This was my realization when I signed up for a private
tour of Marikina City, the nation’s shoe capital and one of the most awarded
cities in the country in terms of local governance, health, and competitive business
environment.
Marikina has its own tourism department to cater to
anyone who wants to tour the city.
You just make an appointment and pick up the designated
tour guide at city hall. Fees vary depending on the size of the group. We paid
P350 for a group of two and off we went in my car.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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Then we headed to
Lucban
Hats established in 1935 when
Manuel
L. Quezon was still president. I hope they never change their vintage logo.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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We saw how the famous hats are made manually from
sinamay.
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They mostly export their hats to Europe but they’re also
available locally.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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They churn out hundreds of hats each day.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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They also make sinamay bags, tissue paper holder, candle
holders, etc.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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My friend, a Marikina resident, vouches for its
ensaymada.
As I am not fond of sweets, I will just take her word for it.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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But Pan de Amerikana is more than just a pan de sal
store. It is a chess-themed Filipino restaurant. We did not stay to eat so I
will be back to try it out.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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Puto
(rice cake) is a common Pinoy delicacy but the best I have ever tasted is from
Marikina with its rich texture and just the right amount of sweetness. As they
are bite-sized, if you’re not careful, you can consume dozens in one sitting.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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I felt like a kid at a toy store seeing how my favorite
puto was made.
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The whole place smelled so heavenly!
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Next we went to Hermie’s Bags. (For Sherlock Holmes fans
out there, I’m sure you see what I see here.)
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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It really is so nice to see how some things are still
being crafted by hand.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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If you’re sensitive to rugby smell, you can choose to
skip this stop as the smell was so powerful.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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Of course, you can’t go on a Marikina tour without
visiting their shoe businesses. Bobmars is one of the more popular home-grown
brands.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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Shoe companies (big and small) buy their work from
Bobmars and they just stamp their name on them. So if you’re thinking of going
into the same business, you know where to source your stuff.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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There are shoe businesses that use machines but I made a
special request to skip them. It is more fascinating to see things made by
hand.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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According to our guide, tourists are most excited in
seeing our next stop---Japs Shoes.
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The shoes that you buy at malls can be bought at Japs for
half the price. That’s the owner, Mang Japs who only looks Japanese.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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Once again, they are created by hand. The woman here is
putting rugby using her forefinger. I wondered out loud if she had ever
forgotten about the rugby and rubbed her eyes with her finger. She confirmed by
laughing. *Ewww* She added that she also sometimes gets the rugby in her hair. The
smell of rugby here was not that strong as there was proper ventilation in
their work area situated at the garage.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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Now, no tour in Marikina could ever be complete without
the mother of all shoe tours---
The
Shoe Museum.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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This is where the former first lady
Imelda Marcos’s
shoes are on display. I wish the photos accompanying the shoes showed the ones
that she was wearing.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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A fashion luxury or fashion history student can get
started here by going through all the high-end brands.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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Imelda wanted to donate some of her clothes but because
of limited space, the museum had to decline. May I suggest, madam, that they be
offered to Tacloban, your hometown? They can open a closet museum there which
will add to that city’s tourism attraction.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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But the shoe museum is not all about Imelda.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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Bayani
Fernando, my idol, was the city’s former mayor who transformed Marikina
into what it is today.
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The museum also has shoes from other countries.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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Outside is the shoe walk of fame. I hear that the museum
is still waiting for a shoe donation from the PacMan, my other idol.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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It’s not hard to find the shoe museum in the city. Just
look for this shoe lawn ornament beside it.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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This was our last stop at Kapitan Moy---the centuries-old
house of the founder of the Marikina shoe industry, Don Laureano Guevarra.
It was converted into a public school years later where my friend’s mother
graduated. In the afternoons, the plaza outside Kapitan Moy is a great place to
sit and relax. The benches face the building so you have a front-row seat to
its architectural beauty.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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The public school has been transferred and Kapitan Moy currently
houses two restaurants---Café Kapitan and
Cocina
ni Kambal (P200 pax for buffet lunch).
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
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As much as I enjoyed the tour, it would have been better
if at every stop, we had someone orienting us to its history and significance
for more appreciation. We were mostly left to ourselves to just watch and
look, even at the Shoe Museum. You either need to do your own research or have
a long-time Marikina resident (like my friend) to fill in the blanks. But that did not deter me from returning to the city and
inviting some friends along.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
I came back a couple of weeks later to watch a musical
adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince” at Dito
Bahay ng Sining (“this is an art house”).
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
A Filipino adaptation by the fledgling group of artists
collectively known as Ikarus.
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Not only is Dito an art house but it is also a café.
So while waiting for the show to start, the audience chatted with each other.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
Kids curled up in a book or played board games. You have
to appreciate that they still appreciate board games these days.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
I peeked inside the intimate theater that could
only sit 100 people. For live theater, the closer you are to the actors, the
better. I sat so close to the stage that it almost felt intrusive.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
Nevertheless, I love intimate theaters. You get to
be intimate with the cast afterwards. I have been to several plays and musicals
here and abroad but this is the first time I was able to take a picture with
the entire cast on stage as well as chatted with the organizers. That was such
a thrill!
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
And if you’ve always wanted to be in theater, this is
your chance! Ikarus is calling for like-minded artists.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
After the show, we went to Café Kapitan at Kapitan Moy.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
Café Kapitan enjoys a good reputation among the Marikina
locals and after experiencing it, I understand why. It’s a non-pretentious
place to enjoy home-styled cooking of Pinoy favorites.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
We wanted to order the house specialty, paella, but they
said it would take an hour to prepare so we ordered its next bestseller, crispy
chicken. They weren’t kidding about it being crispy! The chicken was tender and
flavorful that you'd forever put off fast-food chicken.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
I usually shy away from breaded pork chops because they’re
usually just bread with hardly any pork but Café Kapitan offered pork meat at
every bite.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
Its blue marlin in lemon butter was kind of bland though for my
taste. I could hardly taste the lemon butter even though I tried pouring what little sauce I could get underneath the fish.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
The crab omelet tasted more like seasoned scrambled egg.
The service at Café Kapitan was kind of slow with the
food served in trickles. I was almost already done eating when my friends’
orders were just being served. But the servers and owner who was there were
very kind and accommodating.
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
And if the service is still slow, we can while the time away looking at
the well inside…
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| Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
…and make a wish. (See the $ bill?)
For more information on tours, call Marikina Cultural,
Tourism, Trade and Investment Promotions Office at (632) 646-2368 loc. 207/208
or email at invest@marikina.gov.ph.
---THE PARANOID TRAVELER
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