“My College Tour Experience”

In each phase of life we had been, I guess, we all have our “favorites” among those from our younger years, to pre-teens, teenage years until we get into semi-adults.

Most people say high school life is the happiest part of school life, but for me, college years also gave me the best experiences I considered one of a kind.

I was a hospitality student as I chose to be in that industry.

Though my course was not my intended or planned course to take, I considered it as one of the best choices that fit me and my personality. I already mentioned before in my previous articles that I took Hotel and Restaurant Services Technology, it is quite similar to HRM courses, what we have in difference is we’re more on the service side.

I attended a state university located in my hometown, I’m just lucky I don’t have to be far from home to study in college. But among all the courses in our school, HRST got the highest tuition fee. To be in this course, we need good financial support from our parents.

During those times, my father always scratches his head because of the fees I need to pay, the laboratory, the uniforms aside from the school uniform we also have to wear our housekeeping uniforms, Food, and beverages uniform, and Baker’s/Chef’s uniforms for our laboratories. But one of the main reasons why the course was a bit pricey is the “tour”.

Though I just experienced two years in college, I also enjoyed the tour we had during my two years of being a student.

In my first-year college experience, we paid for about P3, 000 per student for a 3 day stay in Bacolod. It was just a quick tour we had. Also, what made the trip more exciting as most of our batch was their first time to travel by sea and far from family for that long, including me.

We had a one-night crossing across the ocean since Bacolod to Iloilo is about 43 km with 23.63 miles of sea travel (that’s according to Mr. Google). By 8 am we reached the Bacolod Port and departed and went our respective “tour buses”.

Some Bacolod Moments

Bacolod city is well known as the city of smiles, and no wonder why it’s called that way, people there are very friendly especially with travelers like us. During our trip, when people recognize us as tourists, they didn’t hesitate to show us a warm welcome by smiling and waving.

The Ruins

It was one of the memorable moments I had on our travel. And to be honest we went through a lot of rough roads just to reach the well-known tourist attraction outside Bacolod City, the ruins. The place was very enchanting especially the mansion. There’s something attractive with its structure.

Our batch wonders why the mansion looked that way, with no roof/ceiling and no walls, except the pillars. Then we were amazed when the tour guide started to speak.

Later on, we realized the mansion was burnt decades ago. But why it doesn’t look like it was burned as stated in history and how could it still stand straight with pure majesty?

According to our tour guide, it is believed that the mansion was built with pure concrete and they used egg whites for finishing. That’s why the best time to visit the ruins is during the sunset, as it will appear orange-hued. However, we’re unlucky to visit the site in broad daylight, but then it’s still one of the best experiences I had on my Bacolod tour.

We also visited “Ang Bahay na Pula” or the Red Mansion an ancestral house which is believed as haunted and one of the tourist’s spots in Bacolod, also we went to Mambukal Hot spring Resort and hiked the seven waterfalls but I wasn’t able to keep some photos from the said trips. I kept my shots in my old pc and it was broken years and years ago.

Also, we visited Bong Bong’s and Merczi’s factories but we’re not allowed to take some photos during the tour.

Cebu Escapade

This tour happened during my second year in college, before the trip became successful, the Cebu-Bohol and other parts of Panay experienced an Earthquake. Because of the incident, our tour was nearly postponed. However our school made action and made the tour possible, but we only visited Cebu because Bohol and one of the wonders there (The Chocolate Hills) weren’t ready for visits yet.

Each student or shall I say, our parents paid about P8, 000 for the food (breakfast, dinner, lunch), hotel room accommodations for 3 nights and 2 days for the nautical travel, a total of 5 days trip.

Cebu City is called the Queen City of the South if I could still recall it properly, and for me, it was the most unforgettable tour I had. From Iloilo to Cebu we voyaged one whole day in the ocean, the longest travel I experienced in the sea.

We stayed in a Hotel Room, a standard room with 5-7 beds. It was my first time checking –into a hotel and the feeling was great!

My Cebu Experience!

Taoist Temple

Let’s start from the Taoist Temple. I couldn't remember particularly about the history of the temple itself but here’s the noticeable landmark you could see, the greed dragon that looks like Mushu in Mulan, however, Mushu is red. 😁 (do you recognize him?)

While roaming around the temple we need to lower our voices, and we’re not allowed to touch some stuff in the rooms and the place. All we have to do is take photos together with the memories and leave some footprints.

Profoods International Corporation

Everything you could see here are mangoes! Yes! Our eyes were full of mangoes during the trip. They are selling mangoes in any form of new products. They are best known for dried mangoes production and mango nectar in the Philippines.

They are also selling some products of the local farmers like wines and souvenirs.

But what I love the most was the free loot bag!

We also went to a University in San Carlos City, I can’t remember what the name of the school is, but I could recognize it as a Catholic school with a Chapel inside their vicinity.

Of course, we didn’t miss the most well-known Magellan’s Cross in Mactan. But sadly what we saw there was a damaged cross. It was caused by the earthquake and the same goes for Santo Niño Church. Because of the earthquake, the belfry of the said church was damaged massively. Since I failed to take a photo of the church’s belfry, I looked for a photo online for you to see how destroyed it was when we saw it.

(Photo source link)

We also took off to Gardenia but just like the factories in Bacolod we were not allowed to take photos of the or privacy of their production.

Honestly, there’s a lot more to share with you guys, b, unfortunately, they kept a few photos on my Facebook.

But then I hope you enjoyed browsing some photos of our trip during my college years. Because of these trips, I appreciated more the country I am living in. Because I know, that the places I had were was just a small percentage of the beautiful places to visit here in the Philippines.

I’m just glad my chosen course let me and my batch mates explore those places because we believed that learning doesn’t partake only inside of the four walls of the classroom, it should not be limited inside the campus. Of course, we need to explore to travel as one way of it.

Now, all I could do is to reminisce those good happy days, that’s why I am writing this article. Maybe who knows, I might visit those places again and many more! Let’s just hope for the best.

Thanks for reading!

Ps: Please excuse my photos; those were taken 7-8 years ago.

All photos are mine except for the Santo Niño Church’s. Photo source link provided.

This article was scanned in a Plagiarism Checker at Duplichecker.com

Written by: @eommaZel ✍🏻🥀