Shopping in KL and Cebu?
 

Soon leaving for a short transit in KL and a longer stop in Cebu in late Feb.
As a novice I would really appreciate your recommendations on places where to find good antique blades and do's and dont's?

Thanks,

Mike

how long are you planning on staying in cebu?

8 days, but I will mostly be on the islands outside the city training FMA.

Mike

Mike,
That's too cool! :cool:
What style or who will you be training with?

I'm hoping to hook up with GM Cacoy Canete in April. Here in the States.

Would love to make it to the Phillipines some day.

moose

I am training Pekiti-Tirsia Kali with Grand Tuhon Gaje.
Training early in the morning, 5 AM, for 4 h followed by breakfast and cultural sightseeing (and this time - also shopping old blades).
Then late afternoon or evening training for a couple of hours is the usual schedule.
Need some advice because Grand Tuhon himself prefers new blades.

Mike

i'm assuming you're going to negros (bacolod)?

interesting
 

Interesting that i should come across this thread, as I was in in KL exactly one month ago, and I just missed a GT Gaje brief seminar here in Dallas on Wednesday. Had I not worked late that day this would really have been coincedental.

As far as blades in KL, I didn't have any inside info so I just went with what I could figure out. I went to the central market...get off the light rail at Pasar Seni station (hoping thats right) that will put you in china town. down off the platform and across the street you'll find central market, a large indoor market.

when you walk in the front door there that faces the pasar seni station, take a hard left and you'll find a stall selling lots of kris. there were a few other odd blades i picked up a bugis badik there...to your right is another little place with a few kris and a few sewar.

the mother lode is upstairs along the left side of the building theres two places one smallish and one big and stuffed so full of crap you can't even move in there, all the girls that work there are muslim so look for the head scarves. They had TONS of blades, most were rusty though, but you can spend an hour just going through the inventory. Theres a definate difference in price between antique and new....I got the feeling that, once I found the head toad of the sales girls, and I spoke about the blades using correct names and whatnot that she was a little more straight with me on price and age of the pieces. It was kinda cool too, how many ladies know what an Aceh Rentjong is.

hmm, so for the most part kris and sewar, no suprise you're going to find mostly Malay and Sumatran stuff, I did find the odd pieces of other type, but scant few long blades ( a few mandau ). One Kris sword, and thats about the only fillipino piece i saw. it wasn't cheap either.

lemme know if i can be of any other help.. i was in KL, Cambodia and Thailand over the whole 2 week Xmas holiday. was supposed to be in phuket. but after i got on the plane the captain got on the mic and said the airport was under water.

Hello VVV,
Try to make it to University of the Southern Philippines in Lahug. As I recall, they have a museum with a Katipunan display. The museum used to be in Mabini but closed down and moved to Lahug. Don't forget to stop in Mactan Island and lay a wreath on Lapu-lapu's monument. I wish I was going with you. Train hard and have fun.

hi vvv,

you missed the cacoy vs. loloy "showdown" :D (http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb...zzles.out.html)

anyways, cebu is a fine place and people there are generally nice. (i used to work with sunstar cebu).

my advice about finding antiques there: deal with legit dealers.

happy bargain hunting!

i guess the cebuanos gave up trying to beat the illongos and are now fighting themselves. :):) especially within their own families. :):) just kidding.
it is too bad though, FMA doesnt need bad press, especially with big names.
lets just settle our differences over balut and red horse.
in the morning we'll be too sick to fight, or even care about fighting. :):)

good luck in cebu and have fun with gt gaje. sounds like alot of fun. :)

OTHER ITEMS FROM CEBU
 

CEBU IS ALSO FAMOUS FOR MAKEING STRINGED INSTURMENTS, GUITARS, MANDOLENS ECT YOU CAN GET SOME GOOD DEALS . THEY ALSO MAKE PAINTINGS USING BUTTERFLY WINGS AND HAVE A MUSEUM WITH GOOD EXAMPLES. IT IS ALSO ONE OF THE BEST PLACES TO BUY SEA SHELLS AND MANY RARE VARIETYS CAN BE PICKED UP. I DIDN'T SEE ANY BLADES WHEN I WAS THERE AS I WAS SPENDING MOST OF MY TIME ON MACTAN ISLAND DIVING, DEFINITELY WORLD CLASS DIVING. HAVE A GOOD TRIP AND GOOD COLLECTING

Thanks all for all your great responses and input!!!

Don't think I will be in Negros again this time. Just have 8 days and with all this feedback Cebu and Mactan will fill all my time inbetween training.
Thanks Brian for all your input on KL and others for Cebu.
And yes Vandoo, I will definetely bring with me my scuba certificate to do a couple of dives inbetween training.
I will send my regards to Datu Lapu Lapu from all of you.

Mike

Blades in KL
 

Hi VVV,

Central Market is the most obvious place to look for blades. However, I'm of the opinion that the stuff you get there might be a tad overpriced sometimes.
Still, the shop upstairs has a good selection of keris and Malay pedang. It's owned by a Kelantanese man and you can get him to do silver fittings for your keris.
If you have time, you might want to check Ahmad Toko Antik, an antique shop in Kampung Baru (take the Putra Line train to the Kampung Baru station).
It's a bit out of the way and the place may look forbidding but it's one of KL's best kept secrets.
The owner has a good selection of keris and other Malay weapons, as well as keris fittings such as hilts and pendokok. A good friend recently got a nice Bugis keris for a good price.
I'd like to warn you though that the owner is a crusty old man and has his mood swings. On bad days, nothing seems to be for sale, but his price range is generally lower than the antique shops in the town centre :)

Thanks a lot Raja Muda,

Now I have plenty of info on KL.
Wish I had some more on Cebu.

Mike

Cebuuuu
 

I stayed on Mactan last week. I didn't hunt extensively for swords but I can tell you to not bother with Carbon Market. Also, the guitar seller at the Lapu Lapu memorial has some nice stuff at pretty good prices, if you can catch him open.

Boy, I'm starting to miss those green mango shakes already.... :)

I STAYED AT THE MAGELLAN HOTEL IN CEBU AND BOOKED MY DIVING THERE WITH ( DIVE INN), A SMALL OPERATION ON MACTAN IS. RAN BY PADI INSTRUCTOR STU GOULD . ITS BEEN QUITE A WHILE SO I DON'T KNOW IF HE WILL STILL BE IN BUSINESS BUT IF HE IS HE IS A FUN GUY AND GOOD DIVER.
HIS BOATS ARE LITTLE OUTRIGGERS BUT WORK GOOD FOR DIVING AND HIS OLD VAN WAS A MIRACLE THAT IT RAN :D . BUT HIS COMPRESSOR AND EQUIPMENT WERE FIRST RATE. I STAYED OVER AT HIS PLACE AND WE DOVE DURING THE DAY AND DID ONE NIGHT DIVE BUT USUALLY WENT TO THE LOCAL COCK FIGHTS OF A EVENING. THE LOCAL DRINK IS GOOD BEFORE THE FIGHTS BUT DON'T GET ANY AFTER THE FIGHTS AS THEY WILL BE DOWN TO THE DREGS YUCK!! BUT THEN I DON'T LIKE BELUT SO WHAT DO I KNOW :D .
IF YOU SEE STU TELL HIM I SAID HI. GOOD LUCK