When at sea, jelly fishes creeps me out. When beach waters are populated by these I’m hesitant to swim through. Imagine getting scars, itchiness and even fatal wounds from them. Last thing I want is getting myself pee-ed on just to neutralize the poison, or so I heard. I know I try to avoid them when I see them but I also can’t help but be fascinated by them as well. These semi-transparent sea creatures are very graceful dancers of the sea. And I find them even more fascinating when I saw a lot of them in Manila Ocean Park’s separate exhibit, Jellies, Dancing Sea Faeries.
We recently went back to Manila Ocean Park just to see what’s new and what has improved since our visit last 2008 on its Pre-Opening night. Among the new displays there like the shops and eateries, there is this Jellyfish Exhibit. It’s a separate display from the main park attraction. Tickets to enter the exhibit cost P150 compared to the P400 entrance fee of the park.
It was dim and cold inside the display hall with only the glow from the display aquariums illuminated the area. The music is also weird and creepy that it feels like you just stepped inside a twilight zone. There’s also a large jellyfish display to greet you with its large tentacles stretching towards the end of the hallway.
Jellyfish Dancing Video. View in fullscreen HD
The different jellyfishes on the display aquariums were just mesmerizing. They are like lava lamps and I could just stare at them moving around within the aquarium for hours. Just be impressed by their movements and graceful anatomical wonders.
The mirror effect at the venue is also nice bringing that repeated illusion of many jellyfishes and aquariums. Now I feel I’m on a set of a Sci-Fi movie. The area is only a small u-shaped hall and you could finish viewing the display in less than an hour. I think the 150 Pesos can be a bit high as you could watch a 2 hour movie with it, but you don’t get to see a display like this every day so I think it’s really worth checking out.
*All photos and video on this post were shot using the Sony Cybershot TX1. Get a chance to win your own TX1 by checking out the details here.
Ferdz Decena is an award-winning travel photographer, writer and blogger. His works has found print in publications such as Singapore Airlines’s Silver Kris, Philippine Airlines’ Mabuhay, Cebu Pacific’s Smile and Seair InFlight. He has also lent his expertise to various organizations like the Oceana Philippines, Lopez Group Foundation, Save the Children and World Vision, contributing quality images for their marketing materials.