Just in time for the holiday season, Tutuban Center Night Market opens. It is the Philippines’ answer to the world-renowned night markets of Hong Kong,Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. It also reminds me a lot Vietnam’s Ben Thanh Night Market, which I love to go back to sometime.
Tutuban Center Night Market is a unique bargain shopping destination that allows us to experience open-air shopping at its best, with the widest array of goods and supplies at the most reasonable prices. The Tutuban Market is a clean, organized and secured market area that brings together stalls that sells personal items, kitchen accessories, sports gear and novelty knick-knacks—and just about anything you can think of.
It is the exciting place where, at the close of regular mall hours, street vendors take over the vehicular road network of the main cluster of the Tutuban complex to set up their stores and sell their goodies. From the early evening to midnight, the perimeter area of Tutuban Center metamorphoses into a dynamic market, with pockets of brightly-lit stalls with equally bright-eyed shoppers angling for the most awesome bargains.
Haggling and negotiating over prices is definitely the standard practice, and goods all come at cheaper and more affordable costs. And now that Christmas is around the corner, you can browse more than a thousand imaginative gift ideas. This is the market where “there’s something for everyone” rings true and real.
Gift suggestions are yours for the giving: for your office secret Santa to your special someone; for the sister who is into arts and the niece into crafts; for the brother who is a gadget geek and the nephew who’s a technophile; for the boss who is a cook and his wife’s who’s a foodie; for your Mom who’s a home buff and Dad who’s a garden aficionado.
While Christmas carols are on full blast, enjoy dining al fresco at the Food Street. Freshly cooked seafood and hot-off-the-grill offerings are yours for the partaking to drive away your hunger pangs. Hong Kong-style or homemade noodles will surely chase the cold Christmas chill away while street staples such as hotdogs, kikiam and fish balls are sure to satisfy your cravings.
I haven’t gone Christmas shopping just yet. With the limited time I have left and with my dilemma of the malls closing on me just when I just got done with my day’s task, Tutuban Center Night Market Shopping sounds really inviting.