It was a spur-of-the-moment decision as we suddenly planned a tour of the Ayala Museum. Scheduled a week before along with fellow Hivers in @hiveph, @cindee08, @bananzell, @demotry, and @romeskie; thanks to Rome for booking our tickets.
I'd been staying in National Capital Region (NCR), but I seldom travel aside from work, and the venue was unfamiliar to me. I mean, the names weren't, but haven't been there yet . I checked in the Grab app for the fare cost, but then I was thinking better to commute for faster and cheaper travel.
The weather could have been better that day since it's been raining for days. Yet, that didn't stop us nor made us think of not going.
Cindee says, from the MRT- Ayala station it was just 10-15 minutes of walk. Also, I was chatting with them at the discord while walking.
There was no public transportation besides taxis here, so I kept walking. To help, I opened a Google map, but then it didn't help. North, south, east, and West easily confuse me 🤣. Thus, finally, I arrived at the venue after asking for directions.
I know Demotry and Cindee were already here, but I found the latter first. Demo? He caught us chit-chatting.
After which, everyone arrived, and our tour started. We paid $11.95 for the tour, which intrigued me about what we would be seeing inside. Was it worth my money?
At the reception, I could somehow say why the ticket was that expensive. It was like a hotel lobby, less couches.
We were given a sticker to be placed on our shirts as proof that we were registered tourists here.
And now the journey begins, and this is my entry in #Wednesdaywalk hosted by @tattoodjay and #makemesmile by @elizacheng
The first destination was Gold of Ancestors - Pre-colonial treasure of the Philippines.
To start, the staff will let you stay in the small lobby for a while as they play a short video that will give you a glimpse of what to see.
Trivia: Before the pre-colonial times, people living in the Philippines were a group of indigenous tribes such as Aeta Hanunoo, Ilongots, and the Mangyan.
Seeing the above photos, you already knew what to see next. Yes! That's right; it was the gold accessories of our ancestors before it crossed into the civilization after the colonization happened.
I am not a gold collector and couldn't determine which one was fake. Still, I am aware that what is on display costs a lot. Collections from 10th - 13th years ago? At the back of my mind, I was mentally computing how rich the owner of this museum was as they afford to purchase the whole set!
Each piece of jewelry was kept in a sealed glass box, properly labeled where it was from, its year, and gold value in grams.
From necklace, bangles, did you see how thick the chain is?
That dangling earrings, I remembered that were in trend during my teenage years. People say that fashion may be evolving, yet what was on a trend before will become trendy again.
Or designers got inspiration from colonial jewelry and just had some modifications. What do you think?
We continued walking around while having some chit-chats giving our opinions, which caught our attention.
A Chastity used to cover female genitalia. What an expensive living they had before. I don't even have a piece of gold jewelry, lol.
What can you say about this gold regalia? To give a better visual, this is how our ancestors were dressed during that time.
Beside is a glass box consisting of some jewelry adorning their body.
And I didn't let a chance slip to have a photo with our forefathers.
All even their kitchen utensils are made of gold after seeing this goblet.
Bowl
It might be food containers;
It doesn't end up there when they died; they had a Funeral masks
What I astonished as my first time going in a place with golds around , aside from jewelry shops. The whole walk at the 4rth floor was worth it, the money in exchange of seeing this treasures.
The tour didn't ended up there but I rather say just a start of non-ending laughers!
Lead image was edited using Canva
All photos are mine
Footer credit to Sensiblecast