Shopping At Greenbelt And Glorietta In Ayala Center

I shopped at Robinsons Place Manila near the hotel where I stayed on my first day in Manila City. That, to me, was a pretty average shopping mall. I was eager to visit other malls in Manila and discover the reason behind Filipinos' obsession with shopping malls!

After I left the Manila American Cemetery And Memorial in Fort Bonifacio, I asked my taxi driver to drive me to Alaya Center in Makati City.



Ayala Center is a commercial complex operated by Ayala Land Incorporated located in the central business district of Makati in Metro Manila. It houses several shopping malls, hotels and high class apartments.

You might want to have a look at the map of Ayala Center HERE.

My main aim was without question, to visit all those shopping malls there! First I visited Greenbelt.



This very famous shopping mall is actually made of up five different buildings which are all connected to each other. They are named Greenbelt 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5!

Below is a picture of Greenbelt 5.



I saw a giant watch outside Greenbelt 5. Nice!



By the way, each time I enter a shopping mall here, I had to go through security checks. It was rather tiring. I actually lost count the number of times my backpack was being opened and checked that day! Probably a dozen times?

Being a first timer to Greenbelt, I was a little lost and had to rely on the signboard for directions. At times, I was not sure whether I was in Greenbelt 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5!



I think this fountain of water is in Greenbelt 3.



And this big open space below is in front of Greenbelt 3.



I snapped this photo of a relaxing looking restaurant. Not sure which Greenbelt Mall this is!



I can tell you that Greenbelt 4 (if not mistaken) has some of the world's high-end boutiques like Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo, Burberry, Prada, Bulgari and Gucci. None of which I even thought of buying! Haha!

The rest of the Greenbelt buildings feature the normal international brands you can most likely find in most established shopping malls. Brands like Topshop, Calvin Klein, Levi's, Diesel, Marks & Spencer and so forth.

Opposite Greenbelt, I could see a high class apartment building called The Residences.



This building has 3 towers. Must be for the rich and wealthy!



After completing my tour of Greenbelt, I crossed the bridge to go to another mall opposite the road. This mall is called The Landmark.



I took this photo of Makati Avenue road as I walked on the bridge.



From this angle, you can see The Link building (in green) and behind it, the Makati Shangri-la Hotel.



The Landmark was a pretty average shopping mall to me. Not as high class as Greenbelt and definitely more friendly to your pocket.

Opposite The Landmark is The Link (aka Anson's Building). I am not sure what is in this building though, as I did not check it out.



Instead, I continued walking further up the road. On the right side is Glorietta Malls, owned by the same company that owns Greenbelt.



Just like Greenbelt, Glorietta is made up of 5 buildings namely Glorietta 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. All the five buildings are connected to each other.

The photo below shows Glorietta 4.



I could not remember which Glorietta building I saw this on the wall. It was quite interesting!



It was already past 2pm and I was starting to get hungry. I decided to look for a place to eat. I saw this restaurant called Spaghetti Factory in Glorietta 5 and decided to go there for lunch.



I had this delicious creme of pumpkin (119 peso/RM8.30)



And this Spaghetti Bolognaise (179 peso/RM12.50) which was just OK to me.



The restaurant was located on the 2nd floor I think, and I was sitting at the balcony. So I took a picture of Glorietta Park below and the Glorietta 4 building opposite.



I was really full after that lunch but I knew all the walking and shopping in the next few hours would definitely help with the digestion!

I bought a few T-shirts and souvenirs at Glorietta. After that, I proceeded to SM Mall which is located opposite Glorietta 1.



SM which stands for ShoeMart, is part of the SM chain of malls owned by Chinese Filipino Henry Sy, who also owns Banco de Oro (BDO), one of the largest banks in the Philippines.

This SM Makati branch contains a SM Supermarket, SM Food Court, Toy Kingdom, Ace Hardware, Watsons, and restaurants.

Opposite SM Makati is another mall called Square Park but I did not enter it. That's simply too many shopping malls in one day for me!

Oh, I saw Dusit Thani Hotel opposite Square Park! I still remember how much I love staying in Dusit Thani Bangkok! I wonder if this Dusit Thani in Makati is just as good!



I had enough of shopping and wanted to see the rest of the area before it gets dark. I knew I would not be returning to Makati in the remaining days of my Manila trip, so I had better explore whatever there is left to explore!

Walking along the busy main road Ayala Avenue, I saw the Manila Peninsula Hotel.



It was across Ayala Avenue on the other side, just directly opposite Makati Shangri-la. What a nice building! I love it! I hope to stay there one day! Haha!



Walking further along Ayala Avenue, I soon reached the Philippine Stock Exchange Building. It was on the other side of Ayala Avenue and I had to cross over using the underground tunnel.



I also visited the Ayala Triangle Park nearby. It was nice to walk in this park - a good place to escape from the hustle and bustle of the city.



This is a very impressive structure next to the Philippines Stock Exchange building.



I wanted to take more photos of this area but was forbidden to do so by a security guard there. He told me that it was not proper to take photos of the citizens of the country. I was like, what? OK, if you say so. Whatever!



I was so tired after all the walking and shopping I wanted to head back to my hotel straight away. Unfortunately, it was peak hour period and all the roads were jammed up. Even the queues at the taxi stand were long enough to discourage me from queuing up!

I ended up walking back to Greenbelt and stayed there until late. By the time I managed to get a taxi and reach my hotel, it was already 10pm. Sleeping early was important as I would be leaving for Taal Volcano the very next morning.

My Visit To Manila Central Post Office And Red Ribbon

The skies over Binondo were getting darker by the minute. After buying some hopia and tikoy from Eng Bee Tin, I decided to leave the Chinatown of Manila.



I like this silhouette of Binondo Church tower against the darkening sky.



Walking across the Jones Bridge, I could see that the sun was already starting to set.



Across the Pasig River at the Intramuros district, I could see the Manila Central Post Office building. I wanted to visit that building before it gets dark.



I managed to reach the Post Office building some ten minutes later. I love this building!



OK I am quite embarrassed to ask this question, but why is the word "BUILDING" spelt as "BVILDING"?



This is the central post office of Manila and houses the country's main mail sorting-distribution operations. The building was built in neoclassic architecture in 1926. It was however, severely damaged in World War II and was rebuilt in 1946 preserving most of its original design.

There is a statue of a postman standing in front of the building. Cool!



I did not go into the Post Office building to take any pictures but I found this picture online and the Greek inspired columns are amazing!


Image courtesy of Lost In Manila

In front of the Post Office is a nice fountain and a statue of Andres Bonifacio. This place is known as Plaza Lawton (previously called Liwasang Bonifacio Plaza)



I had no idea who Andres Bonifacio was until I read this marker on the monument.



Andres Bonifacio was the founder of the Katipunan movement which sought the independence of the Philippines from Spanish colonial rule and started the Philippine Revolution. You can read more about him HERE.

It was already quite dark by the time I finished taking photos of the monument and tried to flag down a taxi to take me back to my hotel. Alas, it was peak hour period and no taxi would stop for me!

So I decided to walk back to Binondo and search for a place to have my dinner first. I saw this restaurant by the name of Red Ribbon along the Quintin Paredes Street and decided to go in.



What was all these things hanging from the ceiling? I had no idea but was more interested in that quote on the wall - EAT AND YOU SHALL FIND. Haha!! I totally agreed with that and I wanted to find out what Red Ribbon could offer me.



By the way, Red Ribbon is owned by Jollibee Foods Corporation, which manage that very successful fast food chain Jollibee in Philippines. If you have not read my first experience eating a Jollibee burger, read HERE.

I learnt that Red Ribbon is famous for its cakes (somewhat similar to Secret Recipe in Malaysia) so I found this creative quote on a glass partition rather apt.



So what did I eat? Well I chose a set meal which consisted of a main meal, a cake and a soft drink.

My main meal was a Filipino dish called palabok. At first I was rather hesitant to try this dish since I knew nothing about it. I quickly sent a text message to my Manila blogger friend, Ishmael Ahab whom I would meet up a few days later. But he did not reply my message (maybe he did not get my message) so I thought why not be adventurous and give this dish a try!



Palabok is actually pancit (Filipino term for noodles) in orange coloured sauce (which is called the palabok sauce) topped with eggs, meat, shrimps, garlic and spring onions.

To be honest, I did not like it!! Maybe I was not used to the taste but I did not like the palabok sauce at all! The taste was a tad too "fishy" for me. Later I found out that the sauce was made from the seed of a plant called atsuete mixed with shrimp juice and flour.

Luckily, however, all was not lost as I love the Chocolate Heaven cake!



It was moist and yummy! Enjoyed every bite! It helped to take out that "fishy" palabok taste in my mouth, thank goodness! OK I shall stick to cakes if I ever go to Red Ribbon in future! Haha!

The set meal costs me 135 pesos (RM 9.50) which was pretty reasonable to me!

After dinner, I managed to get myself a taxi to take me back to my hotel. It was rather tiring as I had just began to learn how horrible the traffic was in Manila. I had wanted to visit Taal Volcano the next day but somehow, that plan was postponed to the following day.

You will never guess where I went the next morning. It will come as a shock to most of you, or at least some of you. Perhaps you want to have some fun and try guessing where I went? The first person who guessed correctly will receive a gift from me, so give it a try folks!

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Exploring Binondo And Shopping At Eng Bee Tin

After my late lunch at Dong Bei Dumpling in Binondo, I and my pedicab driver parted ways. I hope to meet him up again if I ever go to Manila in future, but I guess he would probably not remember me.

Anyway, after he left, I decided to walk around and explore Binondo, the Chinatown of Manila. Although I had my Binondo Map with me, I still got lost several times! At times, I was just too lazy to refer to the map and actually enjoying losing myself in the streets.

This is the Filipino - Chinese Friendship Arch that greets you as you enter Binondo at the bottom of Jones Bridge at Quintin Paredes Street.



Walking further ahead, you would come across Binondo Church located at the heart of Manila's Chinatown along Ongpin Street. It would be quite impossible to miss this famous landmark.



I did not take many pictures as I thought the ugly looking electrical wiring hanging all over the streets would spoil my photos! I really think they should do something about all these unsightly wires!



But I took this picture below as I thought the streetlights were quite unique and interesting.



You can see these beautiful lantern streetlights hanging along Ongpin Street.



Ooh! I saw my company - Panda Travel outlet here! Haha!



Another arch welcoming visitors to Manila Chinatown, though I could not remember which street this is! Though I suspect it is along Ongpin Street. Notice the BDO lantern on the top left of the photo?



BDO stands for Banco De Oro, one of the largest banks in the Philippines owned by a Filipino Chinese Henry Sy who also owns the famous SM chain of malls. During my trip in Manila, I came across many BDO banks there! By the way, his SM Mall Of Asia is the 6th largest mall in the world.



I was told that there were more than a dozen banks in Quintin Paredes Street alone, probably making Binondo one of the most "banked" districts in the Philippines - a reflection of the Chinese Filipino people's accomplishments perhaps?

I think most of the good restaurants and shops are centred along Ongpin Street. It was too bad that I had a late lunch and was too full to try other eateries in the area. But I made sure I did not miss buying some hopia and tikoy at the infamous Eng Bee Tin.



For the uninitiated, hopia is a popular Filipino bean filled pastry whereas tikoy is a sweet dessert made from glutinous rice and is more popularly known as nian gao in Malaysia.



I bought a Tikoy Roll in ube (purple yam) flavour.



This is how it looks like after I unwrapped the packet.



I brought it back to my hotel where I ate it for supper. It did not taste like the nian gao that I was accustomed to, but it was still quite tasty. Look! I ate it with a pair of chopsticks! Haha!!



I also bought the hopia from Eng Bee Tin, but it was somewhat a combination of mochi and hopia, thus the name Mochipia.



I did not know why I also chose the ube flavour for this Mochipia, perhaps because I like the taste of purple yam!



Anyway, I like this Mochipia! Really quite yummy! Well, better than the tikoy in my opinion.



According to the sales assistant, the Mochipia must be refrigerated after purchase or it would only last a few days. I was thinking of returning to Eng Bee Tin on my last day in Manila to purchase some hopia as pasalubongs (Tagalog word meaning presents or gifts bought from a trip) but it was not to be.



Oh well, there will always be a next time, I guess.

I had wondered around Binondo for only two hours, but the sky was beginning to get dark. Manila gets dark early which is not good for a tourist like me. 6pm in Manila is like 8pm in Kuala Lumpur.



I did not have much time to visit every nook and corner of this Chinatown for this trip, but it would have to do. Perhaps I will return here next time to explore further.

Coming Up Next : My Dinner At Red Ribbon In Binondo

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