I don't want to spend so much on clothing. In fact, I hate shopping entirely. But there's a place…read morein SM Megamall that I visit every once in a while if I want a good pair of jeans or a nice long sleeved shirt or even a bargain leather belt. And that's Tutto Moda, located at the second floor of the Atrium in SM Megamall. This shop actually sells slow moving items or products from past seasons. They carry mid-price brands under the franchise of Store Specialists. If they are on sale, you can surely find brand items like Polo Sports, Armani Exchange, Anne Klein, and Reiss sold at 30% to 70% off. However, it's important to note that they have broken sizes. So, for example, you see a pair of pants that you like, it doesn't mean that they have one in your size. You need a bit of patience here before you can find an item that's perfect for your size. Aside from clothing, the store also sells shoes and bags.

As a commuter I dread going to the Manila City area, rarely ever go there on my own volition, and…read moreconsider my occasional Manila sojourn as a "day trip." But when I'm there I'm always sure to be visiting certain places without fail, and when I'm in the area the Booksale along Pedro Gil is one of them. I discovered the Booksale on accident looking for a training venue nearby, and to be honest, it took me by surprise. Sure, it's a populous area and UP Manila and Robinsons are just on the other side of Taft, but still it seemed so out-of-place among the chaos of Pedro Gil. Despite this, it's a pretty peaceful store inside, and it's a sizable Booksale at that. In most other branches you'd have to squeeze through people to get into aisles, and here, not so much! It's a great thing to be able to have all that space when you're browsing and digging through pits of books to find something worthwhile. I'm a big believer in finding good things in less accessible, offbeat places, and I do think that in this Booksale branch, you could do just that.

What I love about Booksale is getting that thrill of finding a random non-mainstream book that you…read morewon't get from the typical book stores in Manila. I love it when you discover new titles, series, and authors because of how random and chaoticly unorganized the books are in Booksale. What also makes these second hand books special is that you get random messages from old users such as dedications and other notes which tell you a whole different story. Not only that but these books were surely loved by their previous owners and they wanted to pass on the wonderful and magical experience they had. I also discovered my favourite short story writer named Etgar Keret when I randomly pulled out The Nimrod Flipout from the huge stack of unorganized books. It's so rare for me to instantly fall in love with a book by just reading the first page. I'm now on the hunt to see all Booksale branches in the metro to get his other books because you can't find them on other book shops. My best chances are, I'd find the rest of them on other Booksale branches.

Salcedo Auctions is the only legitimate auction house in the country. As the pioneer in a young art…read moreindustry, this claim to legitimacy is not without its controversies - but I'm not here to talk about that. I'm here to attest to their expertise, their professionalism, their vision. I've seen the collections of at least two Important Philippine Art auctions. This is the main bi-annual sale of Salcedo Auctions. The art specialist Richie Lerma goes through a painstakingly tedious process of research and study to make sure of the historic pieces' authenticity, or of scrutiny and critique in order to assure the investment value of modern or up-and-coming local artists. Salcedo Auctions is famed to have "found" and sold a long lost Juan Luna masterpiece in 2014. I personally fell in love with Alfonso Ossorio's works with my exposure to Salcedo Auctions' collections. His piece, "We Are Many," a post-war (read: 1901, I think!) multimedia work spoke layers and layers of meaning for me. And it sold for 11 million pesos at the last auction to an undisclosed buyer. I dreamed to buy that piece in my lifetime, but it may never happen haha! But just the fact that I could feel that way about an artwork, of a local artist at that, from the trenches of our history, just goes to show what important work Salcedo Auctions is doing for our art industry. If I had 12 million pesos to spend on a piece of art, I would have bought that. There's no corresponding value too high for how strongly I felt about "We Are Many." I hope one day I'm given the opportunity to see and buy that again. Aside from Important Philippine Art, Salcedo Auctions has ventured into the luxe lifestyles of some Filipinos and our Asian art-loving neighbors. Look out for their auction weekends for historic books and maps (an 1800 first edition of Noli Me Tangere was discovered, authenticated, and sold two years ago), limited edition watches, even rare automobiles and jewelry. Last piece of kwento - I was once tempted to bid seeing that some stuff actually had starting prices at 8,000 pesos. Buti nalang I didn't! I found out that piece sold for 120,000 pesos in the end. Ha ha let's build up our investment and disposable funds first!

I love passing by this Booksale branch every time I'm in the area of Cubao. The fact that it's so…read moreconveniently located nearby Cubao Expo (on the way towards it if you're coming from Farmer's or Gateway) makes it a very tempting stop over before my day drink ventures. Although the book selection is a bit pricier than the branches I frequent, I also noticed that the items here were of newer stock. The children's books are also not as old and worn out as I would have expected but that and the surplus stock they have comes with a price which reaches about Php 70 and above but never more than Php 180. I've bought a few kiddie books here with regret to the price but these purchases have quickly become one of the favorite books of my daughter. I also decided to check out what I like to call "the mahal section" where books range from Php110 to Php200 and found a book that stood out because the sticker on it said it was one of the New York Times Bestseller's List so I bought the book even if it was crazy expensive for my taste (Php 115) especially from an author I've never had before. It was such a good book I couldn't put it down on the MRT ride home and I still do make a special reading time for it para sulit ang basa.

I never really noticed the Prism Gallery before up until I was taking a late night stroll around my…read moreneighborhood after some drinks at Blind Pig. On the very same street as Blind Pig and interestingly enough, my office building, I made a mental note to go visit the gallery as soon as I can. Its a small space but good enough to showcase fresh, modern and contemporary art done by new artists of the Manila art scene. I like the well-curated collection that they have and they also have a small gift shop that sells prints of artwork as well as some postcards. A cool place to check out for anyone interested in the local art scene. In the current exhibit by Ang Illustrador ng Kabataan (Ang INK) in partnership with Fedrigoni papers, they gallery showcases works of more than 40 different artists and their interpretations of art and its relationship with the complexities of paper as a medium. INK On Paper runs til end of June but I am very much excited to see the other line ups that they will be having!

Thule is actually a Swedish company that is the market leader in cargo carriers for automobiles…read more Since they loved to carry stuff, they figured we might as well help you with your other transport needs. So just a few years ago they got into bags. You can see that the materials that they use is very high quality and the bags are made to last. They are also thought true, Ikea style. I'm always a bit cautious of buying bags with too many compartments because the risk of forgetting what's inside the different pockets is actually higher. If you are looking to transport anything in a safe and easy way, Thule is the place to go. If you want to be seen doing this, go somewhere else.

Lot of imported household and kitchen equipments that is, i think, exclusive to them. Although its…read moreon the expensive side. Its one of the high-end hardware store in malls, but in this branch, it's not as bid as their usual size.