Manila is very westernized. American items are the same price as in the United States. For example a cup of coffee at Starbucks is around $2.40. My advice is to not shop at any American shops. That is very hard to do.
This is a bit hard to explain, but Manila is called Metro Manila. It includes The City of Manila, Quezon City, and many more neighboring cities. Quezon City is the largest at 3 million people. The total population of Metro Manila is 12 million people. When people refer to Manila, they have to specify City of Manila or Metro Manila which are two different things.
Ark Avilon
With Typhoon Nari pounding the Philippines, we had to cancel our Enchanted Kingdom and anything south of Manila. We chose the Ark Avilon Zoo. This is not to be confused with Avilon Zoo which is different, but owned by the same people. This zoo is 100% interactive. The most interactive zoo I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure how they don’t get a lawsuit because the interaction is like you’re in the wild.
Greenhills
Our Aunt tipped us on going to Greenhills. On some days of the week, vendors set up shop and sell their rip off name brand products. These people are very street smart and highly skilled at persuading. The name of the game is to influence the customer to spend all their money in one shot at one booth. They use phrases like “first time buyer discount”, “I do only for you”, “I make cheap for you”, “What’s your budget, I make it happen”. One thing interesting is that the vendors might all be working for the same company. One situation that tipped me off was when I wanted to buy a shirt, but they didn’t have my size. The seller would run to another vendor and get the size for me. Instead of taking me to the other vendor who had the correct size, they wanted to make the sale. All this means that they work for the same person, but they work on commission. It leads me to believe that directions are given that each vendor needs to help each other for the sale, make sure that happens first, then each vendor will work for commission. Otherwise, you’d have all greedy vendors not helping each other out. I think we spent a combined $3,000 there in a matter of a few hours. It was crazy. Probably the best shopping in my life. And I hate to shop. Too bad there are no shopping carts, we would have spent $6,000 if that was the case.
Manila Traffic
Traffic in Manila is ridiculous, the worst traffic I have ever seen. There is very little order, but yet everyone is on the same page. By that I mean you have to be a very aggressive driver. Cutting people off is the only thing. Pedestrians have to do the same thing, they have to just cross the street and don’t wait for traffic to clear up because it won't. Traffic lights are scarce, they do exist, but not very many of them. There are no stop signs. There are lines on the road in Manila, but most drivers don’t use them. I think you get the picture. Our driver was D. He works hard as a taxi driver and was chosen to drive us around Manila. Watching him navigate through the streets was a thing of beauty. He knows where everything is, he knows the short cuts, and he has great driving skills. His decision making was swift and accurate. We appreciated his help during our trip. Without him, we would have had a difficult time getting around the city.
Overpopulation
There are 12 million living in Metro Manila according to the 2010 census. Metro Manila is defined as the city of Manila, and also the neighboring cities around it. The largest is Quezon City. Metro Manila is the 11th largest city in the world. The traffic is horrendous and the city appears very busy.
Security Guards
To enter a big mall, you have to go through security. There are metal detectors, you get a quick pat down, and they check any bag you are carrying. Most of the brand name stores have security guards. I also heard mall announcements telling people not to steal. I didn't see any thefts while in the malls, so I can only assume that shoplifting is a problem in the Philippines. The only hassle is that there are some attractions outside the mall which are worth seeing. Of course I find out after the fact and have to go outside, then re-enter resulting in going through the process again.
SM Megamall, SM Mall of Asia, SM City North EDSA
There is no secret that SM has dominated the retail business in the Philippines. They also own land, and other businesses. SM was started by a guy named Henry Sy. He owned a shoe mart. But his business expanded and he shortened the name to SM. SM can be compared to Walmart in America, but on a much grander scale. SM is also the Best Buy, Macy’s, Trump, etc. all rolled into one. Not only do they monopolize the retail business in the Philippines, they rarely get competition.
On our trip, it became apparent that we wanted to complete the trifecta of the biggest malls in the Philippines. The three malls are listed in the top 25 Biggest Malls in the World. The top 3 are SM City North EDSA (#3), SM Megamall (#10), SM Mall of Asia (#11). These malls will take over the top spot one day as SM plans to renovate and expand their malls. In my opinion, SM Mall of Asia will be the largest because of the expansion potential. There is a lot of land in the surrounding area. SM Megamall and SM North EDSA are probably near its end for expansion because of the limited amount of space it has to work with. However, they are both bigger than SM Mall of Asia. Going to these malls is an event. You can actually walk the entire mall in about 4 hours, but you’d have to cover a few miles of walking and hurry up. All malls have hundreds of stores and eateries. It becomes overwhelming to choose what to eat. But the layout is smart and is designed for the shopper. For example, electronics takes over one section of the mall. Medical and relaxation services take over another section of the mall. Near these specialized sections, are the eateries. The malls are designed correctly! SM Megamall gets the most people averaging 800,000 people a day and almost 300 million per year. SM Mall of Asia is probably the best to visit for the overall experience. There are a lot of things to do at Mall of Asia. They have an IMAX, bowling alley, science exhibit. There is also an arena right next to the mall. Also, a Coney Island type of amusement park across the street. There are many more SM malls that fit into the top 30, but the only ones we went to were the biggest.
Tagaytay
Our Uncle who is a medical doctor works at a Veteran’s Hospital and took some time to take us sightseeing. His place of choice ~ Tagaytay. The drive to Tagaytay felt long as it is pretty far south of Manila, but still on the main island of Luzon. This city is up and coming. It is apparent when driving as there are many subdivisions and hotels being erected. What sets this place apart is the elevation. Not sure how high we were, it must have been a few thousand feet up there. The city is literally built on a ridge and creates a money view of Taal Lake and the Taal Volcano which is the smallest volcano in the world. This place is surreal, I think it's because the city is built on a thin ridge with some vertical cliffs around us. However, when we got there the fog was so thick that we couldn’t see a view of the lake. I left the view to my imagination as I’ve gotten good at that since the weather in Hawaii presents the same problem from time to time.
We ate at this high class restaurant called Josephine where I decided to try bangus, it’s a type of milkfish. Honestly, this fish is the da bomb, so meaty and succulent. Freakin’ ridiculous! The service was slow which was expected. America is such a demanding country of customers that we expect too much of others. The quality of the food however, is top notch. Too bad the food in Hawaii wasn’t this good. The Filipino's take a lot of pride in the quality of work. You can tell as the food they put out was amazing.
After we finished eating, Uncle Tino took us to a private area of Tagaytay where people with guns were manning a guard shack. They didn’t like the idea of letting a taxi cab into their property, so D had to stay back while Uncle Tino had to make two trips. He took us to a Golf Resort Club where he has membership. [Must cost big money.] We saw a sign at the front saying that bodyguards need to check in before going onto the premises. This place is awesome! There were sport activities like a full on indoor basketball court, olympic size swimming pool, bowling alley, racket ball court, tennis court, on and on, and of course golf. We caught the skycab down to the other resort. Just then it started to rain heavily. Crazy rain! We went to another restaurant to eat dessert. Holy crap! I’m not lying that this dessert spread was amazing, look at the picture. After I ate my heart out and my belly full, we drove back because we needed to get to Manila by 6pm.
The place seems underrated. According to Uncle, some of the richest and most famous people in the Philippines stay here to take a vacation.