Vintage Finds

A visit to the Spanish ancestral town, Vigan , browsing through antique stuff was a treat. Old doors like below greet you, with the smell of old books, leather and wood. As one enters each house, there's a refreshing feeling. It allows one to appreciate how the architects have designed these houses, with the tropical climate in mind, ensuring that humidity should never be allowed inside. 

These ancestral homes are referred to as Bahay na Bato meaning stone house or house of stone,  constructed with brick and stone.  It's typically a two-storey home of the noble Filipinos, with the ground level as the garage for their carriages.   There are only two places left where you can find an abundant number of these colonial structures that survived the WWII, namely in Vigan and Taal, Batangas (I was fortunate to have visited both with the latter as part of a college field trip). 

 There were some amazing things like an Ice Box from Europe (imagine how long they were transported by ship long time ago)  and intricately carved furniture, art works and Murano mirrors and chandeliers.