Divisoria - Ylaya Street

Last weekend, I made an unplanned trip to Ylaya Street in Divisoria, Manila. 

(Yes, Karen... I got to go!!!)

I say unplanned, because my mom only asked me to go with her Friday afternoon. I didn't want to go because it had been raining lately and that place is sure to be muddy. And to make it worse, it was raining all Friday night until early Saturday morning. I was trying to get out of that trip but my mom wants to go looking for a shop that makes costumes, not because she needs it for Halloween, but because they need it for their group's presentation for Christmas at work. Yes... Christmas. Halloween isn't very big here so we start Christmas preparations as early as September.

Last August, I briefly mentioned Ylaya Street on one of my posts:

"If you want to hunt for good fabric... you have to endure traffic and brave the crowds at one of the streets in Quiapo, Manila... Ylaya Street. I haven't been there yet... I passed by it once... I didn't realize it was a street because it was so crowded and full of people. Maybe one of these days, I will try to go there. "

And last weekend, to Ylaya Street we went.

We had to park our car at Tutuban mall, because there will be no place to park a car near Ylaya Street. From Tutuban mall, we walked to Ylaya Street.

It was raining, but the streets were still full of vendors selling everything from household wares, clothes, shoes and plastic Christmas Trees and other Christmas decor.

See the mud??? It was everywhere!

Christmas decor was really, REALLY cheap though. I saw these glitter-covered plastic plants at a store beside the road. They were only P5 (approx  $0.12) each! Great deal considering these are being sold at the mall between P30 - P50 each (I know because my mom bought a bunch of those at the mall 2 years ago).

When we got to Ylaya Street, it got even more crowded.

Faces of strangers blurred because I don't have their permission to post their photos.

Bolts of fabric and women's undergarments being sold at a stall ON the road. I will not say 'beside the road' because the stalls are literally in the middle of the road. Welcome to Divisoria!

I wanted to get some of this ruffle fabric.

I wanted it in yellow. I forgot the exact price but it was only around $4 per yard which I thought was not bad. But we were in the middle of the road... it was drizzling, and it was so crowded we couldn't even open our umbrella... so my mom didn't want to stop for anything until we reached our destination.

We found the costume store my mom was looking for.

Costumes, head dresses, masks.

Maybe if I am brave enough, I will come back here next year for Andrea's Halloween costume. In spite of the fact that we have to enter dark and narrow passages (and I do mean those literally too) to get here, they have a lot of nice things. And you can have costumes custom-made.

Other faces blurred except for that lady looking at masks. I got permission from her to post this. That's my mom. What she didn't give me permission to post were photos of her trying some of the head dresses on. Darn!

The price I had to pay for this trip.

Good thing I was wearing Crocs. They can be washed with soap and water. My mom's shoes (pale pink Pab Der boat shoes that I love!!) were ruined. Good thing they were an old paid already.

But I was able to score these cute sneakers for Andrea for only P150 (around $4).

My mom wants to go back next weekend to place their orders from the costume shop :-/ I hope it won't be so muddy anymore.