Let's wrap it up | Negros Occidental, Philippines

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There are so many things I wished I could share with you about our Negros Island trip but unfortunately, I couldn't get hold of decent photos from this trip. Thank goodness, I still have photos from our Apo Island day trip and the afternoon destinations in Valencia, Negros Oriental.

Nonetheless, just to give you an idea of what happened in the remaining 4 days of this trip, here's an attempt to relive the rest of my Negros Island trip with my workmates. On our second day, we were up early to catch the dolphins in Bais and explored Manjuyod Sandbar, then after it was a 4.5-hour long and painful trip from Manjuyod to Bacolod City by bus. Bacolod City is the capital of Negros Occidental. On our 3rd day, we hit the northeasternmost part of Negros Occidental to visit Lakawon Island in Cadiz City.

When I was checking the photos, I was shocked that there we no decent photos from both Day 2 and 3 but there were a bunch from Day 4 and that's what I'll be sharing with all of you today. Hint: The kid in you will love this destination.

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What's in store up there?

We took public transportation since Day 0 but when we learned that Campuestohan isn't as accessible as the rest of the destinations we visited, we decided to rent a private vehicle with a driver for the day.

We began the journey to Campuestohan after breakfast. We didn't expect it was indeed far from the rest of civilization; it was the best decision to rent a car. But no worries if you plan on commuting there, you'd still reach Campuestohan but you might need to transfer from one public vehicle to another as there are no direct jeepneys plying the area from Bacolod City.

When we entered Campuestohan Highland Resort, I felt I was brought to another dimension; a dimension that kids and kids at heart would want to come home to. Campuestohan occupies a few hectares of mountain land and being surrounded by mountains made the entire place chilly.

There are a lot of attractions in Campuestohan and one you'd easily spot from the entrance is Raphaella Mill which looked sturdy; we didn't go in as we were more interested in other destinations.

The Indian Village

My workmates and I decided to give each other some space to breathe and explore the place however we wanted; we'd just reconvene after an hour or so. A few minutes of walking from the Raphaella Mill I saw this signage welcoming me and the rest of the guests into The Indian Village. I haven't been to any Indian Village so there were no expectations to meet at all. I found the cemented teepees cute and vibrant. It was only then that I found out that these are indeed real huts and could accommodate 2-3 tourists per hut for those who would want to spend the night in Campuestohan.

Near their largest pool, I finally found my long-lost brothers! LOL! 😂🤣😂

Another fascinating attempt to give tourists an out-of-the-country feel is this Hobbiton Village, still a real accommodation. This was more expensive than the teepee but more comfortable of course. We found an unoccupied one and took the photos below. 😁

Even their canteen/ restaurant was so pretty it became a destination on its own. Unfortunately, we were too early; it was still closed. But if you're wondering what kind of food they serve, they have pizza, pasta, and usual Filipino food. This could easily become crowded once tourists start coming in past lunchtime.

If all those things I've shared haven't piqued your interest, I'm sure this next one will. Even from afar, it was easy to spot this portion of Campuestohan where life-size characters from Kung Fu Panda could accompany you for a few minutes. I was a fun person back then and I didn't just took a photo of them, I joined them and showed some moves, too!

After the refreshing walking tour, we reconvened near the hanging bridge. Of the various physical activities in Campuestohan we only tried the hanging bridge; it was the cheapest that time and we were interested to see what Campuestohan looked like from atop. The hanging bridge didn't fail us, we saw the entirety of Campuestohan from the hanging bridge. It was like a huge playground with a lot of toys and events happening in one place.

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The rich history of Negros Occidental

Of course, aside from playing games and pleasing the frustrated kids inside us, we visited some destinations that brought us closer to Negros Occidental, and what better way to do this than checking out their museum and ancestral houses.

Below are photos we took outside of Balay Negrense Museum; it was closed during our visit.

We also dropped by a nearby old house called Farmacia Locsin.

We quickly dropped by San Diego Pro-Cathedral, too.

We were looking forward to getting inside Hofileña Museum but just like Balay Negrense Museum, it was closed, too.

Before calling it a day, we asked our driver to drop us off at Bacolod City Hall, where we spent the remainder of the day taking photos in front of the City Hall.

The next day, we went home wearing our newly-bought Bacolod shirts and caps to seal the deal in our epic adventure on the island of Negros.

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