As part of our Sulyap Café & Restaurant visit, we didn’t missed this chance to pay a glimpse of Sulyap Gallery.
Actually it isn’t a glimpse coz we spend like an hour roaming around.
Located right next to Sulyap Café & Restaurant, this gallery houses all vintage furniture, appliances, equipment, household items, including arts and crafts from all over the Philippines.
Entrance fee is Php100.00 for a tour, however is you stayed or dined at their restaurant, the entrance fee is waived.
According to our guide, the initial plan of the owners are to search these items from their travels, and go buy-and-sell them. Realizing the inner value of each pieces, each stories of these items from the previous owners, Sulyap owners decided to not sell these items, thus creation of their gallery.
Overtime, they have built a connection to these items and parting with them makes them feeling sad.
The other parts of the gallery is still under construction to give spaces for the continues growing of items.
I personally admire the dedication they are giving for these old items. For other people, these are no value at all, however each stories behind it can never be replaced.
Check out some of the photos I got!
One of my favorite sketches at Sulyap Gallery
We only visited the 1st floor because of our limited time, and also the other parts of the gallery are under construction to widen the space and welcome the other vintage items.
They have these vintage GI Joe action figures and other toy cars, vintage vases, this vintage tank, and this vintage disk player.
Living room furniture that are all 100% made of fine exotic wood. Nowadays these are rare because of the ban in cutting trees for furniture production.
I truly admire the dedication that the owners are spending to keep this gallery in place. Searching for these items all over the country is became an adventure for them, like treasure hunting.
And if I have a chance to do it, I will!
Having your own gallery is a pride, and it is always nice to keep those treasured memories.
They also have many selection of vintage bed case, various earthen jars and vases, you name it.
As a Filipino, it is my great pride to promote this kind of advocacy and support the idea of cherishing these vintage items because they became part of our rich tradition and culture.
According to our tour guide, the owners have no plans of stopping to search and collecting these items, and have no plans of selling.
These are one of their most treasured possession, and we are so lucky to have a glimpse of them.
If you are planning to visit the Philippines, please add this gallery to your itinerary. For just Php100.00 entrance fee (approx. $2) you can learn a lot from our local culture and understand more where and who we are as Filipinos.
My Rating: This deserves a 5-star rating!
*Special shout out to my CITEM family for bringing me at Sulyap!
xoxo, Blair
What a great recommendation, Blair. I like how the owners have created a museum of Filipino culture with all the pieces that gather together during their travels; and that instead of selling them they allow all visitors to enjoy them.
ReplyDeleteI agree. During their previous collections, they used to do restoration and sell those items, until they grew fondness of them and decided to keep them all! I believe its the best decision.
DeleteWow...a nice trip to learn more about your country's rich cultural heritage. Some of the artifacts look really majestic. And the painting which was your favourite is really distinctively unique too. :p
ReplyDeleteYes, though the artists are not familiar, still these are genuine treasures!
DeleteThis looks liks such a great place, I can see why you gave it such a high rating. It seems like there was so much to explore!
ReplyDeleteThank you Elizabeth. This place deserves to be treasured.
DeleteThe Sulyap Gallery looks like a fantastic place to visit, I totally love the art gallery sketch of the woman and the furnitures there as well.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.yeahlifestyle.com
Thank you dear!
Deletedont know when i can planning to visit the Philippines, but i will add this gallery to my itinerary if i arrive at philippines one day
ReplyDeleteThat will be great!
DeleteThis place looks very interesting. There are a lot of antique items. Very well preserved, too
ReplyDeleteI agree. They are renovating the upper floor as and turn it into an extended gallery.
DeleteWow, impressive with the amount and variety of exhibits in this gallery. I do enjoy visiting galleries like this as they take us back in time of our grandparents era. Nice discovery!
ReplyDeleteThanks Emily! I would like to pay a visit again and check their new collection.
DeleteWow I am impressed with those furniture design! I love the wood craft work and those vintage antique looks really expensive tooo.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It's better that they didn't sell them!
DeleteWhat an interesting mix of odds and ends!
ReplyDeleteThank you Annick!
DeleteWow! What a fantastic recommendation. If I come to the Philippines, I am adding this gallery to my list of places to see. Thank you!
ReplyDeletePlease do! And maybe soon the upper loft is ready for your viewing!
DeleteWhat beautiful pieces of furniture, and so traditional too. I understand why you love that sketch of the lady; it's pretty stunning. I always enjoy a good gallery!
ReplyDeleteI am inspired to collect as well and hopefully when I become rich enough, I want to own a museum!
DeleteThey have such amazing items! I like the telephone :)
ReplyDeleteI think it's pretty cool that they search the country for items. Not a bad reason to travel the country like this ;)
Totally agree! Its like keeping all the stories from various parts of the country.
DeleteWhat an amazing place to stay. Lovely that they are so committed to sharing the local culture via its crafts and traditional artefacts. Looks wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThank you Kavey. Does your city also have this kind of humble museum?
DeleteToo bad we did not know about this place. We just went back from a trip in Laguna and would love to visit this too.
ReplyDeleteOh don't miss it next time!
DeleteAhhh I would love to visit this place! I love all the vintage find. The wood items are gorgoues, but I didn't know there was a ban on cutting down trees to make furniture. I guess it really does make sense though~
ReplyDeleteAlso the reason why solid wood furniture are quite expensive here. It lasts for many decades.
DeleteAny place that's filled with such gorgeous antique arts, crafts etc is definitely my kind of place to go. Kudos to the Sulyap owners for maintaining this. I've been to a couple of similar places in India.
ReplyDeleteThat's wonderful! Their collection are very extensive!
DeleteI admire the dedication of the owners who keep this gallery in place. I love the antiques, so any place with such antique arts and crafts is worth of visiting in my opinion. Thank you for the photos of this place!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome Nina. I hope that on my next visit, the next floor is already finished.
DeleteWhat an awesome looking gallery! I would have loved to check out those antique phones, so cool!
ReplyDeleteThe opportunity to know the story behind each pieces are fascinating.
DeleteWow, this place has a lot of tradition. I lived in the city and sick of the high-rises and crowds so I really appreciated when I see people preserved a great culture place. Sometimes, the old is so much more value than the new. Thx for recommendation.
ReplyDeleteThis is the new luxury. You can always get new condos, but not antique pieces.
DeleteThis is amazing!! It's always so cool to see different things that people collect & put into their own galleries. Would be fun to visit here someday!
ReplyDeleteSullyap Gallery looks like a wonderful place to visit! No wonder you spent hours on wandering there, as they've got quite a lot of exibits to see. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree, and I don't mind some little dusty. These are treasure!
DeleteThis is great! We are planning to go to Laguna for Enchanted Kingdom and I thought of staying two nights to explore the area. Great to know that they have a museum that we can stop by. :D We love museum tours!
ReplyDeleteYeah, and the entrance fee is Php100 only. But this is waived if you will dine at their restaurant :D
DeleteI love the china ware in the blue collection, simply stunning. This is truly a great place to visit, full of treasure.
ReplyDeleteThat's true!
DeleteOh my gosh, some of that stuff was in my house when I was a child. Now it's in a gallery!! I agree that what doesn't have value to one person can be priceless to another because of memories attached.
ReplyDeleteYeah, some people doesn't want it and strapped with cash so they chose to sell it. Luckily there are people who wants to treasured them.
DeleteWow five Stars, what a great recommendation. I love all the gorgeous antiques, I would have loved to visit this place as well.
ReplyDeleteYup, the $2 entrance fee is totally worth it :D
DeleteI have never been in that place but definitely a must visited historical place.I would love to bring there my family and I am sure kids will like it
ReplyDeleteYeah, and kids would be learning a lot.
DeleteI just love museums - growing up, we went practically every other weekend so I suppose it became part of me. This one sounds so interesting! I would love to visit and see their collections and hear the stories!
ReplyDeleteOh that is amazing!
DeleteI didn't know that there's a gallery such as this in Sto Tomas. The stuff looks great, but the place looks crowded. The place is just an hour or less away from our place, I should visit it with the kids.
ReplyDeleteYeah but that makes it more interesting!
DeleteThe collection is amazing. I've not been to this museum in San Pablo City before, but it looks interesting and educational.
ReplyDeleteWhen you visit the Philippines, add this to your list!
DeleteWow!This is really interesting.I had a glance of Filipino culture and items they used in the past.Such a gallery is a great way to preserve vintage items to the future generation.
ReplyDeleteThank you Amila :D
DeleteThis looks likes such a great place. I love all the gorgeous antiques and I would love to visit this place!
ReplyDeleteThank you Olga :D
DeleteWhat a great post. I always love seeing different things in places x
ReplyDeleteThank you for appreciating :D
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