An occidental tourist in the land of sugar

Stepping onto an island steeped in the history of the sugar industry, TOM COCKREM learns to accept the unexpected.

Long lines of classic 50s trucks? Not something I had expected in Negros Occidental. Vintage trains, maybe. For this, after all, was sugarland, and there were bound to be some relics of the turn of the century boom.

But what beautiful old trucks. Threatening to crumple under bulging loads of cane, they lined the road to La Coletta Sugar Mill in a convoy around a hundred strong; but not the kind of convoy you imagine in the classic C&W hit, with CB radios, "teamsters" and bull-bars that could crush a Kombi. These were 50s and 60s jobs - Fords, Mercs, Chevies. They had, of course, been "Filipino-ised" - doors discarded and padded seats replaced with wooden crates. Colours ranged from unadulterated rust through pastels to the glossiest of yellows, blues and reds.

But I had not come to Negros Occidental for trucks (there are those, I'm sure, who would). I had come because I knew the province boasted some of the most splendid old ancestral homes in the Philippines - both the traditional bahay na batu (house of stone) and the turn-of-the-century Antillian. These were the palaces of the early sugar barons, and of those who had prospered from the boom - shipping magnates, bankers and the like. The grand "haciendas" would be found in the canefields, the townhouses in Silay.

Negros is one of the larger Philippine islands. It is part of the Visayan group, sandwiched between Panay and Cebu. Occidental is the bigger of the island's two provinces. The other is Negros Oriental.

Silay, on the north-west coast, was the capital before its port was bombed in the Second World War. The mantle was then taken up by Bacolod, 20km south. But the original capital remains the province's historic heart. It harbours 41 ancestral houses, three of which are now museums.

The showpiece is Balay Negrense. This former residence of Philippines-born French planter, Victor Gaston, contains no fewer than 12 bedrooms upstairs and down - there to accommodate Monsieur Gaston's dozen offspring. More traditional in design is Casa Bernadino Jalandoni, with its lower floor stone-wall veneer, capiz-shell sliding "windows" on the upper wooden walls and original furnishings and fittings. The family's buggy and ceremonial float are still stored in the house's zaguan (ground floor).

Casa Hofilena is the pride of third-generation resident Ramon H. Hofilena. An art enthusiast, he has established a gallery in the house in which are exhibited works by some of the Philippines' most celebrated painters: Luna, Rizal and Hidalgo. Ramon could regale you for hours with tales of his family's and the house's colourful past, and with captivating descriptions of the wonderful collection of antiques and memorabilia inside.

Sugar, through good times and bad, has been Negros Occidental's staple crop for a century and a half. Relics of the industry abound. At the tourist office I learned about tours that you can take where you ride on a 90-year-old sugar locomotive that takes you to a plantation hacienda and an old mill powered by "caribou" - Filipino buffalo.

Fate, however, had it that I would never ride or even get to see this classic train. It happened that my visit coincided with "MassKara."

This is Bacolod's bacchanal, so to speak. The entire city - no, the entire island - would turn out for the event.

For my part, I would gain and lose - gain the chance to be part of the glittering and uproarious parade, and lose access to the train. As I was to discover, even locomotives stop in their tracks for the Negros mardi-gras.

But all was not lost. The tourist authority offered me a private sugar tour, this on the day before Sunday's big parade. We headed south along the coastal road, passed through Bago City (you guessed it, an old sugar town) before turning inland to the old La Coletta Mill. I saw the ruins of a caribou-powered mill, but the only buffalo I saw were giving joy-rides to the kids.

Soon we caught up to the trucks. They were waiting for their turn to shed their loads into the mill. As we moved among them, it became evident that a sugar-truck culture had evolved around the queue.

Makeshift kitchens were set up along the road; drivers helped each other with running repairs; some played cards; others dozed in hammocks strung beneath the rear end of their trucks. All seemed patiently contented with their lot.

We got permission to enter the mill, and got to see the old discarded trains. It was a bit sad, really, to see these grand old iron dinosaurs - early 1900 Baldwin jobs - left out in the elements to die. There were around half a dozen of them, all surely hoping to be rescued from their plight, but instead being attacked by the weeds.

A much more uplifting sight was that of Hacienda Guadeloupe, former residence of the Infantes sugar barons. This double-storey mansion - old and grey and just a tad forlorn - still manages to command, in retired regal splendour, the tatty remains of its once finely manicured surrounds. The old clapboard rooms have been left exactly as they were. You can all but see the Infantes boys trudging in from the canefields for their evening game of pool.

Sunday's MassKara parade was a hoot - for me as it must have been for everybody there. The event was introduced in 1980 in response to the worst of the economic crashes Negros has endured.

Negros Occidental - so prosperous for the privileged when sugar prices soar - is now the Philippines' poorest province. It was hoped that a Rio-style carnival might help give the people back their smiles - if only on their paint and tinsel masks. As far as I could see, there were plenty of smiles on real faces, too. It would be nice to think they could remain long after the street parade has passed.

I decided to return to Negros another time and see. And hopefully - finally - also get to ride on board that train.

* Qantas fly from Sydney to Manila every day except Tuesdays. Philippine Airlines have daily flights from Manila to Bacolod. The cool season is from November through May. Contact: travel agent.