SURROUNDINGS AND EXCURSION

Logistically speaking Sampaguita Resort is placed at Tongo Point, southern appendix of a small peninsula that stretches out towards Negros Island, at an equal distance (about 3 Km.) from Moalboal small village and the greater village of Panagsama.

Several are the interesting points.

Moalboal market is held every morning, starting at 5.30 am. It is coloured and lively, because of many busy clients, stalls full of fish, vegetables, tropical fruit and working tools that cannot be found anymore in "normal" Western markets. Not far you can fond the bus stop. This public transport is originating from Cebu City. It moves loaded with all kind of humanity and cargo, from refrigerators to pigs to the student going back home for holidays. On the other side of the road it lies the main Square, utilized from time to time as soccer pitch or as arena for national celebrations or local folkloristic events. On one side there is Moalboal church, where Mass is celebrated at sunrise and  where on holidays practically the totality of population of nearby villages converge. Many are the chances of taking unique and coloured snapshots, most of all thanks to the spontaneous co-operation of local inhabitants, eager to pose for foreign visitors.

The Orchid Garden (a short walking distance from Moalboal centre) has more than two hundred thousand plants and each of them would be worth a photo or even a macro photo. Specially interesting is the private collection of the garden owner, which has endemic local specimens and Thai and Malaysian  rare subjects.

The Coliseum is a locally styled amphitheatre where weekly (on Saturdays) real cockfight is held with optional betting.  However the real show is not, as one could think, in the arena where the fight is on, but in the public stands between the noisy crowd and the bookmaker, who, with his back to the arena, stands shouting with a bunch of banknotes kept in his hands.