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Farm and Garden of BenCab Museum
The Museum Building is all of 3 storeys plus a Farm and Garden Level where art and nature combine for a most pleasant afternoon. Having missed Banaue and Sagada, I did the next best thing. Go up to Baguio City, the Summer Capital of the Philippines.
Temperature here was so pleasant between 16 to 24 Celsius. What a respite from the sweltering heat in Metro Manila where we live and suffer 36 Celsius temps. With the NLEX and new SCTex highway, the journey was shortened considerably that we made it to Baguio well before lunchtime. Just a 5 hour car ride over good roads and via Marcos Highway on the uphill climb. On our downhill drive towards Metro Manila, we chose the more famous Kennon Road.
In years past, we have visited the usual touristy sites in Baguio City. The "routine" calls for visits to the Cathedral, Mines View Park, Wright Park, Mansion House, Burnham Park, Camp John Hay and the market. We made a slight change in our iti this time around, and checked out those places we heard about but have not tried nor seen.
BenCab Museum: A Feast for the Senses
We found BenCab Museum on our way to Baguio City. From Marcos Highway, we turned left at Kilometer 6 Asin Road, Tadiangan, Tuba, Benguet.
Erotica Gallery in BenCab Museum
Kids not allowed inside? Explain that to my little ones. It would be another 4.5 kilometers till we reached the Museum, passing the
Woodcarvers' Village along Asin Road. Admission is 100 pesos. The place is only a 15 minute ride from Baguio City Center. There are jeeps to Asin from the jeepney terminal found near the Baguio market. Just be sure you don't go on a Monday when the Museum is closed.
Since we arrived noontime, we were pleased to find that the Museum has a charming dining place called
Cafe Sabel right on the Farm and Garden Level. There is a good menu selection ranging from the very local "Longsilog" consisting of the Baguio Longganiza or local sausages, served with an egg and fried mountain rice, to the more continental soup, salad and sandwich combination, to chicken cacciatore, pork schnitzel and a number of pasta selections. We ate our lunch here on a table with an open wide window overlooking the farm and garden.
Interestingly, Cafe Sabel was named after a somewhat mad, bag lady whom the artist observed and sketched from a window of a house somewhere in Bambang, Tondo where he lived for a time. In his mind, this mad scavenger must have
been a symbol of dislocation, poverty, hopelessness and isolation. In the lovely words penned by Rene Guatlo:
"This vagrant woman is one of the best known muses of the artist's storied career. In her plainness, he saw beauty.
In her anonymity, he saw an individual person who chose to live as she saw fit.
In her weakness, he saw her native wit and strength. It is a tribute to BenCab that what he saw, what he painted, are what endure." And then there is the collection of indigenous art from the Cordillera region. Abra, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mountain Province, Apayao and Baguio City make up the Cordillera Region. It happens to be the ONLY landlocked region in the country encompassing most of the areas within the Cordillera Central mountain range of Luzon, the largest range in the country. The Museum showcases the skills of Igorots in weaving and basketry, and the woodcarving skills of the Ifugaos. Notably, it was the Ifugaos who carved the Banaue rice terraces in the Cordillera mountainside 3,000 years ago.
Hagabi: The Wooden Bench Carved From A Single Tree
In the middle of the Cordillera Gallery in BenCab
Museum is this very long wooden bench called "hagabi". Carved from a single piece of wood, the "hagabi" is a symbol of wealth and social prestige among the Ifugaos. The "ritual" involves the hosting of a public feast where priests (called
"Mumbaki") perform a ceremony called "mamaldang" to determine if the omens for the creation of the hagabi bench are favorable. If so, the ritual begins with the search for the right tree (usually a
"narra") , the journey of the woodcarvers to the forest to select, cut and carve the tree, and the villagers taking turns in transporting the carved hagabi bench out of the forest through mountain trails . This activity takes several days and ends with more days of eating, drinking of rice wine and dancing. Quite an elaborate feast, if you ask me. And I am reminded of the ceremonies attendant to the creation and carving of totem poles in Alaska to mark a "special event or milestone" . Interesting.
Camp John Hay, Mines View, Mansion House
This former military base is now a hub for golfers, high-end hotel accommodations (Manor Hotel), dining places like Club John Hay, House of Waffles, and a
line of eateries in the "commissary" area. Any trip to Baguio City is not complete without a visit to Camp John Hay. Within the country, the former American bases in Subic, Clark and here in Camp John Hay still evoke many fond memories of hobnobbing with American "G.I.s".
Mines View Park is a veritable treasure for souvenir-hunting tourists. On a clear day, one can have pretty good snapshots of the mountains from its view deck. Then there's
Mansion House, the summer house of the President. A skip and a hop from here, you'd also find
Wright Park. Easily, one can visit all these 4 sites --- Camp John Hay, Mines View Park, Mansion House and Wright Park --- in one pass. Not much has changed except that the Americans no longer hold fort in this hilltop camp, and that sadly, there are less pine trees around Baguio.
We skipped some of the "regular tourist stops" and instead went on a search for
St. Scholastica's Chapel. We didn't find it. Instead, we found the
St. Scholastica's CONVENT along Military Cut-Off Drive. So eerily quiet here . We took a few moments to pray in its small and
very spartan chapel, before wandering around the Healing Garden within the compound. The gardens and chapel were open to the public, yet we didn't meet a single soul whilst we were there.
Where to Eat?
Well, I did mention the coffee shop in BenCab Museum named after the artist's iconic muse.
Cafe Sabel offers a good selection, and it is a convenient eating place if one were to visit the Museum and still have the energy to do the Farm and Garden. Easily, you can spend 2 hours in the Museum. So go ahead and sample the menu offerings in Cafe Sabel. At the very least, try the Cordillera coffee here. Very potent, just like the way I like it.
When I was younger, the chinese food in
Rose Bowl is almost like a dining mecca for our family. We also remember the noodles and other chinese dishes in
Star Cafe along Session Road. There is also
"Cafe by the Ruins" which runs the same Cafe Sabel in BenCab Museum.
This time around, we searched for another dining place along the same Session Road. Called
"Oh My Gulay" (OMG) , this
place on the 5th floor of La Azotea building along Session Road is run by another artist/movie and tv director using the alias
Kidlat Tahimik. (Literally translates to "silent lightning") A haven for vegetarians, this place is a pleasant "mess" of wooden stairways , short and narrow bridges, a mini pond, a mini stage where one can imagine a folk singer belting out some country song, woodcarvings, and a terrace overlooking the city! Their menu includes fresh vegetable salads adorned with crisp tofu slices and a good selection of meatless pasta. We tried the "kabute" (mushroom) and "kamatis" (tomatoes) and the spicy "Anak ng Putannesca". For desserts, they have very good crepes. Yum 😊 After a good guilt-free dinner here (just go easy on the crepes), one can go one floor down to listen to folk music at Session Bar Cafe.
Next day breakfast was at
Club John Hay. For its price, I dare say the service sucks. Breakfast food was so so. Good coffee turned bad was when it was served warm, rather than steaming hot. Some traffic from the kitchen to the dining table, maybe. The next cup was steaming hot, as I requested, but it
took a while for the sugar and creamer set to land on the table. Guess how that coffee ended a second time around. Just the same, lunch at Club John Hay was not bad. So there. You can say Club John Hay "redeemed" itself with the lunch we enjoyed.
The Way Back to Manila
We felt how the temperature rose on our way back to Metro Manila. This time driving along the shorter Kennon Road, we zigzagged our way from Baguio City down to Tarlac. Along the way, we passed
"Isdaan"(literally means fishing place) , a dining place cum "break" for people with anger management issues. There is a space within this eatery called
"tacsiapo" where one can buy old plates, mugs, even old television sets to throw against a wall. The wall is painted red and white with markers spelling out the words "mother-in-law", "ex-wife", etc. You get the drift? After all that zigzagging driving, this "break" may soothe your nerves by giving vent to one's violent and other anger-related tantrums. Next time you feel like throwing a punch, go visit Isdaan in Gerona, Tarlac on your way up to Baguio City. 😊
Back in Metro Manila, but not for long. Off to Mount Makiling in Laguna for some fresh air and cool breeze. Metro Manila is "burning"! Yay. Unless you want to sweat it out, go up to the mountains or soak yourself in some of our beaches. 😊
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
My interest has increased
Good Morning Lili, For whatever reason the Philippines was never really high on my must travel to list but with all of your recent blogs about your wonderful country my interest has really peaked. You've published some quality work and we are enjoying your travels.