Monday, January 7, 2008: Monday in the Park with Oysters	Return to Journal TOC >>
The sky is hazy when we wake up, and after a run of perfect weather, it turns into the first really hot, smoggy day we’ve had so far. Naturally, it’s also the day when we plan to do the most walking, since we’re planning to see Rizal Park and go museum-hopping. I especially want to see the two National museums, one of which purportedly has the contents of a sunken treasure galleon recovered from the sea floor and the other of which contains the nation’s art treasures. We get off a jeepney across from Rizal Park, and have Philippine breakfast at Jollibee - egg, garlic rice, and tapa (marinated beef). Afterward we walk across the street to Rizal Park, where the Christmas decorations are still standing. (Ro insists you haven’t really been to the Philippines unless you’ve visited Rizal Park. Most of the people I’ve talked to say you haven’t really been to the Philippines unless you’ve visited a strip club, but she grew up here, so maybe she knows better. For the record, there are no strip clubs in Rizal Park.) The park is pleasant; it’s early in the morning, and the street sweepers with their hand broom are out in force. (They wear shirts that say “Pulis Oyster,” which no one can really translate for me. Literally it means “police oyster,” and the best I can figure is that it’s a metaphor on oysters picking up dirt. They also have slogans for the president on the back of their shirts, making them sort of walking campaign ads for Gloria and her political movement.) We pass Santa-shaped topiary, and a large reflecting pool reminiscent of the one in Washington, D.C. Soon, we come to the entrance of the Japanese Garden, which I’d read about online. There’s a token p5 fee (the park itself is free) to walk the paths of the Japanese garden, and I have visions of the one at the Met in New York City, or other Japanese-inspired contemplative gardens I’ve been in. Not this one, though. The garden is seedy, loud, and open, pretty in places but about as completely un-Japanese as it’s possible for a garden to be. There are a few homeless people sleeping here, but no one who actually seems to be doing much contemplating. The one truly moving thing in the garden is a piece of carved stone brought over from Hiroshima. We decide to skip the companion Chinese garden and move on to the national museums a few blocks away. Passing more street sweepers and people walking with umbrellas to keep off the sun, we make our way to the impressive museum buildings. The national museums are in the former congress building and finance building, across a wide street from each other. (Since it’s Manila, it’s a wide street with no light or pedestrian crossing. Presumably, museumgoers here are fleet of foot.) There are buses in the parking lot, but no sign of people, just a couple of feral cats. Finally, we find a guard who tells us that the museum hours have changed from the ones posted on their websites, and they’re now closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
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