Manila Mall Madness!

How’s that for alliteration, huh?

The title has probably already tipped you off to what I did today. Today I went and visited a bunch of malls in Manila with Rosebelle because we wanted to chill out and relax and also because we had to pick up her cat. (She had left it at her aunt’s house in Manila before our semester break started).

First stop after a not-so-great bus ride and also a short train ride was the Glorietta Malls. Glorietta consists of 5 individual malls that surround a central courtyard. We walked around the entire area, which also reminded me of when my girlfriend visited and we explored the malls during her vacation here in the Philippines back in September. We actually got there a little before the mall opened so we went into the courtyard and took a few pictures near the fountain. They had cute metal dolphins in the fountain and Belle and I took some pictures with them. Cute, no?

We ended up visiting National Book Store to pick up some school supplies. Belle picked up a few pens and highlighters with some post-its. I picked up some extra staples, some tape, a graphic pencil, and a book that introduces people to speaking 5 languages. It’s called “Introduction to Speaking: Dialogues for five kinds of languages” The book deals with how to speak Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and English. Since those are all languages that I’m interested in learning at some point, the book seemed like a good buy to introduce me into what can be used conversationally. For example:

English: I’m hungry.
Filipino: Gutom na ako
Korean: Nanun baega kopumnida.

English: I’m full.
Filipino: Busog na ako.
Korean: Nanun bae burumnida.

English: I have no money.
Filipino: Wala akong pera.
Korean: Naun doni obta.

Interesting, right? Haha…

After that we made a quick stop to Greenbelt, which also consists of many malls put together. We spent some time at the Greenbelt courtyards, as there are many areas between the parts of the malls that had been well landscaped and well-decorated. Compared to Glorietta, I’d say that Greenbelt is more upscale. It seems tailored to people with a lot more money, especially foreigners. There you’ll find stores like ZARA, GUESS, Abercrombie & Fitch, etc. Glorietta has more local stores that are more affordable in general. Just going from one mall complex to another you could really see the change in clientèle. I thought we were in a foreigner paradise when we entered Greenbelt. But I shouldn’t be saying anything, since I was one of them too technically.

Anyway, Belle and I had lunch at Greenbelt at this really good Greek restaurant called Cyma. We had initially wanted to try a fondue place called NUVA, but it was only open for dinner. Since Belle had never tried Greek food before I thought it would be good for her to try something new. Once inside, I did most of the ordering. We both had a lamb gyro each, and I ordered a Tonnes salad that we shared with bleu cheese.

We started off with the salad of course, and it contained nice slices of pan-seared tuna atop a salad with sweet peppers, black olives, feta cheese, tomatoes, romaine lettuce and a light vinaigrette dressing. The shared portion I ordered was bigger than I thought. We had a little trouble finishing it, but according to Belle it was very “masarap” (“delicious” in Tagalog). I added an order of bleu cheese to the salad so that Belle could try it. It’s hard to find good dairy products here in the Philippines, but this restaurant really had good ingredients and thus, it was what I expected.

The lamb gyro on the other hand was your typical gryo. It contained chunks of lamb (which was really tender and tasty) as well as lettuce, tomato and everything else in your typical gyro. It came paired with an extremely spicy red sauce, something that I wasn’t used to when I eat gyros. It was good, but I ended up asking for a side of tzatziki sauce, because it was something traditional and was something I was used to. The tzatziki sauce was really yummy and it was home-made. Belle enjoyed it too.

On the side, we had a pair of mango and yogurt shakes. Again, Cyma did not disappoint. We were very full and satisfied with the meal. I definitely will be visiting Cyma again.

After a long walk, we took a bus to Valenzuela to pick up Rosebelle’s cat. Another one-hour bus ride later and we found ourselves at the SM Valenzuela. Belle left me at the mall to go pick up the cat while I explored around. I took a quick gander at what the 3-level mall had to offer and picked up a new headset with built in microphone from Logitech. I wanted one for a project that I will be working on later. I won’t share details about it yet… maybe when I’m finally ready with it. =) After half-an-hour Belle came back with her cat in a cage and we headed home.

We took two buses to get back home and with the traffic, I’d say it took us about 3 hours. I got back at around 8:40pm tonight, and I’m pooped. I took a shower, had dinner and am now watching cartoons while writing this blog entry.

I had a great time today. Thanks to Belle for taking me and leading me around! This semester break has been awesome so far. I’ve only got two more days before classes start again, but I’m satisfied with how things have been going.

I’ve had a lot of fun, but it’ll soon be time to go back to school. Oh well, we’ve gotta get back to the grind sometime, right?

I hope you enjoyed this entry. I’m going to go veg out some more. Take care guys!