tale of a mall

Yesterday, my room mate and I decided to go for a little adventure. Since we’re so tired of looking at SM north and Trinoma, we decided to check out SM Marikina. Although im not really anticipating anything special, but a change of environment would be nice. So we went there. I passed by Marikina Riverbanks first coz I need to meet my dad’s friend and I waited for my room mate there. I asked my dad’s friend how do I go SM Marikina from Riverbanks, she said she have no idea. But she said you can walk going there, she even mentioned to follow the flock of people at the back of Riverbanks and I’ll surely find my way. So I followed her advice. When my companion arrived, we decided to walk. And boy, that’s some bad decision. Ayay-yay! Paging Mayor Fernando! Have mercy on Marikina people. When we went outside Riverbank’s roof, we can see SM already, its just across the Marikina river. But of course, we cannot cross the river. And there’s no bridge as well, of all the footbridge that Bayani put in Edsa, he forgot to put one on his own hometown. We were following several people walking along the sidewalk of Riverbanks, but when we reached the end, we’re nowhere to go. We reached the end, it’s the highway already. Pinky asked one of the ladies who’s walking with us…
Pinkie: “Miss, pano pumunta ng SM?”
Miss: “ay akyat kayo dun sa hagdan tas tawid kayo dun”
(she’s pointing somewhere along the highway, we cant really see any bridge so we verified)
Pinkie: “duon po?” (also pointing to the same direction)
Miss: “oo, halikayo, sabay kayo sakin”
We walked with Ate and after about a hundred steps away from where we asked her, there’s a small tunnel and on the right side she pointed…
Miss: “ayan, akyat kayo sa hagdan na yan tas tawid kayo?”
When she said “tawid” she didn’t mean the normal crossing the street on pedestrian. We have to walk beside the freakin highway!!! And im talking about 5-6 lane highway. Imagine the Ortigas flyover, that kind of highway! There’s no way im gonna go up there. Its suicide! We tried hailing for a cab, but after a few minutes, we realized we’re hopeless, so we started praying and walked through the valley of the shadow of death. Hehehe! But seriously, it felt like that. I cant look to my left because I’m afraid of heights, I cant look to my right coz I’m afraid one of the cars will hit me. Its so embarrassing. Its frightening. Its tiring (its about 150meters you know). And the sun’s burning my skin.
When we reached SM, im not sure if I’m still in the mood to look around. Good thing I remember that I really need to buy a flat iron that day. Pinky said the theater’s nice so we checked it out. We watched Underworld, the cinema’s not so bad actually. Compare to other SM Cinema, this one’s way better. They have long couch as waiting area for those who came in early. The staff’s so nice. For me, the best part in the movie house is the fact that they have enough leg room for tall people, like me. So i dont have to spend the entire movie with brusied knees coz it keeps hitting the back of the seat in front of me.
After the movie we strolled around for a place to eat. And there’s a lot to choose from, actually the whole ground floor is filled with restaurants, literally from end to end. They have TOSH (whoo-hoo!), I would have gave in, but I was craving for Teriyaki Boy’s Kani Salad. When we got there though they have their stupid mascot outside, and if you know me well enough you know how I would react on that. But I was able to get my Kani Salad to go, then we went to Judy Ann’s Chicken Inasal Bacolod (ano daw?). Come 7pm, there were fireworks outside the mall, I’m thinking coz its Chinese New Year. I was entertained, at least I was able to watch Fireworks Display, I missed the big one last new year coz of work. We decided to call it a night around 830pm.
I’m not sure if I wanna come back to SM Marikina, I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it. Its just too much effort.