Wikipedia says:
"The SM Mall of Asia mall grounds consists of four buildings interconnected by walkways; the Main Mall, the Entertainment Mall, and the North and South Carpark Buildings.
The Main Mall includes shopping and dining establishments and the food court. The Entertainment Mall is a two-story complex, a majority of which is open-air, facing Manila Bay.
The mall's 5,000 parking spaces are divided across two, six-story parking buildings conveniently designated the North and South parking buildings. The South Parking building houses the mall's official SM Department Store, while the mall's supermarket, the SM Hypermarket is located within the North Parking building. (NOTE: Free standing supermarkets don't exist here, or at least I haven't seen one. They are one of the anchot stores of all big malls.)
One of the mall's somewhat-unique features is a 20-seater tram traveling around the mall grounds to ferry shoppers around."
Pretty impressive, isn't it?
This is the main entrance.
It's nice and cool by the skating rink!
I really don't know how you would shop there unless you figured out what stores you wanted to visit and drew yourself a map or flow diagram. We were just wandering to keep cool, but Joan couldn't resist a giant pink stuffed rabbit with a big red heart. She is starting work again, and I'll bet the big bunny took everything she will get in her first check.
We ate lunch at a place called Max's which is famous for roast chicken. Jackie and I each had a leg/thigh quarter with a good sized helping of RICE, and some veggies wrapped in a spring roll wrapper. Joan had fried eggs with pork and RICE. We got an appetizer that was a soup with veggies and shrimp to put over the extra RICE the girls always order. I was full after my chicken, RICE, and half of my salad thingie. I hate having impaired hearing because it is so hard for me to get the names of things correct without asking about it 6 times. I tend to write when the girls are sleeping, so then I forget to ask the name. Sorry. Anyway, the girls finished up all of lunch. There was this weird dessert that seemed to have random stuff on top of shaved ice. I recognized the coconut and the hunks of red and green jello, but then there were hunks of stuff that looked like fruit, but were basically tasteless, hunks of something totally unrecognizable, which was also pretty tasteless, and mung beans. I think there were a couple of a seed that tastes like chocolate, but maybe that was my imagination. Ice tea here is like tea colored, very sweet, but very weak, lemonade. "Unsweet" isn't an option. Jackie told me it was considered a good restaurant, not a fast food place. The chicken was wonderful and the service was excellent. Tipping is the custom, but at a lower percentage than typical in the US. Jackie has always figured out the tip, and I don't know the formula she uses. You are expected to hand the tip to the waiter, not leave it on the table, which is considered impersonal and rude here.
Table manners: Eating any rice dish with your fingers is perfectly acceptable. Joan eats almost exclusively with her fingers. The way Jackie eats, the fork is in the left hand, a soup spoon in the right.
The fork is used to hold food for cutting or push food onto the spoon. The spoon is used to cut in lieu of a knife, and to shovel food into your mouth. People here eat very fast. In the US, I'm considered a very fast eater. Here, I'm a real slowpoke.
Pics from today's outing: OK, here are pics from my cell phone. I know some of you think I'm alone in a hotel and just grabbed some pics of cute Filipinas off the internet, but I actually do have friends here. Even though they are twins, Joan is noticeably taller than Jackie.
Jackie, George, and Joan
Jackie and me
Joan and me
Fashionistas strike a pose
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