Brooke's Wedding - Day 1

Earlier in the week, I reserved a room at Dumaguete's newest hotel, Hotel Essencia. For a small party as ours, there's only the matrimonial room left. That taken care of, we agreed leaving BC at a much later time. 

It's funny that even at less than a year, I have already forgotten how long the trip would last. The 930 AM bus arrived at Dumaguete pier area around 4PM. That makes travel time equals 7.5 hours, even without the detour to Isabela at the time when Hinigaran bridge was under rehab. 

Having set the day before that I will no longer make the trip to BC, I smsed Jing2 three times: after walking Choco, after breakfast (mom fed the dogs) and at 9 when she should be at the terminal already. For good measure, I smsed Glen and Mimi as well to wake her up. She answered at the first call I made when I left the house to wait for the bus at KZ's. 

Having brought with me three pairs of ensemble to choose from, I modeled them all in front of KZ while watching "Phantom of the Opera". The black skirt and the blouse with a bow won. I left the others that did not count, freeing some ample space for another book in my backpack. 

As the practice has been, lunch was at Kabankalan and a quick toilet stop at Mabinay (which terminal has greatly improved).  

Talk was scarce as we were both sleepy. I managed to finish 30 pages from Tolkien's Hobbits and three chapters from Patterson's Jack and Jill.  

  

To avoid needless worry about ferry accommodation, we alit at the pier and walked around looking for updated schedule before settling with Cokaliong Lines. Student fare required photocopy of school ID so we both just paid regular fare. 

That done, we checked in at Hotel Essencia. The room assigned to us was located at the 8th floor with the view of a neglected Ultra Vision Cinema just across the street and the pretty mountainsides. 

When the sun started to descend, we went out to explore Silliman U in darkness. We walked along Rizal Blvd taking photographs by the fluorescent "I love Dumaguete" signage, the St. Paul sisters and the dike. 

Dinner was at Sans Rival Bistro. For starters, I had Sopa de Lentejas for some fiber (to facilitate you know what), followed by fried chicken (and grilled spare ribs for Grace). Jessah arrived as we were helping ourselves to a slice of sans rival for dessert. 

To aid digestion, we walked towards Poppy's Coffee and Cupcakes. There we bought some takeaway to eat at the hotel to pass the time. We had almond and cream cheese cupcakes, cappuccino for me and Oreo frappe for Grace. 

Before finally closing our first day out of town, we each had full body massage in our room while watching a repeat of Just Desserts on cable.