F.B. and I hang out at alot of malls when I visit the Philippines, so I thought I would share some of the malls I've visited.
The malls are humongous in the Philippines! They stretch for several miles and are usually more than 4 stories. Supermarkets, Movie Theaters, Ice Skating Rinks, Arcades, Gyms, etc; are usually present in most of the malls. Some like Mall of Asia even have IMAX and musuems.
Shopping can generally be inexpensive (Peso to US Dollar) if you stick to Philippines products and not imported items. (USA, etc.) Electronics tend to be more expensive than the USA even though most are made over in Asia. (Which I don't really understand?)
Buying groceries and eating out are also inexpensive. A nice sit down restaurant like Gerry's Grill might cost less than $20 for two. Fast Food places like Chow King, Tokyo Tokyo can even be about $6 or less for two people to eat.
Clothing prices are not bad. I've seen t-shirts for P150 before ($3) and I bought a 'Pepsi' & 'Coke' t-shirt last year for about P400 ($8). Buying a Philippine magazine will usually cost around $2-3. Imported US magazines are much pricer.
Movie theaters are also less expensive. It's about $2 for an adult ticket. (Compared to $10-13 for a movie ticket in the USA!) F.B. & I see alot of movies when I visit!
Here are the top 10 malls I enjoy in the Philippines (Luzon):
1. Mall of Asia
2. Sta. Lucia East Grandmall
3. SM Marikina Mall
4. Market Market
5. Robinson's Place Metro East
6. Trinoma
7. Mega Mall
8. Glorietta Mall
9. Greenbelt
10. Greenhills
11. Robinson's Galleria
I'm really bad at math and not so good with currency conversion. But I find Peso Bills really easy to use. The exchange rate is usually around 46-50 Pesos to $1 USD. It always helps to check the exchange rate before traveling to know how much you will get for your money. Below are approxmiates of how much the Peso Bill is to the US Dollar.
50 Peso Bill = $1
100 Peso Bill = $2
200 Peso Bill = $4
500 Peso Bill = $10
1000 Peso Bill = $20 (Largest Bill)
Picture of some of the Peso Bills I still have in my wallet:
Yes I did put the word 'void' in transparent letters over the bills, silly me haha! Why? Because I didn't know if I should take a picture of real currency, lol!
There's also a 20 Peso Bill but that is like change. I'm really bad at using the coins actually. F.B. has tried to teach me several times but they work a bit different than US coins so I always get confused. I usually let him pay if we need to use the coins!
F.B. wrote me a list before of the coins though it's still confusing to me!
.05 = 5 cents (Little Coin)
.10 = 10 cents (Little Coin)
.25 = 25 cents (Little Coin)
1 Peso = 1 Peso (Big Coin)
5 Pesos = 5 Pesos (Big Coin)
10 Pesos = 10 Pesos (Big Coin)
NOTE: To see blog posts similar to this one check out:
Foreign Food Cravings
My Favorite Philippine Products
