When I was single, I had this fantasy of meeting my mate in a museum. Among the galleries of paintings by the masters, my eyes and heart will be stolen by someone who shares appreciation for art and history. Well, it never happened that way. It is all for another blog entry.
Last Sunday, we headed to National Museum in the Old Senate Building in Manila. I was so excited to see if there are any new exhibits since the last time I visited it. Our museum is open to the public from Wednesday to Sunday from 10am to 4pm. It was around 1pm when we got there so we took our time.
Cameras are not allowed so we weren't able to take pictures. The first hall houses is a tribute to Felix Resureccion Hidalgo and Juan Luna. Spolarium demands attention and reverence as it stands there. Juan Luna's masterpiece deserve winning the grand prize in Spain during that time. You have to see how he was able to give every minute detail despite the shadows casts over the gladiators who died in the coliseum.
Portraits and landscapes are lined up on the side which shows the other works of the two masters. Versatility was showed as each materials uses different mediums like pencil, charcoal, and oil.
Modern art are given space and soon they will give honor to our country. Tao-tao is an art installation that depicts a folklore in Mindanao. It is very philosophical and moving as it tells you our ancestors view of the afterlife.
My jaw dropped when I saw the centerpiece in the natural history section of the museum. There was this enormous sperm whale fossil floating in the middle of the room. It was amazing!
It was already four in the afternoon so we didn't get the chance to go to the Finance Building where the other exhibits were. Well, there's always another weekend.
Hunger pangs are beginning to bother Arlo and me so I decided to visit Ongpin. Travel time featured a food trip in Binondo so we went there to eat. We enjoyed the noodles, siopao and siomai at Masuki. We just savored the freshly cooked noodles and their large siopao filled with meat and salted duck egg. Their siomai is P23 each but it is not the little siomai served in chowking.
Binondo church was our next stop and we took some pictures inside before the mass. A plaza was dedicated to San Lorenzo R
uiz and serves as the rotonda for the public transportation. There were many Chinese-Filipino in that area, I wonder why?Our next stop was Mall of Asia. We watched Night at the Museum 2 in IMAX. It was funny and entertaining. Arlo enjoyed it very much because I can hear him laugh while I doze off several times during the movie. Night at the museum is not that bad but I didn't get a nap so I was a sleepy that early evening.
We capped the night with a coffee in Bohemian Nation's Coffee (Bona Coffee) along San Miguel at the Bay behind MOA. I thought Ate Guy will be there and serving coffee from the boiling water she scalded Phillip Salvador in the movie with the title "Bona."
