Dumaguete City, Philippines in 3 Days: The No Agenda Agenda With Our “Up for Anything” Friend
Slow travel is not just regular travel protracted; it is the business of operational management with a view.
The work of finding things to make our lives work is work. Hunting down budget-friendly stays with beds that can handle two not-small Americans is a grind. Tracking wildly inconsistent airline rules for 250 pounds of luggage is more than a part-time job. Locating transportation between countries is an assignment with a deadline. Add a traveling visitor to our already task-driven schedules and we’re left wondering how we manage to work harder now without careers than we did when we had them.
That’s why having a friend with no agenda makes our lives effortless. Why the 3 little words swelling our hearts are not “I love you” but “Sure, why not?”.
Jenn met Edward back when dating was only parentally approved in groups. His friend liked her friend, so they became friends. Now, 35 years later, he trusted us with celebrating his birthday on his first trip to the Philippines.
We had 3 full days without an ambitious itinerary. Simply time to share our lives. To share the parts that make Dumaguete City a strong contender for our forever home.
DUMAGUETE CITY
The “Up for Anything” Friend is that they are not driven by being tethered to you every minute of every day. They may, however, be driven by coffee — which we don’t drink. Edward explored the main street along the ocean in search of coffee while fielding “Happy Birthday” calls from his wife and kids.
We maintained our morning workout schedules.
Win-win.
Our day officially began with a western breakfast at the Noelle’s Brunch Bar. Hidden a stone’s throw away from the ocean at Henry’s Resort, Noelle’s feels like a secret garden.
The quiet hamlet gave us the peace we needed to plan the day — a quick roadtrip to The Forest Camp in the nearby town of Valencia.
A short walk to TSADA Expeditions and two rental motorbikes later — one at ₱750 PHP ($12.18 USD) and the other at ₱850 PHP ($13.80 USD) — we hit the road.
Edward currently lives in Vietnam, making him skilled at both motorbike riding and dodgy traffic. He quickly adapted to the absence off traffic lights in Dumaguete City and expertly maneuvered through 4-way stops with the bravado of a local.
Valencia is a 20-minute ride that we stretched to take in the communities in between.
The Forest Camp is actually a resort, but the series of cold spring swimming pools has made it a popular day trip for visitors seeking to get lost in jungle lagoons. With plenty of free parking and an entrance fee of ₱200 PHP ($3.25 USD), visitors spend the day bobbing in cool fresh water, noshing on Filipino dishes, and whooshing down man-made slides.
Here felt authentically local with kids, families, and teens in almost every corner of the pools enjoying time in community. We missed the memo about bringing your own food because they came with piles and piles of homemade rice and lechon (suckling pig) in coolers.
Our paths crossed with a couple — Finnish (her) and Filipino (him) — that we chatted with for a good while. We talked about cultures, travel, language, remote work, and digital nomading until our fingers pruned. The subject of cockfights as a Filipino staple had us leaving the serenity of the pools for the frenzy of nearby cockfight.
No matter our personal feelings about the practice, cockfighting is legal and licensed arenas (sabungans) can be found in every municipality. Attending with a Filipino who was able to explain the betting, how raising of the fighting cocks are raised, and to earn us ladies to turn our backpacks into fromtpacks was clutch. We likely would not have gone any other way. The audience is largely men — the majority of women we saw were selling beer and snacks. With us women, the men were gentle and helpful. They encouraged us to bet (which we declined) and offered us seats. They high-fived us when they won and attempted to explain the rules when both cocks died.
We bid farewell to the couple and exchanged WhstsApp contacts before returning the motorbikes to Dumaguete City. A quick stop at Valencia Street Market for Edward to buy cheap sunglasses and Jenn a pair of ₱100 PHP ($1.62 USD) XXL shorts that (spoiler alert) did not fit.
Oh, Southeast Asia and your tiny, tiny sizes.
Our day closed with a sunset walk to the park along the Rizal Boulevard — the main street in Dumaguete City where the city comes to play chess, sing karaoke, relax with friends, practice karate, and — to Jenn’s ultimate joy — host evening Zumba classes with “the aunties”.
DAUIN
After seeing the azure clarity of the ocean, our “Up for Anything” Friend wanted to snorkel. Dauin is the located south of Dumaguete City and is renowned for its scuba diving and snorkeling on vivid coral reefs with surprise appearances by turtles.
The sole ride-share options between cities are by trikes. Many drives are reluctant to make the 30-minute drive so it does not even appear on the ride-share app, Grab. Over a breakfast of tapasilog at a local restaurant, a driver agreed to take us for ₱500 PHP ($8.12 USD). Three large Americans on a tiny trike with a welded passenger side car driving 30 minutes on, what sounded like, a pull-tab lawnmower was quite a site.
By happenstance, Scott and Jenn met the owner of Aivy Maes Divers Resort after a scuba dive with another shop. Mark is so lovely that we chatted with him for nearly 2 hours and left with the promise of taking our next dive with the company he named after his wife and daughter.
Scott and Jenn are scuba divers and one of us a bit of snob about snorkeling (that’d be Jenn). This snorkel completely changed her mind.
The second our faces touches the water, fish and coral are RIGHTTHERE. And it didn’t take long for Scott to see not one, but two, turtles.
The snorkel area is well marked with buoys and goes plenty deep into the ocean for free divers. We brought our own equipment, Edward rented his and was extremely happy with it all. Everything is well-maintained. Even though snorkeling is self-guided, the staff were very friendly and helpful. They even helped us book a ride back to Dumaguete City.
Early dinner at Lantaw Native Restaurant to share a seafood tower and Sinigang na Baboy soup. The next day was going to be long and early so we headed back to our place to shower. Edward recommended we watch the Ewan McGregor documentary where he rode motorcycles from London to NewYork.
That felt a little like a hint — Edward wanted to ride more.
SIQUIJOR ISLAND
For the 40-minute ferry to Siquijor Island we upgraded OceanJet tickets to Business Class — a roundtrip price per person of ₱1,658.80 PHP ($26.91 USD) plus the ₱50 PHP ($1.62 USD) Environmental Fee and a ₱28 PHP ($0.45 USD) Terminal Fee.
Upon arrival on the island, we paid ₱700 PHP ($11.36 USD) for 2 rental motorbikes.
Breakfast (and coffee!) were acquired at Jainin’s Cakes & Pastries, conveniently located right off the marina. The guy we rented the motorbikes from encouraged us to eat at his friend’s restaurant to which Edward replied “I prefer not to eat at places that are empty.”
We may need to change his moniker to “Up of Nearly Everything” Friend.
Salagdoong Beach
For ₱50 PHP ($0.81 USD) we had access to a vast and beautiful beach with one main attraction: Cliff Jumping. Rather, platform jumping. Three platforms at 10, 20, and 30 feet from the water made this a haven for courageous and the cautious. The former leaped from the concrete platform with yelps, GoPros, and flip flips. The latter stayed seated with drones, angled iPhones, and shiny jewelry.
With not much else to do here but sunbathe, snorkel, and eat; we hopped back on the bikes for the next location.
Laga-an Falls
Quietly minding its business while visitors flock to the island’s Cambugahay Falls, Laga-an Falls offers all of the beauty with none of the chaos. A natural waterfall that glides over mossy rocks to form a quiet pool canopied by lush green trees. Unlike the 135 steps it takes to reach Cambugahay, Laga-an is a short walk with a mandatory (but still eager!) guide.
The guide’s true job is to be a human drone. A documentarian trained for social media-worthy shots of us sliding down the rocks and swinging from ledges, splashing into the clear blue. We swam into the naturally-formed caves, Jenn floated, the boys explored the jungle.
Entrance fee is ₱50 PHP ($0.81 USD). The fee for the guide is at your discretion. We gave him ₱500 PHP ($8.12 USD).
It is unclear what got to us all, but none of us were feeling great.
We at a late lunch at Republika Beach Bar. Jenn had a mojito and breadless, cheeseless burger (hooray allergies!) while the boys each had a sisig.
Fortunately, we were able to exchange our return tickets for an earlier ferry for ₱50 PHP ($0.81 USD) each and we headed home.
Then to bed.
Because we’re old and Edward had an early flight to Vietnam.
A visit from our “Up for Anything Friend” reminded us that we do not need to plan for him the way we plan for ourselves. He was here for a good time, not a long time. He wanted to linger, laugh, eat, play, and see something new.
Mission Accomplished.
That’s the thing about slow travel — we are creating our future, but we’re people with histories. People who knew us then shape us just as much as the people we’ll meet now. We could not be who we are for each other, in the world, and online without them.
Happy Birthday, Edward!