Today being my birthday, my girlfriend suggested we pick up cakes from a Sunday market that she often frequents. We took a jeepney to get to a private development called Eton Centris. If you want to come by Manila’s metro, the station to get off at is Quezon Avenue. From there, it’s a short walk behind Centris Station Mall.
I don’t know what Sidcor is. I couldn’t find an answer online.
If you’ve been to Bangkok, you would have seen many such public markets where stalls are set up selling kinds of foods alongside clothes and other goods. Well, Sidcor Local Sunday Market is similar but on a smaller scale.
There were a line of vehicles blocking the view of the market
They have benches placed so that visitors can sit and eat
After two full days at LiwLiwa beach, it was time to head back home. We went back to Mommy Phoebe’s Place for breakfast.
It was a good hearty breakfast; cost us ₱445 (₹660/$8/€7.3)
We then went back to our room, checked out of Cafe de Liwa, and took a trike taxi to San Felipe Public Market. We then boarded a Victory Liner bus to Manila.
It was raining for much of the journey
The bus would only make a few brief rest stops
We were delayed a bit due to highway traffic closer to Manila. So it was past 4pm when we finally reached the Victory Liner terminal we got down at. We took a taxi, got home, and then went to a restaurant called Fat Cousins’ Diner. It was not good. Just mediocre food at high prices.
Date: January 6, 2023
After doing some work, I decided to step out to check SM City North EDSA, one of the largest malls in Manila.
I headed to the mall on a Grab bike taxi
The main mall has the usual brands you will find in any SM mall. I went to the Annex wing to check out ‘Cyberzone’ — which as the name suggests, is where all the electronics shops are.
I mostly came here to check out the gaming stores
Aside from stores selling PlayStation games, you have pretty much every major brand of electronics available here — from laptops, gaming PCs, TVs, appliances, and of course mobile stores. Lots and lots of mobile stores and accessories for mobile phones.
I spent some time at SM North EDSA, not because I wanted to… but because it was raining outside
Once the rains had subsided, I used the bridgeway to get to Trinoma mall on the other side of the EDSA highway
There was a lot of construction going on at Trinoma mall’s site
I searched on Google Maps and found a few Indian eateries in the Monumento area, just 5+ kilometres from Trinoma/SM City North EDSA. I thought I’d check it out and grab some dinner from there.
After arriving in Manila on 19 December 2022, I spent much of my time indoors for a number of reasons. Christmas time meant much of Manila would have been crowded. The weather also wasn’t the best during my time in Manila.
Since I had already seen most of whatever Manila has to offer as far tourists sights go (this was my fourth visit to Philippines), whenever I would step out, I would mostly end up hanging out at Manila’s many, many shopping malls.
So just before Christmas, I stepped out to take a break from work and headed to SM Megamall, once the largest mall in the Philippines until SM corporation opened Mall of Asia in 2006. I took the MRT train and got down at Ortigas station.
The curved building next to the mall is called the Mega Tower
SM Megamall was huge and I easily spent close to two hours checking out several stores, including all the fast fashion brands (H&M, ZARA, and Uniqlo) and SM’s own gigantic department store. I didn’t take any photos from inside the mall… because all malls look the same to me nowadays.
