Wednesday, May 10, 2006

The Sandbars of Negros Oriental

One of my best places for leisure is the sandbar of Manjuyod and Bais City, located about forty kilomters north of the capital city of Dumaguete, province of Negros Oriental, Philippines.

The Bais-Manjuod sandar is a piece of dryland with white sands right in the seas of the town of Manjuyod and adjacent city of Bais.

This is a site to behold, definitely an attraction for tourists.
If you are familiar with the dolphins of Bais, this is the area where the dolphins perform their acrobats to visiting tourists who are just fascinated by the place.

It is called sandbar because one can see the formation of bars of sand in the area at certain times of the day at low tide.

The sand bar can be seen by taking a motor boat from Bais of Manjuyod City. Just after about ten to minutes of the banca ride, you reach a protruding piece of dry mass of sand, right at mid sea.

During high tide, the sand bars are submergedand the water rises to as high as four feet. Since water is all over everyone stays at the motor boat to just dive in the water.

However, when it is low tide, the sand bars emerge and the area becomes dry it it becomes a perfect place to just stroll. The children can play, and as my uncle Bob said, you can even play tennis.

The motor boat you are riding will just be parked and anchored at the edge of the sand bar, where it suddenly meets the deep dark sea.

There are cottages in the sandbar where people can rent. Above the cottage, you can feel being literally surrounded by sea water.

Every summer, when I go home to the province, I visit the place everyday.

I leave Dumaguete City early in the morning, around 6 a.m. We would buy food for our breakfast at popular carenderias, like the one in Mangga district. This carenderia opens very early, selling liempo, fresh fish, tinola,.

Then we motor to Bais City which is about a forty-minute drive.

Upon reaching Bais City we proceed to the area where you can see a mini-docking area. This is the place for take off to the sand bar.

The commercial rouist motor boats are expensive because they cater specially to tourists out to view the doplphins of Tanon strait.

However, we rent the smally fishing most bancas among the locals in the area at very much cheaer price. The local fishers make more money if they lease their motor boats to us, rather than spend the whole day fishing where they find it more tiring.

By leasing to visitors of the sand bar, the fishers are relaxed because they just wait for us while we enjoy the pristine sea waters. They usually take a nap while waiting. They are "engaged to wait"--- to borrow a phrase in labor --- and are being paid for it.

Upon ariving at the sandbars we expose ouselves under the morning sun and just roll in the sand, or wade in the shallow waters.

I still think the Manjuyod and Bais sand bars is a great potential for tourists. The tourism package should be conceptualized so that others can also savor this-one-of-a-kind experience

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi. I am planning to visit Dumaguete soon and Manjuyod Sand Bar is one of the places listed in my itinerary. I'd like to ask a few questions regarding traveling to Bais and Manjuyod:
1) Ano ang frequency ng PUVs traveling to and fro Bais City? Say if we leave Bais at around 3pm, meron pa po ba bus or jeep pabalik ng Dumaguete?
2) How much is the rent for the boat that will take us to Manjuyod? Di po ba mahirap kumuha ng boat from the minidocking area?

Thanks. Hoping to hear from you.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I am planning to visit dumaguete soon and Manjuyod Sand Bar is one of the places I want to go to once I get to Dumaguete. I have several questions regarding going to Bais and Manjuyod, I hope you don't mind answering them. :)

1) Are there trip schedules for Bais-Dumaguete? Di po ba kami mahihirapan makabalik ng Dumaguete if we leave Manjuyod at 3pm?
2) How much is the rental fee for local boats that will charter us to Manjuyod? Di po ba mahirap kumuha ng boat from the minidocking area?

Thanks.

Gene (aynshutup@yahoo.com/slowreinvention.blogdrive.com)

Jay Dejaresco said...

Hi Gene.

To your first question, the answer is yes.
I suggest that you arrange with the rent-a-van to pick you up at the sandbar at 3 p.m. That’s the most convenient, although you have to pay higher for this arrangement.
If not, buses ply from Bais to Dumaguete at 3 p.m., even later.
Whoever takes you to the dock, make arrangements with the driver to fetch you in going back. That would be safest I suppose.

I am not sure I got your second question right.
If you are seeking to charter a boat from Dumaguete to Manjuyod, that’s expensive. The travel time is two hours. Not practical. We did that once before.
The usual practice is to charter a small motor boat from Manjuyod or Bais to the sandbars. You take the land trip from Dumaguete to Bais or Manjyod.
The last time I inquired, the rates were P2,500 per trip. That motor boat emanates from Bais (not Dumaguete)
Perhaps the rates have increased a bit.
You can call the Bais City Tourism Counsil at (035)402-6629 or (035)541-5161

I’ll inquire, and get back to you soonest.

Anonymous said...

Try my website at http://jeremyhill.webng.com

I offer luxury boating from Dumaguete

Anonymous said...

Hi. We are planning to visit sandbar this coming july 2008. I would like to ask how much is the rental/cottage?thank.

Anonymous said...

Hi Jay. We're going to bais city this month. I haven't been to manjuyod but it sounds really interesting to visit the place. If we go to there, there are just nearby hotels we're we could stay, right? Hope you don't mind answering. Thank you!

Jay Dejaresco said...

Hi.
I know of no hotels to recommend in Bais or Mnajuyod. Although I should say that Bais/Manjuyod is just about an hour away from dumaguete. You can stay at hotels in Dumaguete. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

to jay Dejaresco:

there's a hotel in Bais, La Planta. Everyone in Bais know where that is.

Jay Dejaresco said...

Thank you for the information.
You can go a step further by giving us the address and the contact numbers of La Planta Hotel.
I believe most who view this blog are not from Bais.
So most likely, they wouldn't know La Planta hotel exists.