A walk in the mall

I'm not one to read reviews of any kind and I'm not one to give any either. However, I just had to say something about Ayala's latest mall, Trinoma, which I've visited a couple of times already with my boyfriend. The first time we went there was the weekend after its opening on May 16. We didn't even plan to go there yet but I had to buy something from SM City North EDSA, which is just across Trinoma. So we parked at SM, and after buying what I needed, we decided to cross the street and take a peek inside Trinoma.

The first thing I noticed was that there wasn't any signage indicating that the building was indeed Trinoma. There were small streamers along the open parking lot, and of course we knew it was Trinoma, but it would have been better if the Trinoma name and logo was situated where everyone can see it. I heard that there was a signage at the building's entrance facing Mindanao Ave., but the bulk of the people will be coming from EDSA so there should be a signage there as well. Also, it didn't help that there are still some construction going on at the EDSA side but I'm thinking the mall's facade will look nicer once the construction and the painting's done.

Once inside the mall, my bf commented on the floor. I looked down and I saw that the tiles were small, (around 4" x 4"). Well, probably each tile was 1' x 1' and the 4" x 4" smaller tiles are just the design. But still, what's visible are the small tiles and that makes the whole ground floor look like a bathroom's floor. The 2nd to 4th floor tiles had varying designs, depending on the shopping area so they probably had a reason why they chose the small tiles as the design for the ground floor (probably more suitable for the heavy foot traffic).

The layout of the mall was very much like Glorietta; there's an activity center in the middle (the first time we went there, MYMP was having a concert sponsored by Skechers, and the second time, Strawberry Shortcake mascots were entertaining the kids and kids at heart. Hehe) and the boutique shops and fastfood restaurants are situated around it. As expected, most of the shops aren't open yet so we headed to the "Greenbelt area" of the mall where there are a lot of food establishments already open. I call this the "Greenbelt area" because this is where the garden and mini-ponds are located, like how it is at Greenbelt. We stayed at Giligan's Island Restaurant & Bar and ate barbeques, oysters and rice for meryenda! It was a good thing that we decided to roam around a bit before going back to SM or else we wouldn't have found out that there's a Dairy Queen outlet at the 2nd flr. I got a waffle cone with fudge and brownies toppings and my bf got a cherry cheesecake blizzard. Yummy! :)

Our second visit was more productive in a sense that we actually bought something in Trinoma aside from food (we bought a wireless router and USB flash drive from CompLink, located at the 3rf flr I think). Hehe. We still parked at SM because we heard that the parking is difficult at Trinoma so we crossed the street again, which was a hassle because it was starting to drizzle (they really should build a pedestrian overpass connecting SM and Trinoma because people will most definitely move back and forth). We roamed around and saw that more shops are open. We couldn't resist going back to the garden area and that's where we made another good tambayan find - Cafe Breton! We ordered coffee and tea and our favorite dessert, Butter & Sugar, and then we sat outside and people-watched. There were a lot of people strolling and taking pictures in the garden and I realized that we Filipinos really have a mall culture. We spend our weekends, not at home, or at the public park, but at the malls. We can shop, dine, attend mass, watch a movie, see a doctor, and stroll at a park inside a mall! Blame it on the tropical weather; it's easier to relax when you're in an airconditioned mall than when you're stuck at home fanning away (ok, we do have electric fans and a/c units. but turning on the a/c unit can jack up your electricity bill big time!) while looking for something interesting to watch on the television.

Overall, Trinoma is a great mall. Even if it is located in front of another mall, I think that people will still visit just because it has shops different from those that can be found in SM. Plus the fact that is it connected directly to the MRT station makes it all the more accessible to daily commuters. However, the real clincher is that Filipinos just love malls. We can't get enough of them so for us, there's no such thing as too many malls. Just build it and we will come :)