The breakfast deal turned out to be thoroughly worthwhile. Not since our first monumental breakfast buffet experience in Abu Dhabi have I seen such a spectacular selection of breakfast options. And while in Abu Dhabi it was a fully laid out buffet, here in Manila it was peppered with culinary stations where you could have omelettes and stir fries cooked and smoothies made. There was an immense bakery station with a few local hybrid options like the adobo bun and ensaymada muffin and preserve options that included marmalade and chocolate marmalade; a pancake and waffle station, with a variety of options included caramel and banana; a western breakfast station with oatmeal, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, roast tomato, baked beans and glazed ham; a Filipino station where the local options changed daily, a Japanese station with sushi, an Asian station which included Chinese breakfast options and the ever popular congee; a northern European station with cold cuts, cheeses and boiled eggs (sadly no salmon or pickled things); a cereal counter, including my fave, Bircher muesli; various fruit juices, tropical fruits and yoghurt. I have probably missed something. Needless to say, Dan, who judges holidays partly on the range of culinary delights available, was in heaven.

After a number of rounds of breakfast were consumed, and a chat with Tess and Cass about our plans for the day, we left them to go pick up the religious accoutrements required for the wedding and we headed off to experience one of the results of the heavy dose of American culture on the Philippines – mall shopping. We had been told that the Mall of Asia was the biggest mall in Asia (although I think that might not be the case anymore) so we decided to grab a cab and head there. It cost less than $10 Aus for the 45 minute journey. And it was the journey not the mall that was the most interesting. We zipped past a similar myriad of corrugated iron shelters, street vendors selling everything from clothing to fresh fruits and vegetables and jeepneys. Lots of Jeepneys. (Highway Kings – Bouncing Souls – one of my favourite punk bands (with enough skank to keep it interesting) – I still have a Bouncing Souls work shirt at home – now that really does date me (and them))

Jeepneys were originally re-purposed troop carrying jeeps left by the Americans. Today, they look to be built for purpose, some at varying stages of decay, and form the major public transport system in Manila. There is a metro but its reach is limited and requires the assistance of jeepneys to complete any journey. It is jeepneys you see everywhere on the roads not buses. The Jeepneys are all individualised – some with a streamlined appearance, others with brightly painted murals but almost all have some reference to God incorporated in the livery. God speed, In God we trust – it’s like the Christian version of the Turkish Inshallah. You can be left in no doubt that you are in a country where religion, largely Catholicism, runs deep. Many of the taxis too have religious iconography in the form of dash mounted or rear vision mirror hung figurines. Where we would have Game of Thrones bobble heads or fluffy dice, you will find statues of Mary.

Like Dubai, the climate here suits the prevalence of air-conditioned malls – only here, like some of the more tropical parts of Australia, they have chosen to make half the mall open air. Despite that, the security is quite intense with bag checks and metal detection at all entrances – largely as a deterrent because neither The Mall of Asia had a reasonable selection of stores – I found a Clark’s store but resisted the temptation to add to my shoe collection – but you got the sense that its heyday had passed a bit with newer malls in Makati taking up its position as shopping destination. The stores here weren’t the bargain basement options but they weren’t the real high end either. This was not the mall to find Jimmy Choo. We wandered around for half an hour, mainly checking out sport shoe, electrical and toy stores. Like in our hotel, where there was someone to greet me with Good Morning Ma’am and press the elevator button for me, the thing you notice most about malls in the Philippines is the overwhelming level of service and the number of people ready to serve you in the stores. The first toy shop we walked into there was a service person at each aisle to say good morning ma’am – I felt like I had said good morning more than 50 times in the five minutes we were in the store. Partially this would be about security but it is probably also the fact that wages are so low and customer service expectations so high, that companies can afford to do it.

The idea of a minimum wage you can live on comfortably is a difficult conversation in a heavily populated country like the Philippines where so many of its citizens work abroad as guest workers to earn higher wages than at home. What happens here, where there is little or no safety net – if wages were higher in service industries, companies would likely cut staff. Is providing the opportunity for some people to earn more while others would then earn less a good solution. Something definitely needs to be done to ensure workers can actually live on their wage but I am not sure what the solution is – perhaps there is power in the idea of collectivism to ensure at least no one is being paid less. (Jumpin’ Jivin’ Jimmy the Ghost Joyce – TISM – only TISM could combine renaissance poetry and AFL in an homage to a hero)

A visit to the toilets in the mall reminded me I was definitely in Asia – no squat toilets but it was and put the used TP in a waste basket next to the toilet to lessen the load on the plumbing system. Minhua had taught me never to leave home without a packet of tissues in China. I just hadn’t made the connection here. So far I hadn’t handed over cash for anything so use of the vending machine (2 pesos I think) was out of the question – the smallest change I had was 500 pesos (about A$16). So I traipsed down to the pharmacy and picked up a few things – it looked like I was standing at the medication counter although it didn’t look like anyone was producing a prescription for the stockpiles of medication they seemed to be purchasing – there were even free gift bags for spending over a certain amount. Eventually someone ushered me into a marginally shorter queue. Then it was back upstairs to the toilets. If there hadn’t have been three or four 20 somethings painstakingly re-applying (as opposed to retouching) their makeup, on my first visit, I might have been able to pinch some of the paper towels available for drying your hands. FYI – standing behind the next bunch while waiting for the basin, I felt like a giant as none of them, despite all wearing heels, even came up to my shoulder.

Apart from the different offerings in the food court and the different names of some of the local stores (mainly selling US brand sneakers (half of them probably made locally), the thing that really strikes you is the number of shoe stores offering lifts and specially crafted shoes to make (mostly men) taller. I am not sure why men need to be taller. At home the need for a man to be taller subsided with tea dances and the like. The other difference is the plethora of electronic shops that sell mostly accessories for phones.Mobile phones seem to be the great leveller here. The age and quality may vary but almost everyone has one. After an hour or so wandering the byways of the mall of Asia and finding no model shops, Dan and I decided to grab a cab to the Mega Mall, which purported to have the elusive model shop. We flagged down a cab and after Dan realised the set price the driver had offered was far less than he thought, we agreed to it and jumped in. Then we hit Manila’s long weekend exodus (at lunchtime I might add) and the driver hinted it would likely take two hours to get to the other mall. He suggested heading back to the Mall of Asia but we agreed on a compromise – heading back to our hotel. That actually took an hour – and it was less than 20 kilometres. He was chatty and told us about his six kids – he wanted to know why we didn’t have any. While we often get asked in Australia by people who know us, it was odd to be asked by a stranger. Usually when we say it’s because it lets us travel and do what we want, we are greeted with an understanding nod by stressed out parents who, except for the fact they dearly love their children, envy us just a little. Here, not having children is just viewed as weird. (I’ll Begin Again – Dropkick Murphy – one of their heavier punk rock tracks – it’s only the distinctive vocals that gives this away as a Dropkicks track)

After experiencing the long traffic delays, we decided it was more sensible to look through the malls across the road from the hotel despite the number of signs for ultra-high end labels. Like the Mall of Asia, there was mag and bag on entry here and it was partly open air but that was where the similarities ended. Greenbelt is a very modern mall complex – a series of towers nestled within lush gardens. The first three levels are mall and above that I think a mix of office and residential space. The outdoor areas were mainly restaurants and bars with the odd little store, including a sneaker store that I intend to revisit, tucked away.

The first mall we walked into as we crossed the road, Greenbelt 5, didn’t contain much of interest – Top Shop but that was about it. Across the garden however was more interesting with a toys and hobbies store (mostly Gundam kits apparently), a Marks and Spencer and several hundred other well known brands (Banana Republic, Mango, Juicy Couture). M&S was a bit cheaper than the UK and while by no means bargain basement, it was in my range of affordable (and stocked sizes above 12) unlike stores like Louis Vuitton. We found that part of the mall too – with a Harry Winston store at the front (maybe one day) and all the high end labels you would expect, including the real Louis Vuitton. I found a few things I vowed to look at on return from our island escape where only a limited amount of luggage was available. On the top floor we spied an outlet of the Toast chain of stores from Singapore but sadly I didn’t see runny eggs and Kaya Toast on the menu – maybe at breakfast only

Almost at the end of our mall capacity for the day, we noticed a walkway across the street at the other end of the mall and decided to investigate. This lead to a department store which appeared to trade in cheaper apparel and knock offs – kind of like Big W or Target but with a much higher ratio of bling. Given most of the dresses looked like they would struggle to fit a teenager, we decided to cut a path through to the other side. There we were greeted with more security checking and a gateway into another massive mall – Glorietta. Like Greenbelt, there were apparently 4 or 5 Gloriettas although these ones were all indoor and all connected atrium. It would be like describing Belconnen Mall as two separate malls that joined at the atrium where the cylindrical elevator is. The mall looked older about the late 80s vintage of the Mall of Asia. It had many of the same kinds of stores too. We wandered in and took in the 3 or 4 levels (with a split level arrangement between the two sides for some reason. And then I spotted it – the hobby shop. Apparently it had been the one Dan had been looking for. Of course I was totally prepared for what came next – give me half an hour he said. So I wandered off around the mall, principally to see what shops I could find that stocked things in my size that I would wear. As with many of my jaunts overseas my principal targets were interesting accessories, shoes and tacky souvenirs. After a bit of a wander, I found myself in the food area in front of the curiously named The Home That Fried Chicken Built. Then I spied the first store map I had seen (these were quite plentiful in the Greenbelt Malls). I was looking for the store that was feeding my recent shoe obsession – the humble Clark’s producers of school shoes for a generation of Australian children but sadly lacking from the fashion shoe landscape in Australia. And yes they had it! Given the need to divide the mall into a series of malls, it made for confusing directions – down the escalator and over to Glorietta 3 Then a new map opens up and disappears quickly from the screen. I memorised a couple of the shops nearby but despite some frantic searching and several laps of the area where I thought it was, couldn’t locate it. By this time, we had really had enough of the mall and headed back to the hotel for some rest in the aircon. The malls were air-conditioned but not as well as our hotel room and you got the impression that the better air-conditioning was in the individual stores. (Swingin’ Nut – The Porkers – The band that introduced me to ska-punk Australian style, this is their contribution to the reimagining of swing)

We decided it would be nice to take a refreshing dip so headed down to the hotel’s pool deck. Dan was hoping to have a beer but the pool bar was closed for renovations. He has long been pining for another swim up bar experience but alas here it was not to be. They did however, provide free bottles of water and sun lounges and a roped off lane for swimming laps. I wasn’t up for it after hours trawling the malls but did put it in the memory bank for later. The water was so warm it was only marginally refreshing and mildly cooler than the still humid air out of the pool. It was however quite relaxing just floating there and enjoying the peace and washing the city away.

We had arranged with my sister to meet for dinner and headed down to meet her, her cousin Kookie and Kookie’s son Myko. We walked across to Greenbelt to meet Tess and her sister Nene who had were waiting for us at the restaurant, which Dan was hoping to be Filipino but which turned out to be Thai. No Mussaman on the menu but we did find a few other familiar curries and Thai dishes. As the Philippines is essentially an archipelago made up of a great number of islands, seafood features prominently on most menus here but there was still enough for Dan, who has a very limited palette for seafood, including the additional satay chicken sticks he ordered. Dinner was served the traditional Filipino way on banana leaves but there was traditional (western-style) Thai cutlery – a fork and spoon (Filipinos traditionally eat with their hands scooping up meats and vegetables with handfuls of rice. It is a curious thing when you visit Asian countries how surprised the locals are that as an Australian you eat rice. Granted I didn’t eat steamed rice at all as a child or teenager growing up in the 70s and 80s but westernised Chinese restaurants and fried rice have been such a staple of Australian diets that they featured in the 70s version of the Women’s Weekly Cookbook. I developed a taste for steamed rice in my poverty stricken uni days – you could get a bowl of rice with sauce for about a dollar. And for years on weeks where the money had run out before pay day my go to meal was rice mixed with fountain brand satay sauce. These days it’s a choice rather than a necessity – we live near an extensive Asian dining strip, have a rice cooker at home and probably eat at least two Asian style meals every week. Maybe more in summer. The banana Leaf Thai was heartily enjoyed and the company was great. Tess and Nene refused to accept our contribution to dinner, telling us that Filipino hospitality means that your hosts pay for the meal. Cass, Dan and I tried to use the argument that we were Australian and in Australia we pay our share – we weren’t really successful in any way. (Brother Keith on Destructor – Gerling – Even I agree that the move from backpack wearing teenage punkers to live electronica and hip hop was a master stroke for Gerling. It’s all about the beat in the end)

After dinner Cass, Dan and I headed for the bar strip across the road and chose a relatively quiet bar without Filipino pop music being played. I love lots of things about Asian culture – the food, the people, the hospitality but apart from the Japanese punk scene, the music isn’t at the centre of its charms for me. Cocktails here are almost as cheap as beer so Cass and I availed ourselves of the cocktail menu – sure I could definitely get a better margarita in Australia but the thing I noticed most about mine was the very subtle level of alcohol. The size of the nips was a bit less than we are used to and there was definitely more (lemon) juice and ice in the mix than I am used to. The Pina Colada was the same so Cass sensibly had a glass of sangria as her second drink. I couldn’t resist the cheap Pina Colada, despite its lower alcohol content. Dan of course tackled the beer list. After a relaxed chat, we headed back to the hotel to snooze.