During our visit at Tinuy-an Falls, where our day tour should end up there but our tour guide "Pons" suggested to have a side trip with the International Doll House since we can pass by this site before heading back to our accomodation. Recollecting my memory, it was featured in "Biyahe ni Drew", a Travel Documentary by GMA 7 where the host is Drew Arellano himself.
International Doll House is situated on top of the hill in Barangay Cumawas, Bislig City, Surigao del Sur. The place is owned by a married couple namely, Werner and Ruelaine Williman. Ruelaine is a Filipina and Werner is a foreigner from Zurich, Switzerland.
Finally we're here. This is the entrance to the International Doll House. The latter can be found after climbing this 200+ steps.
The 270+ steps to climb up.
This is it! The start of our journey to International Doll House. Excited? Yes. Seems like rekindling the child within. When I was a child, I always wanted to have one original Barbie doll, but unfortunately my parents can't afford to buy me one. Instead, I made my own "Paper Doll" and I also made paper dresses for my doll.
And so where here. In the veranda, you have to leave your shoes, sandals or slippers when entering the main door. You must leave it in the small veranda. This is to minimize the dust to get in.
This is the main area after entering the main door. A spacious room with a 3D garden wallpaper. So REAL. It was the lady who greeted us to do the pose.
We then ushered by the lady to an airconditioned room filled with various kind of dolls. These dolls were enclosed in a glass cabinet, it's a "For your Eyes only" thing. The photo below is Ruelaine's 1st collection of "Barbie" dolls. From Philippine costumes to International costumes, Fairies to Princesses and the "Limited Edition" Barbies.
Barbie Dolls
To our surprise, the lady who served as our tour guide was Ruelaine herself. A very simple, down to earth woman. All her dolls were collected from their trips abroad. No wonder it's called "International". In every country they visited, she made sure to buy a doll/s as a souvenir. When her collection cabinet is not enough for all her collections, she then decided to build this house. It is then called "International Doll House" and she decided to open it to the public.
Below are some of Ruelaine's doll collections in group.
Bulgarian & Russian Group
European Group
Asian Group
The collection is not only limited to dolls, there are also assorted collections such as, clowns, stuffed toys, and figurines.
Clowns, Stuffed Toys & Figurines
International Doll House is not for girls or girls at heart, but it's for the boys too. At the center of the room, you can see glass cabinets of other collections. These are collections of vintage cars, motorcycles & bikes.
Vintage Classical Collection
Beside the 2 glass cabinets is another glass cabinet for cups and saucer. These were collected from their travels around the world.
Cups & Saucer Collections
Such a wonder side trip tour. Sometimes it pays to collect. You may find it very costly but at least you have something that you can always treasure aside from a memory.
