Quote: (03-02-2013 09:37 PM)High Society Wrote:
Scotian,
How is the night scene in Duma? Thinking about doing a month in Cebu, then a month in Duma. Although I am worried I might get bored with Duma after a week or so.
What is your thoughts on Duma after spending some time there?
Dumaguete data sheet:
The city of gentle people
Overview: Dumaguete is a city of about 120,000 people on the island of Negros Oriental in the Visayas region of the Philippines, it has four universities and a student population of 30,000. It is a coastal city and the downtown area is right next to the water, with some excellent beaches about 20 minutes away. The city is also surrounded by large hills in the background where you can find waterfalls, rivers, hot springs and a zip line.
Getting there: You can fly direct from either Manila or Cebu, I went there by ferry from Cebu on Oceanjet, the one way cost was 1020 Pesos ($25 USD). The ferry leaves at 6am and 330pm.
Hotels: I stayed at
Harold's Mansion which is located about a kilometer from the port and close to Silliman university, the price for a private room with WIFI and AC was 800P/night. This is a hostel so it attracts an international crowd and quite a few back packers, it has a nice bar and pool table on an open patio on the top floor. The hostel also has a dive shop, which is why I stayed there. After 2 days I was getting sick of the stinky hippies and the no guest policy so we bounced to a hotel in the centre of down town.
Hotel Nicanor: This is a pretty nice hotel and reasonably priced at 1300P for the "matrimony suite", a queen size bed. I stayed in the single suite (1000P) but the bed was small and not ideal for banging, so upgraded. Location is ideal, within a two minute walk to the water and the better clubs in town.
There's plenty of other options, especially out of town a bit (15-30 minutes), you'll find some nice resorts, but not much night life around there, not that Dumaguete has a vibrant night life though, more on that later.
Getting around: There are no taxis in Dumaguete, only "tricycles", 125 CC motorbikes with a side carriage that carries two people and there are hundreds of them, the city is flooded and its never a problem to find one, just step outside onto the street and within 10 seconds, you can flag one down. Cost is 9 Pesos to go anywhere in the city. Remember this when you arrive in town as they will try to hustle you, but not too bad, this is indeed "the city of gentle people".
I rented a scooter for the 5 days that I was there from a rental place at the "OK Pension", its on Perdices street, right across from the Shell station. They cost 350/day for an automatic, they're new and in decent shape.
Things to do: Dumaguete is a small city but its bustling during the day and people are everywhere downtown, although there isn't too much to do there. You can check out Rizal park to take some pics or take a walk along the nice waterfront area but your best bet is to rent a scooter or get a trike to take you to the surrounding hills to go to the waterfalls or hot springs for the day.
There's also plenty of beaches near by, the best one is in Dauin. I spent the day there at a place called Pura Vida, a nice resort with rooms for 3000P/day, the entrance fee of 200 went towards any booze or food consumed there.
I also spent an afternoon at Huiza pool, which is basically a mansion with a nice big pool, 150P entrance fee, it was okay but was probably a lot nicer 20 years ago.
Of course, you don't want to be going on all of these random adventures alone, so its best to find a cute Filipina tour guide to take you around, here's my advice on game there:
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Day game: This is your best bet, I met girls working at stores near my hotel and at the mall. I used the phone number on a piece of paper trick and also just approached and straight up asked for her number. Day game locations: EVERYWHERE!
-Robinson Mall, not far from downtown, about a 5 minute drive. Its a newer mall, built about 3 years ago but still quite small, its crawling with girls during all hours of operation, has a decent food court and a cinema and of course, cold AC. You'll be hanging out there a lot, trust me.
Downtown mall, forgot the name but its very close to hotel Nicanor, on San Jose Street near the Jollibees, again, crawling with women and very cute/helful staff.
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Night Game: There's a few bars and clubs to hit up, most along Rizal Avenue right along the shore line in the downtown area. Most of the clubs are frequented by a younger crowd (16-24) so you may stick out a bit if you're over 30, seems like most of the mature crowd hangs out in restaurants with live bands or the bar Why Not (more on that later).
Internet Game: This being the Philippines, there's a ton of girls online, you can use DIA, Filipinocupid, Tagged, Badoo, etc and get results. I met up with one girl who I gamed off the net, it was okay but didn't get the bang.
Night life: Honestly its not great, there's a couple of decent spots to check out but I wouldn't describe it as vibrant. Here' some places I checked out:
Hayahay: You have to go here, trust me. Its a little ways out of downtown, maybe 2 kms but worth the trip. It has a tree house restaurant upstairs and live bands playing, food is also good. Each night we went there, there were probably 40-60 people, including some nice girls. I opened a set here and my buddy and I banged two of them.
Blue Monkey Grill: This is downtown, right on Rizal and next to the water. Good food and attracts a bit more of an "upscale" crowd, although I use that term very loosely as there isn't anything very fancy in the city, the place has plastic lawn chairs, haha.
Why Not: Even though this is where the pros and semi-pros hang out at, you will end up there, trust me. Its also on Rizal and stumbling distance to hotel Nicanor, its basically a big complex with a restaurant and cafe (both good) with two night clubs, a billiards room and a KTV room. Its filled with tourists so you won't stick out, its also full of hookers and the odd lady boy. I opened a couple of girls in the park outside across the street one night, took them in for a drink and ended up leaving with one, wasn't sure if she was a hooker or not but my strong suspicions were confirmed the following night when I saw her in the hooker club, oh well I didn't pay so I guess the hookers there are shoreable, although there are plenty of busted old foreign guys in there willing to pay 1000P to take one home
Sizzlers/Insomnia: Right around the corner from Why Not, this place is small and has a younger crowd, cheap drinks and to my delight, I discovered that they have Shisha at 120P.
Zanzibar: Next to Insomnia, went in for a drink but there wasn't a large crowd, samething as next door basically, younger crowd and small club.
Bar Rocks: Near Rizal park, probably the second biggest night club in the city, again, younger crowd but good on weekends.
Diving: I spent a day diving with Harold's Dive shop and did 3 dives out at Apo Island and it was fantastic and cheap at 3300 including lunch and all equipment rentals. Amazing coral, tons of nice tropical fish, eels, turtels, etc. Apo Island itself is quite nice but a 30 minute boat ride from the main land, so remote and only has 900 people on it. There are a couple of small hotels there but I wouldn't recommend staying there unless you get a girl from Dumaguete and take her there for the day or maybe one night.
Waterfalls/hot springs: These are about a half an hour scooter ride from downtown into the hills, head to Valencia and you can just ask for directions along the way. Entrance fee is 40 to the hot springs and 25 to the waterfall, both are more than worth it and great places to take a girl
You'll pass by a nice resort called "Tierra Alta", its worth checking out for the stunning view and if you want, there's an actual upscale restaurant there, although I didn't eat there, it looks nice. They also have a zip line there that you can do, check out the video on the website:
http://www.philsouth.com/index.html/tierr...ubdivision
So I think that's pretty much it guys, I was there for 5 days and am actually going back there tomorrow (I"m in Bohol now), my buddy wants to spend a couple more days there before flying back to Manila to catch his flight home to Canada in a few days. Myself, I got this girl's number about an hour before I left the other day, so I have some unfinished business. I'll keep you guys posted and if there's any other information you'd like about this nice city, just let me know.
Here's a decent video on Dumaguete: