Mango Shake at the Big Tree Hive.

There was a time, pre-COVID, when once a week I would meet with a small group of Americans living around Dumaguete and we'd have breakfast. Normally, we would meet in a different cafe each week, but for several weeks running, rather than move about, we would get together at the Senorita's Mexican Grill located at the Dumaguete airport.

Arriving early one morning, I thought I'd visit the cafe next door to Senorita's and have a mango shake while I waited.

I must say, the shake I had there was superior. I would rate it as high as my favorite - the mango shake at Don Roberto's, and at 65 pesos, the price is much better than the 90 pesos charged for a shake at Senorita's.

Although the cafe has obviously been around for a long time, I couldn't find the name of the cafe posted anywhere. I even checked the menu and it wasn't to be found. I had to ask the waitress for the name of their establishment. She told me it was called Big Tree Hive.

This morning, just before writing this review, I went to my account on Google Maps (where I'm listed as a Local Guide) and added Big Tree Hive to the map.

The next time I'm at the Dumaguete airport and in the need for a mango shake, I'll know where to go.

 

What's With All These Mango Shakes?

After posting a link on MeWe of another blog post on mango shakes, someone asked why it seemed like all my posts are about shakes. I hope that this blog post will properly explain my reason for doing so.

I currently have three blogs - this one, dumaguetewebsite.blogspot.com - robertsimms.blogspot.com and sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken.blogspot.com.

Since it's creation, sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken has been my blog of first choice. Over time, I have published most often there. It's a general, all purpose blog. I'll publish posts on politics, music, the books I'm reading and just about anything that interests me. A few months back, that blog was banned from Facebook. I'm told that it goes against "community standards". I don't see how that's possible and I suspect there are other reasons behind that banishment.

The banning of that blog by Facebook led to the creation of robertsimms.blogspot.com, where I'll write pretty much the same as I do on the banned blog. I have no problem posting links to it on Facebook.

Dumaguetewebsite.blogspot.com was originally created to chronicle the trials and tribulations of a now defunct website - dumaguetecity.net. It has evolved into a blog centered around life in and around the provincial capital of Negros Oriental, Dumaguete city.

I've recently taken to posting links to these blogs onto MeWe. Because two of my blogs are about general subject matter - and not specifically about life in Philippines, I'll post links to these on my personal page only.

Because my Dumaguete blog (obviously) has references to Philippines, I'll post links to that blog onto my "Life in Philippines" page, as well as the "Philippine Travel Hacks" page. I'm currently in the middle of a series of "mango shake" posts. These will include a photo of the mango shake, usually a photo of the eatery and a map showing the location of the cafe.

In normal times, I might be publishing posts on different events in the area - parades, fiestas. However, these are not normal times. COVID has put a serious dent in those sorts of events.

I suppose I could intersperse within the blog, a series on the number of antique, Volkswagen Beetles I've come upon and photographed in and around Dumaguete. I'll give that some thought.

Tricycle Drivers and Backriders

Like so many other places, Dumaguete has had difficulties during these days of the covid19 pandemic. As I write this, the entire province of Negros Oriental (where Dumaguete is the provincial capital) is currently under General Community Quarantine (GCQ). Many people are out of work as certain businesses are not allowed to open at full capacity.

Cafes and eateries are only allowed to serve customers with take-out or delivery. No dine-in under GCQ.

Two things involving transportation have upset the majority of people in the city. One is the "no backrider" policy. Under normal circumstances, it is quite common to see two people on a motorcycle - the driver, of course and a passenger sitting behind the driver. In some areas, this might be done for commercial purposes (known as "habal habal") but in most cases here, the backrider is often a family member of the driver on his/her way to work, or simply they're riding together because the family has only one motorcycle.

Now, the powers that be in Manila have banned the practice of backriding as a so-called public safety measure against the spread of covid19. Until recently, the Dumaguete authorities have turned a blind eye toward the practice by not enforcing the ban. A recent visit to Dumaguete by an official from outside the province has forced the provincial government to carry out the ban. Most of the people in Dumaguete object to the ban and can see the absurdity of not allowing couples that share a bed from sharing a motorcycle.

Without backriding, many are forced now to make use of the public tricycles. However, the same rule that bans backriding does not allow tricycles to carry more than one passenger at a time. Tricycle drivers basically live a hand to mouth existence here, and need to carry more than one passenger at a time in order to make any money at all.

Today, a city wide strike was called by tricycle drivers to protest the rule.

While driving to Dumaguete, I indeed saw fewer tricycles than normal. There were very few backriders as well.

Unfortunately, some drivers had no other choice than to break the strike and drive today. I also saw a few backriders while I sat outside the bank. There are some cases where the people simply have no other options.

ECQ Day One

This post was originally published on another of my blogs. I attempted to post the link to it onto Facebook. I had done that several times in the past, but when I tried to post this, I was not allowed because the blog "violates community standards". I'm attempting to go around that by publishing the post onto this blog. We'll see.

Today is the first day of what we've been told will be a two week Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in an attempt by the Provincial Governor of Negros Oriental to stem the tide of the corona virus here.

We've been pretty much on a lock down status for a few weeks, but this will be Quarantine on Steroids.

Students and seniors, 65 and older had been ordered to stay at home a while back, and that rule remains in effect. We've all been under a 9:00PM to 5:00 AM curfew for weeks, however now the restrictions on everyone else in the province have gotten tighter.

Only one person from a household will be allowed outside the home, and that person is severely limited as to where and when he can go out. Each household has been issued a quarantine pass which must be presented at checkpoints. I've been told that the person going out must surrender his ID at the checkpoint and must return home through the same checkpoint within a certain time frame in order to retrieve the ID.

I'm pretty much a homebody, so the quarantine hasn't been a burden for me, although now it will be a little more complicated getting my money from the bank. That is my main complain now.

This call for an ECQ apparently comes a recent event at a port in Sibulan, Negros Oriental. The borders of the Province had been closed, with only cargo being allowed to enter. Out of humanitarian concerns, a passenger ferry was allowed to bring home stranded residents of Negros from Cebu island. Photos of the arriving passengers were posted onto social media. These photos showed that these passengers were not practicing "social distancing" and most were not wearing masks. None of these arriving passengers underwent any medical exam, we're told that the passengers were not instructed to self quarantine.

These photos sent the local medical community into a frenzy; generating a petition from front liners to the Governor demanding an ECQ.

I suspect this move by the Governor is based more on politics than on anything else.

The powers that be in our area are notorious for not enforcing laws and regulations. It remains to be seen how this will work out.