There are a heap of waterfalls and caves and suchlike in the vicinity of Dumaguete. But we've contented ourselves with a couple of short outings.

The first was to Sibulan, just up the coast to the north of Dumaguete. Actually, not Sibulan proper, but a resto called Jo's Chicken Inato by the Sea, a little way beyond the town.

You can get there on the bus. A Ceres Liner, to be precise, which cost PHP 15 each from the bus station, and PHP 10 each on the way back, as we got off at the edge of the city. It's a pleasant ride, as you jiggle about between the sea and the pretty, leafy villages just inland.

Jo's has branches in Dumaguete, but it's certainly worth the short trip out to this green, breezy outlet, with its great views over to Cebu Island.

There was nothing wrong with our squid or our veggies, but it was definitely the eponymous chicken that stole the show.

Chicken inato, or so I read, is Dumaguete’s version of Bacolod’s chicken inasal. Both are barbecued chicken, but inato is grilled with a sweet marinade. It's served up with pickled papaya and lime, and it's very, very tasty.






Across the road is Our Lady's Garden, also established by Jo. This is a really beautiful place. Apart from the meditative pathway to the statue of Mary, there are fabulous views of the sea and the mountains, and all manner of little shaded places where you can just sit back and enjoy the fresh air and the plants.








There is a little chapel, which I found quite moving, largely because of its depiction of past happiness and inevitable mortality.




A little way down the road back to Dumaguete, at Looc, there's a memorial to the World War II guerrillas who resisted the Japanese invasion. We didn't find it. All we found was a plaque and a staircase...



But had we persisted we would have come across a monument commemorating the first battle in Negros Oriental between the Philippine guerrillas and the Japanese army. The resistance on Negros was pretty successful. Donn V. Hart notes: "When American forces returned to Negros, after securing the control of Leyte in late December, 1944, and then invading Luzon, the guerrillas controlled about two-thirds of the island." That's an impressive feat.

West of Dumaguete, on the slopes of the Talinis mountain, is the little town of Valencia. This very morning, as experienced by PT down in Dumaguete, it was host to a little swarm of earthquakes.

There are no Ceres buses to this destination, so you have to rely on that venerable Philippines institution, the jeepney. These vehicles are everything I don't like about mass transport -- ultra-hot, ultra-cramped, and devoid of views because you're facing sidewards -- but they cost just PHP 12 per person each way to Valencia, and this is a popular route, so it doesn't take long for your jeepney to (over)fill itself, and depart. All that being the case, it's difficult to complain too vociferously.

Valencia, which you climb steadily to reach, is a very green and pretty little place.







We lunched at the NASPRI Bistro, where they do very acceptable salads and coffee, and really excellent kinilaw (spicy, marinated fish) .


Anyone who is interested in Negros Oriental's WW2 history will benefit from a visit to the Cata-al Museum. We talked for a bit with the owner, who started his collection, as a child, with marbles he found on the mountainside, and went on to unearth huge troves of grenades, bullets, dogtags, helmets, and even human remains (which he helped to repatriate to Japan). There's still lots more out there on the mountain, he reckons -- from treasure to ghosts to the leftovers of more fallen mortals.





After all that suffering, you need some consolation, and Trencia's Painitan, which serves local tsokolate, fits the bill nicely.


I sometimes wonder how those who fell in battle would assess the current state of play. I like to think they'd be happy that those still living were enjoying greenery, and beauty, and traditional food. It's the simple pleasures that are most worth fighting for.