Past Perfect Senses

... is the fifth level/area/category in the Manila Ocean Park’s biggish/smallish/not-quite-finished-but-fun-enough-now Oceanarium which soft-opened earlier this year (P400 for adults; P350 for kids below 4.5 feet; from 10 a.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. on weekends to 9 p.m. Agos [Flow], Bahura [Reef], Laot [Fishing Ground], Buhay na Karagatan [Living Ocean], Pagi – Overhang Tank [Sting Ray], and Pating [Shark] make up the rest of the tour/exhibit/2 hours). It’s the part right after the 25-meter tunnel thing where you will be surrounded 220 degrees with ocean life, more notable of which is the guitar fish which sorta looks like a ray and a shark and yes I guess a guitar. Of course it’s pretty well-lighted in the tunnel; on the other hand, contemplating my life, one can only see the muddy murky darkness of my heart (and thus, “The Deep”, where a school of barracudas frighten smaller fish, like I turn away most humans). My sister, though, said that if I were a color, I’d be orange. Not quite yellow-sunshiny, but orange with its synchronic tartness and juiciness (hey, that’s orange, the fruit...).

Anyway, the Nemo fish is orange, and the giant spider crab is orange, and you can touch the starfishes and I think the nurse sharks, too, but I didn’t do that. Touch the nurse sharks. I should have. PETA would disagree that fish should be put in tanks at all (for viewing or touching or otherwise) but I agree with the WWF that people would get a better appreciation of what we’re destroying when they actually see them.

And so. Soon the Manila Ocean Park will also have a mall, two Open Water Marine Habitats in which people can check the corals out in-depth and, because its logo has a whale shark in it, I’m also expecting one of those. Right now the fish spa (for P100, little doctor fish eat away at your callused feet and heart), glass-bottom boat ride (P150) and restaurants (including North Park with its lovely salt-and-pepper squid [cuttlefish? No matter; I love them both]) add to your list of things to do/see/eat at the Park.