A delightful fortress

"Museums should be places where you raise questions,
not just show stuff."

~William Thorsell, past Director & CEO of the Royal Ontario Museum

This is the side of the Ayala Museum which can be seen from the park in the middle of Greenbelt. Only the ground floor has windows. The windows on the second floor do not open to the museum but to a walkway connecting two of the buildings of the mall. Other than that, the rest of the building looks like a fortress, and it probably is, given the priceless artifacts exhibited in the museum. One of their permanent exhibits is Filipino garments from the 19th century, some of which are painted on the walls of the walkway.

See murals from around the world in Monday Mural.

1904

"The car has become an article of dress without which we feel uncertain, unclad, and incomplete in the urban compound."

~Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980), Canadian philosopher of communication theory

This 1904 Richard-Brasier Roadster was the first car to roll on Philippine roads. It was built by French and Belgian manufacturers Georges Richard and Charles-Henri Brasier, and has a 9-horsepower, 2-cylinder engine. It was first brought to the country in 1904 by the trading firm Estrella del Norte. It then passed through many hands until 2006, when Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation acquired it as part of its commitment to preserve artifacts that are part of our culture and heritage. It is currently on loan to The Mind Museum at Taguig.

~Text edited from The Mind Museum's sign

The stars, like dust

"Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,

Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels."

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

The star-dusted ceiling of the Universe Gallery of The Mind Museum in Taguig City. With a handful of planets thrown in for good measure.

Gentle giant

"A closed mouth catches no flies."

~ Miguel de Cervantes

Though whale sharks (Rhincodon typus), known locally as butanding, have very large mouths, they are plankton feeders and are no threat to humans (the reverse is not true, unfortunately). This slow-moving filter-feeding shark is the largest known fish species still swimming in our seas. The migratory path of these gentle giants take them near certain areas of the Philippines, driving local tourism. A life-size butanding replica is displayed—along with many other creatures—in the Life Gallery of The Mind Museum in Taguig City.

Hello!

"Robots have been in the deepest oceans, to Mars…
but your living room is the final frontier."

~ Cynthia Brezeal ScD, Director, Personal Robots Group,
Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Say "Hello!" back to Aedi ("idea" spelled backwards), the robot who greets visitors to The Mind Museum in Taguig City.

Mind-blowing

"There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million."

~ Walt Streightiff

The Mind Museum in Taguig City, which opened in 2012, is a non-profit educational project of the Bonifacio Art Foundation. With 5,000 square meters of floor space, it is the first science museum in the Philippines that we can be proud of. Its aim is to promote public understanding and appreciation of science—in a decidedly fun and interactive way. Especially commendable is the foundation's desire that the museum's wonders be experienced by public school children. (For those who are not aware of it, public education in the Philippines is terrible.) Ticket prices for public school students are a fraction of regular ticket prices, but since this special rate is still too high for most of them, the foundation has a special donation portal for people to sponsor the visit of public school students.

School history

As I promised, here is the Heritage Room of the Ateneo de Manila Grade School where yesterday's mural is located. The room displays mementos from the school's 150-year history, and statues of the Immaculate Conception, the school's patroness, and St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order which runs the school. Another room off to the right, which I wasn't able to take a photo of, features portraits of all past headmasters of the Ateneo Grade School, who have all been Jesuit so far. If I'm not mistaken, the Heritage Room was built soon after the school celebrated its sesquicentennial in 2009.

What a job!

Ever wonder what an underwater archeological dig looks like? This diorama at the Museum of the Filipino People gives us a glimpse. The excavation site is in shallow waters near the shore, however, so barrel rafts rather than a ship could be used.

BKK: The story of Thai silk

One of the places we visited in Bangkok last November was the Jim Thompson House. James Harrison Wilson Thompson was an American soldier who settled in Bangkok after World War II. He is credited for almost single-handedly reviving the silk industry in Thailand by creating an international market for it and improving the quality of the handcrafted silk. After 22 years in Thailand, in 1967, he and some friends went to the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia for a holiday; he went out for a walk and never returned. Up to this day, no one knows what happened to him.
  The Jim Thompson House, now a museum, is made up of six traditional Thai houses which were put together into a single house with a Western floor plan. The red color of the house comes from a natural preservative painted on the teak wood.
  The silk process begins with these squirming silkworms, the larva or caterpillar stage of the domesticated Bombyx mori.
  After eating pounds of mulberry leaves and molting several times, silkworms enter the pupa stage and wrap themselves in a cocoon made of raw silk.
  The cocoons are boiled to make the silk easier to unravel. Of course, the heat also kills the silkworm inside the cocoon.
  The unraveled, raw silk being spun on a reel. Vegetable dyes were traditionally used to color silk, but the results were not consistent and the colors fade after many washings. Jim Thompson introduced modern, color-fast dyes and processes to Thailand in the late 1940s.
  A traditional, wooden weaving loom loaded with red and white silk thread.
  Like all Thai houses and buildings, the Jim Thompson House also has a spirit house at a corner of the property—in the garden and overlooking the canal. The complex also has a restaurant which serves fantastic Thai dishes, and a shop with some of the loveliest silk scarves, ties, and clothes that I have ever seen and touched.

My last farewell

The Jose Rizal museum inside Fort Santiago in Intramuros has a replica of the prison cell where the Philippine national hero was incarcerated before his execution by the Spanish colonial government. It was in this cell on the eve of his execution that he wrote his final poem, left untitled by Rizal but now known as "Mi ultimo adios."

Touch me not

The museum inside Fort Santiago in Intramuros dedicated to Philippine national hero Jose Rizal has one of the oldest existing copies of his novel "Noli Me Tangere." By writing the book, Rizal was trying to expose the injustices committed by the Spanish friars and government officials in the Philippines. It was first printed in Berlin in 1887.

Sharp and pointy

Inside Fort Santiago in Intramuros is a small museum dedicated to Philippine national hero Jose Rizal, who was imprisoned in the fort just before his execution by the Spanish colonial government. The museum houses some of his memorabilia, including this kit of medical instruments which Rizal used in his profession as a doctor. The thing is, he was an ophthalmologist—I don't think I'd want any of those tools anywhere near my eyes.

Christmas elegance

The Ayala Museum's very elegant interpretation of the traditional Filipino parol, or Star of Bethlehem.

One afternoon in Tarlac City

From May 12 to 24, my husband and I went on a road trip through the Central Luzon and Ilocos Regions, stopping at cities and towns that we've never visited before. My Manila goes outside Metro Manila for the next few days. I hope you enjoy the trip.

---

Tarlac City is about 105 kilometers northwest of Metro Manila. The province, which carries the same name, is best known as being the home province of the Aquino family, which includes Benigno Jr. "Ninoy", whose assassination at the airport when he arrived from exile in 1983 became the catalyst for popular discontent and opposition against the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, and his wife Corazon "Cory", who became the country's first female president when People Power forced Marcos out. The Aquino Center houses their memorabilia, and chronicles their political careers and the events which led to the Philippines regaining its democracy, however flawed it still is today.


We stayed at the Microtel Inn & Suites at Hacienda Luisita, where we arrived during an overcast Sunday morning. Hacienda Luisita is a sugar plantation owned by the Cojuangco family, part of which they opened to public commercial enterprises. Microtel is an inexpensive, no-fuss but comfortable hotel with very helpful and friendly staff. Though it doesn't have a restaurant, the room still comes with free breakfast, which is served in the small lobby which has free wi-fi, free-flowing tea and coffee, and—most welcome and much-needed in our humidity—ice and cold water dispensers.


At the city center, a monument to Cory Aquino stands in the middle of a small roundabout. I had no luck trying to get a closer photo of the statue, unfortunately; I just can't figure out what camera settings I need for upward-looking shots during cloudy days.


The small roundabout was between a park (which we didn't visit because it had just rained and the ground was muddy) and the San Sebastian Cathedral. Since it was a Sunday and there was a Mass going on, popcorn vendors and tricycles were out in droves. I almost got run over when I crossed the street and entered the cathedral premises on the stripes; I thought they were for pedestrians but it seems that they also mark where vehicles can enter and exit the gates.


Because of the Mass, we couldn't take photos inside the cathedral. So my husband and I walked around outside, where we saw a sculpture of a cross and the Virgin Mary gesturing and walking towards a fetus lying on clouds and surrounded by cherubs dedicated to "the innocent victims of abortion."


We had our dinner at Tessie's Grills and Roasters, which seems to be a very popular local restaurant because of its inexpensive buffet. What caught my eye, though, were the decorations of their events hall. Roman Gladiators and Anubis standing sentry outside the doors, and I saw a mask of Tutankhamun inside when I accidentally walked in, thinking it was the entrance to the restaurant; I almost gate-crashed someone's debut. Not quite something I expected to see in the farming province of Tarlac. LUZON ROAD TRIP SERIES #1

Artistic traditions

The museum of the Cultural Center of the Philippines has a permanent exhibit showcasing traditional Asian musical instruments.

Artist's paradise

Philippine National Artist for Visual Arts Benedicto Cabrera, BenCab, settled in Baguio City in 1986 after living in London since 1969. His current home and studio is located a few kilometers away from the city, in the town of Tuba.




Beside his home is the BenCab Museum, a repository of the artist's varied collections, with one floor dedicated to exhibiting contemporary art by emerging Filipino artists.




BenCab's house and museum are located on the slopes of a ridge, at the bottom of which is a rocky stream, which he has harnessed to naturally water his garden and organic farm, and even to create a pond. Benguet's elevation, the stream and the ridge collude to create a perpetual fog in the area, and the sound of running water is the perfect background for an artist creating and a mortal appreciating.

Easy to miss

From the road, the ancestral house of the Legarda family looks like any of the few 1930s houses in Manila that survived World War II—though better maintained than most—and belies the wealth of history that lies within. The garden in front is planted with many herbs which are used to season the dishes served in the restaurant.




Only this small wooden sign on the privacy wall announces that the house is the proud location of La Cocina de Tita Moning. • LEGARDA ANCESTRAL HOUSE #9

Old world elegance

As I mentioned at the start of this series about the ancestral home of the Legarda family, the house is now also a fine dining restaurant called La Cocina de Tita Moning. Appetizers are served in the sala (living room) while you wait for your table in the dining room to be prepared. All the china, glassware and silverware on each table were actually used by the family and their guests across three generations, and the beautiful table settings are complemented by elegant Italian glass birds of different shapes and sizes. The menu of the restaurant are from recipes which date back to the time of Alejandro and Ramona—European and Filipino family favorites and special occasion dishes served to their distinguished guests. La Cocina de Tita Moning is operated by the long-time servants of the Legarda family, and the small scroll on the table introduces each of them and tells their stories. • LEGARDA ANCESTRAL HOUSE #8

White

An all-white bedroom in the ancestral home of the Legarda family displays the wedding gown of one of Alejandro and Ramona's daughters. Isn't that train just magnificent? • LEGARDA ANCESTRAL HOUSE #7

Ornate whimsy

With my fascination for lamps and lighting fixtures, a lamp was bound to catch my eye in the 1937 home of Alejandro and Ramona Legarda. I just love the young person with a monkey cavorting all over this particular metal chandelier. • LEGARDA ANCESTRAL HOUSE #6