The Best and the Cheapest seat to view the framed Manila Bay sunset is no longer the ship-choked Luneta or cluttered Baywalk.

The restaurant-coffee shop row of SM’s new Mall of Asia – with its sweeping view of Mount Samat, the Bataan peninsula, and Sangely point in Cavite across the bay – promises to be the ideal bayside “gimmick place to bring a date without the fear of burning a hole in a shallow pocket.

The mall’s wide verandas and two overhead pedestrian walkways even provide photography buffs virtual stands to capture the stunning, daily fireball show.

At 400 meters length, the Mall of Asia is a hundred meters shorter that its elder sister Megamall, but twice width and visually longer since it is part of the two-kilometer stretch of 60-hectare beachfront SM property.

The perimeter walk around the mall is easily two kilometers, and with 5,000 park slots (tip: the open car park is still free), ideal even for car-bound residents for early morning or late afternoon jogs.

Operations manager Steven Tan said the mall is starting a walking/jogging club, as part of the multi-pronged strategy – giant iMax theater will serve as a magnet for the school crowd – to make the country’s and so far the region’s biggest mall a “destination experience.

For those without cars, the Edsa buses now detour and make a stop by the mall’s rotunda; Cavite residents may even take air-conditioned FXs from the SM Molino branch right up to the Mall of Asia’s humongous public transport terminal.

For those elderly and the pediatric-challenged, there are battery-operated courtesy carts that go around both inside and outside the mall; Mall of Asia may only have two levels, but a complete walk around the mall will easily clock five kilometers.

To bring down the cost of air-conditioning such as superstructure, the Mall of Asia was designed as four-buildings-in-one, with open air hallways in between and for the beachfront building to take in the South China Sea breeze.

Still, the Meralco bill is estimated to reach P60 million a month, as against Megamall’s P45 million monthly consumption, said SM Prime Holdings President, Hans Sy.

To ensure 24/7 electricity, the mall built a 16 megawatt standby power plant, so that even its 1,400 people Dell call center, which leases the entire second floor of the North parking building would have uninterrupted power supply.

The three-shift Dell call center alone is enough to keep Jollibee, Starbucks and other fast food outlets in the mall full of ravenous customers all year round.