Last weekend's theme was mall hopping. I went to five different shopping malls in my always short weekend break. It was tiring and financially draining, but at the end of the day I enjoyed and I am happy. :) 

My first stop was the Riverbanks Center in Marikina City, my hometown. The Riverbanks Center is the first mall established along the stretch of the Marikina River. A greater portion of the mall is occupied by the famous Save More grocery. Save More is like a household name for grocery in the Philippines. Every city in my country has a branch of this grocery. The Riverbanks Center also houses bazaars offering cheap shoes, clothes and bags, and factory outlets of international brands such as Mossimo, Guess, Nike, World Balance. In my country,  most of the international brands are very pricey. The taxes and transport costs inflate the prices of these international products. Just to give you an idea, this Cath Kidston bag priced at $45 sells for Php 4,000 or $100 here.

But don't get dismayed about my country. We have locally produced commodities that you will love too. This shop in particular sells cheap but beautiful cloth bags.
Photo from Manila Shopper
The prices of the bags sold in this shop will not exceed $10. Anne and I agreed to meet near this shop but since I arrived earlier, I was able to bought this bag.
This bag costs only Php 160 or around $4. Since the shop is also a wholesaler, you can get volume discounts.

When I saw this bag, I was reminded of Cath Kidston and my friend, Duni. Duni makes sleep wears and bags with floral designs and sells them through her Etsy shop. All of her works are handmade so you are assured of high quality.

I wanted to buy more bags (Shopaholic attack!). Good thing that my friend Anne arrived and I was prevented to shop more. Anne and I then went to our next stop, SM Marikina.

If you have been following my blog, then you might have read of SM Marikina.

SM Marikina is a four storey mall that houses around 70 to 100 stores selling clothes, shoes, bags and other merchandise. It has a few restaurants and movie theaters. The mall is relatively smaller as compared to the other branches of SM department stores. But for some reasons, I love this mall because it is not congested, every place is so clean and organized and it provides an overlooking scenery of the city.

My friend Cheryl mentioned in one of my posts that she is interested in seeing what's inside SM Marikina. So here it is my friend!
The facade of SM Marikina
I was not able to take a decent shot of the facade because of the sudden rain. You will better appreciate the glass architecture of the facade once you are inside the mall.
Glass and Metal Industrial Architecture
This is perhaps what made me love SM Marikina. Unlike other shopping malls, SM Marikina's architecture used glass to capitalize on the use of natural light. The mall did not follow the traditional design of a fully enclosed building. 


The architecture also provides a relaxing view of the city. The towering buildings in the next city, the newest line of the mass rail transit, and some pieces of greeneries.
During night time, this is how the glass and metal architecture looks.

The main entrance of the mall
The seats you can see is intended for a mini-concert which normally happens during weekends.
Bungee jumping for kids and for those who remain kids at heart!

Some of my favorite establishments
  

The main reason why we went malling

Anne and I watched the fifth installment of The Fast and Furious. I am a big fan of this series and I have waited two years for it. And my verdict of the movie, it's a must see  and as always, there is a teaser for the sixth installment. Piece of advice: finish the movie until after the end credits. Someone from the past gets resurrected.
  
After the movie ride, Anne and I went real shopping! ;-) I got myself a floral black and white button down blouse and a brown belt from Bayo.
I am currenlty addicted on button down blouses with this style.

How do you call this cut or style?

Anne and I was too engrossed malling. We haven't noticed that it was raining the entire Saturday afternoon. So after our shopping, we decided to transfer to another mall for dinner. We had dinner at our favorite Red Ribbon branch of Robisons Metroeast. When the mall announced its closing time, the rain has stopped and we parted ways to finally go home. Anne and I always leave the mall on closing hours. That's how shopaholic and strong our feet and legs are. We never get exhausted only inside the mall. hahaha! Thank you Anne for the fun filled day.

Still tired from Saturday, I got up early for Mother's Day. I have promised my mother that we will go out on that special day. We went to Gateway Mall and SM Cubao. I forgot to bring my camera so I don't have pictures to share. But next time, I promise to blog about these two places soon.