It must be museums week at Travel with Me, because after taking you to Manila’s Ayala Museum a few days ago, today I want to introduce you to a couple of museums we visited in Vigan. Although my usual preference when travelling is to be out and about absorbing local colour, time spent in a smaller museum in particular can be a very rewarding complement to this.
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It has to be said that Manila is not the most appealing of cities. While the largely reconstructed old city of Intramuros has its charms, much of the rest of the city is a sprawl of modern skyscrapers, older housing, near-slums, and very congested traffic. It is the world’s fourth largest city and one of its most densely populated. However, there are gems to be found half-hidden in the sprawl.
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There is something about a ruin that speaks to me as a photographer. The stories the old structures could tell of people and events from the past sometimes seem more vivid than those of a better-preserved or reconstructed old building. And where better to explore some ruins than among the temples of Angkor in Cambodia?
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I am keeping things simple today with a gallery of some of the beautiful flowers I photographed during our visit to the Philippines. I’m sharing these as a memorial for Cee, a special member of our blogging community whom we sadly lost last month.
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The Kankanaey people of Sagada, an Igorot (mountain) tribe in northern Luzon, follow a unique burial ritual. Rather than placing their coffins in the ground they hang them from cliffs or place them in a cave. They believe that the higher the dead are placed, the closer they are to heaven and the greater the chance of their spirits reaching a higher nature in the afterlife.
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I wonder whether images ‘choose’ photographers? I think in a way they do, in the sense that any keen photographer will put themselves in the best position for potential pictures to choose them. They know where to go, where (and importantly) how to look.
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The Tarsier Conservation Area on Bohol Island in the Philippines is a protected area dedicated to preserving the Philippine tarsier, one of the smallest primates in the world. Known for their strikingly large eyes in a tiny body, these fascinating animals play a vital role in maintaining the island's biodiversity and ecological harmony.
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If a black and white photograph is a 'departure from reality' (and surely it is), then why are so many photographers still drawn to taking them? And what is their appeal for the viewer? Is it merely nostalgia as some have claimed? After all, the oldest among us grew up I'm a world of black and white films, TV and family snapshots.
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‘That’s my village, Bangaan’, said Conchita, pointing to a cluster of houses among the rice terraces far below where we stood on the terrace of a simple roadside restaurant. Peering down through the drizzling rain I could make out a simple church and rooftops of corrugated metal and thatch.
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When we travel, we love to try the food of our destinations. Pasta in Italy (of course!), curry in India, kimchi in North Korea, even grasshoppers in Oaxaca. And on our latest trip to the Philippines we naturally enjoyed many local dishes, and like the Filipinos themselves ate rice with almost every meal.
