Where the excitement is

For those with more upscale sensibilities, I'd recommend the bars of Greenbelt in Makati City rather than those of yesterday's Remedios Circle. Greenbelt is a sprawling, low-density mall divided into five sections filled with high-end shops, restaurants and bars. This is one place where you'll see those designer clothes, bags and shoes, not just in the shops but actually worn by the multi-racial night creatures who frequent the place. This is Greenbelt 2 and there were no people in the restaurants yet because I took this at 6:30pm. If this is the kind of lifestyle you enjoy, consider the houses on top of this strip. They even have their own parking garage just below them (mostly hidden by the tree tops). They're called The Residences at Greenbelt, the same name given to the three condominium towers rising behind them (only one can be seen here, still wrapped in netting).

It's in the details

From the glass and concrete of the Glorietta area, we are now on the footbridge crossing Makati Avenue into the warmth and lushness of Greenbelt, still a part of the Ayala Commercial Center. This is the driveway and bridge between Greenbelt 4 (the building on the right) and Greenbelt 3 (off the picture to the left). I already posted photos of Greenbelt 2 and Greenbelt 5 in the past. Don't you just love that bridge and stairwell?

The eye of the storm

In the center of all the Greenbelt malls is the park that gives the area its name. Within the park, surrounded by hundreds of shops and restaurants, is the little Greenbelt Chapel. It was built in 1983 and many of its design elements were created by noted glass sculptor Ramon Orlina. I hope I can visit it soon to take photos, but for now, we have to end our short Ayala Commercial Center walk. And I leave you with an image that is very representative of today's Manileño—a religious center amidst all the commercialism and consumerism of the city. I find it both ironic and hopeful.

Pebble park

"My life is full of mistakes.

They're like pebbles that make a good road."

~Beatrice Wood (1893–1998), American artist and potter

A wooden bridge connecting two of the buildings of Greenbelt, a large retail complex in Makati City, seen through the trunks of some very tall and skinny palm trees. I like how Ayala Land used light and dark pebbles in this part of the park—they make the ground look like freeform art.

Posh mall

THEME DAY: NIGHT • Considering the fact that Metro Manila has a large number of malls, I guess it was inevitable that I would show one for a City Daily Photo theme day. Greenbelt 5 is located at the Ayala Commercial Center in Makati City. I haven't explored it yet but I hear that most of its shops are those of international luxury brands and top Filipino artists and designers. Much too upscale for me. But I also hear that many of its restaurants are fantastic so we just might go there one of these days anyway.



I think it's more correct to describe this as an evening shot since the sky is still light even though the sun had set. But evening or night, I think we're going to see a lot of great photos from City Daily Photo bloggers around the world. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Lush

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap

but by the seeds that you plant."

~Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), Scottish novelist, poet & essayist

It is easy to see how Greenbelt, a large commercial and retail complex in Makati City, got its name.

Stand out

One of the towers of The Residences at Greenbelt, highrise residential condominiums integrated with Ayala Land's shopping and dining center, taken from under the canopy of the much smaller building across the street.

Monkey bars

Some of the garden paths in Greenbelt, a sprawling mall in Makati City, are lined with these bamboo trellises. Remember those monkey bars from your childhood playground? Don't you just find them so tempting? (PHOTO BY DOGBERRY)

Triangle North of Manila

Ayala Land, the company that developed the beautiful Anvaya Cove, also has several malls in Metro Manila and in other urban centers all over the Philippines. In general, their malls are the loveliest and most architecturally interesting in the metro, as we've already seen with Greenbelt 4 and Greenbelt 5 in Makati City. TriNoma is their first mall in Quezon City and though I've already featured one of its fountains and the island Starbucks at its rooftop, this is the first time I managed to get a photo of its curved facade at the corner of Mindanao and North Avenues. I took this on a weekday two hours before the mall opened and the hordes of people usually found at this entrance haven't arrived yet.

Encircled

The lovely landscaped gardens and fountains of Greenbelt Park at the center of several malls which are, in turn, surrounded by the high-rise commercial and condominium buildings of the Makati Central Business District. The only building I recognize in this cluster is the tallest one on the right: the BSA Tower, a condotel.

Natural or man-made, take a refreshing dip in Watery Wednesday.

Soldiers with a taste for luxury

Across yesterday's Glorietta 5 is one of the entrances to the sprawling, original Glorietta which is actually several interconnected malls. 1 to 4 should be in there somewhere. When I was much younger, these shopping centers were all separate buildings until the property arm of the Ayala Corporation, which owns all the land in the Ayala Commercial Center, decided to put them all literally under one roof. It has a big, circular area in the middle for mall events, with a stage for performances and a playground for children. When walking from the Ayala Station to Greenbelt, I usually cut across inside because of the airconditioning. The two tall towers connected to the mall are the Ascott Makati with its luxurious serviced residences, a cross between a hotel and an apartment. It used to be called the Oakwood Premier and this was where a group of more than 300 soldiers decided to hole up when they mutineed against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2003. It was soon after the Oakwood Mutiny that Ayala Land turned over management of the serviced residences to the Ascott Group.

Drool!

I have to confess that I'm not really crazy about chocolate cake. I mean, I like chocolate, but I'd rather just have the bars—plain and dark. When it comes to pastries, my choice is usually cheesecake. Except when we're at Bizu Patisserie (Promenade in Greenhills, Glorietta 4 and Greenbelt 2 in Makati City, Alabang Town Center). It's the only place in Metro Manila where I always go for the chocolate confections, and here are my two favorites. Nirvana is caramel chocolate mousse and pistachio cream on a crisp chocolate crust and a layer of chocolate cake covered with chocolate brilliant sauce.


Samba is a combination of milk and dark chocolate mousse between layers of chocolate cake and coated with chocolate brilliant sauce. Both are heavenly! And make me giddily light-headed with a sugar and chocolate high.

The golden pond

"Alive without breath, As cold as death;

Never thirsty, ever drinking, All in mail never clinking."

~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Just a few of the hundreds of koi we saw in the ponds of Greenbelt, the large retail complex in my Lush post from the other day.

God and mammon

The Philippines is the only country I know where Sunday Masses are celebrated in shopping malls. They are usually held in big, open areas where performances and other special events also take place. Some shopping centers that have many buildings sprawled over a large space even have their own chapels. I showed the one in Greenbelt last year. This one is the Chapel of the Holy Family in the Greenhills Shopping Center in the City of San Juan.

A bouquet of electrical flowers

Last October, I posted a photo of the unusual and pretty lamp of Bizu Patisserie in Greenbelt. I saw it again in their Promenade branch but against walls of a different design. Back then, I called it a splash of light but Olivier of Evry Daily Photo saw un beau bouquet de fleurs électriques (a beautiful bouquet of electrical flowers). I like his description better—so much more romantic. Maybe because he's French?


And because I'm sure that people will ask where the pastries are, they're here, here and here. Enjoy!

Weaving life

"We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving, and we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing."

~Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888), American novelist

On display at the 3rd floor of Greenbelt 5 mall are the gorgeous nito vine baskets of the indigenous Iraya Mangyan of the island province of Mindoro. The Ayala Foundation has committed to providing education and skills training to a community of Iraya Mangyan in the town of Puerto Galera, a popular beach and diving destination. Part of their commitment is to revive the traditional art of weaving beautiful and functional baskets made of nito (Lygodium circinatum), a forest vine. Sales of the baskets go directly to the families who weave them.

You can learn more about—and support—the Ayala Foundation's Iraya Mangyan Project here.

A delightful fortress

"Museums should be places where you raise questions,
not just show stuff."

~William Thorsell, past Director & CEO of the Royal Ontario Museum

This is the side of the Ayala Museum which can be seen from the park in the middle of Greenbelt. Only the ground floor has windows. The windows on the second floor do not open to the museum but to a walkway connecting two of the buildings of the mall. Other than that, the rest of the building looks like a fortress, and it probably is, given the priceless artifacts exhibited in the museum. One of their permanent exhibits is Filipino garments from the 19th century, some of which are painted on the walls of the walkway.

See murals from around the world in Monday Mural.

Memories

Fourteen years ago tomorrow, Exie and I got married at Mary the Queen Parish in the City of San Juan. Our lunch reception was at the restaurant Chateau 1771 in the El Pueblo Real complex in Ortigas Center. It closed last year—for good, I thought, because it relocated to the newer Greenbelt 5 mall in Makati City, a location which better suits its fine dining atmosphere. Happily, I discovered earlier this month that the company only closed the El Pueblo location temporarily. Its interior has been completely renovated and it is now named Café 1771 but it still offers some of the original dishes and its charming facade has been retained. I'm glad to know that our wedding reception memories are not just memories now.




Happy anniversary, love of my life.

Ayala Station

The photo of Greenbelt 5 which I posted for the CDP theme day on Saturday was the last in a series of photos which I took in the Ayala Commercial Center on the evening that we watched Rep's The Fantasticks. So let's begin our tour properly at the beginning, shall we? I took the MRT from Quezon City to Makati City and this is where I got down, the Ayala Station. Buses on the ground level, trains on the upper, and lots of food stalls along the way. The cinder block of a building on the right is another mall: SM Makati.

Portrait or caricature?

Waiting for the theater Onstage to open its doors, I saw these two artists creating portraits and caricatures from photographs at the base of the escalator.