Mall and the City

In the late 70's and early 80's as far as I can remember there were just three places where one can do malling here in Manila. My parents would usually bring me and my brother to Greeenhills, Ali Mall in Cubao, and QUAD in Makati. Every Saturday my dad would go to Makati for work and drop me and lil brother off to play at the ground floor of the then QUAD car park. The ground floor housed an amusement center where me and my brother would play various video games to our heart's delight and satisfaction. My dad will just pick us up for lunch and lunch is usually at Kowloon. After lunch if there is a good movie showing at the QUAD we usually watch a movie. After the movies me and my brother will have some fancy ice cream preparation at the nearby Magnolia Ice Cream House. Saturday was then my favorite day of the week.

Then came the very first SM mall. I remember in the late 80's and the early 90's my malling adventure changed a little bit. This time every Sunday you will find me, my mom, dad, lil' brother and my two nieces in SM City. We usually did nothing but eat lunch, watch a movie, do some malling (window shopping), and then have dinner. It's almost like a religious thing for us six. Way back then it was a big treat for my two young nieces for us to park at the topmost level of the carpark. Even when I was already working for an IT company in Makati I still frequent SM City usually with my buddy Tuding. Actually up until last year of February when Tuding migrated to the US, SM city was our favorite place to hang out. I can confidently say that I can navigate the place even if I am blindfolded.

This Sunday my whole family trooped to the MoA. I think this will be my 5th visit at this mall. Man this mall is gargantuan I still can't figure out where it ends and where it starts or rather where is the front or the rear side. I definitely have no idea where the north, south, west or east side is. The last time I visited the place was when we were touring my balikbayan Uncle Ed. My uncle heard from his friends in the US not to miss the MoA. Well I must say this place is a good tourist place if only for the sheer shock value of its size. Although this mall only has two levels I still can't navigate the place without consulting the location/vicinity map every now and then. However despite the mammoth size of this mall it is still packed with people. It took us almost half an hour to find a parking space! Filipinos are a bunch of mall rats.

If you ride the MRT I think you are bound to find a mall or two after every two stations! There seems to be no saturation of malls as far as this metropolis is concern. This is the reason why I can't imagine my friend Tuding's despair in Texas. She has grown accustomed to finding herself lost in the middle of a mall in just 15 minutes ride from her home. And that includes the ever dependable traffic condition in Manila. According to my friend one time she decided to drive her car and brave the freeway of Texas only to find herself in the middle of nowhere after almost an hour with no mall in sight. I have never imagined how the malls will one day become one of the things a Filipino expat will miss of his country. So pards until your visit in July try to enjoy and be contented with the pictures below.