dean's list: Bacolod-Iloilo-Guimaras with Paksyon Part 1

In 2005, I joined Sykes as a technical support agent for one of the largest telecommunications company in the US. I was lucky to be with a group of wonderful people whom I became friends with until now.

One day, my circle of friends were discussing some issues (well, every company has those) and we were called into a room we fondly call bartolina (prison solitary confinement) by our team lead, Arvin. He then started pointing to us one by one, saying, "ikaw, ikaw, ikaw, ikaw... mga paksyon kayo eh!" (you, you, you, you... you have a faction!). And that is how we got our name, Paksyon.

Fast forward to 7 years later... we are no longer with Sykes. While some of us stayed in the country, some has gone to Singapore, Australia, the Netherlands and anywhere else in the world. Our "OFW" friends have decided to come home for a Christmas vacation so we set to have reunion of sorts in Bacolod where Arvin is now based.

Booked our flights midyear in 2012 for Bacolod. But then we got a message from Arvin that he will be in a business trip to the US on the dates of our visit. Although he wasn't able to join us, we never felt left out as he was always giving us advise on where to go and what to look for while in Bacolod.

We arrived in Bacolod early morning in January 4. As we lost our accommodation to Arvin mansion, we agreed to wander to nearby provinces such as Guimaras and Iloilo. But we had to have our breakfast first so our first stop was this place where there are a lot of restaurants serving inasal (Bacolod-style grilled chicken). It was near SM City Bacolod which was walking distance to the port area.

I swear, inasal here tastes nothing like Mang Inasal, Chicken Bacolod Inasal, JT's Manukan, etc. May something na nagpapasarap!

After getting our tummies full, we proceeded with our trip. We tried walking to the port but we can't bare heat of the sun so we rode tricycles. We were brought to SuperCat port and booked a ticket to Iloilo. We departed at 9am. After 2 hours, we reached Iloilo port. I couldn't help smiling a lot since "barkers" and some porters were trying to convince us to take another boat ride to Boracay. We another tricycle ride to go to another port for another boat ride for Guimaras.

me, vannie and divine. 2006 - ferry to puerto galera, 2013 - ferry to guimaras

ang taba ko dati!

I don't remember studying Guimaras as a province in the 3rd grade. Turns out, it only became a province upon separating from Iloilo in 1992, I was already in the 4th grade! Funny how I can remember useless facts but when it comes to other stuff my brain just wouldn't work.

Upon reaching Guimaras, we were greeted by some tourism staff and were given some quick tips in visiting the island. During the "orientation," ND managed to get us a multicab ride to take us to a resort. The tourism staff made sure that the amount for our ride is the standard price since we have an alien (well, a foreigner), vannie's hubbie, with us.

vannie posing during our orientation

The multicab drive took us to Guisi. It was an hour ride. Checked in at Clear Water Resort... got the budget accommodation, no airconditioning, ala survivor style (haha not much!).

vannie, markus, ND, me, rej, divine, joan, felix

picture picture while waiting for our food

Ate caretaker makes the best chopsuey in the world! Forgot to take picture of our food since we were so hungry.

After our super late lunch, we went boating (again) to check out what Guimaras has to offer. Ate said to bring some snacks and drinks. We asked if they had Red Horse beer, but sadly they only have Stallion.

we went to see a cave

see some research on carnivorous fish

and check out some beaches... well, we only get to see just 1 aside from the beach where our resort is since it was already late in the afternoon and it was getting dark