I had wanted to post about airports again but the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan and the continuing efforts for relief in places affected by the typhoon made me hesitate a bit from doing “business as usual” writing. The past few days though I have seen a demand for information on NAIA Terminal 3 and so I decided to complete an unfinished draft on T3 to add on the information out there on shopping and eating/drinking at T3 once the passengers have passed through the final security check and proceeded towards their respective gates for pre-boarding.

We were at Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s Terminal 3 last month for a flight to Iloilo. I took some new photos to come up with an update to the pictures I’ve posted in the past on T3.

There are many souvenir shops at NAIA T3 including those selling flip flop sandals, shirts, swimwear, electronics, luggage and various accessories.

There seems to be a lot more options for eating or perhaps sipping a hot cup of coffee or tea while waiting for your boarding call.

There’s a shop selling eye wear (sunglasses anyone?), electric razors and watches.

A popular souvenir shop for shirts is Islands Souvenirs. They have shops or stalls all around the country with each basically selling only designs attributed to the city or island where the shop is set-up. That means Cebu shops/stalls basically sell Cebu-themed shirts, Iloilo shops/stalls sell Iloilo-themed merchandise, and so on. The shirts they sell are of very good quality and don’t shrink after you wash them. I have quite a number of shirts (I used to collect them from my travels.) so I can attest to the quality of their products.

“Pondohan” translates into neighborhood “store” or “shop.” It is also more commonly called “sari-sari” store with the term “sari-sari” meaning “variety” and referring to the merchandise being sold at the store.

This stall offers quick meals as well as pasalubong in the form of their take on popular kakanin or rice cakes or puddings. Friends say they also have good coffee.

Colleagues of mine having a quick meal before our morning flight to Iloilo. Beside them are directional and information signs of PAL and Ceb Pac.

We found that there were already other shops and cafes/eateries along the way to the boarding gates at one end of the terminal. I guess with more passengers now using T3, there is also more demand for shops and options for eating at the airport’s pre-boarding areas (i.e., near the gates of this linear terminal building).

–