Welcome to the "Little Las Vegas" - Day One in Manila
That is the term the real estate agent used when he shows foreign clients around the neighborhood for the first time. Among the dense skyscraper-filled skyline of Makati, Manila's central business district, a whole new scene unravels on the street-level. As one cuts into any one of the small side streets leading away from the impeccably maintained, tree lined, wide central boulevards of the country's premier financial district, a whole new world of dodgy entertainment and equally dodgy people hits the casual pedestrians unwittingly passing through, with a force that one simply cannot ignore.