VisitPinas.com

The city is a concrete jungle, full of greenery artificially created by people to resemble the plants and trees that nature has nurtured for years. There’s plenty of breathtaking scenery in the city — view from the Philippines’ tallest building in Makati or the seemingly endless labyrinths of gigantic malls, among others.

The most surprising scene in the middle of a concrete jungle, however, is not any of those. It’s the lush green area, with a body of water in the middle offering a serene medium to soothe frayed nerves. It’s not the granite or steel columns of skyscrapers in Makati or Ortigas, but the tree trunks that have withstood the test of time. Imagine my surprise when I stepped into the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Nature Center, in the middle of Quezon City, just across the Quezon Circle and a stone’s throw from the Quezon City Hall (if you’re a mall rat, perhaps it would be better to describe it as one block away from Trinoma or two blocks away from SM City North EDSA, along North Avenue). It’s near the University of the Philippines (Diliman), another green patch in the middle of the city, but that’s another story.

It may appear that there’s really nothing extraordinary with a green patch in the middle of Quezon City. Would you consider a green patch of earth extraordinary? Everyone has an opinion, of course. For me, it’s one of the major differences between Ayala malls and SM malls — the open spaces, the green patches where weary shoppers could sit down and relax. The good thing, though, is that SM appears to be slowly adopting this concept.

There’s an aviary, wildlife rescue center and other sights (just go to its site to read more), but I never had the chance to go see any of them. It was enough for me to enjoy the time spent at the edge of the peaceful waters of the lagoon. Just like the eye of a storm, it’s amazing to experience tranquility in the middle of hurried time, unforgiving reality and harsh grind of life forward.