Palace In A Bottle

CEBU, Philippines - One day I walked into a  house where time encased it in a bottle. There are furnishings dating back to the 1900s, a century-old piano that still plays so well, bric-a-brac on the walls and bookshelves and cabinets keeping photo albums and cards of more than five decades. Call it ageless.

The Badiola home in San Felipe is a sprawling palace, as people here might call it. It bears nothing of the spires in Medieval England. But it has ornate designs, big rooms and a sprawling garden. Built in the 1970s, not so many in Naga City, Camarines Sur has preserved an ancestral home in a bottle. Though the house does not stand out with an arrogant and imposing finish, like what palaces are expected to be, it is so landscaped with a big, old mango tree in the garden, that somehow it makes you stop on your tracks and look back.

Dwelling in the house puts you back to a time when Girlie and her three sisters once giggled and sang to the music of the 70s. Socialite Adelita and her husband Orestes Badiola — Girlie’s parents — once entertained Naga’s genteel crowd. There is not a dust in the furnishings of the house, some dating back to the 1900s that might even show it has aged.

A piano built in Berlin in 1880 is now 130 years old. The tuning of the piano didn’t seem to change it as it sounded as perfectly tuned as it may have been over a century ago. I communed in the sanctum of my mind as I played on the piano one evening. That night, there was just me, the piano and gentle blowing of the wind from the back terrace. I dabbled on Buencamino’s “Mayon” but as I reached the fourth movement where the volcano is erupting, the clock chimed wonderfully in tandem to my music. I stopped. Then the chimes played the next note for me. The unseen audience sitting on the sofa and wicker rocking chair were dismayed. They grumble and I could hear them want me to start again. It was nice, it was like I’m a pianist performing in chamber music. I nod to my appreciative audience in a simple bow and start again.

Serenade of the past.

What has preserved the beauty of this house is the perseverance of Girlie Badiola, heir to the ancestral home. Girlie has made it a personal vow to preserve the priceless treasure given to her. Like you would polish a priceless figurine with affection to keep it as fresh as when you first had it. Girlie has become attached to her ancestral home with deep affection. Her parents built the house in the 1970s with the barest of resources. Her father was an engineer who irrigated their farm and her mother was a teacher. The house was built to last, so to speak, the home to be a dwelling place of love.

Death somehow puts certain dreams to rest. But when these dreams are built with a house, its spirit lingers. The soul is once again refreshed with the serenade of the past and the present is encased in a bottle.

Easily this house and property can become attractive to property developers and culture aficionados for a good price. But Girlie has opted to do the things that are needed – to keep the home in its prime. It didn’t come without a price.

Girlie left her life in Manila, to come back to Naga for good, to preserve the very treasure her parents left her. The house is becoming a landmark in Naga City as an arts, music and food gallery. Girlie welcomes clients who may want the house as venue for private functions. Or for those who want fine dining in this part of Naga, they can have the option to engage Girlie for a meal of their choice with fine music; piano music, if they want to. There will be a flamenco class here on Friday nights. Girlie also accepts bed and breakfast reservations for an overnight stay.

When you just want to get away from the stiffness of hotels and convention centers or from the crowd, when you want fine dining, when you want to get your dancing shoes to do flamenco, there is a place where time stops. You would have to make a reservation at the palace in a bottle. Girlie can be reached through: (054) 495-5298, 473-5554 or cellphone numbers: 0928-211-4959 or 0916-639-7217. ?