Museo de Baler

I have almost forgotten about this set of photos taken at the Baler Museum last April 2019. Somehow, these got piled over by other photos I took from other trips afterwards. Here are a load of photos I took at the museum; many of which have stories to tell. I included the text in my photos to save myself from writing about these in detail.

This photo shows a military tactic used by Filipinos while fighting the Spaniards during the war of independence in the late 1800s.

Old photo showing what the Baler church looked like during the late 1800s to the early 1900s.

Photo and caption showing the Spanish trench set-up.

Filipino revolutionaries in the late 1800s.

Historical details of the Siege of Baler that was popularized by a movie

A write-up on the life of Dona Aurora A. Quezon, former First Lady of the Philippine Commonwealth. She was born in Baler, Tayabas. The province formerly known as Tayabas was split into 2 - Quezon and Aurora Provinces.

More on the life of Dona Aurora and her husband, Manuel L. Quezon

Memorabilia and posters

Framed art, old news articles and maps

A map of Spain showing regions

Some trivia about Baler

This is actually a bench at the art gallery section of the museum

Another artwork at the museum

Various news articles on aviation prior to and during the Second World War

They have a stuffed Philippine Eagle on display at the museum but it was difficult to get a good photo because of the lighting and the crowd. And so I settled for this caption beside the display.

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Tsuta Bonifacio High Street

Arriving at Bonifacio High Street after a delayed flight to wait for the wife to also arrive from her trip, I decided to explore and have a very late lunch (it was past 2:00PM). I headed for the mall to check out the activities in the area but seeing the place to be too crowded for me, I decided to check out the nearby restaurants. Seeing very few people inside one Japanese restaurant, I went inside to have a meal after only a quick browse of the menu displayed outside.

Table set

Ramen with truffles - I was a bit surprised that this went very well. One probably assumed that the combination of ramen and truffles is a travesty but here it is and tasting very good and right.

I only ordered the ramen at Tsuta, just enough to address my hunger after skipping lunch that day. I thought the food was good and the price was par with the other ramen restaurants serving authentic Japanese ramen. I will surely eat there again given the chance and maybe order other items on their menu.

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Vintage Ricoh automatic watch

I had been looking for a nice Ricoh for a while and couldn't seem to get one. I got a couple a while back but both weren't ones I fancied once I got them and got a closer, first hand look at the watches. I eventually gave them away to friends who also collected watches and liked the designs. I got this one a couple of months ago and had it serviced when I noticed that the crown seemed stuck and hard to make adjustments on the time and date. Ricoh, of course, is a discontinued brand. And it can be a risky watch to collect considering the availability of parts in case the watch needs servicing.

The dial has both day and date features. The day display is in the style of the "President" watches made popular by Rolex and imitated by many brands including Ricoh.

Side view showing the crown and the quickset button for the day feature at 12 o'clock

The other side view giving emphasis on the case design, which is similar to the helmet models of other watches including Seiko and Citizen.

Case back showing the watch to be water resistant and shockproof. It also claims to have an unbreakable mainspring. The reference number indicates this to be a Cal. 61 movement.

Signed crown and the quickset button for the date. The day feature may be adjusted using the crown.

Close up of the dial showing the very good condition of the lumes on the watch hands

A photo of the movement when I got the watch back from my trusted watch repair man. The Cal. 61 movement runs at 18,000 A/h and dates the watch to 1970.

 

The watch keeps time and has a decent power reserve based on the times I have used the watch. It doesn't stop and runs well overnight.

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[Unloaded this watch with another Ricoh 11/3/2023]