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