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Two of the city's oldest neighbourhoods, Ermita and Malate nestle behind Roxas Boulevard within ten minutes' walk of the Manila Bay seawall. Ermita was infamous up until the late 1980s for its go-go bars and massage parlours until tough guy Mayor Alfredo Lim came along and shut them all down. New bars opened, but the bulk of the tourist trade had moved on and many promptly closed. Ermita is now a ragbag of budget hotels, choked streets and fast-food outlets. A good place to stay it may be, but for anything to see and do you'll have to walk north to Intramuros or east along M Adriatico Street to J Nakpil Street , where a lively cafe society thrives. Indeed, bars have spread like a rash along Nakpil in recent years, and on Friday and Saturday nights this is the place to be seen. Artists, expats, gays and poets all spurn the homogenous air-conditioned yuppiedom of Makati for Nakpil's daring, bohemian hangouts. Don't lose credibility by getting there early. At weekends, things rarely get going before 10pm. There are more cafes and bars in nearby Remedios Circle. A five-minute walk towards the sea from Remedios brings you to the area's major historical site, Malate Church , on MH del Pilar Street. British soldiers took refuge inside during Britain's short-lived occupation of the Philippines from 1762 to 1763.
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