Day 3: Greenbelt Shopping

Wednesday, June 11th, 2014

We have tried to decide how to spend our days here in Manila.  I looked into several options, but we really haven’t been able to figure out logistics with cost, etc. What we are gathering is that tourists don’t come and stay in Manila.  Manila is a transfer spot to other places or you go to the temple.  There are lots of beautiful places to go but not realistic from our hotel location.  So … we adjusted our wishes and plans from there.

Today we took a taxi to the Greenhills Shopping Plaza.  We had been told this was the place to shop! Lots of booths and plenty of discounts on name brand and knock-off goods. We decided to spend the day shopping. When we arrived, we were a little confused and some what disappointed. The booths were empty and the were people standing around everywhere! We didn't know if we were there too early in the morning or if it just wasn't that booming on a week day. 

All the booths were empty or closed up

People standing everywhere. Do they work??

We kept walking and found a section of the shopping center that had more traditional stores. I started taking pictures of clothes that I could have made at the fabric market back in China. We found a Payless Shoe Source. Believe it or not I did not go in! There was a time in my life that I couldn't walk by a shoe store with out going in and coming out with 5 pairs of shoes. This time I didn't even go in. 

Loved this skirt

We found an American Dollar Store with all kinds of imported American treats and products. We window shopped and took a picture. 

Connie at the Dollar Store

We had lunch at a taco stand that we found. We even waited for it to open! We had tacos and nachos which were not too bad. Definitely not real Mexican food like I'm used to in Arizona but, it was better than nothing. 

We ended up walking the entire complex.  We bought a few things for ourselves and for the other kiddos at home.  We eventually found an area where we could haggle and I bought a purse and Connie bought a couple of toys for the little boys. The shopping center was just huge! We saw some pretty funny and crazy things too!

Almost as big as the Mega Mall

Some guy singing karaoke to attract customers

We finally found Balute on a menu. One of our taxi drivers told us that this was a delicasey in the Philippines that we needed to try. I just have no desire to try that at all! They eat the poor bird before it hatched from the egg. To top it off, a Day Old chick is deep fried and served next to it on the menu. This poor chickens just don't have a chance at life! (I'm not an animal softy, I just can't fathom eating a chicken like this. Gross!)

We discovered that you have to pay to use the restroom at this shopping center. I'm too cheap for that! We went up to the top level where it was free!

Probably the best part of the day was our time spent eating a cream puff in front of Miss OCs. This was a little kiosk that had all kinds of organizing things. Connie and I spent a good hour or so there discussing how we could use or needed almost every item on the cart! We figured out multiple ways of using them. We then talked ourselves out of why we didn't NEED to have any of them right now. In the end, we walked away with nothing, spent no money and just have a fun memory!

A huge cream puff, that wasn't very tasty

The best store in the mall

We headed back to the hotel for a little bit. We decided we needed dinner so we set out on foot. Just down the street from the hotel is this local lot with some little eateries. We had been eyeing it since we arrived and finally mustered up some courage to go check it out. We walked up close to the opening of the tin shacks and no one smiled or said “hello.”  We took this as a hint that we were probably in the wrong place.  So we chickened out and left. 

A little eatery

Donuts? Maybe but they weren't very friendly people

Little eateries

Canals in Manila

Streets of Manila

We found our way on foot to the Mega Mall again! I wanted to take a picture with these McDonald's Happy Meal street signs that were all over on our way to the Mega Mall. We took a few pictures along the way to the Mega Mall.

Happy Meals just make you Smile!

Streets of Manila

There's a police man directing traffic but nobody pays attention to him.

I love the lights on the trees! no matter what time of year it is.

Earlier we had seen a Shakey’s pizza which is something that Connie remembers eating at when she was a kid. We decided to have pizza for dinner.

On our way home, there were these two towers that were lit up with lights. They looked really cool and I wanted a picture of them with the colored lights. The lights changed before I got my camera out to take a picture. We stood there for a good 5-10 minutes while I took pictures of these buildings as the lights changed. I figured it would circle back to the first ones I noticed and wanted a picture of. That was not the case. :( I gave up and didn't get the one picture I wanted. Instead I got lots of others.