Salam,
It has been 21 days I am in Philippines, or Metro Manila to be specific. You will be wondering why I am here for so long, this is because I am here for a company assignment. Don't worry, I will not overstay (VOA only limit myself to be here for 30 days), it will be another 5 days to go before I am leaving back to KL for good.
So, here is the summary of what have I done while I am staying here. Due to work assignment, I have limited time walking / touring around. So I would not have gone very far, all places here are within Metro Manila only and all the tourings are done during weekend and Public Holiday.
Hotel: F1 Hotel and Resort, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
Green Hills Shopping Center, San Juan, Metro Manila
I was lucky during the first weekend of my stay, my colleague was happened have to come here due to emergency assignment. Hence, that weekend we took a cab and went to Greenhills Shopping Centre. This mall located at San Juan, another city within Metro Manila. Just for your info, Metro Manila consist of 13 cities, so you will never get bored of being here for a long period as there would be a city that you must visit. However not all is worth to go.
It took 15 minutes to reach Greenhills and the fares should be around PHP140 - PHP150 from BGC.
Greenhills is the great place if you are looking for pearls, replica handbags, and souvenirs such as fridge magnets, paintings, key chains, Manila / Philipines print tshirts and clothes. You must always bargain the price as the quoted price is always expensive. I managed to get good quality replica handbags for PHP600, Medium sized 3D contemporary abstract paintings for PHP1200, Philipine print tshirt for PHP180 / piece and big size of fresh water pearls for PHP1600.
This mall is a Muslim friendly mall. There is a huge surau / prayer room nearby (you have to go out of the mall) with reasonable facilities. There are 2 halal-claimed restaurants nearby the surau that serving Southern Philippines dishes (forgot the name of the food that we ate). Besides, there is another halal-claimed restaurants at Greenhills food court (located at Ground Floor) area that serves Middle-East and local Philipines dishes. Here I tried Beef tapas and Fish Kare-kare. Beef tapas is a marinated beef which is for me tasted very salty and you have to dip it in vinegar to balance the saltiness. Fish Kare kare is a Dalca look alike with long beans and egg plants cooked with peanut (I did not tasted peanut at all) and coconut milk as well as local herbs. Fish Kare Kare has to be eaten with Fish paste (belacan taste) that I forgot the name already.
Most of the pearl traders are Muslim .
I like Greenhills so much, I have been here 3 times already and I think that is just enough.
Market! Market!, BGC, Taguig City, Metro Manila
This is the shopping complex that I usually get my groceries and needs while I am here. It is within Bonifacio Global City and it is just 15 minutes from where I am staying. This place has many choices of restaurants, shops,Metro Supermarket and Department Store (equivalent to Jusco in Malaysia) and even pearls are available here. There is a bus terminal near-by so this place is always crowded with people. Outside of Market! Market! there are stalls that sells specialities from Philippines' provinces such as Cebu and many more.
SM Aura Shopping Mall, BGC, Taguig City, Metro Manila
This shopping mall is equivalent to Pavilion Bukit Bintang in KL. Most of the shops here are high-ends, but there is Uniqlo in case you running out of your shirts. Cultura, a famous local chain-store that selling Philipine's souvenirs is also available but the space and varieti-ness (is this word does exist?) is not as big Cultura at SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City.
According to my Pinoy friend, SM is stands for Shoe Maker. The founder of SM conglomerate was a shoe maker before he gets rich so SM is to reminds him on his past history.
Bonifacio High Street, BGC, Taguig City, Metro Manila
Just as the name itself, most of the shops located here are high-ends. From my observation, BGC-ians are very health concious, there will be alot of people jogging around even at 9pm at night. Hence, besides international coffee shops, sports store also dominating this area such as Nike Store, Converse and many more.
This streets is very well maintained and has a lot of decorations between the shops blocks. Not to forget, BGC area is a dog friendly area, you will find many people walk their dogs freely. So far I haven't seen any dog poop or pees around which shows the cleanliness level /concious is very high here.
Robinson Galleria, Metro Manila
According to my Pinoy friend, this shopping mall actually located in 4 cities that are Mandaluyong, Quezon and .... I forgot another 2 cities, please forgive me. This is a huge mall, and located besides SM Megamall. I did not tour this shopping malls heartedly due to the tiredness after long day walking around. I went here with my Pinoy friend and here I got to know Custard flavour Hopia, a local Chinese delicacies, that tastes very sweet according to my taste buds but have a very lovely and soft texture. My Pinoy friend bought his engagement ring. I am wishing him happy engagement and hopefully it will continues till marriage and after.
Let me continue the rest in the next Post.....
p/s missing my Bobo....
