As I stood proudly on the deck of BRP Capones—a spanking new Japanese-made Parola-class patrol vessel belonging to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG)—where we hitched a secure ride going to Tawi-Tawi to cover the Agal-Agal Festival, I quickly surveyed my surroundings. I saw the sacred mountain of Bud Bongao lording it over a picturesque coastal landscape, gently covered by the morning mist.

Yet, I was clearly able to spot the glowing silhouette of the town’s Mosque and the faint outlines of a modest village with fishing boats and passenger ferries that were just starting to stir the day’s activities. And then it finally dawned on me: I had successfully reached the southernmost province of the country. Tawi-Tawi, I have arrived!

“There’s only one country I haven’t been to. Nepal. I don’t know why—I just haven’t had the chance,” Don Ado told us after he overheard me asking my friend Karla, “Can you guess how many countries he has traveled to?” It wasn’t a question concocted out of the blue. I sincerely wondered about it after surveying the massive art, historic, religious, and souvenir collection housed safely inside Don Ado’s private ancestral mansion.

Housing spectacular painting and sculpture masterpieces by world-renowned Filipino artists such as Juan Luna, Guillermo Tolentino, and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, the National Museum of Fine Arts effortlessly dishes out plenty of eye candy from every single square inch. Safely kept inside this majestic neoclassical building, first constructed in 1921, is a sheer abundance of historical artworks that rightfully rivals even some of the biggest museums and grandest galleries around the world.