The Philippines - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 600

trapping an unknown number of workers
inside - an incident that has now passed
into local folklore. A great way to see this
area is on Carlos Celdran's “Living La Vida
Imelda” tour (see p.606).

to impotence, and containing who knows
what. Binondo Church , at the west end of
Ongpin, was built in 1614 by the
Dominicans, and quickly became the hub
of the Catholic Chinese community.
At the eastern end of Chinatown, across
Rizal Street, you reach Quiapo Church ,
the nucleus of the Feast of the Black
Nazarene on January 9, when crowds of
up to three million barefooted faithful
crush together to try to touch a crucifix
bearing a black figure of Christ.
Two kilometres north is the morbidly
impressive Chinese Cemetery (Abad
Santos LRT station; daily 7.30am-7pm;
free). he mausoleums resemble
mini-houses, with fountains, balconies,
bathrooms and, for at least one, a small
swimming pool. It has become a sobering
joke that this necropolis, now numbering
more than thirty thousand tombs, is
packed with amenities that millions in
Manila go without. You'll get more out of
a visit with one of the guides, who hang
around the gates and offer their services
for a negotiable fee, usually around P300.

The Met and the Manila Hotel
Just north of the CCP is the Metropolitan
Museum , usually known as the Met, at
the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Complex,
Roxas Boulevard (Mon-Sat 10am-
5.30pm; P100). his fine arts museum,
a Filipino mini-Guggenheim, also houses
the Central Bank's collection (Mon-Fri
10am-4.30pm only) of prehistoric
jewellery and coins. Roxas Boulevard
ends at the atmospheric Manila Hotel ,
home from home over the years for the
likes of General Douglas MacArthur
(who has a suite named after him),
Michael Jackson and Bill Clinton.

Ermita and Malate
Two of the city's oldest neighbourhoods,
Ermita and Malate , are tucked behind
Roxas Boulevard, ten minutes' walk east
of Manila Bay, and are pretty much the
tourist centre for backpackers. Until the
late 1980s Ermita was infamous for its
go-go bars and massage parlours but
today it's a ragbag of budget hotels,
choked streets and fast-food outlets,
though convenient for Intramuros and
Malate, and the services and restaurants
of Robinson's Place mall. Walking
southeast along M. Adriatico Street brings
you into Malate, where things get livelier
and a little less seedy, with better cafés
and bars, centred along Adriatico, Nakpil,
Maria Orosa and Remedios streets. A
three-minute walk towards the sea from
Remedios Circle brings you to Malate
Church , on M.H. del Pilar Street, where
British soldiers took refuge during their
ill-advised occupation of the Philippines
from 1762 to 1763.

8

Makati
Makati is Manila's business district, home
to most of the city's expats and chock-full
of plush hotels, expensive condos and
monolithic air-conditioned malls. hough
it can feel a bit sterile, in recent years it's
begun to seriously rival Malate for
nightlife. he main triangle of Makati is
delineated by Ayala Avenue, Paseo de
Roxas and Makati Avenue, and this is
where most of the banks and
multinationals are located. In terms of
sights, Makati is something of a
wasteland, but if all that's on your agenda
is shopping, eating and drinking, it's the
place to be. he biggest mall by far is the
Ayala Center , comprising Glorietta and
Greenbelt malls and a couple of more
downmarket centres such as Landmark
(see p.609). Next door, the Ayala
Museum , on Makati Avenue at the corner
of Dela Rosa St (Tues-Sun 9am-6pm;
P425), houses original works by Filipino
painters and a multimedia “People Power”
room that documents the turmoil of the
Marcos dictatorship and the restoration of
democracy - not to be missed.

Chinatown (Binondo)
he Chinese-Filipino (Tsinoy)
community have created their own niche
in Chinatown (Binondo), centred around
the teeming hubbub of Ongpin Street,
where the restaurants serve Soup Number
Five, said to cure everything from colds