“Exploration Shopping”

We live near Baclaran, a street shopping area in South Manila. We go through it every time we go to the LDS chapel. We honk…well I honk…at taxis that stop in the middle of the road, or the peddle bikes that dart out without looking and I almost hit them, we know where all the HUGE potholes are, which areas are the most congested, and where to buy the best mango and bananas.

However, it has almost been a year since we have actually stopped the car and walked the street. So we went on an “exploration shopping trip.” We did not really have anything to buy. We just wanted to see what was available. It was fun to see the clothing factories selling clothing wholesale. Rows and rows of clothing for so cheap.

The only bad thing was that you had to buy in bulk most of the times. So if you liked a shirt you either needed to like it enough to get 5 of the same thing in different colors OR have 4 friends with the same size and style as you so you can give them a Christmas present! HAHA

The creepy mannequins

It was fun. We stopped in all kinds of stores, large and small. We found malls in areas that we never knew existed. We ended up with dusty feet, sore eyes, and a few bags of random items: a lopsided basketball (they had pumped it up too much, I told Lady to get another one but she said ‘she did not care, she wanted THAT one’), poster paper to make a map of the world for a LDS youth activity, a red clothing bag for Lady, and some random string things.

What a great day to explore, the things you miss out on when you never get out of your car! SO many hidden treasures that would have been nice to know are there!