Buglasan Dumaguete

Took the bus down to Dumaguete with my pack a little lighter for the lack of food and water, and wandered.  Stopped and bought lunch (super rare for me) at a restaurant out of the Daily Planet book called Coco Amigos. The interior was a hilariously obvious but impressive for the effort, Philippine take on Mexico. I had the vegetable curry with Mexican rice (laced with Tabasco)....... Obviously the author of the place cared more about the Mexican design rather than flavor. Anyways, it was nice to relax. My first five days of traveling after Cebu had been an incredible amount of work on my part, and I felt I deserved a break... Spend more money than I'm used to and all.

At the base of the tower

I walked around the town, only a few kilometers long, and was impressed by the old Bell Tower, built in 1811, situated next to an equally old Cathedral. Took care of a few internet things, and wandered a long time looking for Dumaguete Outdoors, which is supposed to make climbing Mt. Kanlaon an easier process. After looking and asking for three hours, I gave up the search and headed for the Buglasan Center, Aquino Freedom Park.

Buglasan is a common festival in the Philippines, but it may be most pronounced in Negros Oriental, the south-east portion of the island of Negros. Basically, the first two weeks of October, every locality has a festival so that people in the area (Barangay), up in the mountains, locals, come to the towns to sell their specialties. Cooked foods, produce, arts, and crafts are everywhere. Once I had walked around the town center, I learned there were music competitions planned for the evening. I still didn't have a place to stay, but I saw two tents perched in the corner. I asked if I could join their tent village, and they enthusiastically welcomed me. I left my things there, but rarely ventured out of sight. Leaving my things like that has never been a problem, and I always carry essential or valuable things on me.

Wishing I had friends/family sitting around me

The music competition was three-fold. There were children's choirs, adult duets, and adult solos. Filipinos are known worldwide for great cover bands, and the reason is there is such a broad musical foundation here. You wander any road in a city or high up in the mountains and at literally any time of day you will hear someone singing karaoke. I have yet to hear someone singing who couldn't at least carry a tune, but the vast majority can sing very complicated songs with time or key changes throughout, nailing every single ornamentation and inflection and adding plenty of their own drama and style to the mix. That's just karaoke (videoke) here. The bands themselves can pick up any tune they've heard or haven't and produce a very good likeness, usually with the polish of a band that has played together for a long time. Traditional songs are usually in Tagalog or Filipino, are super dramatic, long, and extremely difficult. My sister has sung in a nationally recognized choir in the US for most of her young life, so I've seen what the US has to offer. The children's choirs here, and the adults they become are incredibly incredibly talented. Almost every musician here is self-taught, and maybe lacking a few small polishing details such as stage presence or overall development of musicianship in a performance, but compared to most Americans who are all polish but little to no soul/inspiration (like myself), I prefer the Filipino musician to the American. I was so impressed. Competitions here are all-out as well because the money earned by the winning performers goes to a very poor community. Lots of talking and set up, and the sheer passion and drama can be exhaustibly overwhelming. I had made friends I had planned to jam with after the performances, but they went so late and were so tiring that I crashed around 1am and woke up early-ish to fulfill my plans to go to Casaroro Falls the next day. Another long interesting day, after the intensity of the Twin Lakes jungle in the days before.