I've been seeing articles about the National Museum of Natural History on social media and it looked like a place my son would like, so at the end of May, we decided to pay the museum a visit.
The museum has two entrances. There's a special entrance (in the doorway seen in the picture below) for senior citizens, persons with special needs, pregnant women and families with children 8 years old and below. This was such a blessing because the line at the main entrance was really long.
This is the line for the main entrance.
After going through baggage inspection, we left our bags at the counter and registered our names.
Here's a directory of the museum, if you're interested. As you can see, the exhibits on the 4th and 5th floor weren't open yet when we visited. I'm not sure when they'll be open but it's still worth a visit even without the two floors.
The first exhibit we explored was the Paintings of Philippine Orchids. The paintings line the walls of the corridor. I didn't take any pictures, however, since we breezed through the exhibit relatively quickly.
This is the Tree of Life. It's an elevator that goes from the first floor to the top floor and you use the ramp to go down floor by floor.
You can also see a replica of Lolong in this area. Eventually, it will be replaced by the real taxidermied Lolong.
My son loved the Mangroves, Beaches and Intertidal Zones exhibit. The layout of the gallery is beautiful and well-thought-out, and the air-conditioning and lighting are perfect.
My son's favorite exhibit, though, was The Marine Realm.
There are lots of specimens on display, not just in ordinary display cases but also in display cases that show what their habitat was like.
You can also browse pictures on this touchscreen monitor.
My favorite parts of the museum are the interactive parts, and The Marine Realm had the perfect interactive display for my son.
This is my son's favorite part of the whole museum. After we toured the museum, he asked me if we could go back to the submarine.
The windows of the submarine are actually monitors playing different videos of underwater creatures.
There's also a periscope that's perfect for photos.
There are also models of dolphins, a whale shark and a manta ray.
Another activity in the museum you can try is leaf rubbing. There's another activity right next to this one -- tracing, if I'm not mistaken -- but my son wasn't interested so we skipped it.
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There's a room in the museum where you can watch a presentation. The seats are comfier than they look and the room temperature is quite cool so it's a good place to take a break in between exhibits.
Another interesting display you can see at the museum is a large spinning globe.
I meant to take lots of pictures at the museum but we had such a fun time looking around that I forgot about it for the most part. So, in conclusion, yes, I definitely recommend visiting the museum. P.S. If you're bringing your children, you may want to visit Children's Park, which is right next door, too.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
T. M. Kalaw Street, Rizal Park
1000 Manila, Philippines
Museum hours: Tuesdays to Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission is free
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