Escolta After Dark

Escolta, that old ephemeral street of Manila, has been one of my favorite hang-outs since I was a young Manila student in the early 1980s. Back then, I used to frequent this little boulevard to buy my long-playing discs in Syvel's (now closed), or to have my shoes cleaned by one of those ubiquitous shoeshine boys who lined the street sidewalks. Or perhaps just to hang-around in one of its old little cafés. I still visit the Escolta almost everyday, and every time, that wonderful and a little painful feeling of nostalgia is evoked in me.

I took the following photographs while on a solitary late-night walk along the old Escolta. I took these pictures just as souvenirs or perhaps to just record the scenes I have seen at a given time.

Evening newspapers. You can decide if they bear good news or bad.

Plaza Moraga

Night students

The old La Estrella del Norte building

Antique money seller

Pedestrians

Gone was the tranvia but the calesa still plies the Escolta

Posters and cables

Sidewalk-dwellers