Day Seventy-One: Mall of Asia; I Play a Little Ditty

8/23/14, 8:03 AM PDT

Today, we visited the expansive (and more importantly, air conditioned) Mall of Asia. Even though it sounds like it should be the biggest mall in Asia (or at the very least, the Philippines), it actually currently sits at third place. But sitting at 406,000 square miles, third place doesn't make it a tiny mall.

Even though a good 50% of it is owned by SM.

So first thing my cousin Mico (who also went with us) and I did was hit up their arcade. There were a few rhythm games on there (no Jubeat though) and I got absolutely destroyed by them when I got too cocky and picked the hardest difficulties because I thought beginner was "too easy."



Oh, and I played Just Dance with Megan too, but thankfully, no picture evidence of that exists.

After blowing I think 200 pesos in arcade games, we went around to take a look at the sort of stuff we could buy in the mall. And since I'm not a super materialistic person, the stuff that caught my eye pretty much consisted entirely of edible things. Like these ADORABLE mochi donuts.

At 40 Pesos ($1) a pop, no way was I gonna buy one though.

And I have to say, the Philippines absolutely OUTDOES us when it comes to their donuts. LOOK AT THIS. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle donuts?

Let's hope they're not turtle filled or else I'll be throwing them in the Shredder.

And Jesus Christ, this pinnacle of human achievement.

I need this. I need this now.

They also had some weird looking fish on display.

"I don't know man, you sure these fish are fine? They look pretty blocked up..."

This guy seemed to enjoy his job as a stock photo model.

Nothing says "Real Italian Food" like an anonymous
white male making out with his fingers.

And there was also this thing.

Sorry for the blurriness.

Yeah, uhh... go ahead and rub that on your skin if you want, but I'll pass.

They also have a Ferris wheel here.

Well, I mean it's no London Eye, but it's not terrible...

Actually, I lied. They have two.

And it's pretty

goddamn

massive.

Yes, we rode in it. And yes, it was a pretty good view.

Too bad we couldn't appreciate it because the pods were HEAT TRAPS under the Philippine sun. Seriously, there was absolutely NO ventilation in there, save for a really crappy air conditioner that was perpetually stuck in the "LOW FAN" setting.

By the time we stepped off the glorified pressure cookers, we were drenched in so much sweat that we looked like we just ran a half-marathon in the Sahara Desert.

But let's not let the heat take away from the pretty cool view we did get. Or at least, my camera got. I couldn't see anything because even my eyes were sweating.

Yeah, it was also right next to the sea, which was cool.

Downtown Manila in the distance.

Towards the end of the night, everything got a LOT prettier because of the lights. Check out how nice the giant globe they have out front looks bathed in LED:

It probably would've looked nicer if they didn't use it as a glorified billboard.

Even their marching band had Tron-esque LED trim!

Unfortunately, no Olivia Wilde in sight.

As derezzing as it was for them to leave, it was still pretty cool.

Afterwards, we went to Mico's house, where I got to use the computer (finally!) and played the piano for a bit. After a good two hours or so, pretty much every adult save for my mom was drunk to HELL in that house, which was pretty funny. They all had the stereotypical drunken slur and they would laugh at EVERYTHING super hard. And even though the smell of alcohol wafted in the air like a crippled balloon, I was pretty happy too. Because drunk people make excellent tippers for lounge piano players such as myself. Look at how much I made.

I had to give 40% to my sister though. Broker fees.

Not to be outdone, Mico also managed to make bank through his awesome bass playing. So lesson learned, everyone, beer is the ultimate cash extortion tool for the bankrupt high schooler.





RFotD: I will never drink an alcoholic beverage. Ever.

SGAT: None really.

Day Seventy: Technological Taxis

8/22/14, 12:01 AM PDT

Today started off with me cleaning the house with my sister while my parents went off to do finance stuff or something at the bank. I did most of the work, like washing dishes, (badly) folding the laundry, and making the bed. My sister wanted to help out too, but I couldn't tell her to send the laundry basket to the roof to dry because she isn't strong enough to carry the heavy laundry, so she decided to sweep the floor.

We didn't have a dust pan, but Megan was pretty content with just pushing the dust around the floor, so I guess it all worked out.

She was practicing for this, pretty much.

OH, I finished Perks of Being a Wallflower today, and let me tell you what, it was an AMAZING book. It was something incredibly relatable for me, partly because it was a bildungsroman that dealt with finding one's identity, coping with family problems, making friends, relationships, etc. Definitely, if you're in high school or even in college, I recommend it. It's a pretty quick read, and you won't regret it.


Anyway, so we've had this house (or, rather, condominium) for around six years now. We use it every time we go to the Philippines, which is every two years. And yet, in those six years, I never knew that we had a little poolside convenience store. I didn't get any pictures of the outside of it, but I did get a picture of the most important thing they were selling.

So many flavors...

Later today, we packed our stuff because we were planning on going to a trip to Baguio. We caught a taxi to the bus station that were were gonna go to and we were DAMN lucky because we managed to hail the most technologically advanced taxi in the Philippines.

Seriously, this thing had BUILT-IN WIFI. And if you happened to forget your smartphone/laptop computer at home, no big deal because the backseat comes with A TABLET, FREE FOR YOU TO ACCESS.

The only downside was that the screen was covered in the grease of every
single person who has ever ridden in the taxi before me.

But hey, it's in-drive entertainment.

Their WiFi actually required a password, and I didn't really feel like asking the taxi driver for it, so I wasn't able to access it. But I did take a screenshot to prove that it did have WiFi.

What a time to be alive.

We eventually arrived at the bus station that would take us to Baguio.

Unfortunately, half the population of Manila had gotten there before us.

And this was only half of the bus station.

We didn't know this at the time, but today was actually the start of a national holiday that gave people a three-day weekend from work. And everyone and their mother had the idea to take the bus to Baguio today. So there were no available trips until 8 AM tomorrow. So we didn't go. Which kinda sucks.

But hey, I still have my Mogu Mogu. So everything's still okay.

God help us all if we lose all this.

RFotD: I still have to try mixing and matching Mogu Mogu flavors.

SGAT: None really.

Day of Immaturity: Incorrect Integration

8/21/14, 6:30 AM PDT

We didn't really know what to do today. We're planning on leaving for Baguio in a few days and we didn't really have any plans...

So we just went back to SM Aura. Where I got even more pictures of their beautiful, beautiful rooftop terrace.

Love the skyline.

Now comes with Selfie-Taking Girl™!

Yeah, every shot of this place looks amazing, I swear.

Inside of the actual mall is pretty cool too. I found an integral in one of those sheets of paper that they have near pens so you can sample them if they work.

Love the handwriting, anonymous math geek.

So of course, I solved it.

QED, bitch.

...Of course, I just now realized that I made a mistake by multiplying two by three instead of finding two to the third power. So here's the revised solution.

...Now QED. Riiiight?

Not to be outdone, Megan also showed off a little. Her drawing skills, not her math skills.

Autographed too. Someday, this will be worth millions.

Bought me two books too. "Perks of Being a Wallflower" and "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." Impulse buys, for the most part, but I mean how could you resist when one of the books looks like this:

The prospect of a dead poodle was the only
reason why I bought this book.

OH, we ended up sticking around the mall pretty late today. We actually got to stay after it closed because my family got lost trying to look for a way out. And let me tell you, when malls are completely dark and empty, they are SUPER creepy. Here's the only decent picture I got:

If this doesn't scream "Silent Hill Hospital Level," I'm not sure what does.

But on the bright side, I did find this picture.

Sorry, Samantha.

RFotD: YES, I KNOW THIS IS UNBELIEVABLY LATE. I'M SORRY.

SGAT: None really.

Day Sixty-Eight: Life In a Spike Jonze Movie

8/20/14, 12:01 AM PDT

We left Boracay today. Before we hit the airport, I got to briefly visit this mini-mall they had. I only had five minutes to explore, so I didn't grab too many pictures.

Shops on shops, ad infinitum.

They had some weird multicolored prism here.

And a Hobbit House.

If it's any consolation for the lack of mini-mall pictures, here's a few more pictures of Boracay that I got.

"Looks like Karate Island" -Hardik

All we need is Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio and we're set.

Clouds.

We took a Cebu Pacific flight again. So of course, I won the coin purse again.

Pink. Huh.

Sister pointed out this sign when we landed in Manila.

They must not have looked very thoroughly then.

When we got back to our apartment, we had some time to kill, so we went to this fancy-pants new mall called "SM Aura" in Makati. And let me tell you, it is BEAUTIFUL. They had this amazing rooftop terrace that looked like it was straight of of the movie "Her."

Here's the comparison, for those of you who have never seen the movie (which you should, by the way, it's a FANTASTIC film).

As happy as a guy living right before The Matrix becomes real can be.

And here's SM Aura's rooftop terrace.

Eh?

Eh??

I think it's damn spot on. And even if it isn't, the view is fantastic.

They had some other cool things too, including this fountain that I really liked.

Like Jeff Bridges' house in Tron Legacy.

RFotD: I really like the movie Her.

SGAT: Nada.

Day Sixty-Seven: The One With All the Gifs

8/19/14, 7:52 AM PDT

(Heads up: This entry has barely any pictures, but a LOT of low-res gifs)

Our last full day at Boracay. We leave in the afternoon tomorrow, which doesn't leave much time to do anything.

So instead, we did everything we could today.

I'm ashamed that I had to download this picture from the Internet.

We started with parasailing. At 1,100 PHP (25 dollars) per head, per 15 minutes, going parasailing was surprisingly cheap. Or maybe they just decided to waive 100 dollars and medical treatment in case we got into an accident.

Which we didn't. But I got some pretty nice footage, which'll look even NICER when I actually upload the vacation videos I took. But for now, take these gifs.

Ooh, pretty.

Later in the day, we also went normal sailing. Initially, mom was SUPER terrified to do this since she can't swim, the water is at least 60 feet deep, and she thought the boat was gonna tip side to side like it would try to shake her off.

Look at the violence.

But she ended up loving it because the wind was nice, the water was crystalline, the boat was stable, and no one ended up dying. It was actually really relaxing, I was tempted to fall asleep at one point until I saw birds flying overhead and got worried that they would make me white-spotted while I was passed out.

We also looked around Boracay at nighttime.

The night life? More like the right life.

They built a sandcastle in my honor too. Look at this thing.

It starts with sandcastles. Eventually, they'll build me an
iron throne.

And after years, literally YEARS of wanting to try it, I got to try Zorbing today.

AKA Super Monkey Ball Simulator.

I think this gif of me inside of one can speak for itself.

I now know how my laundry feels.

RFotD: I am not very prompt on deadlines, aren't I?

SGAT: None.