Pleasant Travelers Pension & 18th St. Palapala

On my first night in Bacolod, I stayed at Pleasant Traveler's Pension House along the 13th Street. Its walking distance from Lacson St. where many restaurants and hotels can be found.

From the Ruins, I boarded a Libertad-bound jeepney and told the driver to drop me at 13th Street. The landmark is the cluster of bars named Sorrento Piazza.

Its about 5-minute walk until we found the pension house at the left side of a small neighborhood, sandwiched between Aguinaldo and Gatuslao streets.

We chose an air conditioned twin-sharing room with television at room rate of Php 650/night. I would have preferred the TV-less room that costs Php 500 per night, but my roommate Genel like to have access to television during our stay.

The room is small but clean and comfortable enough. Amenity include a bar of soap for each occupant. Free wifi is available, but the signal does not reach our room, so I have to sit at the small lobby to access the internet.

After checking-in, we decided to have an early dinner and buy our camping supplies at SM mall. We tried the seafood restaurant 18th St. Palapala, where customers can choose among the fresh seafoods on display to be cooked according to our liking.

It has a casual ambience. They use boat-inspired lanterns to convey the message that they are a seafood restaurant. 

Since the Maskara Festival is just a week away, masks also complete their decoration.

We ordered half a kilo each of shrimp and squid, cooked with garlic and sizzling style respectively. They are both good, but not exceptional to write home about.

Our total bill is Php 760, which includes 4 cups of rice and a bottle of beer each. With that huge amount of food we consumed, its not bad at all with our full tummies. :)

The following morning, I thought of going to the provincial capitol's plaza, less than 10 minutes walk from the pension house. The provincial capitol's building reminds me of the Phil. Postal Office's main building in Lawton.

Outside the park, there are ambulant vendors selling fruits, drinks, and snack items. Inside it, there are people doing aerobics exercises, dancing to the music delivered by many speakers around the park. Looks like its a daily routine until 7:00 am.

A lot of people are either walking or jogging around the park, a nice place to watch people. The man-made pond makes a nice mirroring effect to the capitol building, and ensures unobstructed view of it. There are many tilapia on the pond, and there is no signage prohibiting fishing on it.

There are carabao statues on each side of the pond. I just don't know what they represent, hehe.

Bacolod City seems a nice city to live in, compared with other Philippine cities.