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!

Mahal Kong Maynila (Manila My Beloved!): Revisiting My Backyard

- February 11, 2022, Friday.

- I have always been a proud Manileño. Despite living in the city all my life, I have always been fascinated by its historic districts. Throughout my life I have visited them numerous times, especially before the pandemic. God knows how many friends (locals and foreigners) I have toured around - with my eyes closed! (OK maybe not literally, but you get the point.) Despite that, I realized a couple of months back that I had not taken proper photos with some of the city's most iconic areas - something I always do when I travel to other cities both in the Philippines and abroad. Fortunately, my friend Renee invited me to go around Manila one day; I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to not only meet a very good friend of many many years, but also to take some nice snaps with the city's pride.

- I started the day super early by going around Rizal Park, also known by its former name, Luneta. It has been a famous gathering place in Manila since the 1820s. However, Filipinos would know that the national hero Jose Rizal was killed b the Spanish in this park in 1896. Today, it is known for the Rizal monument - and since 2012, its photobomber a kilometer or so away, the Torre de Manila.

With the Rizal monument in my modern Barong Tagalog. Oh look, there's Torre de Manila peeking in the background. Yay (sarcastic).

A slight change in angle and voila! No photobomber.

- I don't go to Rizal Park very early on a normal day, so it was nice to see all the people jogging around and exercising in the park. I spent a few minutes enjoying the musical fountain as well.

Exercising people.

Rizal Park Open Air Auditorium at the back - plenty of good memories. (I haven't performed there though.)

Musical fountains! (The fountains "dance" with the music at certain times of the day. Was glad to have seen it.)

This guard house always catches my attention.

- Thankfully, there was a nearby Jollibee where I had breakfast, before going to the National Museum of Fine Arts and took a photo with the facade across the street. The National Museum of Fine Arts was built in the 1920s and was initially supposed to be the National Library. However, instead of a library, it has been used as government building for years until it was handed over to the National Museum of the Philippines in 1998. As the National Museum's collections expanded, the was eventually named the "National Museum of Fine Arts" to differentiate it from the other buildings in the National Museum complex that have other themes (i.e. the National Museum of Anthropology, and the rather new National Museum of Natural History).

Renee told me that this shirt makes me look like a museum guard. (I actually agree HAHA.)

You can see the Manila City hall from afar, which looks like the Big Ben. Kind of.

Also known as the "Former Legislative Building"; built in the neoclassical style.

- Renee and I met each other later on and entered the museum. By the way, entrance is free for all buildings under the National Museum. However, due to the pandemic, reservations are needed at least a day before at the official website of the National Museum.

- The museum is known for housing the giant painting called "Spoliarium", by famed artist Juan Luna. It was painted in 1884 and won a gold medal in Spain. The painting was eventually returned to the country in 1958 from Spain. If you see the photo below and in case you're wondering, yes, it is currently the largest known painting in the Philippines.

The fake museum guard with the Spoliarium. 

The painting depicts images of dead gladiators without their clothing and being dragged around. It is said to represent the struggles of the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era.

- The other galleries house both permanent and temporary exhibits. As someone who isn't into paintings and sculptures (I'm more of the history and ethnic stuff guy when it comes to museums,) I had not been inside the museum since....the early 2000s (??), and I can say that the museum looks so much nicer than how I remembered it. The museum underwent a few renovations through the years, so I was happy to see the overall "facelift."   

There were religious artworks, almost similar to the ones in the San Agustin Museum in Intramuros.

Small Juan Luna paintings.

Don Luis Perez Dasmarinas and Fray Domingo de Salazar, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo (1896). I am a Marites.

With Amorsolo sketches.

Yes I can be this immature.

A photo Renee took of me. She said "oh look the museum guard is enjoying art."

Taking a bit of rest because the museum was HUGGGGGGGGGGE.

Taking a look at the wood carving that used to be in the Philam Life auditorium, before it was demolished. This caving is special to me because the PhilAm Life auditorium was the first place outside my school where I performed as part of a concert.

A view of the main assembly hall from the second floor.

15 years of friendship yo! (And we both look like we didn't age a day!)

- After going around the museum, we had to rush off to the National Museum of Natural History, located at the Rizal Park's Agrifina Circle. Formerly the building of the Department of Tourism, until is was converted into the Natural History Museum that opened in 2018 (click here for my first visit to the museum in 2018). Renee and I had to rush through the museum since we had around an hour left before the museum closes for lunch. Normally the museum was open throughout the day, but during COVID, the National Museum buildings did a batching system - morning or afternoon - and those belonging to one batch must only stay within the time limit of their own batch (ex. if you're in the morning batch, you must leave at noon and cannot stay until the afternoon.) Again, they're only doing this because of the pandemic.

The tree of life, also, the trunk is an elevator.

A model of a T-Rex head.

Hi Lolong! (The largest crocodile in captivity until its death in 2013.)

Philippine eagle.

BABY SHARK.

Casually walking down the stairs.

Orlina's "Arcanum Paradise." This time I wore something matching. (Also, with this costume change, from a museum guard I now look like a diplomatic delegate from some country.)

 

It was hard to get a photo with the Tree of Life.

Resting again because we had to walk all the way up since the elevator was under maintenance.

I feel like the divine is about to get me anytime with this lighting haha.

Candid shot outside back door (and current entrance) of the Museum of Natural History.

- Finally it was time for lunch and we took a Grab to La Cathedral Cafe. It moved to its current location around 2020 and is known for its stunning rooftop view - The Manila Cathedral! (Hence, the cafe's name.) The cafe is located literally behind the Manila Cathedral. However, I think those with mobility problems will have a hard time going up the cafe as it is located at the building's roof deck. It was my first time visiting this cafe as it has always been crowded. A booking system was necessary, but Renee and I just walked in. Either we went during a dead hour, or maybe reservations weren't necessary anymore. (We forgot to ask.)

The iconic view from the cafe. (And Renee at the back waiting for me to finish so we can eat.)

The Manila Cathedral's rear end.

This is what you'll see on the street.

- Unfortunately, Renee and I were both too hungry that we forgot to document our food. We ordered their bicol express and kare kare. We also tried their dessert, and I highly recommend the chocolate cake (made from tablea!) 

- As much as we wanted to explore more of Intramuros and Manila for the rest of the day, we couldn't because of work. However, it was not only nice to see a friend after a long time (because pandemic huhu), and see Manila again as if it was my first time to see it. I understand Manila isn't a perfect city because of the not-so-nice things people know about it, but it is definitely worth discovering and understanding! - It is the capital city after all!