Mabuhay….Finally set foot in Pilipinas

My trip to Philippines was to visit Kath, after she was transferred there for work….aaanndd also to take a short break from work la. Took Air Asia flight to Manila early Friday morning and landed in Clark Fields which is about 2 hours drive from Manila City.

I spent 6 days here and visited couple of places such a Tagathay Volcanos, Villa Escudero ,The American Cemetary and the Manila memorial park.

Tagaytay (Taal Volcano) is located about 70 km south of Manila.The volcano is one of the smallest and most dangerous in the world. It was soo small and not impressive as i had imagined, after visiting the Kintamani Volcano in Bali.

Lake Taal  is a huge volcanic crater that has filled up with water and has become a lake. Within the lake, other eruptions have occurred producing more craters and micro-lakes.

 

The Manila  Memorial Park is where the Aquinos (Curazon and Ninoy) are laid to rest. Its a very simple mausoleum compared to the others built surrounding it. It definitely looks like a park instead of just as a memorial park. There’s lot of open spaces, gardens and greenery, as well as ponds and fountains. It seems like quite a serene place actually. The best time to visit this place is in the daytime so that you can appreciate the different styles of Mausoleums, tombs and other forms of burial place. We were there after the recent typhoon, the place looked a little like a disaster scene out of a movie, huge trees has uprooted all around the park.

I spent the rest of the days, touring Manila city and boosting Manila’s economy by doing what a girl knows best ….shopping shopping and shopping..hehhe. I visited the SM Mall of Asia is the 2nd largest mall in the Philippines and the 4th (Ref. Forbes' World's 10 Largest Shopping Malls) largest shopping mall in the world!!! This is mall has just about anything you can do for the rest of day..IMAX, discovery centers, foods, ice skating rink, Cinemas, Music Halls…soooo happening. Well Ladies, if you are in Manila, this is certainly a must visit mall!

Overall i observed couple things during my stay here, the Ladies here are very fashion consious, most girls can be seen wearing oversized sunglasses and well dressed. The guys too!

Service culture is apparent. The employees of malls and any tourist areas here are well trained to attend to customer needs.

Besides that, anywhere you go, the public toilets are extremely clean, impressive. Although the city seems a little polluted, the roads are kept clean. The life in Manila seems very shopping mall oriented. They even have chapels in malls! How cool is that?