Cultural steps
Ivan Dy advertised himself as a 'streetwalker' for months. Then two giggling female American clients finally told him what the word meant. He was taken aback, then decided proudly to stick with the title, which he thinks is a quirky description of what he does - conduct walking tours of Manila.
While it's easy to find such tours abroad, they're a new and rare phenomenon in Manila. In fact, only two guides offer regular services, possibly because the job requires a lot of research, dedication, stamina and imagination.
Looking at the ground Mr Dy covers, residents might see nothing more than squalor, decay, congestion and pollution. But he sees a 16th century baroque church, its bell tower built like a stylised pagoda; a gracious colonial plaza bordered with water fountains that wouldn't look out of place in Rome; art-deco buildings constructed by the Americans in the 1930s; and calesas (two-wheeled, horse-drawn carriages) clip-clopping over cobblestone streets. What's amazing is that he makes his group see them, too.
His Old Manila Walks take small groups strolling through various parts of the city, but the one I took recently, the Chinatown tour, is close to his heart and identity. Mr Dy is a young Filipino-Chinese (Chinoy in the local slang) who grew up in the area.
Although comprising just 2 per cent of the country's population, Chinoys have played a major role in Philippine history. The main reason the Spaniards decided to stay here was their discovery that fleets of trading junks came over twice a year from the Chinese mainland. This led to the famous 'Manila galleon' trade route, which exchanged Mexican silver for Chinese silk and porcelain.
It also led to large numbers of Chinese settling here and intermarrying. Many ostensibly Filipino families have at least one Chinese in their family tree (along with the occasional Spanish friar tangled in the branches). The Chinese settled in the Binondo quarter, which became the colony's financial and trading centre.
I thought I knew Binondo fairly well, but after a four-hour walk through its bustling streets and narrow alleys, I emerged determined to return. I want to revisit the hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served the best dumplings I've ever tasted - it's run by a couple newly arrived from Xinjiang - and to dawdle at the newly restored plazas and fountains in the area.
Mr Dy, who studied industrial design, started his tours as a part-time hobby, but they've become a serious enterprise. He believes he's on a mission of advocacy: 'I actually prefer to take local groups,' he said. He is reacquainting Filipinos with the notion that they actually have a rich history. And he's doing it step by step.
