Many Filipinos and their families like to spend a day in one of the many malls in the Philippines. They prefer the weekend to do so. Saturdays and Sundays are the top days in every mall. Especially the weekends around ‘pay day’. Filipino parents treating their children and themselves and are spending much of their money on those days. Also many people just come to the mall to stay cool because they do not have airconditioner in their house.
The malls offer a lot of amusement for the people: cinemas, playgrounds, ice skating, bowling, computer games and much more for affordable prices.
An interesting fact is that the Manila area has 3 of the 10 largest malls in the world. The Mall of Asia is the 3rd largest in the world. Numbers 5 and 9 in the world top 10 are also in Manila. (as of 2008, source: worldamazinginformation.com )
Flor and I do NOT like to go to most malls during the weekend. Too many people, too noisy (every shop and stall is playing different and loud music), children running and all restaurants are loaded. Aside from that, it is difficult to find a parking space, unless you are there at opening time. Most malls open at 10 AM until 10 PM. Sometimes they are even open until midnight (Christmas time).
Last Saturday we went to Greenbelt in Makati for lunch after we visited the Salcedo market. See the post about that visit HERE.
Greenbelt is a large complex with 5 adjacent malls. They open at 11 AM. Malls in Makati are much quieter than those in the rest of the Philippines. They are much busier during the week because of the many offices and their employees. Many restaurants have often special promos during the weekend.
In the malls you can find sometimes nice items which can be brought as souvenirs or just ‘must-haves’.
I found these slippers here, decorated with grapes, olives, basketball balls and many more things. In small but also larger sizes.
Between the 5 malls of Greenbelt there are several areas with nice trees, many plants and NO traffic. It is quiet there to just sit on a bench or visit one of the many restaurants or coffee shops and relax or read your morning papers while your wife is doing the shopping. I know from experience that most men do not like shopping, so this is the perfect solution to keep your wife happy and not get bored yourself. Like most other malls in Makati one can find all the ‘world’ branches in fashion, expensive watches, shoes and bags, furniture and much more in these malls.
While walking through the mall we passed a fashion store with a remarkable interior. After asking the sales lady I was allowed to take a picture of it. The back side of the store had a double wall. The last one was painted with an outside décor and the inside wall has several doors and windows to give a special effect.
I spotted one man who didn’t want to sit outside on a bench, but preferred to stay inside the mall on one of the benches there. He probably had a difficult night and maybe too little sleep. He was sleeping, mouth wide open and sitting comfortably. Right after I took the picture he was awaken by a security guard. I guess it is not allowed to sleep inside the mall…….
Filipino time:
I love that picture, Jan! Wish our nearby SM City Mall in Iloilo had such comfortable chairs. And you’re right about the weekends, extremely busy. After my recent incident outside a McDonald’s at SM, guess my wife and I will stick to shopping during the week. A lot less crowded.
Hi Dave,
That’s what we do normaly: go to the mall during the week, right after opening. We like to be gone by 3PM when students come in and make the mall busy again.
Very useful information, thanks for sharing it….