There’s a Book Fair being held at the Mall of Asia and today is our only chance to get there. Apparently, there are big discounts to be had and Rhoda is keen to go so we plan to leave at 11 o’clock. We’ve arranged to meet Geoff for lunch so it’s all go. We’ve also been invited to a formal occasion tomorrow evening and Marilyn has to wear a long dress. There’s not one in the suitcase so we have to find time to see whether it’s possible to buy a suitable one off the peg.
Kit and her family always have their clothes made and we’re advised that it might not be too easy to find what Marilyn would like. Still, it’s that or fall back on the mother-of-the- bride outfit she wore to Siaren’s wedding.
First, though, we have to meet Geoff at what’s called the Wet Market, on the waterfront opposite the Mall. There is a small fish market there with local and imported fish but the main business of the area is restaurants catering for people wanting to see the famous sunset over Manila Bay.
We arrive early so look around for a place to sell us a drink. One of the restaurants offers cocktails so we settle down with Lemon Daiquiris waiting for Geoff. It’s quite a nice place so we decide to have lunch there. The menu lists a lot of fish dishes, all in Tagalog, but with very small prices, like 100 pesos ($2.50). It can’t be true and we find out that this is only the price to cook whatever you have bought from the market next door.
We short-circuit the system, choose what we would like from the menu and the chef sends a kitchen hand to buy the necessary fish – 2 servings of prawns and 2 servings of salmon. Marilyn has tempura prawns, Rhoda has hers cooked in chili and soy sauce, Geoff’s salmon is grilled with chips and mine is cooked in a soup. A great lunch and surprisingly cheap. Unfortunately, the Western Australian chardonnay was ‘cooked’, a common problem in hot climates when the wine is not properly stored. It was the dearest thing on the bill as well.
After that fortification we headed off to the Book Fair. Every man and his auntie was there. You could hardly move but we managed to find half a dozen good buys and some educational toys before the claustrophobia became too much. Geoff had bailed out even earlier. We left our parcels at the Fair and went over to the S&M Department Store.
If we thought the Book Fair was busy, we were not prepared for the S&M sale. What a madhouse! There were huge piles of clothes at 50% off with frantic Filipinos digging through them, with anxious assistants trying to keep some order. It was quieter in the Ladies formal wear and, surprisingly Marilyn found three possible dresses in the first rack she looked at. This is going to be easy, I thought. Not so! The department only had 2 fitting rooms and there was a queue of about ten women patiently waiting for their turn. The assistant tried to push Marilyn to the front, and nobody was complaining, but Marilyn insisted on taking her proper turn – very egalitarian, we Australians. It’s a bit disconcerting to see Marilyn in a line of a dozen Filipinas. She is usually the tallest and her ash-grey hair stands out against the plethora of brunettes.
You wouldn’t believe it – the first dress she tried on was perfect. She tried on another one to please the assistant but the decision was made with no fuss. In the Philippines, the assistant comes into the changing room with you to help with zippers and buttons, knowing there are always a dozen others to look after the other customers.
OK, a nice red dress, now we need shoes to match. Upstairs, it looked as if everybody from the Book Fair had come over to join in the fun. Of course, no matter how many people there are, it is always easy to find an assistant, if not 2 or 3. They gravitate to foreigners, so it didn’t take Marilyn long to find a couple of pairs of shoes she liked. It must have been bedlam in the back room with dozens of assistants all trying to find the shoes they needed. S&M is notorious, apparently, for skimping on non-productive space, so there are too-few fitting rooms, and tiny backroom space for storage.
I left her to it and headed for the toy department where I had to find a model BMW for a raffle for Kit’s Reunion. I’ve said it before but Filipinos love their kids and can’t bear to be without them. The Children’s Department was chock-a-block with young families – fathers carrying their babies on their front like kangaroos, toddlers in strollers or, worse, those horrendous car things that parents hire and push around in department stores, 7 and 8 year olds having a wonderful time getting in the way and the occasional 12-year old, stopping to text every few steps. I couldn’t get close to the model cars for the kids who hovered 3-deep picking up every model and discussing it with friends. Like all toy departments, there’s a lot of looking and playing but not much buying. I enlist the help of another shop assistant who brings in three of his mates and the right car is soon found.
We haven’t got all we wanted but we’re exhausted and decide it’s time for a meal and home. We find a Tapas restaurant where we dine well, enjoy the fireworks which go off every Friday and Saturday nights about this time and then back to the car with our parcels. Seven hours parking cost us 30 pesos (75c)
Marilyn’s happy that she has a beautiful new dress and shoes, Rhoda is happy with her new books and Rex will be happy when he sees what we have bought for him. I’m happy that it’s been another great day out. To an outsider who has been here 6 times now, the Philippines seems to be coming out of its long period of recession at last.
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