Good afternoon from Manila!
In Tacloban, we picked up Jordan and Bev and KC at 8 and all of us went to the airport. When it was definitely time to go in and board the plane, we bid them farewell and went through security.
Our Cebu Pacific flight was uneventful. Brent was on the window and as we flew over Samar he picked out Jia-an, Calbayog, and even some places in town!
We collected our backpacks at the airport, checked them in the baggage check place, and went out to hail a Grab to SM Mall of Asia. We had a little trouble meering the car because he said he was there, but was one level up. So he said to come up and meet him, but we couldn’t due to security, so we went back down and finally met him.
Mall of Asia is the 13th largest mall in the world. It is huge but at least the layout makes sense.
The middle white roofed section is all retail stores and restaurants. The alleys on each side have restaurants on the street and shopping on the 2nd floor. The outside buildings have a corporate owned store in each of them, one is the SM Hypermart for groceries, and the other is the SM Superstore which is clothing and home goods. The mall is very nice, not Dubai nice, and has a number of expensive brands, which are real judging by the prices. They are doing some remodeling so there are some closed off areas, such as the ice rink which is now on the 3rd floor in a corner instead of in the middle. There is also an ocean walk outside with food stands and an amusement park and some kids rides.
We ate lunch at the Shrimp Shack and then split ways. I went shopping by myself and bought random souvenirs and things all over the mall. Jordy and Brent disappeared and next I heard from them they were halfway up the ferris wheel. We met up again by the stage where several dance troupes were performing. They varied from break dancing to traditional dancing and was pretty cool, including the guys that backflipped off the stage.
It was time to find food before we left for the airport so we hit up Shakey’s for a pizza and Coke.
We Grabbed back to the airport, got our backpacks and had them wrapped, and we are in the check-in line.
Our flight to Dubai leaves at 11:10 and takes 9 hours. We have 4 hours in Dubai and then a 14 hour jaunt across the Atlantic, trackable here. If I can get the WIFI in Dubai to work, I might try to update if anything exciting has happened. Otherwise, it’ll be from the Good Ol USA!
restless feet 