6th – 12th January 2023
Greenhills Shopping Center
Greenhills Shopping Center, San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines
Greenhills is a mall in San Juan, we got there via the MRT Line 3, hopping off at the Shaw Boulevard stop, and walking the short 8 minutes to the mall. The fare was around 13 PHP from our stop Santolan-Annapolis, in Mandaluyong – 13 PHP at the time of writing is around €0.25.
Greenhills consists of several large buildings adjoined, one with clusters of shops and another huge area that was individual stalls. Cafes and eateries were both inside and around the outside too. I wrote a post just about what we ate here.
At Greenhills, there are shops and stalls selling what everything you can think of. All kinds of clothes, perfumes, local handmade crafts and clothes, food stalls and sci-fi and comic memorabilia shops, and a huge floor dedicated to second hand electronics and repair shops.
Moving through the stalls it can be a little overwhelming and busy, and there are many shouts of ‘yes ma’am’ from people selling their wares – my Filipino partner got less called at when I wasn’t with him, which was funny (we experimented). We also had an interesting experience at one of the stalls where he was going to buy something and was haggling. The person manning the stall called his boss to check if he could sell it for lower, and the overheard conversation in Tagalog was the boss asking who was asking, the staff member replied that it was a Filipino but they were with an American (referring to me!)*. This put us on the back foot a bit! Do watch out for prices being inflated due to obviously looking like a tourist!**
I picked up some great gifts here for friends and family. Great to experience the hustle and bustle of this famous and unique shopping centre.
*I’m not American, but I am as white as the pale moon
**Though I wouldn’t be too begrudging considering prices in general will still be a lot lower than in Europe.
SM Mall of Asia
Seaside Boulevard, Pasay, 1300 Metro Manila
Mall of Asia was out of this world, humungous, largest in the Philippines, and fifth largest in the world. I remember visiting Meadowhall in Sheffield when it first opened, thinking it was huge, it’s funny to think of the contrast. Mall of Asia, run by SM Supermalls, is an entire campus with an arena, convention centre, hotels, science museum, 2 cinemas and an ice-skating rink, on top of the 100s of shops. It is around 1km in length.
At the entrance, you’re greeted with the famous and iconic Mall of Asia Globe, which was part of a publicity stunt in 2021, a stunt saying that it was stolen by helicopter, to promote a Netflix film. The globe is extremely large, several stories high.
As we were there just after Christmas, there were festive lights and decorations on a grand scale. There are signs to different wings of the mall which helped with orientation. Lots of food concessions dotted around too, so in case you get lost, at least there will be snacks not too far away. International high street chain shops as well as national Filipino shops fill the mall. My favourite shop is a shop called ‘Kultura’, which celebrates Filipino traditional hand-made crafts, artisanal goods, food items, home décor, jewellery, traditional style clothes with modern twists, amongst many other items, all made in the Philippines. I got some gorgeous presents from here including organic cacao, coffee beans and I treated myself to some earrings too. It was great to feel like I was supporting the local economy and not just buying mass-produced goods.
We ate at the branch of Shaka, which I have written about here. Fantastic food, loads of vegan options to choose from, including cake. You can find it near the Ikea on Floor 2.
Venice Grand Canal Mall
Upper McKinley Road, Taguig City, Manila
Just south-east of BFC area, can be found the famous Venice Grand Canal Mall. When I say the malls here are out of this world and something else, the Venice Grand Canal Mall epitomises this.
As its name suggests, the inspiration for this mall was taken from Venice, with a mock canal that divides the mall, complete with surrounding Venetian style facades and bridges, beautiful and slightly surreal. Gondola rides can be had, along with lovely gondoliers, wearing the classic striped uniform, and singing classic Italian songs. The tickets were relatively pricey – though I can’t remember how much they were, possibly around 500 PHP each – and unless you were a group of 4 then you share with people you don’t know. It wasn’t a problem as we were paired with a lovely couple from the US, who had Filipino roots. They were friendly and all was jolly.
As it was around Christmas time, there were festive sculptures in the canal, such as penguins and polar bears, adding to the surreal nature of the place. The whole experience was loads of fun.
There were also many shops of course, a spa, cinema and market stalls.
Though there are many restaurants here, we didn’t find many or any obvious vegan options, but we did get some snacks from the supermarket here.
It’s a fun place to visit, smaller than the other malls mentioned, worth going out of the way for the novelty experience of riding in a gondola and pretending to be in Venice.
Follow The Greedy Herbivore on Instagram and Facebook to keep up with my latest blog posts, reviews and ramblings, or follow through WordPress to receive notifications of new posts direct to your inbox.
The Greedy Herbivore 