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Located in Talisay, just a few minutes away from the city - thanks to the newly built roads, the Ruins is accessible, easy to go to and a tourist favorite. It's currently the number 1 attraction in Bacolod according to Trip Advisor.

The Ruins

There are tour guides provided to tell stories and trivia around the house. Unfortunately, we came at a busy time and we weren't able to find any available tour guide. Personally, I love it when there are little or no people in the Ruins. The empty house is just a little more appealing. You can read up on the historically romantic story of this iconic house on their website.

Faux Children

This place truly is romantic, it puts you in the romantic mood but there are a few things that (for me) snap be back to reality. When the sun goes down and the magic hour is done, the house then starts to glow. Not because of magic but because they have placed lights all over the place, even outlining the house.  There is also a huge christmas tree obstructing the view of the house, although bearable, I think that the house would look better without it.

Guest Entrance

Fountain

On the brighter side of things, the house is well maintained and the place is kept clean. Although this fountain has been retouched a couple of times, it still stays true to its form. It reminds me of me grand people used to live and yet it was elegant and beautiful. Past the fountain is their azucarera a.k.a sugar factory. Originally known as the Sugar Capital of the Philippines, it would only make sense that this rich family was involved in the sugar industry. Unfortunately, that area is not open to the tourists and I have no photo.

Children's Entrance

We would like to think we're the fun tour group and so we danced to our favorite chant from the party - CLAP YOUR HANDS UP IN THE AIR

The Crazy Bunch

The Ruins is definitely a must see for a lot of reasons. If this place has captured your heart, like it did ours, you can actually hold events and photo shoots here.

It was sort of a last minute trip and there are no regrets. Being the only one who's been to Bacolod a couple times in the group, I instantly became the group's tour guide. It was quite a challenge because of the traffic and weather during our visit but we made the most out of the times where we were complete.

First destination - Campuestohan

Lodge

Located in Talisay, it's an hour or so away from the city. It's a highland resort where friends and families can hang out. They have two pools and a lot of other attractions that can definitely keep you busy. Although it was raining during our visit to Campuestohan, it didn't stop us from having fun at the resort and maximizing the Php 150.00 entrance fee.

Swimming Pool & Play Ground

The pools were far away from each other which brings up a hygiene problem because kids and adolescents run across the grass barefoot to go to the other pool. If you don't want to swim - like us, there are other options to keep entertained. You can cross the hanging bridge, bike in the air, zip line or go through a rope course.

Cycling in the air

Just Hanging out

We didn't stay as long as we originally planned because of the rain and also because we started craving for some coffee and cake. We headed over to Calea and got our cake fix. (You can read more about our food adventures here).

Did anyone say 'cake'?

Whether you're with your family or friends, make sure to drop by Campuestohan and see another side of Bacolod.

For the whole 4 days and 3 nights that we were there, we ate in 12 different restaurants, cafes, etc. It was exciting and fattening but what can I do, food loves me back.

My sister and I decided to walk along Lacson street so that we can walk in to almost every store we pass by. Somewhere along Lacson we stumbled upon Flibby's Cupcakes.

Flibby's Cupcakes is a small store and you barely notice it when you're riding a car or jeep passing along that road. The store displayed a variety of cute a delicious looking cupcakes. Even the flavours they offered were interesting! It sure did get my taste buds tingling! Haha

Here's an example of their flavours:

Their prices range from Php 40.00 to Php 65.00. These pastries are fairly priced considering the presentation and serving size. It's very pretty and filling to look at although I don't agree when it comes to taste.

I had the Maple Choco Chip Pancake cupcake and I was really excited to eat it. I remember how I would make pancakes and mix chocolate chips in the batter then drizzle it with more chocolate later on. I remember the pancakes being fluffy and soft. This cupcake was very sad. It was stiff and very dry although the frosting was sweet and had a little bit of coffee mixed into it, the texture was just too rough. The over all idea of having a breakfast cupcake was interesting but I guess they weren't able to make that breakfast wonderful :(

On the other hand, their Banoffee cupcake was interesting. The term "banofee" is usually followed by a "pie" which meant it had a bit of a crunch to it. It's cute how they jammed the banana, coffee, chocolate and caramel flavors into one small cupcake. It tasted fine, nothing extra ordinary about it. The cupcake would have tasted better if they used whipped cream instead of that grainy frosting.

I'm not sure if Flibby's is a newly opened store but I'm guess it's fairly new considering that they still have to improve on their recipes. LOL. Well, the next time I go to Bacolod, I'll definitely come back and have another round of cupcakes to taste.. or judge. LOL