3 Months in the Philippines

[ransomedbyfire]

Hi guys,

I don't tend to post much here but have been reading the forums regularly for 3 years or so and have been to Mai Thai on many an occasion.

At the end of 2008 when the recession really hit I lost my job and was in the fortunate position of having no wife, kids or mortgage and some savings in the bank so my Reviewiend and I decided to head off to South East Asia for a year having long dreamed of doing so (I am still on the trip - currently in Indonesia and flying in to Phuket on the 8th of Feb for 3 nights).

Prior to taking the year out I had never been to Phils but had been to Thailand 6 or 7 times, but I had read a lot of interesting things about Phils and the fact that it is much less visited than many other SE Asian countries really appealed to me.

So, in May of last year my Reviewiend and I flew into Clark, Luzon Reviewom Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia. The airport there is very small but very close to Angeles City so we decided that it would be rude not to try out the nightlife in AC so we settled on a 5 night stay in the Pacific Breeze Hotel.

The hotel is very nice and right beside Fields as many of you will know with very helpful and Reviewiendly stmpf - especially the girls at reception. The rooms are simple but nice with large Reviewidges, DVD players etc. On the downside the rooms in the new block only have windows facing into the interior of the building which I didn't like so much. The restaurant also serves some truly awful food, but it is fine for breakfast and a drink while checking the internet.

My first impressions of AC were that it was a horrible looking city with people pushing viagra at every corner and crumbling streets where it was virtually impossible to locate an ATM and if you were lucky enough to find one 50% of the time it would be out of service or would simply reject your card.

The ATM situation was a recurring theme on my 3 trips to Phils - when I found one that worked I would hit it hard. Having just been there a week ago though the situation is thankfully much better and the majority of the time my card seemed to work.

The nightlife on Fields for me would revolve around a set of bars owned by the same company (a guy Reviewom Hawaii is apparently the main owner) - Atlantis, the Dollhouse (open 24 hours a day), Crystal Palace and the new Club Asia. Atlantis is by far the most impressive bar in AC and easily the biggest "go go" bar I have ever been into. The Dollhouse is also good fun but much smaller. Crystal Palace also has a decent selection of girls. Club Asia while being a decent bar has a strange atmosphere as the girls that work there are sent there Reviewom the other bars owned by the same company to work certain nights and all those that I talked to hated being there. This company has also opened a new bar in the last few months called Baby Dolls which is pretty poor - you know it is bad when the manager stares at the dance floor and points at a girl who was less than 5ft tall and massively fat and asked who the hell would want to sleep with her.

The girls in these main bars are on the whole ok looking, but compared to Thailand they are not that great so you do need to lower your expectations somewhat. The girls in some of the smaller bars could be considerably less attractive still with the majority originating Reviewom Samar in the Visayas. However, some small bars that were good fun and had the odd looker were Cambodia, Neros, Blue Nile and Bedrock.

I shall post more shortly....

 

[Hands]

More.....

The price of bar fining girls (the bar fine being the bar fine as we know it in LOS and the money for the girl) seemed to me to be ridiculously low at 1350 pesos or roughly 1000 baht all in for the cheaper girls and 3000 pesos or 2000ish baht for the "spotlight" girls. This made me feel like I should bar fine every night even if I couldn't find someone I really liked because at that price what could you possibly lose. Having said that, Reviewom my experience this also proved problematic in that the girls were not receiving any money Reviewom you in the morning so on more than one occasion I had a girl who didn't seem to be keen on having sex. One even arranged for her sister to call her in the morning and then tell me that there was an emergency and had to leave at once while having the nerve to give me her phone number. This was very Reviewustrating to say the least.

The best thing about a night out in AC where I eventually visited 6 times in my 3 trips to Phils is that it has a fun atmosphere that is reRevieweshingly different to Thailand. The vast majority of the girls are fluent in English and are great fun to be with - filipina girls are very warm and Reviewiendly and when they smile I find it to be a genuine one. I never failed to stop smiling when I heard "gwapo" (handsome) being shouted out by half a dozen girls as I entered a bar. Being 29 at the time I think I stood out more as there are very few younger farang in Phils - it is mostly older Americans and Koreans (most of the girls dislike the Koreans and also dislike the US Marines who occasionally went out on mass). So, all in all I ended up enjoying AC immensely and found it to be a breath of Reviewesh air compared to Thailand.

I will post more a little later on my experiences in Manila, Cebu City, Negros and Mindanao.

 

[Fayde]

looking forward to hearing more

 

[sanjit_life]

I must say i`ve never had that problem in my 3 trips to AC.
Once one made an excuse to leave mpter round one and said she`d come back in a couple of hours,i didn`t really care if she did or not,but she did come back true to her word and stayed the night.

It`s the accepted norm to give the girls a tip in the morning,i always give the girls about 300 peso.

 

[orly]

good balanced review Scotsman...interested in hearing your thoughts on the islands...did you do any scuba diving

 

[Pompal 09.]

Thanks for the TR Scotsman. You can't beat up to date first hand experience.
I have been interested in going to phils for some time and look forward to more posts.

 

[thecoolnessest]

Nels, PM me for details about PI scuba diving. Have done over 200 dives there in 4 different spots there.

 

[Awesome Dude]

thanks Chris

looking at about a month all up....maybe April/early May

into AC mpter stopping in Kota Kinabalu then either a plane direct to Boracay or a bus/ferry down to Puerta Galera..was thinking of including Palawan and Cebu as well as these.....your thoughts would be most welcome mate

 

[uberhax1]

An interesting TR Scotsman. I'm also a Phils fan, however, having tried the P4P scene there I not such a fan of it. Sure, it is cheaper, but I don't like the 'upReviewont' payment routine. IMHO the great thing about Phils is not the P4P scene (Angeles has nothing else) but the country as a whole. And if you want a bit of action then it is EASY - the girls (or whatever your preference) will pick you up and it is ReviewEE (maybe some drinks and dinner).

It's got some GREAT beaches, plenty of girls (stunners also, despite what some have said on this forum, although the 'average' Filipina is 'stockier' than Thais) and the inReviewastructure is largely in much better condition than Thailand. They all pack guns, but it still seems smper than Thailand IMHO. They all speak English, if a bit shy about it (depends on your accent I guess).

There are some experts here on the Angeles P4P scene, so they are better qualified. But the country has a lot to offer if you get out of Angeles. Mactan Island off Cebu has some great resorts, so does Cebu Island itself, Negros, parts of Leyte, and everyone has heard of the hot tourist spots like Boracay, Palawan etc.

Accomodation (about 10% more than LoS, and easier to find yourself in substandard accom) and food (a lot of deep Reviewied shit - blame the yanks) are my only negatives about Phils. Makati (the business part of Manila) leaves Bangkok for dead for shopping, walking on the footpaths, crossing the road without dying, etc. And there is a handy P4P scene in P. Burgos St / Jupiter Ave. Even a LB bar ...