i♥Travel - The City of Smiles
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. ― Søren Kierkegaard
Hello my Steemit Fretz!
Welcome to my Trafvel Blog Series! This is a collection of my travels & adventure photos and stories that I have kept throughout the years. Some are old school and some are current but they are wonderful memories nonetheless.
This trip is memorable because this the first airplane ride with my fretz! We decided to go to the city of smiles, BACOLOD!
Going There
There are different ways you can go to Bacolod from Cebu but for those who only have a few days to go stroll and visit the place, it’s best that you go via plane. Airplane ride from Cebu to Bacolod is 45 minutes.
One of my fretz, visited Bacolod by riding a bus and a ferry, the travel time was around 6-8 hours. They only had a little time frame during their visit and regretted not opting to go by plane.
Get to know the City of Smiles
Before I jump in on our Bacolod experiences let me just give you a quick overview about the city of smiles. Bacolod is the capital of Negros Occidental. This city was once tagged as the “Sugar Bowl of the Philippines.” It is popular for its Masskara Festival, chicken inasal and their sweet treats.
It is tagged as the City of Smiles, because of the friendly and accommodating people living in this city. You can also relate this description to their cuisines, which gives you a satisfied and contented look once you have tried their mouthwatering dishes.
The Story behind the City of Smiles
Masskara is derived from the word “mass” meaning crowd and “kara” a native word that means face so literally, it is a crowd with lots of faces.
I was a little sad that we didn’t go there in time for the festival but I remember reading the origin of why this festival took place. This was very significant and the reason and purpose of such event really stood out to me.
This happened when Bacolod’s sugarcane farming industry went into crisis and at the same time the MV Don Juan tragedy happened. MV Don Juan is a ship that sunk and killed around 700 Filipinos and majority of them are Bacoleños (people from Bacolod).
This is the reason why the city government organized the Masskara festivals in order to lift up the Bacoleños’ spirits and so the city will remain strong and are able to survive these dark days. The main message of this festival is being able to smile and be happy despite the tough times.
We only had a few days to stay in this beautiful city but it was super fun with a little bit of adventure in it. I’ll be highlighting each one of them on my future posts. See you around!
Cover Pic is from Masskara.ph
I was worried the giant smiling masks would be a bit creepy but hey! They are actually kind of cute! People are also smiling because of the sweets I'm sure. Looking forward to the treats!
I'm not sure about that but they look lovely in the photos.
Never heard of this place before... Sounds like an interesting place to visit. Thanks for sharing!!
@hoosain it's a city in the Philippines. Glad you like it.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I look forward to my first trip there.
That's great. You'll love it.
@dawnsheree thank you for sharing and I'm looking forward to seeing some photos of the city in future posts. It was sad to read how the Masskara Festival came about, but it's a great way to honor those who died and the struggle the people faced with the sugar cane crisis.
Hello @redwellies, I'm glad you like it. The story is quite sad but I admire the people's mindset on not to let the catastrophe break them. :)
"City of smiles" - sounds like a wonderful and positive place to be! I've never been to the Philippines, I've been reading a bunch of other posts about people living and exploring this country and I'd really love to visit!
@axios you should come and give it a try, it's a whole new experience. ^^
where there is smile there is the joy of happiness :)
Definitely :)
What a cool place Bacolod is! Lovely to hear about it.
Also, my name translates here to Anj Face hehehe :D
Aw, I hope they didn't make the bereaved wear the masks too soon after the tragedy.
Cheers
Anj x
@anjkara If you haven't said it I wouldn't have noticed. :)
I only noticed it coz it's my name lol :D x