Heat vs. Thunderstorms

Wednesday, June 4, 2008--Bacolod (Continued)

I was starving when I finished at the cyber cafe. I had not eaten all day, and all I had the day before was the one small shawarma sandwich. Also, I was very thirsty from the heat of the day. I tried to find a place near the tourist office that is one of the good places to have the local roasted chicken with its special marinade. But I didn't find it where the map said it should be. I went to the tourist office and was so hungry I just asked for a nearby place that would be good. They recommended a place right beside my hotel. But I knew I needed water before returning to the hotel, so I went a couple of blocks south to a new mall to buy water at the supermarket.

The supermarket was huge and nice. It reminded me of an HEB Plus in many ways. And they had the same kind of customer service. When I didn't find big bottles of water in the cooler for drinks, I asked where to find them on the shelves. The employee left his work and walked me to them. I bought a bottle and barely made it past the checkout stand before opening it and gulping 1/3 of it.

The restaurant that was recommended was fine. I ordered, at the waitress' suggestion, a "rice topping." It is a small bowl (bigger than a cup, but probably only about the size of a typical mug) of rice with a meat topping. I ordered the beef brisket, so it was small chunks of beef with a thick gravy on top of the rice. I finished it and still felt hungry. I went back to my room and ate a granola bar from my suitcase. I carry the granola bars for special occasions when I can't get food that I like.

Thursday, June 5, 2008--Bacolod

I get a free breakfast at my hotel here. It is only a continental breakfast, so it consisted of 4 half-slices of bread toasted, a small pat of butter, and a small dip of marmalade. It included a cup of coffee and a small banana. It wasn't much, but it is more than I have been having, since I have eaten only 1 meal a day most days since I left home. Hope it doesn't mean that my diet comes to an end. I still have a bit more weight to lose.

The owner of the hotel is nice and friendly. Yesterday, I had left my luggage at the tourist office as I went to investigate a few places that they had recommended for rooms. While I was there seeing the room, he asked me where I was from. Then he started talking about the San Antonio Spurs. Filipinos are big basketball fans and players. When I returned from the tourist office with my luggage, he pointed to his computer and asked if I recognized that place. He had set his screensaver to be a picture of The Alamo. Then this morning when I came down from breakfast, he showed me his shirt. It was a souvenir shirt of The Alamo. His son, who is a professor in Gainesville, Florida, had visited San Antonio and sent the shirt to him.

I stopped by the tourist office to get some information on locations of places I wanted to visit. Their map mainly shows where hotels and restaurants are located, so I marked the tourist sites on the map as they pointed out where they would be. Then I began my explorations.

First, I walked across the street to the Cathedral. It is a nice old building. But it was a bit of a surprise inside. It has ornate columns with lots of flourishes at the tops. And the arches between the columns also have ornate designs on them. The tops of the columns and the ornate designs on the arches are painted in bright, shiny gold. But even more surprising was that the arches are painted a lavendar color!

I needed to go to the bus station to find out about the schedule and prices for the trip I need to make to Cebu on Sunday, so I walked from the Cathedral to there. It took about 30 minutes. Again, I could not buy a ticket in advance. I will have to be at the bus station about 45 minutes before departure to assure myself a seat. The bus will leave at 8:15, and it will continue all the way to Cebu going onto the ferry and off of it as we change islands. We should arrive in Cebu at 16:00-17:00. I don't have to be at the airport that night until 22:00-23:00. So that should work well. There is even another bus leaving and arriving about 2 hours later that would work if I run into problems that morning.

From the bus station, I walked to the north of town to the Santa Clara subdivision. It was quite a bit further than it looked on the map. So I was hot, sweaty, and thirsty before arriving there. Fortunately, I passed a mall and went inside to buy a 1.5 liter cola and to cool off before continuing. The subdivision is a gated one with very exclusive homes. I went there to see the chapel. It has been built by the homeowners as their own personal church. It is beautiful. There is a high ceiling supported by huge beams. Hanging from the high point is a huge chandileer made of small shells. The walls of the chapel are capice shell--a grid of wood with small squares of off-white shell that let light shine through inside each opening in the grid. There is a nice mosaic behind the alter. And the stations of the cross were all made of capice shell mosaics by local famous artists. Even the lecturn is made of capice shell.

As I returned back to town, I realized I had gone further than I had thought. I saw a sign indicating that Santa Clara was probably 4-5 km from downtown. I probably walked at least 12 km (7+ miles), since I walked out to the bus station (a different direction from downtown) first. It was miserably hot, and I was drinking from the cola I had bought. I stopped in the mall again to cool off before continuing. Then just a short distance after leaving the mall, rains came. I was able to get to an awning in front of a store and sit there waiting for the rain to stop before continuing. But each time I started out, soon it began again. I stopped at a bus stop, at a bank, and in the lobby of an office building to wait out downpours before getting to my hotel. Then the rain continued with lots of thunder as I stayed in the room and read from my novel. (Cable TV was not working due to the storms.) The nice thing about the rains, though, is that the air became so much nicer; instead of heat and humidity, there was a fresh coolness.

It's early evening and the rains have ended. I will now find a place for dinner.