Malate is a poor neighborhood near the bay. It is perhaps the closest thing Manila has to Bangkok's Khao San Road, a quasi-backpacker's haven with a range of hotels, restaurants, and discos, but without so many tourists. Malate is a slice of real life. Small children selling peanuts or roses or just begging for money. Waiters working 7 days a week for $200 a month. The guy with the stack of cheap guitars on his shoulder. The rich cruising down the street in big black cheuffeured SUVs. Groups of young Filipinos out for dancing. Japanese or Korean guys with their young Filipina escorts. Trash. Pedicabs and motorcycles. Guys hawking Viagara or cheap old coins. There is a Starbucks in the middle of it all where you can pay 10 times more for a cup of coffee than at the Filipino coffeehouses down the street. There is an enormous clean Western-style shopping mall a couple of blocks away with all the western chains. Across the street it is all run-down storefronts of money-changers and lotto booths. Down on Remedios and Atlantico streets there are nice restaurants with great live bands inside, while outside there are cheap plastic tables and chairs with very cheap food and drinks.
I don't know who the statue is, but it sits in a park at the entrance to Malate. We saw a show of a famous Filipino ska band in this park one evening.
There is an improbable number of these stainless steel bus things. They are a form of privately-owned public transport.
Pedicabs abound as well, if you don't have far to go.
The church in Malate. 80% of the population in the Philippines is Catholic.
Late afternoon at a fruit stand on a sidestreet in Malate.
Need a new hairstyle?
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