Part 3 of the Libotero Negros Occidental Heritage Series
After a walk in the park and snapping some photos of the Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol, I flagged another cab to take me to the Ceres South bus terminal. (There are two Ceres terminals in Bacolod, one for northbound buses and the other for southbound. They’re located at both ends of one street).
I took an air-conditioned non-stop bus bound for Kabankalan City. Fare was P115. What I like about Negros is their established bus culture. It is the home base of the popular bus company, Ceres Liner, making almost every town in the island accessible to everyone. You can just hop on a bus and go anywhere!
Kabankalan City is a first-class city in southern Negros Occidental. Based on the latest census, it has a population of at least 166,845 people. The city is at least five towns away from the capital Bacolod. If you have your own vehicle, going there would only take a little over an hour. But since I was on a bus, it took me about two hours to reach Kabankalan City.
Prior to this trip, I really did was not able to do much research about Kabankalan City as I only planned to make it as the starting point of my town-to-town heritage hopping all the way back to Bacolod City. So as soon as I arrived at the Ceres Bus Terminal in Kabankalan, I hired a tricycle to take me to their city hall. Tricycle fare in Kabankalan is only 7 pesos. Do not ride if the tricycle driver tries to take advantage and asks for a higher fare.
Anyway, I really didn’t know what to expect but when we were approaching the city hall, I was pleasantly surprised to see a sprawling castle-like structure in the middle of sugar plantations.
I was feeling quite lazy taking photos under the scorching hot noontime sun so I wasn’t really able to capture the whole building and show it’s castle-like features which means that you actually have to go there to appreciate its beauty! 
Kabankalan has a really grand and imposing city hall building, which reflects the potential of the city as one of the most progressive in the province.
Since I was there on a Saturday, the whole place was deserted. There was nothing else to do in the City Hall complex so after I took some photos, I hired another tricycle to Gaisano.
I was already quite hungry as I arrived in Gaisano Kabankalan so I dropped by Mang Inasal for lunch. (LOL, fastfood still.) One thing that amazed and amused me was the fact that almost all people who were dining at the restaurant ate with bare hands. Wow! And they all sprinkled chicken oil all over their rice. I don’t know how that would taste like, I was imagining it would feel like sipping cooking oil. Eww! I’m really not a fan of oily food though. Utensils were available by request.
Although first class in terms of income, Kabankalan is still mostly rural. Its streets are very clean!
After lunch, I took another tricycle to bring me back to the Ceres Terminal and I hopped on a Bacolod-bound bus to bring me to my next destination, Hinigaran.
(…to be continued)
