One really fun way to see Old Manila is on the entertaining walking tour offered by Carlos Celdran. He’s a walking comedy act, in fact a trained actor who’s been taking people around Intramuros for several years now. And this is much more than a boring walking tour, it’s part history, part theatre, and 100% fun.

His ‘If these walls could talk’ tour sets out most Saturdays at about 9am from outside the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros and takes a couple of hours ending at the San Augustine Monastery and Cathedral – a World Heritage site. Along the way you get the full four hundred year Philippines history from the time Legaspi claimed it for the Spanish Crown through to American colonisation, the devastating WWII bombing and finally the Marcos era when shoe-collecting Imelda did some good and had Intramuros largely rebuilt.

You learn all this from Carlos, who periodically dons different guises, costumes and props to make it more interesting. 

The tour costs 800 pesos, including entrance fees and refreshments. Find out which days this month it’s going here; 

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Manila by night
So, what is there to do by night in Manila. It’s hardly got the reputation of say, Bangkok. Well, Manilaneros do like to party themselves and there are some tourist areas that a busier at night but it certainly is a lot calmer, certainly after the Mayor of Manila decided to clean up all the sleaze during the Nineties.

This means, gone are all the girlie bars of Ermita and Malate, which is still considered the most central of the city’s tourist hotel districts. The action now seems to have moved more to Makate, the modern part of the city which is like a twenty-first century time warp in this otherwise third world capital. Here you’ll find plus malls, good restaurants and plenty of bars (yes some with girlies inside), and it’s where the monied of Manila hand out.

For Manila night life Let’s start with Ermita which is now a bit down at heel, so you need to keep your wits about you wandering some of the darker streets at night, there’s lots of beggers and touts hanging around. There are also still a handful of girlie bars such as the LA Cafe on Del Pilar, step inside and there you will find 10 girls to every guy, if this is not your thing don’t even bother stepping as a man, you’ll be mobbed (really). There are some others in the area that are quieter and less in your face.

For real bars where you can drink undisturbed and hang out, there are trendy lounge joints in Malate in the area of J Nakpil street near remedios circle, perhaps the greatest concentration in the city of its kind. Wander across to the waterfront and there quite a few al fresco restaurants – drinking places.

In Makate the action is all in the malls which is a bit sterile but a good place to start out on a Friday evening when the atmosphere is good, eat here and move on with the crowd. There is a more upmarket girlie street (Burgos street) otherwise you’ll find the expats and professional locals at the bars on Jupiter and Nicanor Garcia streets.

Id you want to to hang out with the students in the Manila night life try the discoson Tomas Morato and Timog avenues out near Quezon City (where there is a big uni), it’s a bit of way out though.