Revisiting National Museum Part 1 (Museum of the Filipino People)

Hooray travel buddies! I'm back! So for today I want to share with you another side trip that I had for this week. Last Wednesday, February 24, 2016 our class was required to attend the successful screening of our documentary films at The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) building located inside Intramuros and I was pleased to visit again its great fortress. 

Today's destination can't be found inside the "Walled City", so want to know where we'll be heading? Scroll down now to start our expedition!  

So after the event, we ate our lunch. Then, me together with some of my friends decided to visit the National Museum of the Philippines, since it’s only stone’s throw away from Intramuros. Yeah! that's the place we'll be exploring today. So continue scrolling down to know more about it. You want more? I'll give you more!

Like Intramuros, our chosen place for expedition has gone through many things and has been already there for a long period of time, since October 29, 1901 and served as an insular Museum of Ethnology. So if you want to know more about its historical background, just check the picture down below. 

National Museum of the Philippines is one of the best and ideal places  when it comes to  rediscovering cultural and historical treasures of our country. Various artifacts were exhibited to different galleries of the museum.

This time we visited the museum not just because it is required  by a professor for the sake of our grades, but because of the eagerness we have in our hearts and so I could have something to post on my blog..hahaha..just joking! No, really we are very excited to visit again the National Museum and rediscover many things for the sake of being natural-born Filipinos. 

But before we could enter the National Museum, let us first settle our entrance fees! So for Adults you should pay 150 pesos while Senior Citizens with ID will  only pay for 120 pesos and for Students with ID you could tour around for only 50 pesos. But if you want to go there for FREE, yes! yes! yes! you've read it right! You can explore around the museum for FREE! You should visit the museum during Sundays! (Now it give us more reasons to love Sundays!)

So National Museum is open through Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:00 am till 5:00 pm. I suggest you should go there as early as 10:00 am so you could have a lot of time checking those artifacts and artworks.

I actually visited the Museum of the Filipino People for the fifth time and my second time around in the National Art Gallery. Okay so let us now start rediscovering the National Museum of the Philippines! Wohoo! Later on you'll see my favorite parts of the museum and also the artworks and artifacts that caught my attention.

Museum of the Filipino People

Let us first explore the Museum of the Filipino People or Museo ng Lahing Pilipino. Back when I was a kid, I remembered that this place was always part of the itinerary for our field trip. I went there for the first time when I was a third grader and since I was a kid, I was mesmerized by the things that I saw, but I only appreciate it because it's the first time that I encountered it.

But now that I visited it again for the fifth time, I had so many realizations and discoveries. First it showed me how very rich the culture and traditions of the Filipinos are. Second, it exposed the creative minds of many Filipinos from the different parts of our country. Third, there are so many stories to be told from the history of anything that can be seen inside the museum and a lot more of realizations and discoveries within the galleries of the museum. So you better check it out and see for yourself.

So for the first gallery, you could explore the San Diego Exhibit where you'll find the things that was retrieved and recovered from the wrecked ship of San Diego. You could check some of the photos of the exhibited artifacts down below.



Cannons used in the battleship



Jars used for food and water storage

Blue and white porcelain plates

Kaban ng Lahi Gallery

                                     There's also the Kaban ng Lahi exhibit, where you can find archaeological treasures discovered from the different places around the Philippines. Also, the traditional practices of early Filipinos when it comes to burial was featured in this gallery. Here are some of the unearthed artifacts.

Linnaeus and the LInneans Gallery

There's also the Linnaeus and the Linneans Gallery where you could find preserved organisms such as plants and animals. Also, there's a copy of Carl Linnaeus book about Taxonomy, since his the Father of it and we know that he became famous in classifying and naming organisms. And with that I just want to say thank you Carl for enlightening us.

Garing

An exhibition of ivory trade that happened  in the Philippines entitled "Garing" was also featured inside the museum where you can see real ivory from the trunk of an elephant and other things made of ivory like necklace and other accessories.



Lantaka of War and Peace Exhibition

Another exhibition called "Lantaka of War and Peace" was presented where different sizes of  cannons used during the war were displayed.

Baybayin Gallery

If you want to discover the ancient and traditional scripts of the Philippines you should visit the gallery called "Baybayin" where you'll see different writing systems made by the various ethno linguistic groups.

Hibla ng Lahing Filipino

You can also visit the gallery of "Hibla ng Lahing Filipino" where it exhibits different kinds of textiles made by various groups in the Philippines. Also, beautiful weaves and clothing were displayed, where it shows how creative the hands of Filipinos are when it comes to creating hand-woven fabrics.

Bangsamoro Art Gallery

So we also visit the gallery that features the life of the Lumad people, an ethnic group that can be found in the southern part of the Philippines. Their traditions and culture was presented in this exhibition and I was fascinated that their rich and original way of life is well-preserved.

I was also very happy to see a portion of the Berlin Wall. Imagine all the way from Germany, there's a part of the wall that can be seen inside the museum. According to  German Parliamentary State Secretary Brigitte Zypries, “The piece of wall is a sign that democracy, freedom and peace prevail over dictatorship. It is a token of friendship between Berlin and Manila.” We actually received the 22nd section of the Berlin Wall out of 40 sections last October 7, 2015.

Aside from the Berlin Wall I also didn't expect to see a dodo bird that was already preserved. I just can't imagine that I saw an extinct specie where the last dodo bird was killed in 1681.

 

  

Okay so there you go, our expedition inside the Museum of the Filipino People, if you haven't visited the building I think you better go there for you to experience and see for yourself the wonderful things presented inside the museum. And for our journey inside the National Art Gallery, let's go to the part 2 of Revisiting the National Museum :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Side Trip: Le Tour de Filipinas goes Antipolo

     





 Hey travel buddies! So we will be having a side trip today. I just want to share with you one of my best experiences in my internship at Panahon TV-UBE Media, INC. together with  my co-interns as we were given the opportunity to become a part of the organizing team for the 7th edition of Le Tour de Filipinas.

What is Le Tour de Filipinas?

      

     So Le Tour de Filipinas is one of the famed cycling competition here in our country that has gone through many evolutions since 1955, aside from the good sports and healthy competition that it offers among the different international and local cycling teams it also  promotes tourism in our country.

     Each year, beautiful places in the Philippines were selected to be the part of the official race track for the participating cyclists representing their team.

     
   And for this year's race course, Le Tour de Filipinas is going South! Cyclists will traverse starting from Antipolo City, going to Lucena then Daet and finishes in the picturesque Mayon Volcano in Legazpi City.

    The kickoff party of the race happened last February 17, 2016 at Hinulugang Taktak and I am so proud that my hometown was chosen to be the starting place for the race. Where I was able to visit Hinulugang Taktak for the first time ever in my life! From that moment, I became a tourist in the place where I grew up.

   Antipoleños showed a warm welcome to Le Tour de Filipinas participants, sponsors, media partners and the organizer of this event and I was really happy to see locals and foreigners mesmerized by the beauty of Antipolo and also by the hospitality of our locals.

 

   The official race started at 8:30 am , February 18, 2016 where all the cyclists and watchers heard the gun start. Cyclists already start their long journey up to Legazpi City, Albay. With this, I'm very thankful for the successful event that happened in my hometown and I'm wishing for everyone's safety until they reach the majestic Mayon Volcano in Albay.

 

So if you want to know more about Le Tour de Filipinas, just visit their official website http://www.letourdefilipinas.com/ and if you'll be posting about the cycling race just use their official hashtag #ltdf2016. Thank you :)

   

      

Entering the Magical Door of Pinto..

Hey travel mates! So if you remember, we explored Manila from our last expedition and for today I want you to tour around to my beautiful hometown-the city of Antipolo! Yep that's it! The place where I grew up for over 20 years and still counting.

During one fine afternoon last January, me and my friends decided to meet and explore a secret garden in Antipolo City. A hidden place where a magical door must be entered for those travelers who appreciate the beauty of nature and art. A place where you'll find peace and will give you a visual treat from its picturesque ambience. So if you appreciate the beauty of nature and the mystery behind every work of art, I bet you'll like our destination for today. My travel buddies, I bring to you the doorknobs of Pinto Art Museum..wohoo!

So "pinto" is a Filipino term that means door, obviously, the etymology of today's destination. Let us now enter Pinto! But, before we step to the doors of Pinto, of course we need to pay first for the entrance ticket. So Pinto entrance rate varies, the regular ticket costs 180.00 pesos. For our dearest Lolos and Lolas the entrance fee is worth 150.00 pesos and for students that will present their IDs you can enter the main door of Pinto for only 100.00 pesos and for cute little children ages 3 years old and below they can enjoy the gardens of Pinto for FREE! (Yay! Lucky kiddos! Wish I was also 3 years old..haha!)

Pinto Art Museum is open every Tuesdays through Sundays except for Mondays. You can tour around from 9:00 a.m to 6:00 p.m. and I recommend you to go there as early as you can so you could explore the vicinity for a long time. I regret that we go there at 2 in the afternoon so we didn't have enough time to appreciate every piece of artwork that Pinto is offering (huhu) but still we enjoyed a lot from our first experience at Pinto and we will surely come back there!



There's a guided tour for visitors but me and my friends want to spend some quality time together so we decided to explore Pinto Art Museum happily without the help coming from any guide. So we did our own interpretations from the art pieces that caught our attention. But if you want to be guided accordingly at Pinto here's the guided tour schedule: 09:00 am – 11:00 am; 12:00 nn – 02:00 pm; 02:00 pm – 04:00 pm; 04:30 pm – 06:00 pm

I can say that Pinto Art Museum is a home for modern and contemporary art pieces that was made by various artists around the Philippines and I am proud that it can be found in my hometown. There were six galleries inside Pinto Art Museum that you can tour around. Each galleries have their own themes and exhibitions of different paintings, sculptures and art installations.

There's also a Museum of Indigenous Art where various indigenous artworks were displayed that was inspired by the significant culture of Filipino aboriginals showing their traditions and their way of life.

 

 I really like the fact that Pinto Art Museum is environmental-friendly. I was really happy to see number of trees and rocks that formed naturally from the different galleries and were not removed by the museum administration. There were really a lot of simple things that will surely make you happy if you go there.

So if you're already hungry from exploring the different galleries, there's Pinto Cafe in the garden area and Cafe Tan-aw in a roofdeck area near the entrance that offers mouth-watering dishes as we've seen it from the other tourists who ate around. We actually didn't order anything from these two cafes even if we're already hungry cause their menus are like artworks that are pricey. But, for food enthusiasts who don't worry for the price I suggest you should try some of their dishes cause the smell of it as we walk around the cafes was truly heavenly.

So for our side trip and gastronomical adventure we went to Chevy Burger that was near Pinto Art Museum and located beside the highway. It offers different kinds of burger that was worth the price, also various snacks such as pastas, nachos and many more are included in their menu list!

How to get there?

Pinto Art Museum is located inside Grand Heights, a private subdivision in Antipolo, Rizal. So if you are coming from Cubao you could take LRT Line 2 and get off at Santolan Station. After that, take a jeepney bound to Antipolo then go to Ynares Center or Kapitolyo. Ride a tricycle and tell the driver to take you to the doors of Pinto Art Museum :)