Viva Manila Tour: Carlos Celdran

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In my previous post, I showed you all the highlights of our tour during the #vivamanila tour. You can see the post here: Viva Manila: A Carlos Celdran Downtown Tour. Now, I will share to you what we see in the places that we visited. 

Viva Manila Logo

The flow of the VIVAMANILA Downtown Manila Tour

Visit and educate yourself at the MMDA Safety Park 

Jeepney Ride to Mabini St.

Visit an art museum ( Maria Closa: Arts Primities Antiques)

Visit a 1945 store (Tesoro’s)Visit a Hotel [Lotus]

Visit Solidaridad Bookstore

Visit a famous bakery – Hizon’s

Visit HIRAYA Gallery

Free Pika-Pika food from JadeVine c/o Manila City Hall

 Visit Miramar Hotel for their Art Deco 

Group Picture in Luneta/ Rizal Park

September 8, 2013 (Sunday) was a gloomy day. Our meeting point was at MMDA Safety Park. Our tour would start at around 3PM.

Visit and educate yourself at the MMDA Safety Park 

The MMDA Safety park is a place where kids can learn the different street signs. They have miniature traffic lights, pedestrian, bike lane, underpass, overpass and rotonda. It's a perfect place for children to bond with their parents while learning different rules we have in Metro Manila. 

At the MMDA Safety Park

MMDA Park is located in front of Manila Zoo. If you want to have a group tour here, MMDA would be willing to facilitate the tour. 

Visit  an art museum ( Maria Closa: Arts Primities Antiques)

This art museum is along Ermita, Manila. It's a two-floor museum full of paintings and sculptures. The artworks that you can see here are very Pinoy, since most of their works are craved from wood. I'm not sure if they have artworks for sale.

Their Signage

Some of the artworks you can see inside.

Upon leaving Maria Closa, we decided to take a group picture outside with the signage. We were very fortunate to have Mr. Carlo Celdran in our picture. He went to our group and joined the group picture. We were so happy because we don't need to have a picture with him at the end of the tour, where it would be hard for us to squeeze in with other people just to have a decent picture with him.

Have a good picture with him - DONE!

Visit a 1945 store (Tesoro’s) and Visit a Hotel [Lotus]

Tesoro's shop is one of the oldest shop here in Manila that sells Filipino products. They have Barong, Baro't Saya, food from different provinces, keychain, Capiz products, figurines, fans, and many more.

Since we only have 20 minutes to visit 3 places ( at our own pace : Maria Colosa, Teroso and Lotus Hotel), we spent our 5 minutes here to discover the products. There are many interesting product that I'm sure tourists would really love. 

As for the lotus hotel, I have no picture there. Also, I didn't fully understand at first why we were there. I though it's a sponsorship part of the tour, where they would promote their hotel. It turns out, that their art decoration there is beautiful. We didn't have time to appreciate these things. 

Visit Solidaridad Bookstore

This is a bookstore beside Ibarra's Garden. I haven't been here, but I saw a post from Carlos Celdran about the book "Altar of Secrets" by Aries Rufo. This book is usually out of stock if you go to the local bookstores.

Unfortunately, the bookstore was closed. Mr. Carlos Celdran visited this store a day prior to the viva manila tour. They said, they would be open for the tour group of Mr. Celdran. The lady wearing purple ( behindi Mr. Celdran), is very funny.

Not the exact statements, but it goes something like this (translated to english):

Mr. Celdran: They said, they would be open for us. It's already 4:05PM. I even bought a book here yesterday.

Woman wearing purple shirt: Oh they would be open at around 5......

Me: (hoping that it would open....)

Woman: 5 in the morning ( 5:00 AM, the next day)

Me: (laugh)

Because of this unfortunate event, we would then go to Hizon's.

Visit a famous bakery: Hizon's

As far as I can remember, Hizon's is inside Za's Cafe, in front of a "Collezione" store. They sell ensaymada from 85 pesos to 130 pesos. There are 2 sizes ( big and small)

Ensaymada: Quezo de Bola

Quezo de Bola Ensaymada is worth 130 pesos(Big) and 95 pesos(Small)

Ensaymada Cheese is worth 115 pesos(Big) and 85 pesos(Small)

According to the lady there, Quezo de Bola is their popular brand. However, when I tasted the ensaymada, I can't distinguish how is it so special compare to local Ensaymada brand. I might not buy another ensaymada there because it's a bit pricey.

Visit HIRAYA Gallery 

Hiraya Gallery Signage

This is my favorite part of the tour. The paintings being featured on the first floor is from an artist in Batanes, Philippines. I think his idea is about how art now a days are being under appreciated or soon be removed from the picture. 

It's  about the Spolarium at the National Museum

2nd floor painting. I don't know the artist.

These paintings are very catchy to the eyes and I love the meaning behind it. I also agree to the owner of the gallery, she said, one of the prerequisite into being a painter is your capacity to draw. The art would serve as an avenue for the artist to express his ideas for the audience to learn something from it. I am not totally against color splattering artworks, but I am a huge fan of paintings like these.

Free Pika-Pika food from JadeVine c/o Manila City Hall

We were offered by iced tea, coffee, tacos and sandwiches c/o of Manila City Hall Mayor Erap Estrada and Vice Mayor Isko Moreno. I didn't expect to have free food since this is a Free tour. Just to be part of a tour, where Mr. Celdran is the tour guide, is what I look forward from this tour. The free food is a bonus in this tour. 

Beef Tacos = DELICIOUS!

My favorite food, is the Beef Tacos. I swear, the food is really delicious. It has a mexican taste, and not spicy. I like the cheese topping because it gives a bit of balance to the saltiness of the beef. I like the classy presentation of it because of it's bite-size type. I ate 4 beef tacos and 2 sandwiches (Cheese Pimiento and Mayo & Egg spread). 

Visit Miramar Hotel for their Art Deco 

After the yummy food, we visit this hotel to see the different art decorations that they have. This time, I understood that, it's not a sponsorship perk, why we are visiting the different rooms in a hotel. This hotel is along Roxas Boulevard. 

One of my favorite rooms in Miramar hotel, because it's too spacious. and I believe, this is the most expensive room. It has a living room and a bar. The paintings/art deco are all over the hotel. You can see some from the staircase, hallways, rooms, and function rooms. 

This hotel is where Carlo Celdran stayed when the 9-11 event happened. He was watching the news at his room.

After the Miramar tour, Gawad Kalinga offered us a drink. It is the Bayani Brew, made from GK Enchanted Farm.

It was a great way to quench our thirst from the 2 hour walk tour.  There were two flavors, and I picked the yellow one. I personally, don't want how the pink one taste, but my friend loves it. It's a healthy drink, and there are many ingredients involve in each drink. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH GK FOR THIS ONE! 

Group Picture in Luneta/ Rizal Park

A great way to end the viva manila tour, is to visit our national hero's monument. Mr. Carlos want to point out in this part how beautiful Luneta is. However, a Real estate company is building a condominium that would ruin the background of Luneta because the building is 50 stories high. As of now, you'll be able to see the crane building the condominium one by one. 

Group picture with my HS friends

Soon, there would be a building behind this magnificent monument.

We were encouraged by Mr. Celdran to sign a petition to limit the height of the condominium so that, it would not destroy the Luneta Park view. I agree to this cause because we only have very few tourist spot in the Manila, and we want to preserve it. So i signed, the petition.

If you want to sign in the petition, here is the link:

http://www.change.org/petitions/no-to-dmci-s-torre-de-manila-project

I really enjoyed the whole trip. I'm looking forward for his next VIVA Manila tour. I hope it would be around Binondo and Quiapo Area.

Enjoy reading! ^_^