Seeing as arrived very early in the morning we had a big sleep in at the hotel. There are several things to do in Manila but when the biggest mall in Asia is in the vicinity how can you not go?!!!!
The truth is we spent 9 hours in the mall. We arrived around lunch time and left at 9pm! I introduced Beth to the Philippine equivalent of McDonalds, which is Jolibee. The fast food they serve comes with rice instead of chips, and the desserts include one of my favourite Filipino foods, Halo Halo. This is pronounced ‘Ha low Ha low’ and is essentially shaved ice, evaporated milk, various jelly, coconut, Ube, and often red beans (I usually ask for the beans to be removed).
The mall of Asia has a variety of shops and many brands that we see in the UK like Cath Kidston, M&S, and Zara. We were able to pay on card here so it was the most dangerous 9 hours of the whole trip. To break up the effort of trying on clothes we headed over to the area that overlooks Manila Bay, however it was scorching hot so we only managed about ten minutes before going back in the air con. The views were good though:
The restaurants in the mall were actually non-filipino cuisines so we needed up eating pad thai and papaya salad in a Thai place (not complaining!).
