Negros: Dumaguete Part 1: Harold's Mansion

After grueling week at the chalk-face (not really – I spent a lot of time observing and the most taxing thing I had to do was re-familiarise myself with the principles of decimal divisions and attempt not to fail a trial run of my friend's maths exam) it was time for another holiday. The Salesians raved about the town of Dumaguete on the island of Negros, so to Dumaguete we did go. We took the fast ferry from Cebu, which according to the guidebook was a 2-hour crossing but turned out to be four and a half – things change fast in the Philippines, as we were to have confirmed later in the trip …

As a result, we arrived late and hungry at our hostel, which luckily was conveniently located just ten minutes’ walk from the port, meaning that we had to disappoint the crowds of taxi drivers who descended on us as soon as we stepped off the boat. Harold’s Mansion (motto “Any cheaper and we’d be sluts”) was another Lonely Planet pick which, despite a couple of initial shocks, turned out to be a great choice. Being a little of the “any cheaper…” persuasion ourselves, we had opted for the cheapest of the selection of very cheap rooms, attractively sold as being on the roof terrace.

The roof terrace was something of a building site but it did have great views down towards the sea and up to the mountains. Unfortunately I couldn’t really see these in the nine o’clock darkness and the first thing I noticed was the toilet block - attractively situated outside on the terrace.  A quick glance at the inside of the huts almost had me running back to the front desk in search of an en-suite upgrade.

Note the squat toilet with bucket flush and the shower head conveniently located in the immediate potential splash-zone of the toilet. Summoning up all my courage, however, I decided to check out the room first and was pleasantly surprised by the immaculate, freshly painted interior, complete with a large fan and reassuringly free of insect life. I was also pretty chuffed to have a room to myself for the equivalent of 7 euros a night.  And closer inspection of the toilet block revealed it to be spotlessly, spotlessly clean despite its primitive fittings. I realized afterwards that what the hostel lacked in infrastructure, it definitely made up for in upkeep, because labour is cheap in the Philippines, while amenities are not always easy to come by. 

My Bedroom Door (You can't see the outdoor urinals from here!)

The food was also tasty and cheap at Harold’s and they provided 30 minutes of free internet every day, along with an extensive lending library of Lonely Planet guides (which proved invaluable to me in planning what to do for my stopover in Hong Kong on the way back). Having survived the showers without too much pain at all, I would definitely recommend it as a place to stay. And if cleaning your teeth over a concrete basin in the open air isn’t your thing, you could always stay in one of the “expensive” rooms, all of which have en-suite bathrooms.