above The colourful reef off
Apo Island allows divers to swim
with hawksbill turtles
bottom The Atlantis Jeepneys
are hand-painted renovated
WWII US military buses
top right The colourful weekly
Malatapay Market, selling a
whole variety of goods
The rest of the agricultural operatives
consist of small farms. Colourful
markets and stalls line the streets,
selling locally-grown fresh produce
such as siniguelas – a little round
green fruit that, when discovered by
the rest of the world, may well be
touted as a “superfood”, and ube, a
purple potato which is sometimes used
to make a lurid purple ice cream.Negros Oriental’s vivid “rurban”
centre is Dumaguete, a small town
by other standards, with around
150,000 people, but it is the city in
this provincial area, with a dozen
universities and colleges, three
hospitals, a mall with a cinema,
and numerous local businesses.
We take the Atlantis Jeepney,
an experience on its own, and head
to Malatapay Market. This fleet of
mustard yellow US military buses was
left behind after WWII and converted
by locals into these hand-painted,
colourful public transportation vehicles.
Malatapay is a hive of activity with
a weekly gathering of farmers selling
everything from cattle to flip-flops and
bamboo furniture. The highlight here is
the variety of local food: lechon
(a whole roasted pig), banana que
(using the local variety of short banana,
which is coated in sugar and grilled
on a stick) and the selective delicacy
that is balut (a hard boiled, fully-
developed duck embryo). After drinking
buku (fresh young coconut), we embark
on a city tour of Dumaguete.IMAGE COURTESY OF ATLANTIS RESORTIMAGE © TIM ROCK