Manila the Unexpected: Bells, Tinikling, and....Aria Inthavong!

- March 25 and 27, 2022, Friday and Sunday.

- Manila has never stopped giving me new experiences despite living here all my life. Even the places that I've seen and gone to for years and years just never got tired. Sometimes, there are strange and unexpected happenings, or just simply seeing things with a fresh eye.

- This time I went back to the National Museum of Anthropology, which was the last of the National Museum trio that I finally was able to revisit lately. The other two would be the National Museum of Fine Arts, and the National Museum of Natural History, all within arm's reach of each other (click here to see my latest visit to the other two museums). The Anthropology Museum has always been my favorite because all the historical and ethnic stuff are inside this museum. The neoclassical building was initially opened in 1918 as the building of the Department of Finance before it was converted to a museum decades later.

Rode the LRT again after 10 million years. Haha.

Hello museum.

Ifugao house at the courtyard.

Funeral pottery.

Ming-Dynasty ceramicware from China found in the Philippines.

Neoclassical stairs.

Aetas.

Weapons of the Aetas.

- My favorite galleries remain to be the Bangsamoro gallery, which was bursting with colors from southern Philippines, and the Hibla ng Lahi Gallery at the fourth floor, which showcases the various woven textiles of the Philippines. 

Jewelry and accessories from the south.

A kulintang player's seat and the actual kulintang (gong xylophone), and kudyapi (boat lutes) below.

A painting showing the struggles of the Moro people.

Admiring the functional art of Mindanao.

Rows of traditional blouses.

Oh look, a random calesa near the stairs.

Inside the Hibla ng Lahi Gallery. Here you can see Blaan and Kalinga weaves on looms.

An ornate Maranao spinning wheel.

Can't help staring at the colorful patterns of Philippine textiles!

- After visiting the museum, I rode a (rather expensive) pedicab from the museum all the way to the far end of Intramuros since I planned on having dinner there. With much time to spare between my arrival in Intramuros and my dinner reservation, I thought of cooling off from the insanely hot summer day at the talked-about Belfry Cafe. The Belfry Cafe opened in February 2021. As the name suggests, the cafe is located inside the actual ground belfry of the Manila Cathedral! Imagine dining under 7 heavy bells! Fortunately, the bells are not used frequently. In the event that the bells have to be used, the cafe will make sure that there are no customers inside the cafe. The cafe also has a lovely outdoor dining space, in case the cafe appears too cramped. As for the cafe's food and drinks, well....I didn't think they were too special, but decent.

Under the bell.

My mango cake and chocolate drink. The cake was a bit too heavy and dry.

Any cold drink was good enough for me. Also took advantage of the golden hour. HAHA.

Bell contraption.

To get this shot, I had to position my camera at the outdoor dining space, and took a snap of the interior.

Cat.

- I had a leisurely walk all the way to Casa Manila just to have an unplanned photoshoot at the courtyard (again, to kill time), before heading to Barbara's. Barbara's is just beside Casa Manila, and is known for their nightly cultural shows. 

Casa Manila courtyard.

Going down from my mansion haha.

Getting my Shopee delivery. HAHAHAHA.

Barbara's.

- Barbara's is located in the Casa Manila complex (beside the Casa Manila museum), and is a 1980s replica of a house from 1850. The restaurant itself was established in the early 1990s. What I like about the restaurant was the "vaudeville" aesthetics from the late 1800s to early 1900s. Despite all the good things I heard about Barbara's, would you believe that I had never eaten there? I was about to, but the pandemic hit. Now that they're open again and their evening buffet with cultural performances during dinner have resumed, I wasted no time and made a reservation! (The restaurant is open everyday. But if you want to catch the show during dinner, they only have this from Fridays to Sundays because of the ongoing pandemic. As I said, they used to do this everyday. The evening buffet with show currently costs 1500 per person. They serve good Filipino food!)

Old photos leading to the temporarily-closed museum upstairs.

Main dining hall. (The hall with the performance is on the other side, the Sala Filipina.)

On the way to the bathroom.

Was too busy eating, sorry for the not....very aesthetically-pleasing food photo. HAHA. (Also, that's a bottle of water.)

For 1500PHP, ain't a surprise that the palabok is "sosyal" hahahaha. (It was good!)

- The regular cultural shows are carried out through a joint effort by the Abesar Rondalla and the Folkorico Filipino Dance Company. They performed dances from Luzon to Mindanao. Despite the small space, they were able to do elaborate dances, which was what impressed me the most. The surprise of the night was me being invited on stage to try dancing the tinikling. For someone who likes to learn dances, it's a surprise to me that this is the first time that I tried the tinikling! (If you're not from the Philippines, the tiniling is a dance that uses two bamboo poles held on each end by one person. The two people who are holding each end need to rhythmically move the poles closer and farther from each other. The goal of the dancers is not to get their feet stuck in between the bamboo poles.)

Abesar Rondalla.

Colonial-era dance.

This reminds me of flamenco.

My favorite Singkil dance from Mindanao.

Pandanggo sa ilaw, from Mindoro.

Tinikling, from Visayas.

Tinikling featuring me and my double chin.

- Just when I thought that my dinner at Barbara's was the highlight of my Manila weekend, the most unexpected thing ever was meeting Aria Inthavong in Rizal Park on a Sunday! Aria Inthavong is an online personality from Buzzfeed and is known for creating content in relation to the world's unsolved mysteries among many other things. I found him to be a good storyteller and thought that his content was intriguing, and I've been a follower for a few years now. It surprised me when I saw through his social media that he was in the Philippines to shoot some content, and that he was going to have a fan meet in Rizal Park scheduled on Sunday the 27th. Since I felt it was a once in a lifetime chance, I went to Rizal Park that morning and met Aria. A few other fans were there as well. I gave him a very very brief 5-minute tour of Rizal Park while walking from the Rizal monument to the Japanese garden (and it was an honor to do so!) I lay low after the "unofficial tour" so the other fans could have some time to talk to Aria. We had around an hour and a half to hang out with him before he had to leave for the airport. Aria seemed nice and bubble in person, just like how he is online!

Aria, is that really you?

He was the master of poses, I just went along with what he wanted.

Some nice fans, and Aria.

Aria receiving "pasalubong" from all of us.

Still surreal. (Also, a very nice angle, because of the monument and the flag behind us.)

- I spent the following week exhausted and with a mild sunburn on both my arms. However, I still can't believe that I my weekend was filled with a lot of unexpected and last-minute things. To some extent it's liberating, since I've always been the very-OC-very-organized traveler. (Even if it's just going around my city.) I'm hoping that I'll have more of these nice experiences soon, since my everyday life isn't as happy and carefree. These nice experiences are what keep me sane during the pandemic!