Mall of Asia

My last two and one half days in the Philippines were spent in the capital city of Manila.  Compared to the simple life-styles enjoyed in much of Bohol where I spent the better part of five weeks, Manila is just chaotic.  People walking, people selling things on the streets, Jeepneys, tricycles, buses, trucks and cars.  More people.  More street vendors.  More vans, cars, motorcycles and Jeepneys.   Now I was in the area known as Pasay (PASS - eye).  It was near the airport and offered some inexpensive hotels.  There are other areas of Manila which may be a little less intense, but I think Pasay is representative of most of Metro Manila.

Mall of Asia from the Jeepney drop off point.

One of the attractions of Pasay is the Mall of Asia.  Touted as the largest mall in all of Asia, it offers corridor after corridor of shops.  Some of them are large, some of them small, all of them selling things that the average Filipino living in a bamboo house somewhere in the province could never afford.  The Mall of Asia is great for tourists and for those Filipinos who make a generous living.  I've never talked about that latter class of people, but there are around 20 percent of Filipinos who enjoy a life style equal or better than the average American.  They are mostly professional people who have found a niche that pays them on par with their counterparts in the rest of the world.  And they enjoy shopping for the finer things in life which are all offered at the Mall of Asia.

Yes, it is Krispy Kreme!

I found a place to enjoy a cup of coffee -- it was a Krispy Kreme donut shop -- for real.  I sat and watched the people.  Unlike the streets of Manila near EDSA and Taft where my hotel was located, the corridors of the Mall of Asia were reasonably peaceful and calm.  It is a shopping mall, however, so there are throngs of people making their way from shop to shop.  What set them off for me as I watched was the way they were dressed.  The majority of men were dressed casually -- jeans or khakis, polos or nice t-shirts, and brand name sneakers.  Most of the women were wearing designer jeans or skirts or slacks from one fashion house or another.  They had more than enough jewelry.  What I saw that caught my attention the most were the shoes.  I have a friend who likes to wear some rather outrageous shoes, but she has nothing on what these women were wearing. I should have taken pictures but didn't want to be rude or "touristy".  I think if I were ever to open a business in Manila, I would sell shoes.

A portion of the ice skating rink in MoA

There is even an ice skating rink there.  Most of it was covered with a special Christmas village selling all sorts of European style wares, but a small section of it was still open and I did see several people enjoying the ice.  It looked like a fun place.  In all, the Mall of Asia was one of the nicer malls I've ever been to.  I did a little shopping for gifts to bring home at a place called Kultura, which sells Filipino culture-related items.  They were all a little over priced, but everything sold in malls no matter where you're at are over priced.  Still, the t-shirts that I bought were not more than $10 each, so I considered my shopping experience to be a bargain compared to what I would have paid in the US.

One of the many corridors inside MoA

Honestly, I didn't spend too much time there. I visited twice.  Once on the day I arrived in Manila and once on the day I left Manila.  The ride to the mall was 8 pesos each way (20 cents) via Jeepney or van.  The traffic was generally chaotic, the pollution was intense, and the visual impact of the scenes along the main streets of Pasay was surreal.  The mall was an interesting diversion from everything else I had seen in my five week stay in the Philippines.  But just like New York City doesn't represent life in the majority of the US, life in Manila is far from representative of the provinces and communities of the Philippines.  I was glad to have had the experience of visiting Manila.  I'd like to take other people there to show them what it's like.  But if I have a choice of where I would want to spend my last two days in the Philippines during future visits, Manila would be last on the list.  Give me Carmen or Jagna, Taliban or Datag, or even Tagbilaran or Cagayan de Oro, but  leave Manila off the itinerary.  As for the Mall of Asia, it too was an interesting place to visit -- but for the people I've met in Bohol and Camiguin, the Mall of Asia is a fantasy land.  The cup of coffee I enjoyed there cost far more than most Filipinos earn in a day.  With the exception of visiting there while playing tour guide, I doubt that I will return to the largest mall in Asia -- I'd rather visit the market in Ubay.