Stroll of Asia

Today Gabe and I went to the newly-opened Mall of Asia for an early afternoon stroll. The place is huge! Of course, a big fraction of the place consists of open-air walkways dotted on both flanks by individually air-conditioned stores, otherwise the air conditioning cost would go through the roof if the whole place were fully enclosed. The enclosed part of the mall with full air conditioning isn't all that big.

After dropping Gabe off at a playroom, I headed off to explore the south side of the mall for an hour. There are not a lot of open stores, and those that are already open are desperate to make a sale. Not that there was a lack of people shopping; it was just that most of them concentrated in the centrally located, fully air-conditioned part of the mall.

What I like about this mall is that there is just so much space, and the walkways are so wide that getting a cramped feeling here is a very remote possibility. And the cool sea breeze in the open spaces are a welcome change for mallrats like me. Think Alabang Town Center with better ventilation.

After Gabe played his brains out at the playroom, we grabbed a pizza and a pearl shake (technically not Zagu, but Gabe calls it that) and discovered the one bad thing about restaurants lining open-air walkways by the sea: flies. Lots of them. Big. So big, Gabe said they were "like bees." Not langaw, not bangaw, but Zangaw. It was a lovely pizza, but the experience was ruined by the constant need for fly-shooing.



After the pizza, we walked around a bit more and discovered Books for Less, a secondhand bookshop which sells books in good condition for low prices. I got Gabe a couple of books and headed out to what seemed like the mall atrium, where there were two musicians playing "Fallin'" (from They're Playing Our Song) as an electric guitar and flute duet. Knowing the lyrics to the entire song, I quietly sang an excellent rendition to Gabe, which promptly made him sleepy. That was our cue to head home.

All in all, not a bad afternoon, but our purpose of exploring was defeated by the sheer size of the mall. Time to schedule a rematch.

Whoops! This entry belongs to my other blog, On The Beaten Path!