A Midnight Walk in Downtown Iloilo

The late night breeze was cold and balmy which gave the impression that a walk in downtown could be a welcome relaxing experience after the long torturous journey that brought me into this hitherto unknown baudelaerian town--a bustling metropolis founded centuries ago.

Like Cubao and Manila*, downtown Iloilo transforms into a neon-lit ghost town at the little wee hours of the midnight. What can be seen around are a motley array of fascinating vignettes that can be witnessed only at this most unholy hour: the lonely darkened alleys and deserted boulevards; some forgotten ghost-like gothic houses from a different era; the few lurking shadows of restless souls whose melancholic nature prevent them from seeking the asylum of sleep; and the nocturnal demimondes who struggle to find work at midnight in order to survive the coming of day--unwittingly defying the intrusion of bourgeois consumerism that abounds during the day, for they rule the night.

For many, a midnight walk into a hitherto strange city can be a desensitizing experience that can be likened to a Russian roulette. Yet, for the nonchalant stranger, an intrepid intrusion into a city's night life is like opening visions to a new and different world.

Throughout history the night often holds terror into the hearts of men--the night's darkness often associated with the mysterious and the unfathomable, the grotesque and the melancholia. Some even associate the night with evil creatures that can cause physical and supernatural harm. Yet there are also those people who finds solace and refuge in the night, and who dread the coming of daytime. They are neither ghosts nor vampires--but people who hoped to forget the miseries of daytime living by seeking comfort in the enveloping darkness of the midnight.

These then are the portraits that I have fancied to capture during this melancholic midnight walk in the downtown of Iloilo. Some of the photographs may not catch your interest, such as the picture of a sleeping dog underneath the glow of a lonely lamp, or the empty boulevards devoid of humanity, but they are undeniably the gossamer reflections of the midnight life when most people are in the midst of journey in the grotesque world of slumber.

The only street-sleeper I found in the sidewalks of Iloilo.








Muelle Loney, downtown Iloilo's boulevard by the wharf.

*Please check my post of more than two years ago: A Random Walk in Cubao @ 12 Midnight
and the more recent A Midnight Walk in Downtown Manila