Snapshots around Silay

Our side trip to Silay City to see the heritage houses particularly Balay Negrense allowed me to take a few photos here and there. My short visit to Silay left me with a very good impression of the city, which to me would be a good model for other small cities. It is clean and orderly, and the people are warm. Also, a definite plus is the malambing intonation of Negrenses similar to that of the Ilonggos. They (most of Negros Occidental and Iloilo) share a common language - Hiligaynon. I remember one of our surveyors saying they were not speaking Ilonggo but Hiligaynon, which is actually the dominant language in the Western Visayas. Of course, there are many dialects like Kiniray-a and Aklanon but like Tagalog and Sugbuhanon, Hiligaynon will have many variants in places where it is spoken.

There are many old buildings in Silay and it seemed to have brought back memories of Manila during my childhood. There are similar buildings in Manila such as the ones shown in the photo above but most are in a bad state and no one seems to care that many are demolished for scrap, never mind that these are supposed to be part of our heritage.

The San Diego Pro-Cathedral in Silay. We were unable to look inside the church but I am sure that the interiors are splendid based on previous travels to other cities and towns with old churches. The main dome of the church is distinctive considering it is one of the tallest structures in Silay.

Manila, Cebu and Iloilo have similar buildings like this one in the old business districts. Commercial establishments are located on the ground floor and the proprietors often live in the upper floor(s).

Okay, this is transport related and probably something that should be in my other blog but I couldn't help but notice Silay having modern traffic signals and with countdown timers to boot. These signals are along the national highway.

I was only able to get a quick shot of this building, which is the ancestral house of the Jalandonis. Among their more prominent kin is the former priest Luis Jalandoni, who is among the leaders of the CPP.

Around the Philippines you will see different designs of the ubiquitous tricycle. The cab of these three-wheelers vary in terms of design (layout) and passenger capacity with the Silay versions having two rows of two-seaters (total 4 seated passengers).

Some sections of the national road connecting Bacolod and Silay are 4-lane, divided with medians and the roadside planted with rows of eucalyptus trees. There are also man-made forests of mahogany along the road.

Sunset along the national highway

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