Antique shopping
- April 22, 2003
- Rated 2 of 5 by
perrytoo from London, United Kingdom
The antique and souvenir shops are all clustered along Crisologo St, and the old roads which cross it. There are far too many upmarket souvenir shops for the current state of business. It’s as if someone told the inhabitants that now Vigan is a World Heritage Site, there will be hundreds of rich western cultural tourists looking for expensive places to sped their money. I only saw a few things which were definitely old, and their prices were astronomical compared with Manila. Most of the shops had good quality modern reproductions, and were mainly empty. I saw only a couple of westerners, who were gathering information for a Danish tourist guide to the Philippines. But there is good value in the local food, consisting mainly of deep fried delicacies (cockroaches for all I know) in the main square outside the cathedral, and sweets made of coconut and rice. This is what the numerous Filipino tourists go to Vigan for.
From journal Olde worlde Spanish Colonial charm