A Visit to the National Museum of the Philippines

When I first saw the poster in facebook regarding the National Museum of the Philippines (NMotP) having free admission for the whole month of October, the first thing that I thought was that I must take this opportunity to visit the place , appreciate every artistic thing it has to offer and be inspired. Truth be told, I'm just unaware that the place could be visited by anyone with 150 pesos to spend (for the two museums not including Planetarium, according to the post I've read in the museum). I actually don't have a memory that I've already gone in our national museum, so I would consider this as my first time.

During the time I read the post on facebook, I was also exchanging messages with my friend Shiela, so I asked her if she wanted to go and gladly she does, but unfortunately our free time would not fit and opted to go by the end of October, which probably would end up without going. But, a good news came last Friday, that my meeting (with HS classmates) the next day would be rescheduled on the Sunday. Yey! So the last minute, I texted Shiela that I could go the next day and she agreed as well! I checked the facebook post again regarding the reminders/ rules and stuff, and another great news came! DSLRs are already allowed! What a timing! So lucky!

Saturday came, we met up at UST around 10:30 and took a jeepney to go to the place. We arrived in the museum at around 11:00. We first entered the Museum of the Filipino People, a component museum of NMotP, which I've never heard of until that day (so sorry), the only National Museum I know is that of the Art Gallery, which façade we can see after Manila City Hall. And it's a good thing that the route of the jeepney is at the back of Luneta Park (huh?), the front route is Roxas Boulevard (Ahh! so sorry again, I'm not really good with directions, locations, roads and such. This is embarrassing already!), because I don't think we would know about this if we've gone first in the Art Gallery. (Should have searched up before going!)

Outside the Museum of the Filipino People

I'd be posting a separate entry on the pictures that I took, mostly those that I really loved and caught my attention. For now, here are just some of them with our faces on it.

I love the NM doorhandles! :)

The Magnificent "1884 Spoliarium by Juan Luna"

Bones of a Sperm Whale which suffered osteoarthritis.

On the top of my favorites is this "1964 Hills of Nikko by Jose Joya"

Going to the end of our visit, which is surprisingly so long! I thought we could see it around an hour or so, but it took us five hours! FIVE HOURS! Not including the Planetarium. I almost gave up that I kept on saying that I'm so tired (muscle aches 'til now), I'm hungry (My last meal was our dinner the previous night) and my feet hurts already (Tip: Wear a comfortable shoes!). I wasn't really expecting that there would be a lot of galleries (National Museum nga eh!), not to mention that a lot of which are still under maintenance and renovation.

But despite all the hardships (Yuck, parang ang bigat ng pinagdaanan), I was really happy I was able to see our very own National Museum and it’s really a one of a kind experience unlike in field trips where you just walk, everybody all over the place and it's quite noisy (An uninterested boy having one, even mentioned to make a short cut so that they could already get into their bus). With us, having all the time in the world, we were able to read through the descriptions, observe and appreciate every details, think of how it happened and how were they able to preserve them, wonder why that painting (abstract) is called such (wonder why they choose to paint the wall that color!), etc. But most of all, I learned a lot of things that day, our history, our art and culture, our people, on different plants and animals, and I was really inspired by the works of our very own artists. Seeing artistic/creative/historical works makes my love for art surge. I encourage you to visit the our National Museum, there are a lot of things to love about it/them, even the buildings itself!

Visit their website @nationalmuseum.gov.ph

Like them on facebook @facebook.com/nationalmuseumofthephilippines

Poster from their facebook page.