Regarding Bocolod. The video?

[Gratefuled]

Someone posted a video of Bocolod here a while back. I enjoyed it and commented about it. I told my wife about it. She would like to see it and maybe visit there sometime before going to the states. 

I noticed how clean  the city was. Not a lot of traffic. Not many jeepneys. Nice wide streets and boulevards. Not cluttered with vendors. Some nice historical places to visit and all of this not far from a nice beach.

So please, if you are the one who posted it, can you post the video again?

Salamat Po

[robert k]

38 minutes ago, Gratefuled said:

Someone posted a video of Bocolod here a while back. I enjoyed it and commented about it. I told my wife about it. She would like to see it and maybe visit there sometime before going to the states. 

I noticed how clean  the city was. Not a lot of traffic. Not many jeepneys. Nice wide streets and boulevards. Not cluttered with vendors. Some nice historical places to visit and all of this not far from a nice beach.

So please, if you are the one who posted it, can you post the video again?

Salamat Po

Ed, I believe that Mike S posted that. I didn't check out the beaches but I agree with everything else you said. At 11 am I walked out in the middle of the street just to take pictures both ways because people in Dumaguete wouldn't have believed me! There was rush hour traffic about 30 minutes later but I have seen even worse than that. I do have to admit that while traffic was well behaved earlier it became dog eat dog during the lunch hour. I liked Bacolod. I also liked Iloilo although I wasn't thrilled with their taxi drivers. But that is a lot of places too.

Edited March 24, 2016 by robert k

[mogo51]

1 hour ago, robert k said:

Ed, I believe that Mike S posted that. I didn't check out the beaches but I agree with everything else you said. At 11 am I walked out in the middle of the street just to take pictures both ways because people in Dumaguete wouldn't have believed me! There was rush hour traffic about 30 minutes later but I have seen even worse than that. I do have to admit that while traffic was well behaved earlier it became dog eat dog during the lunch hour. I liked Bacolod. I also liked Iloilo although I wasn't thrilled with their taxi drivers. But that is a lot of places too.

Hi Robert,

I am going to Iloilo and Dumaguete next month to decide where my SO and I will pitch our tent next year.

Your views of Iloilo would be appreciated. Traffic james are at the front of my 'hate' list after 8 years here in Pattaya.  I also want out of the tourist area thing, so if I decide on Dumaguete, it will be a bit out of town for sure. Buth then you do have to get 'into' town sometimes.

[Tukaram (Tim)]

I have been to Bacalod a few times and really enjoyed it.  It has about the same population as Iloilo but twice the area.  Never made it to a beach there, though.  I like the lagoon

[robert k]

1 hour ago, mogo51 said:

Hi Robert,

I am going to Iloilo and Dumaguete next month to decide where my SO and I will pitch our tent next year.

Your views of Iloilo would be appreciated. Traffic james are at the front of my 'hate' list after 8 years here in Pattaya.  I also want out of the tourist area thing, so if I decide on Dumaguete, it will be a bit out of town for sure. Buth then you do have to get 'into' town sometimes.

Bacolod is a large (relatively) and attractive place in my opinion. I found the traffic in the morning off peak hours to be civilized, possibly going as far as courteous. Of course in rush hour it reverts to type with the me first attitude. I found it wasn't much of a chore to find parking downtown. Bacolod was much cleaner than most Cities and towns I have seen in the Philippines. I found the malls and shopping to be more than adequate and you even have some choice. I was looking into moving to Bacolod (or surrounds) myself. Because of the better roads, I felt I could live farther out and it wouldn't be a problem to go to the city at off peak hours. Someone told me it was a 90 minute drive to the nearest good beach. I replied that I could and did get all the way to Kabankalan on the west side of Negros in 90 minutes and I wasn't really pushing it in the jeep because it wasn't that comfortable. Bacolod looks like it had some planning, it doesn't look like it just grew. You know how important that is if you just came from a town that became overgrown.

The handful of times I was in Iloilo, I found things much the same but I will defer to Tim as the resident expert there. I am not expert in either place although I was certain enough to move to Bacolod because I knew I could find the things I needed there. I would in fact have moved there had My aunt not passed away and as next of kin I had to return to the US and administer her estate.

Sticking to off peak hours except for one time, I didn't see any exceptional traffic in Iloilo. I did need to get to the new pier one time at 1 pm and took a trike and he assured me that the back way was faster and I was skeptical at first but I think he was being honest, or he was avoiding someone else's turf, but I got there and without any piracy! Both cities looked very safe to me. I did arrive at the pier in Iloilo one time and just missed the last ferry. While taking stock of the options a pedicab driver wandered up and told me it wasn't safe to be there. I considered having my GF throw him in the harbor but just thanked him instead. The only person who even approached me was the pedicab driver. I eventually sent him off to find a cab to take us and a young family with babe in arms to Dumangas? I believe it was because they had earlier/later ferries. I paid for the young family because they were going to wait there all night to save money it was misting and I don't think I could have negotiated a better price for two instead of four and a baby, who slept like a log. I like the area.

Edited March 24, 2016 by robert k

[mogo51]

1 hour ago, robert k said:

Bacolod is a large (relatively) and attractive place in my opinion. I found the traffic in the morning off peak hours to be civilized, possibly going as far as courteous. Of course in rush hour it reverts to type with the me first attitude. I found it wasn't much of a chore to find parking downtown. Bacolod was much cleaner than most Cities and towns I have seen in the Philippines. I found the malls and shopping to be more than adequate and you even have some choice. I was looking into moving to Bacolod (or surrounds) myself. Because of the better roads, I felt I could live farther out and it wouldn't be a problem to go to the city at off peak hours. Someone told me it was a 90 minute drive to the nearest good beach. I replied that I could and did get all the way to Kabankalan on the west side of Negros in 90 minutes and I wasn't really pushing it in the jeep because it wasn't that comfortable. Bacolod looks like it had some planning, it doesn't look like it just grew. You know how important that is if you just came from a town that became overgrown.

The handful of times I was in Iloilo, I found things much the same but I will defer to Tim as the resident expert there. I am not expert in either place although I was certain enough to move to Bacolod because I knew I could find the things I needed there. I would in fact have moved there had My aunt not passed away and as next of kin I had to return to the US and administer her estate.

Sticking to off peak hours except for one time, I didn't see any exceptional traffic in Iloilo. I did need to get to the new pier one time at 1 pm and took a trike and he assured me that the back way was faster and I was skeptical at first but I think he was being honest, or he was avoiding someone else's turf, but I got there and without any piracy! Both cities looked very safe to me. I did arrive at the pier in Iloilo one time and just missed the last ferry. While taking stock of the options a pedicab driver wandered up and told me it wasn't safe to be there. I considered having my GF throw him in the harbor but just thanked him instead. The only person who even approached me was the pedicab driver. I eventually sent him off to find a cab to take us and a young family with babe in arms to Dumangas? I believe it was because they had earlier/later ferries. I paid for the young family because they were going to wait there all night to save money it was misting and I don't think I could have negotiated a better price for two instead of four and a baby, who slept like a log. I like the area.

Thanks Robert for that great insight.  I have done heaps of research into both Iloilo and Dumaguete and they both are well rated.  The only negative that comes up for Duma is the traffic but I wonder if that is 'peak hour' related also or if it is all day.  If the latter, that is a bummer as I am over that here in Pattaya.

But I certainly have some assessing and thinking to do over the next few weeks, when I get to Phils.

At least it will be a pleasant journey and I will get to meet heaps of you guys I hope when I arrive in Dum, Iloilo.

[mogo51]

2 hours ago, Tukaram (Tim) said:

I have been to Bacalod a few times and really enjoyed it.  It has about the same population as Iloilo but twice the area.  Never made it to a beach there, though.  I like the lagoon

Thanks Tim.

[mogo51]

5 hours ago, Gratefuled said:

Someone posted a video of Bocolod here a while back. I enjoyed it and commented about it. I told my wife about it. She would like to see it and maybe visit there sometime before going to the states. 

I noticed how clean  the city was. Not a lot of traffic. Not many jeepneys. Nice wide streets and boulevards. Not cluttered with vendors. Some nice historical places to visit and all of this not far from a nice beach.

So please, if you are the one who posted it, can you post the video again?

Salamat Po

I am not the one who posted it, but after reading your post, went onto Utube and quickly found a 20 minute video of Bacolod that is very well done.  Just check out Utube Bacolod City, I have not had any success trying to show the link sorry.

[robert k]

6 hours ago, mogo51 said:

I am not the one who posted it, but after reading your post, went onto Utube and quickly found a 20 minute video of Bacolod that is very well done.  Just check out Utube Bacolod City, I have not had any success trying to show the link sorry.

I know traffic in Dumaguete is one of the things I and many others mention most because it is one of the most encountered negatives but not the only one. Trash is a big downer but so many places are no better that it doesn't top the list. Difficulty finding skilled trades people would be another. I had gone in the water in Piappi Dumaguete a few miles from where they dump the sewage. I don't think it is hazardous as people beach comb there for food, sea urchins, small crabs, deadly venomous Black Banded Krait sea snakes and so on. I still begged off joining them for dinner if it were seafood. No really nice beaches nearby. Tourist destination. Duma is pretty well over publicized. Which is not always a bad thing. I met a nice German girl of college age and her brother. Unfortunately her brother wanted to dance with me, which I politely declined.

[Gratefuled]

14 hours ago, mogo51 said:

I am not the one who posted it, but after reading your post, went onto Utube and quickly found a 20 minute video of Bacolod that is very well done.  Just check out Utube Bacolod City, I have not had any success trying to show the link sorry.

Thanks, I took your advice and went to You Tube and saw a few videos. All showed how nice Bacalod is. I also went to You Tube to see what they had on Davao City and all they had were photos of some places. No video that shows the slums and crowded streets and sidewalks. 

Davao is an eye sore.