One of the main reasons why I ended up booking with Zilbaher On The Go Tours was the fact that the proposed itinerary they sent over included an overnight stay in Mambukal Resort.

During the early planning phases for this B-I-G trip, I asked my friends for ideas on what to do in the Bacolod area. Most of them suggested that I spend at least day in Mambukal Resort because it is located in Murcia, which is actually an hour away from Silay or Bacolod.

I was disheartened, because we only had very limited time in Bacolod and thought that we’d probably be better off spending most of our precious time in the city. But, thanks to Jean and her awesome itinerary making powers, we were able to check out both the heritage houses in Silay and spend and ample amount of time in Mambukal Resort.

The resort is owned and managed by the government, which probably makes sense, given that it is the gateway to Mount Kanlaon. Logistically, I assume that it’d be easier to track all of the entrants to the mountain if they go through Mamukal first. Or at least that’s how I think it works.

Anyways, you’re probably asking what’s the big frakkin’ deal with Mambukal Resort anyway? Well as I’ve mentioned before, the place serves as the entrance to Mount Kanlaon; it’s basically resting at the foot of a mountain so the winds to get a bit nippy. It was certainly chilly when we were there.

But luckily, Mambukal also has multiple natural pools, many of them being of the hot sulfur variety. The smell does need a bit of getting used to – the smell of rotting eggs really was everywhere – but ugh, to be in the actual hot spring was just so relaxing. I could’ve easily dozed off in there. Come to think o f it, I’m actually amazed that there were no mosquitoes floating above the water.

It’s also an activity park of sorts – they do offer wall climbing, zip lines and boating. We didn’t get to try any of those activities because well, we’ve all done them before and we just wanted to chill out, but according to what Jean sent over, the activities can be done for minimal fees.

It seems to definitely be one of the more popular places with the locals – the place was packed when we went there and it was just an ordinary weekend. Lots of people definitely were enjoying the pools and the hot springs. I guess we were lucky to have reserved early and got and ‘LGU’ cottage. The room was pretty massive – it definitely could fit up to six people easily and we didn’t really mind we didn’t have a TV since, hello, there were man, many other things we could be occupied with.

Had we had more time to spend in Mambukal Resort, even just half a day more, we’d probably have gone trekking to the seven falls. According to the many, many, guides we encountered in the place, the trek is at least a couple of hours one-way. Boo, Girlie, for booking noontime flights back to Manila.

As it was, we just satiated ourselves with walking around the compound a couple of times, taking pictures of random things like flowers and bats!

I would definitely love to go back to Mambukal if only to try that seven falls trek.