batad's awe inspiring terraces, in the sense that it's just this expanse of green green GREEN fields with so many crisscrossing lines for paths. Its like a giant jigsaw puzzle!

First stop from the airport was EL IDEAL, a local bakery and pasalubong shop in Silay. Their guapple pie was cinnamon-y crisp, with a buttery flaky crust. It made me miss the guapple pie of Breadbox (+), the old cafe across Saguijo.

Then we set off for our hotel to check in and settle our stuff and ourselves. El Fisher is nice enough; spacious rooms, comfy beds, nice large baths, scalding hot water in the shower. It's a bit "old" though, but employees can't be choosy! Haha!

Dinner was at MANUKAN COUNTRY, right across SM City Bacolod (giving us our first glimpse of the next day's epic mall show venue). It's this truly local row of restos that served the specialty of province. We had (of course) inasal manok, (Petcho please!) and surprisingly, roaster oysters! The oysters were yuuuuummy! And huge!

Then, we went to Calea for desserts, this happy cake cafe across our hotel. I had a cup of good Cafe Americano and a slice of heavenly White Chocolate Cheesecake with strawberry jam of the side... do I have to say it was delicious?

So day one ended with an extremely full stomach, just as day two was beginning in the very wee hours of the morn. With a wake-up call of 4:30 in the friggin morning, day two's palengke tour was a resounding success that ended with a well-deserved culmination at Pendy's, the pasalubong shop.

I spent too much on food again. Because there were cheese tarts and mango tarts and butterscotch squares and piayas and too many other things to be had! The pasalubongs, of course, was the cause of the miraculous multiplication of baggage (flew in to Bacolod with 2, flew out with 4).

The rest of the trip was basically work-laden so nothing interesting there anymore. Overall, my first ever Bacolod trip was a foodie's dream come true. Thanks, City of smiles for the great "escape". I'll be back, hopefully on more relaxed terms. :)