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Yesterday we crossed the sea of traffic from Makati to Luneta to see the Philippine-American War exhibition War and Dissent at the National Museum. The Salvacion Lim Higgins exhibit is also at the museum, so we planned to spend the whole afternoon.

After an eventful trip, details of which I will not bore you with, we arrived at the old Senate building which now houses the museum. It’s a beautiful building, so that in the distant event that the exhibits don’t appeal to you, you can enjoy the architecture. The guard at the gate said the War and Dissent and Slims exhibitions were in the building across the street. The parking lot was curiously empty.

We crossed the street and found a metal barricade across the entrance, and the door locked. In our excitement to see the exhibits we still didn’t get it. We walked around the building and found some workmen exiting the gate. By climbing over it. They advised us to go round to the other entrance. When we had circumnavigated the building we found a security guard who informed us that the National Museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Aargh. We thought the public museums of earth were closed Mondays and open the rest of the week.

I suggested a cold drink before we headed back across the traffic. There’s a restaurant in the Orchidarium beside the museum. The Orchidarium itself is under renovation, but the restaurant is open. There was only one other customer, working at his laptop, and occasionally doing sit-ups on the bench. It is a good place to write—it’s quiet, surrounded by flora, and it feels isolated even if the traffic is screeching and honking right outside the gate. We ordered watermelon shakes, bananas deep-fried in sugar and sesame seeds, and ube rolls, and laughed at ourselves for being idiot tourists.