Like many people, I was excited to see the Mind Museum, hopefully before everyone else does.
I had already bought entrance tickets to the Mind Museum for its opening day (March 16) when I thought of asking my friend Ginggay if she had connections inside. Her mom does, so Ginggay brought a bunch of us in last Saturday for a preview.
The Mind Museum is called the “first world class museum in the Philippines” with over 250 inter-active “minds-on” and hands-on exhibits. Because of the ultra-modern building design (by Architect Ed Calma) and all the people behind it, we had high expectations—we don’t usually see things like these opening in Manila, ever.
But maybe I’m not the market. I never liked science in school, I also got bored with the Singapore Science Centre.
The tickets I paid for on opening day cost me Php 750 each for an unlimited day pass, but after the tour, I felt it was worth only Php 500 tops.
Let me digress for a bit. I was given an Olympus F1.8 camera to test, so all the pictures in this entry were taken by this camera.
Here’s a summary of what we saw: This female voiced-robot will greet you at the entrance, but the voice isn’t robotic at all.
The next thing we saw was this uninteresting giant candy bar with a giant fly on top of it.
Lucky if you can get one of these tour guides to explain everything
There were giant test tubes (don’t know what they’re for).
Actually there were a lot of things there that appeared more decorative than interesting.
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Here’s a cilia
Noel was looking at some 3D stuff
Very Ed Calmic, if you ask me
Everyone was taking pictures everywhere and it’s allowed. Thank you security guards for being friendly.
Here comes the cool stuff: a giant T-rex skeleton that looked very realistic
You can climb some stairs for a better view, but the carpeted stairs were falling apart, even before its opening date
Apart from the giant T-rex, the star of the show was this giant butanding, where everyone had the same idea of taking a picture with their head inside the mouth (kind of like everyone has the same idea when taking a picture at the Leaning Tower of Pisa)
I really liked the 3-D Periodic Table of Elements
Each capsule had an object inside which had the featured element
Walking through this tunnel
Love the Margielic giant brain with neon lights
Very cool: Electrostatic ball, which makes your hair stand
I’m afraid for my boys’ comments/imagination when they see this evolution of man chuchu
Especially the small creature on the right
This one is so creepy
A very cool hand with Penny (L) and Grace
Ok, I really love this moon. Wish I had one on our roofdeck. Can I buy this?
There’s this enclosed dome you can enter with a starry show inside. You have to take off your shoes when you enter. I did not enter because it smelled of cachichas. May I recommend Air & Odor Management?
I’m glad to say the restrooms are Singapore-standard. How I wish Ed Calma would be hired to fix NAIA.
Toilet paper, complete water closet with cover, and decent trash bin
This beautiful shot reminds me of a scene from Logan’s Run, my favorite ’70s sci-fi movie.
If they would screen movies here, they should show Logan’s Run. Here’s the auditorium
Going up and down the escalator, I realized the Olympus camera has no movie setting, so I guess I’m going back to Canon
Here’s one of my favorite rooms—it’s a function room. It made me wish for an empty room in my house, so I’m gonna get rid of so many things hopefully next week.
There’s a cool X-ray machine that wasn’t working yet. Guess which one’s my bag?
I understand there were many sponsors for this project, I just don’t think it’s necessary to give them a booth. Here’s the American Standard display on the second floor. I certainly hope it’s not a permanent exhibition
Spotted: Ed Calma checking out the premises.
He did a really good job design-wise. But the building design and structure are superior to the actual features of the museum. For example, the 2nd floor was a complete waste of space. They even had arcade games in there (space filler?).
I’ll bring my kids back on opening day and see how they like it. Maybe it really is for kids and I expected too much? But most of the adults I spoke to were also underwhelmed. There is always room and time for improvement.
To buy advanced tickets and know more about the Mind Museum, go to http://www.themindmuseum.org/.
Originally published at Chuvaness.com. You can comment here or there.