A Run to the Ruins of Talisay.

Part I - Visayas series (8.11)

I've never been to anywhere in the western Visayas region. I was supposed to be a beach bum in Boracay for a weekend with friends a few months ago but it didn't push through. My sister and I didn't fly out to Palawan (I know..I know.. Palawan is part of Luzon) last July although the tickets were already booked and paid for. I've missed a lot of trips for this year (and wasted a lot of money too.. missed a trip to Davao last June - now that I remember).

I've never been to Bacolod or anywhere in Negros. And I have a long-standing invitation from a good friend's family to come visit . So the very moment I decided to quit work and put a period on my resignation letter, I booked my flight south and made a detour.

I was given an aisle seat on board a 5J flight which I took right after my last day at a job I've grown to dislike. That's an entirely different story so I'd better stay away from explaining the details lest I digress. Again. Anyway, I left a flooded Manila at fifteen past nine in the morning and reached rainy Bacolod an hour after.  And as promised, I was picked up at the airport after a 5 minute or so of waiting.  Not bad really as my sundo actually arrived early and already did a turnaround.

View before touch down.

Bacolod city is the capital of Negros Occidental. A mid-sized city famous for it's chicken inasal and it's Maskara Festival (I've yet to experience this one) and is the most populous one in the region. It was raining cats and dogs and flooding as well when I left Manila. Unfortunately for me, crazy rain followed me all the way to Visayas. Good thing I was dutifully picked up from the airport by my good friend with a chauffeured car. Hehe.. 

After a sumptuous lunch at my host's residence, we were whisked away to see the Ruins of Talisay, just a few minutes ride away from  the city center. And by few, that'd be around 15-20. By private car.  We took some inside roads amidst a vast tubo or sugarcane plantation.  Then there it was. 

This mansion was built by the late sugar baron Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson for his beloved Portuguese wife from Macau. It burned down sometime ago, they said. It's open to the public Mondays to Sundays, including holidays, from 8 am to 8 pm with an entrance fee of 50 bucks.  

One of the exhibits inside the skeleton of a building.

This used to be some sort of a watchtower..not a tree.

Meryl and me ^^