Escaping in Negros

"You never know what you’ll discover in an Escape," thus declares Tonette Lee — Ford AVP for ASEAN Brands — to us at the Ford Dealership in Bacolod. We were in town to discover what could be discovered in the Visayas, well, at least the Bacolod and Cebu parts of Visayas, in a convoy of Escapes, Ford’s compact Sport Utility Vehicle. Now several years old, and faced with some strong competition from the likes of Nissan, Honda, and Toyota, the time was just about right for a refreshing "ride and drive" through the countryside. No extreme sports, uncomfortable living conditions, or overly strenuous activities were on the itinerary as some manufacturers are wont to do for this sort of thing.

Personally, I didn’t know whether to be pleased that I wouldn’t have to be doing something I’d rather not or to be just a little bit ambivalent about this laid-back approach to extended road trips. As Tonette quite plainly described, we would be "doing a lot of driving". For this countryside sojourn Ford assembled a bevy of 2.3-liter and 3.0-liter Escapes, the former your basic, garden variety front-wheel drive SUV, the latter your more assertive, "my car is all ate up with motor" V6 with 206 horsepower and all-wheel drive.

Oh, there was also the Escape NBX Limited Edition, which is basically a 2.3-liter, front-wheel drive only Escape with additional zoot in the form of leather seats, 16-inch wheels, chrome tailgate garnish, and "other aesthetic enhancements" according to the Ford literature. For our first day, which involved brief excursions (hey, that’s another Ford, right?) outside of Bacolod City, I was paired up with Toby Martin of Mabuhay Magazine, Armin Amio of Gadgets Magazine, and Ron de los Reyes of Auto Review. Our Escape was the 3.0-liter V6, which had 206 honking horsepower, a 4-speed automatic, a ritzy moonroof, but no jack for our iPods. Hmmm. As high-tech as the Escape is, turns out the stereos have to go through a lot of approval processes back where they’re designed just so they can have this modern day necessity and… oh, why don’t you just get an FM transmitter if it’s such a big deal, right? Or a Focus. Now that’s iPod-compatible. Cool.

Where was I? Oh yes, the Escape. With no CDs in our luggage except for Ron’s Andy Williams collection (nice name, though), I tuned out for an hour-long nap, only to find my head bumping quite violently on the door panel as we turned off on a short dirt road en route to Moran Farm, where the main course was chicken binakol, followed by "deep fried banana crepe with sinfully delicious Brown Cow," according to Dino Directo of the Manila Standard Today, who is quite famous in the motoring media for his gastronomic expertise. Except it wasn’t Brown Cow, it was Ricoa. I was going to tell them about the overwhelming superiority of oily Legaspi Village jollyjeep turon (only available from 3 to 4pm on weekdays) , but then it was time to roll again, this time for Guintubdan Mountain Pavilion & Garden. About an hour away from Bacolod City, this place offers a panoramic view of the city, but not much else as far as I could tell…

So, we stayed for but thirty minutes before moving on down to Mambucal Mountain Resort. Apparently, the nice thing about Bacolod is that most tourist spots are no more than two hours away from the city. There’s not much traffic to contend with as you exit the city, so one can comfortably cruise at near-triple digit speeds and get to wherever in a leisurely manner. As for Mambucal Mountain Resort, it offers hot springs, a slightly strenuous walk towards seven waterfalls, and a canopy walk for those who’d like a little more adventure for this day trip. We’re told that there used to be a zip-line ride as well several dozen feet above the forest floor, except one of the guides tells us that the line broke a few months ago. No one will tell me whether the unlucky rider got his money back or not.

We spend the night later on at L’Fisher Hotel along Lacson street, which should please most tourists because it has ATMs and the requisite McDonald’s and Jollibee. Dreading another day of Moon River, I gamely accepted Anjo Perez’ (of Manila Bulletin) offer to lend me his FM transmitter for his iPod. We’re saved! For a mere P1,200 on eBay, the little AAA-powered gadget will transmit music from my iPod to any of three channels. Yippee! This pretty much ensures my good mood for the rest of the trip. Not only is the transmission clear enough over our Escape’s radio, other Escapes in our convoy can also pick it up. The wonders of Chinese technology, eh?

Back to the trip: Our itinerary now includes Campuestuhan as the main highlight. Located on the outskirts of Talisay City, this features a cable car ride across a gorge several hundred feet high. Coolness. Of course, this entails several kilometers of rough road. Nothing too extreme, of course, since the front-drive only Escapes might have too much of a problem there. In any case, we arrive in good shape with nary a scratch on the trucks. The cable car itself is a little cage big enough for around seven adults. There is an escape hatch on the floor, but only God knows who’d like to get out of something that’s dangling several hundred feet up. Aside from being used to ferry goods by the locals to and from the valley, I’m also told that the local mountain bikers regularly bring their bikes across and then ride through the forest back to civilization. Lucky bastards.

The next day it’s time to go home, but first, we must traverse several mountain passes, ride a Ro-Ro, have a late lunch at Plantation Bay in Cebu, and then take the five thirty flight back to Manila. This really is as complicated as it sounds, because the drive from Bacolod City to San Carlos Pier takes around two hours of non-stop driving through vertiginous roads. There, I finally got to use "vertiginous" in a sentence, and rightly so because our route takes us to Don Salvador Benedicto, a series of winding, paved, two-lane road that takes us down, up, and around some of the best hills we’ve ever driven in the country. With the best parts lined by pine trees, this is without a doubt the best part of the drive. Rolling into San Carlos on time despite a major traffic snarl in the town, the next phase takes us via ferry to Toledo City.

From Toledo we must now reach Mactan City via the "scenic and steep Central Highway". Boy, they weren’t kidding. With 15-degree ascents and yes, more vertiginous sections, motion sickness becomes a slight problem with some of our passengers (but not me, of course!). Between the Central Highway and Don Salvador Benedicto, though, I like the latter much more. Seems more… up-market, at least when it comes to the scenery.

Anyway, a minor riot nearly ensues when we get stuck in Mactan City traffic after another promise by convoy leader and die-hard off-roader Beeboy Bargas that we’d be in Plantation Bay in "another 15 minutes". Right, we’ve hurt that before (These long drives can really make us hungry). Only Dino Directo’s steady countdown of the time remaining to Plantation Bay keeps our eyes ‘focused on the ball’, as it were. In the end, we reached Plantation Bay with two minutes to spare.

After all this excitement, the late lunch by the poolside is rather anti-climactic. One more slightly tense ride to the airport to beat the check-in cutoff and it’s time to dismount, if not exactly escape our Escapes. Through it all, we experienced not one problem with these sturdy vehicles. They might not be as flashy as the newer rides, but for long, long drives through vertiginous (sorry, just had to use it again) roads, Ford’s got its head on pretty tight with these babies. Just bring along an FM transmitter and you’re good to go pretty much anywhere you like.