My Sto Nino Shrine posts are a product of a combined effort by me and my Tacloban trip buddy Ezra. She was the one taking photos, and I was assigned to take down notes during the Shrine tour. :-)
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as if the lavishly designed guest rooms were not enough, our eyes were treated with more extravagant rooms of the Marcos family at the 2nd floor. I didn't expect that the Shrine was actually like a place to stay for them while in Tacloban....
Each of them have their own room... and yes by that I mean each of them, Marcos and Imelda having their own rooms even!
First room we went into - the President's room... first thing you'll notice is the mini office on the right side of the receiving area.... a sitting place is set on the left side... Marcos' bed is on the other end.
Upon entering Marcos' room, this will definitely catch your attention... a rug made of cow's hide from Argentina!!!
Still in the President's room... i noticed this globe... i shortly got giddy with it but moved on right away to the next object that caught my attention... but our guide told us that it is actually a wine cellar! she opened it to show us how it look inside... coolness! :-)
The master's bed! I didn't find anything too special about it...hehe didn't gave me the "wow!-that's-super-nice!-i-looooove-it!" kind of feel.... :D but the still banig designed wall did! each piece in the banig wall is made of Italian leather... too crafty huh?
done with the master's bedroom, we were then ushered to go through a small door at one side of the receiving area... it was actually the bathroom already... marbles galore.... and look at that old school bathtub and bathroom bowl... :D
we went through another door at the other end of the bathroom... this door led us to a bedroom made for Marco's bodyguard.... still with the same Italian-leather made banig wall... i like this room's bed better hehe ;D
still on the left side of the 2nd floor, we went through a hallway leading to Bongbong Marcos' room.... it's almost as big as his dad's room.... with a little receiving area which has a display of Philippine bills from 1912. The receiving area also has a Persian set. The bed is showing signs of decay already. One side of it is already falling... too bad...
We crossed the 2nd floor area to go to the right side where the girls' bedrooms are... we started with the Imelda Marcos room.... as expected it looked so extravagant...the walls on the headboard side is covered with Bitoy Moreno's embroidered work...there are 2 huge chandeliers in the middle that is aligned with 2 big mirrors on 2 facing walls... this is to create that eternal space kind of illusion that is provided by the continuous reflection
Imelda's bathroom!!! i almost loved it... hehehe except for that beach painting on the jacuzzi's wall... that simply ruined everything.... i almost love how classy it is... but really the painting urrgghh!!!.... but going through another door and finding the dressing area.... i love love it... specially the chair (lower right of this collage).
going back to the bedroom, we noticed this huge jade on one of the tables... it had a carved sleeping sto nino on it.... like!
we then moved to Imee's room. Notice how small it is... just enough for a young girl (although the chandelier is too much for a young girl hehe)... i love the sitting set.... makes me wanna wish for these: Daphne Chairs
Here's Irene's room... very princess-y... :-)
and the last room is little imee's room (I didn't know the Marcoses had an adopted kid...). You might wonder why there's 2 beds, I asked the same question... according to our guide, the other one's supposed to be for the nanny....
Bedrooms fit for a royal family huh? According to our guide these rooms were never used. The Marcoses would usually stay in Tolosa (Imelda's birthplace... this is already outside Tacloban).
I am still undecided whether I should be awed by all these fairytale place and wish for it to be properly preserved or feel angry for all these useless extravagance.... hmn.....
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Tacloban trip with Ezra
17-19 September 2010
I spent part of an afternoon in there. Interesting. Nice lady gave a along, detailed and entertaining tour. Well worth 200 peso (in my opinion as a UK tourist). Sadly I kept asking myself... why don't they replaced the blown light bulbs? Why keep it so dark (my camera can't focus in such conditions)? Why not restore, or at least clean, many items? Oh well, at least it was quiet and not too hot in there... Thanks for posting your photos/blog.
ReplyDeletehi! thanks for dropping by... i agree with you.. the place looks so gloomy with the kind of lighting... but i guess just like other museums that's a way of preserving old stuff... not too much exposure with lights... :-)
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