museum

Penang, Malaysia: Penang Camera Museum [SP]

Posted on February 4, 2014

The Camera Museum in George Town, Penang, Malaysia. Photo by www.timeout.com Photography enthusiasts will be delighted by the latest attraction in George Town’s historic quarter, the Penang Camera Museum, which opened only last October 2013. Housed in a restored pre-war shophouse, the museum traces three centuries of the development of the camera.Touted as “the first camera museum in Southeast Asia”, there are over 300 cameras on display. Among the cameras in the collection are daguerreotype, box camera, folding camera, largeRead More→

Perak, Malaysia: Archaeological Heritage of the Lenggong Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site [SP]

Posted on December 4, 2013

The 11,000 year old Perak Man is the oldest, most complete human skeleton found in Southeast Asia Something I’ve associated the most to the state of Perak in Malaysia from high school science lessons is its eponymous archaeological discovery, the 11,000 year old remains of Perak Man – the oldest most complete human skeleton in Southeast Asia. It was was discovered in 1991 in Guah Gunung Runtuh cave in the Lenggong Valley.Last year, four archaeological open-air and cave sites inRead More→

Gold of Ancestors: Pre-colonial Filipinos were ‘Kings of Bling’

Posted on October 25, 2011

“Filipinos were the original kings of bling!” I overheard an American visitor exclaim at the Ayala Museum in Makati City last weekend when he beheld over a thousand ancient artifacts made of 22 to 24 karat gold. They are from the 10th to 13th centuries, a time when the archipelago was ruled by many small kingdoms that flourished, establishing trade links with the Far East and Southeast Asia to as far away as India and Persia. I was well awareRead More→

Pan-ay, Capiz – Where the Big Bell Tolls

Posted on June 3, 2011

The five-storey belfry of coral stone afforded a pastoral panorama beyond the town plaza occasionally punctuated by jeepneys and tricycles whirring along the highway that stretched back to Roxas City. Click! The tourist guide snapped photos of me grinning—half in fear—underneath 10.4 tons of cast metal precariously suspended by rusty chains. On its patinated belly, an embossed inscription: SOY LA VOZ DE DIOS. A less intimidating one simply declared the town’s name: PANAY. I was in the town of Pan-ayRead More→

Hong Kong for Art Lovers

Posted on February 7, 2011

The following article is a commissioned article I wrote for this month’s issue (February-March 2011) of SMILE, the in-flight magazine of Cebu Pacific Air. You may browse the magazine online at http://www.cebusmile.com ALONG WITH being the habitat of bankers and shopaholics, Hong Kong has now become the playground for all sorts of artists. Fueled by a bullish world economy, the former British colony has established itself in recent years as a top destination for dealers and collectors from around theRead More→

Escolta Museum at Calvo Building

Posted on November 17, 2008

Walking down turn-of-the-century Escolta was like a stroll though today’s Bonifacio High Street or Eastwood City, where commerce and culture thrived as Manila embraced, willingly or otherwise, the 20th century. Elegantly dressed residents regularly visited this street to visit the numerous boutiques, shops and department stores that sold the latest clothes, cigars, jewelries and other fineries. Automobiles, horse-drawn carriages and Meralco tranvias (tramcars) shuttled them through. Indeed, it was a place to be seen. After the destruction of Manila inRead More→