Our Vacation In Manila: Day 3

My mother caught a bit of a cold today. She was already complaining about a slight sore throat yesterday. Anyway, my throat also feels a bit sore. I blame the pollution and congestion in this city. Also, the super-crowded, hot and stuffy MRT train cars.

Anyway, the day started with free breakfast at the hotel as usual, then we had to head to the drugstore to purchase some a throat gargle and some lozenges. Fortunately, it's just sitting right next to the hotel. We had breakfast at about 9:10 AM. After breakfast, we got ready to go malling again and departed at about 10:00 AM for SM Mall of Asia. It's just a short jeepney ride away and the terminal is literally right at the side of the hotel.

We arrived at the mall at about 10:40. I was actually pretty familiar with the place because it has a really simple layout. It's one of the largest malls in the Philippines, but it only has two floors and three buildings -- one central building and two wings on each side. The central building houses all types of stores, a foodcourt, a moviehouse and a skating rink while the other wings have restaurants, a department and a supermarket. There are also some pay telescopes at the very end of the mall since the back of the mall overlooks the ocean.

Maybe I'm a bit of a weeb but I liekz teh Nep

You cannibals!

We didn't really have any plans in particular, but upon wandering into a Datablitz store (a local video game retailer) I couldn't help impulse-buying two new PS Vita games since they were dirt cheap compared to the prices we get at Iloilo where there's no official retailer.

After that, we took a little walk around the mall and my mother managed to buy a few gifts for her friends back at Iloilo -- of all places, inside the SM Department store. The irony is that there are SM Department stores all over Iloilo as well; of course, they do have more stuff on stock here.

We had lunch at a Wendy's branch within the mall area. I also managed to take a picture of this place that a friend online recommended that I see.

After lunch, we took a little stroll around the mall just window shopping and at about 2:30, we decided to go back to the hotel. We were going to meet my aunt at another place later.

After some fumbling around, we found the jeepney terminal with the jeepneys that would take us back to our hotel. We got back at around 3:30 and were out again to take the MRT to meet my aunt about 7 stations away.

The station we got off on was actually connected to the Farmer's Market mall -- which in turn was linked to the Gateway mall where we met up with my aunt. We were actually going to a place called "Art in Island" a short walk from the mall where you could take "Illusion pictures" of 2D/semi-3D paintings and sculptures for interesting effects. I actually enjoyed posing for pictures, but the bad thing is that I couldn't take my own pictures because really, my mother and aunt are kinda hopeless at capturing the effect I want... nevertheless, I've uploaded the best pics.

THIS is how you do a friggin Angel pose.

This came out pretty well.

I can't swim very well, but... I can float on my back anyway.

Eat your heart out, Alexander the Great!

It's mah-vel! Shoryuken pose goes with anything

To enter or not to enter...

Is a question not worth asking.

So as I live...

Unlimited GAME WORKS!

"What's YOUR problem, Santa?"

Anyway, it was already 8:00 PM by the time we had explored everything. We had a modest dinner at a local Filipino restaurant and then parted with my aunt as we took the MRT back to the hotel.

At night, we noticed just how dirty the path back to the hotel was from the MRT station from all the garbage that people leave behind. I just couldn't help drawing a comparison to Hong Kong where everyone was so disciplined -- nobody threw their garbage on the floor/road. It's a bit sad that we, as Filipinos, can't follow the same example. Really, it's no skin off your back to NOT throw your garbage where it doesn't belong. Your lot in life shouldn't even be an issue.

That wraps up day 3.