Of all the places we visited in the Rizal Park compound it was in this place that the kids had so much fun. Well, I can't really blame them. It's a playground. And kids live to play. While we were in the Planetarium, they were already bugging me nonstop about it. That's why I'm still very thankful that they gave full attention to the film showing because I could clearly see then how excited they were to go to the children's playground.
We initially (Gogol's Yaya and I) planned to just walk back to the playground from the Planetarium but by 3pm, I was almost out of energy we decided to take the jeepney instead. It wasn't a long ride (just about 5 minutes from the Planetarium) but it was enough for us to regroup and recharge. By the time we got to the playground, the kid's energy were overflowing they just ran and ran and ran around like there's no tomorrow. The place was already filled with kids and adults that late afternoon but it was just large enough to still give plenty of running space for hyper kids like Maia and Gogol. It also had plenty of shaded areas which was a big welcome for us since it was very humid that day. Oh, the gift of trees indeed!
Apart from the wide open spaces, slides, and colorful hiding places another upside is the cheap entrance fee which was only for P10/person. That probably explains why even on a weekday, the park is filled with people. The downside to that is, the park maintenance couldn't police everyone and kids (and maybe even adults) would probably end up urinating on the ground or one of the pretty structures (which provides them obscurity from the other park goers). Most of the structures reek of pee and that isn't a good smell at all. It didn't bother the kids at all though so we just made sure they changed to clean clothes and their hands properly washed after they finished playing. Some of the structures that were not frequented by kids also became perfect hideaways for adults looking for privacy. On one of the turtle structures that Maia liked, there were two adults that were to me too intimate for a kid and I felt they didn't respect the presence of the kid at all. They didn't budge when to me, the park was built for kids so they should give way to those who wish to use that structure for it's real and true purpose.
Just to give you an overview of the park, here are a couple of shots I took using my phone camera:
Can you see how much fun the kids had? Maia refused to leave the place actually. Had she not gone hungry, she would probably have insisted we stay till dark. She also gave her grandparents a scare when she ran to one of the structures and didn't come out. We were shouting her name like mad for almost 10 minutes, only to find her at the other end of the park - sliding the fun away. She moved like flash, the grandparents didn't notice her at all.
I guess as a precautionary measure, it's best to put some sort of identification tag on your kid when you come visit this place. Maia had her student ID in her bag that day but well, I still wouldn't like for her to get lost so I'm thinking we should probably come here in the morning next time so I'll have plenty of energy to run after her.
The RIZAL PARK Children's Playground is located at the corner of T.M Kalaw St. and Taft Avenue.
1 comment:
Nice! I studied in PLM kaya I visited Rizal park almost every week. It's nice that the playground looks much much better na. We should bring Lucas there. Kailangan ko lang iconvince si mister na may phobia sa araw :p
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