I dragged myself out of my batcave yesterday to go on a tour in Intramuros. Earlier this week, I signed up for a free guided tour offered by the Intramuros Administration and Book Stop Project in celebration of National Heritage Month. I’ve been to Intramuros several times already but I’ve never really seen its entirety yet. The free tour said it will feature Fort Santiago, one of the completed projects of Intramuros Administration's efforts in reviving the walled city back into its original Hispanic aesthetic, so I thought I will be able to see what they have been working on.
Since Manila is at least an hour away from where I live, I figured I might as well go check out the new planetarium, which had been hyped on Facebook in the past couple of months when they waved the entrance for the public. I had no idea where the planetarium is, but Google said it should be at the Chinese Garden in Luneta. I did not want to take a cab because it’s a luxury (I am currently unemployed!), so I just relied on Google maps and by asking people along the way. Naliligaw ako lagi sa Luneta, kaya sobrang salamat sa Google maps. I went the wrong way, and found myself at the entrance of the National Museum, but I eventually managed to find where the planetarium is. It was already half-past one, and according to my notes, the show should start at 1pm. I figured I’d just go take a look around, and decide later if I’d want to see the next show which is scheduled at 2:30pm. The show should be at least 30 minutes, give and take. The Intramuros tour is at 3pm. Now if you just have a little faith, that everything will still fall into place, it will.
When I got to the planetarium, there is a queue. I stood at the end, took out my mini-fan to cool myself off a bit (I walked all the way from UN Station of LRT under the 1pm sun), and started to device a plan. I know that the tour will not really start at 3pm (Pinoy events have at least 30 minutes grace period), but I was sure that the Planetarium show would start on time. My plan is to see the Planetarium first, then walk back to the National Museum to check out new exhibits, and then walk to Intramuros in time for the tour.
Few minutes into the queue, a museum staff approached me, and said that I should be the last one to enter for the upcoming show. That means the show is at 1:30 and not 1pm! How lucky am I. The girl before me was very happy to hear that we’d still get in. I paid P50 (no discounts for graduate school students hehe, but students/PWD/senior citizens are charged P30 only). I was expecting to see “A Planet for Goldilocks”, but the scheduled show was “Journey to a Billion Suns”, although I haven’t seen both films. A single ticket can only get you to one show, so if you want to see all shows, you’re going to have to purchase separate tickets for those.
I remember being so amazed when we visited the Mind Museum few years back. I’ll probably never ever grow up as I am still amazed by such things. Planetarium’s dome is so much better that Mind Museum’s. Sana lang pwede irecline ang chair nila for more comfortable viewing. Cellphones aren’t allowed inside, so the only lights come from the show, which is projected 360 degrees. So you’ll see the stars right up there. Just last night I was viewing the stargazing, at at some point, I thought I saw a group of stars moving steadily. But in reality it was the clouds that were moving. When the show was starting and there was an object that flew into the sky, the lady behind me snickers, “Manananggal, manananggal.” I whispered, “Satellite”, when I am not even sure, while the girl who's with the lady exclaimed, “Ano yun? Star Wars?” These are only three of the people at viewing the show that time, haha. In the past days, I’ve seen Star of the Universe, Star Trek, Mad Max, Elysium—which all talked about the space at some point, and I clearly remember that scene at the end of Mad Max where they saw an object flying, and concluded that it’s a satellite.
Anyway, ang ganda. I just wished they’d also have a show that’s narrated in Filipino, para lang mas marami maka-appreciate. The show lasted probably for 20 minutes. I spent the other 20 minutes going around. I was particularly drawn to the timeline/history of mankind’s space exploration because honestly, I’ve already forgotten all about it, except the fact that the first man on the moon was Neil Armstrong. It was a refresher. I’ve completely forgotten that it was USSR that first launched a rocket to the space, and it was Yuri Gagarin who was first sent into the space. Think, Laika, Valentina Tereshkova, Sputnik, etc. everything's in there. I enjoyed taking in as much information for the few minutes that I had, because I had to run for the Intramuros tour.
I just walked, but I made it to the meeting place at the Book Stop Project at Plaza Roma 5minutes past 3, and the tour hasn't started yet.
The Book Stop Project is really cool. They have vast collections of books–from academic books to fiction, among others. Anyone can borrow and give books from this small stall. The idea is to spread the value of reading. They also accept donations. This stall is located across Manila Cathedral.
The tour began probably a quarter before 4pm, because there was a short opening program first. It was my first time to tour Fort Santiago, I’ve been here for the OPAPP event last time, but was there for work so no time to look around. Carlos Celdran was even part of the tour, not as a guide, but as a participant, too.
Exhibit under the trees
Fruit trees around Intramuros
Entrance to Fort Santiago
Dambana ni Rizal
Went inside this dungeon. Creepy.
Simulation of Rizal's footsteps from his detention cell in Fort Santiago to Luneta
