Bacolod, the City of Smiles. It is home to the Masskara Festival and unending lines of restaurants. One might even be tempted to consider it as the Food Trip Capital of the Philippines. To get a clearer overview of a trip to Bacolod City, one has to consider that the tour would not be limited to only the tourist spots in the city itself. The nearby cities of Talisay and Silay should also be included in the travel guide and itinerary and so is the much farther town of Murcia where the seven waterfalls of Mambukal National Park is located. My first trip to the province occurred in 2010 and I have since been back thrice after that.

What started out as a trip to catch the annual Pintaflores Festival in San Carlos City turned out to be a totally different journey across the province of Negros Occidental. Together with The Road Trippers peeps, we were able to visit some new old sights along the towns and cities of Talisay, Bacolod, Murcia and San Carlos. We were also able to try out and taste the local dishes these places have to offer.

It’s been my goal to visit, photograph and swim at every single waterfall of Mambukal’s famous Seven Waterfalls since my first visit to the place several years back. It’s been almost three years to the day since I first set foot on the mountain resort and swam on its cold, deep green basins; and now I’m back, determined to finish what I started.

We didn’t have that much time to go wandering about once we reached Murcia’s Mambukal mountain resort. We immediately contacted our guide and decided how to tackle the waterfalls. There are actually two options in going about it, climb it up or climb down.

We started out the second day by trying out Bacolod's specialty, the Chicken Inasal.  It is basically a chicken roasted on skewers, served with garlic rice and chicken oil sauce.

We headed out to the Manokan Country and found our way to Aida’s, which was favored heavily online by vacationers who stayed at Bacolod.  I was initially a bit disappointed by the place as it looks a bit like a beerhouse rather than a resto.  Serving time was also quite lengthy, however, this may be due to us being too early.  We were the only ones eating along the whole strip as far as I can tell.  When the food arrived, and we were not disappointed though.  Really tasty Chicken Inasal!  The wait was well worth it.