Good Old Days of Lipa

My father side is from Lipa and I grew up in Lipa. Wherever I go, I am proud to talk about my city and what it can offer to visitors. I'm 80s baby and seen closely the changes in the streets of Lipa.
Maybe some of our members here will have no idea what Brownies and Mama Bears were. They were our Mc Donald's and Jollibee in the 80s until Greenwhich put up its branch in Lipa in 1988.

That time Greenwhich is not as popular as it is today. At the same time, "Ayala" highway was not yet commercialized where both sides of the dusty road were covered with high grasses. Then came Dunkin Donuts (downtown) and Mc Donalds (JP Laurel /Ayala highway) in the early 90s. Both are the first branch in Batangas. South Supermarket opened in mid 1990s which became a big hit to shoppers of Batangas.

In the latter part of the 90s, Max's, Texas Chicken (Big Ben), Kenny Rogers, and RACKS (Big Ben) opened its branches in Lipa which were/are also their first branches in Batangas. It was the same time when Fiesta mall, first full service mall in Batangas, opened. I could still remember how many people were shopping that time in Fiesta mall from different parts of Batangas, Mindoro, Laguna and Quezon. Manila bars were opened as well in the late 90s such as Jazz Rythms (Fiesta Mall), Ten Years After (KPointe), & Goodfellas (KPointe).

It was in 2003 when Robinsons Place opened and right before SM City opened its branch in Lipa in 2006, Robinsons had its annex building completed. It was also in 2006 when "Ayala" highway was well lit and beautifully landscaped.

Photos below are some of the transformation in the City (credits to the owners of some of the photos used which were randomly picked from the net)