7NNT25: Day 22 – Manila

Soundtrack: “In These Shoes?”, Kirsty MacColl

Shoe day.

Older folks, such as myself, will remember legendary First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, who in western media at least was portrayed as liking the luxuries in life, including shoes. When the Marcos dictatorship was ended, the western media was full of stories of the hundreds and hundreds and thousands of custom and designer shoes she owned, this was part of the claims of excess that the ruling family indulged in. Successive Philippine governments used the shoe collection, among other things, for their own marketing/propaganda purposes until earlier this century, when a part of the collection was put on display in the Marikina Shoe Museum.

Marikina is the area of Manila known historically for producing shoes, and there are still places making shoes there today. The shoe museum on the outside looks as un-museum-like as any I’ve seen, a white painted brick building right by the road that could easily be walked past, but then a closer look at the pavement shows a number of shoe tiles with (I’m assuming) benefactors’ names. I wasn’t even sure if it was open, as the door was locked, but then the friendly staff opened it and let me in so I could pay the 50 PHP entry fee (less than $2 AUD). After they explained the rules of the museum (which seemed to be that both photos were allowed and also not allowed) I had the whole place to myself. After first asking if I could take a photo of some equipment, and I could, I then took a bunch of photos figuring they’d let me know if I took any I shouldn’t. While not a large museum, they present a decent collection of both local and international shoes and shoe-shaped items like pottery representations. They have a bunch of shoes from people who I’m assuming are famous in the Philippines, including a pair of Converse and another pair that looked to me like Dunlop Volleys. The centre of the museum is all about Imelda, and there are cases full of her shoes and boots (the internet tells me there’s anywhere between 200 and 700 pairs, I didn’t do my own count), a mix of both locally made and international designers. There are also several portraits of her, and photos of her meeting other world leaders. Colourful shoes, sparkly shoes, not a lot of big heels, generally 2 inches at most (if I was a diligent blogger, at this point I’d go looking at if there was a small height difference between Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos — i did a quick search of pictures and they seem to be a similar height, sometimes her hair gives her the win, so maybe she kept her heels short so as not to totally dwarf her husband). The museum also features one of her embroidered frocks, and one of Ferdinand’s outfits. Upstairs other local designers are showcased, and some amazing shoe creations can be seen. It’s a great little museum, and would definitely recommend anyone in Manila taking the ride out to Marikina — total score 4 out of 5 (1 point deduction for no gift shop).

Across the road was a magnificent old church, Our Lady of the Abandoned, which was apparently built in the 17th century, but suffered a bunch of damage in the last century, before being restored in 1957. I had a quick walk around but as folks were praying didn’t want to be that annoying tourist so left them to it.

Nearby was the Otto shoe store and shoe museum, an even smaller museum that had a few famous people’s shoes and a snow globe from Kansas which contained a pair of ruby slippers. There was apparently a gift shop but I couldn’t see it anywhere, unless the shoe shop part was it.

Breakfast was at Rustic Mornings by Isabelo. I’m not sure what was so rustic about it, seemed like a fairly regular restaurant to me, and I had the longganisa, which were local sausages, eggs and rice. It was okay, nothing mindblowing, but hit the spot.

Elsewhere in Marikina is supposed to be the world’s largest shoe, but it was a fair distance so I sufficed with the large shoe in the museum. Instead I booked a ride out to the Areneta Coliseum, site of the legendary “Thrilla in Manila” boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. The Coliseum itself is a bit of a let down, it’s basically surrounded by malls and I couldn’t find a place to get a good view of it. Nor could I enter, as it was being used for university graduations, gowns and mortarboards as far as I could see.

I did spot that a nearby mall was called the Ali Mall, whether named after the boxer or not I had no idea (I also saw a street named for General MacArthur, though not sure if Jnr or Snr). I decided to check out the Ali Mall, and that turned out to be the best decision, as a corner is full of little curio and collectible shops, so I picked up a D&D book that was on my list, as well as a Frente! CD, because where else do you buy Australian Indie music but the Philippines?

Then it was back to the hotel to de-sweat and blog, before having one final walk out to the local Jolibee to try the chicken and spaghetti. Was it life changing? Not really, it was okay, but I think that’s the point — it’s Filipino comfort food, the nostalgic treat.

Tomorrow I head north to Angeles City, just to see what’s there. I haven’t made any new enquiries about Mt Pinatubo, but Angeles is renowned for good food, and the birthplace of sisig, so I’m hoping to eat well. I’m also staying at the most expensive hotel on the trip, a $250/night crazy looking place, so expect to see me try to describe that.