[Vacancier Permanent]

This is a place I can't wait to get the hell out of it and at this time, the only saving grace would be its nice beaches which I am going to later this week. Also, I've been down the past 2 days with a bad fever. I have not been sick once in the entire 2010 and I had to get sick on new years which I spent sleeping the entire day. Just my luck. Also, just got scammed last night. I was at a club on thursday night, met a beautiful 19 years old outside the clubs, we exchanged # but I was already with another hottie at the time. So I last night, I was finally feeling better and went out a bit, called her and she came right away, we had a good time having drinks and chatting ( I refrained from alcohol as i was still not 100% back to normal) then we went dancing to the club next door. Good time there, so at 3 am, we go to my room. She's as sweet, innocent looking and beautiful as I like them. Then in the club, we briefly had sex as I was still very tired and all and after that she starts crying saying that her rent is due this week and she doesn't know how to pay it and she's afraid she'll be kicked to the streets. Being the romantic and nice guy I am, I fell for it and asked her how much is her rent and she replies 2K pesos (about 44 bucks/month), at the time, I only had about 1500 on my wallet so I gave that to her. And she was jumping for joy then she said she had to leave to pay her landlord and would call me later so we can have lunch, hang out and weather permitting, going to the beach.

This is a very pretty girl, like an angel and I fell for her. Then, later a friend I know here comes here and tells me about her and that she's a serial scammer. Just to warn the brothers in here, sooner or later, you will get hit with those sob stories, no matter how pretty the girl is, don't fall for it. I know it's easier said that done, specially when you have that little thing laying naked besides you. A good lesson learned, so be careful about that guys. If anyone goes to Cebu, her name is Rozana, she's short, a few extra pounds, but not fat or anything, extremely pretty and has a nice rack, which is rare for filipinas. So be warned guys.

Signing out.

[Vacancier Permanent]

As an addendum, do not I repeat, do NOT waste your time on Dateinasia as 99.99% of the pics are either heavily photoshopped and or taken a good 10 years ago if not both. Not worth it, nor needed. Just hit the malls, the bars, outside the clubs is a a good hunting ground as well as inside clubs.

[beebopaloo]

Hey Vacancier,

sorry to hear about your experience. I'd say that Cebu definitely isn't for the faint hearted - and even less manila. Do not go there if Cebu is too much for you - Cebu is like a fairy tale village compared to Manila.

Now that you are already in Cebu, I'd relocate to the Diplomate hotel. Can't sing its praises enough. Also right next to it is a brilliant thai-restaurant, so you're over the food problem. Diplomat has a decent western-style restaurant as well, but the thai joint is even better than most of the original restaurants in Thailand.

As Lumiere pointed out, Bohol is cool. Food much better than in the big cities, where all you have is american wanna-be hot dog places and hapsilog. Loads of fresh fish and sea food at bargain prices. Friendly people and less of a 'desperate athmosphere'. You have some really good snorkeling there as well, and doing a few excursions on motorbike will be a good craic.

[BaronStanley]

I dont agree with beebopaloo... I found Cebu much more dirty and unpleasant than Manila. Manila as a whole might be worse than Cebu, but Manila has Makati and Fort Bonifiacio areas that are nice while all of Cebu is shitty.

[Vacancier Permanent]

beepoapaloo,
I've been at the Diplomat Hotel for a week now and I'm moving out of it tomorrow. It's an ok hotel, but the area it is in rough so I'm moving tomorrow to another hotel. Plus the internet is not free and when you buy time, it's slow as hell. It took me 2 hours today to complete a reservation on agoda!!! The food at the restaurant is barely edible. The more i stay here in the Philippines, the more I realize this place is not for me. Maybe and I do hope that the beaches will be the saving grace otherwise, this would be my worst trip ever. And for sure never to return to this shithole of a dump. I conceed though that since it's my first time here and I have no trustworthy contact to trust, I may not know the best places to go and places to avoid. Meet a lot of people and the majority of them are trying in one way or another to either sell you their crap or scam you in way possible. Even the hotel restaurant! Mind you the amounts involved are minimal but it's the principal that matters and that is annoying as hell.

All in all, I think I made a mistake by choosing to do my 1st visa run in the Philippines. But after reading all the praises of guys in here, I wanted to experience that as well. But it's not doing it for me. I should have gone maybe to Malaysia or Indonesia or hell even should have done a same day run to the Cambodian border. But life is a series of experiences as they say. Some of them will be awesome (like Thailand) and some will be mediocre at best (Phils). Anyways, I still have an open mind and I'll still stay here for another 2 weeks until my return to LOS on the 18 and on Thursday, I'll hit the beaches as I'm now still down with a fever. By then, I should be back to normal and then, I'd have a week or so to chill on the beach and hopefully have a drastically different experience than so far.

[Lumiere]

Vp i dont really have much sympathy dude

This thread is full of info on the best places to go and you choose to go to the 2 ugliest places

There are warnings here on how to avoid getting scammed and you fall for the most basic scam

There is even info here on how to filter dia chicks and you fall foul there too

Sheesh!

[Vacancier Permanent]

I know and I hear you Lumiere, I have only myself to blame for being so naive and falling that easily for that kind of crap. I'm going to another area of town tomorrow and then from Thursday, will go to a beach. Whether Bohol, Boracay or Palawan, not sure, but will do research tomorrow on that. You live and learn I guess.

[beebopaloo]

hehehe, what I forgot to tell you in my earlier reply, VP, is that the Phillies take a certain kind of mindset. It is - in someways - like a living joke. One must be an absurdity-aficionado to truly appreciate it.

It is untolerable to walk around in the streets, so one has to seek refuge in malls. It is like the opposite world. Back home nobody with self respect would want to go to a mall.
Then there are the numerous weird fast food chains, and the local cuisine that, if not tasty (prob. not), all make for a pretty good laugh.

Then you go to an island and all of a sudden you are in paradise.

Also you can find the freakiest girls and pull threesomes with ease (go to Juliana's, Mango Square).

You can bribe a cop for peanuts.

I wouldn't want to live there, but for a couple of weeks of drinking and screwing around it is heaven.

@BaronStanley: for sure you can find pleasant places in Manila - but it is a huge city. I was living near Chinese Cemetery which might have made me biased. Regarding the malls, both cities have good option- other than that it is pretty much the same dump-like substance, except Manila is much bigger and hence grittier. I found that Cebu had way more appealing restaurants and overall I felt a lot safer.

[Lumiere]

I just updated that Boracay thread in the meetup sub forum with more info and pics on the place we are having it.

You can see here :

Swimming Pool



Bathroom



The Pad





So cost for the whole pad is going to be $1644 for the whole month.

We have 2 people confirmed and we are looking for a third person.

That means that we will be paying less than $550 dollars per month each to live in a private luxury apartment at one of the top ten beaches in the world.

In other words, about $18 dollars per day per person. Siiiiick !

We are going to arrive there on 11th or 12th January and leave one month later.

PM me if you are interested.

[Vacancier Permanent]

Lumiere,
Are we each going to have our own private room?
Seems that there is only one bathroom, is that correct?
Is the date where we'd be able to move in on the 11th of the 12th? Could you confirm that asap as I'm very tempted and will be booking a flight to Boracay from Cebu in the next 24-48 hours. Oh and probably the most important thing, how fast/reliable is the wifi?
Is the place equiped with maids to do housekeeping/cooking or not?

Thanks.

[Lumiere]

Vp

I pm'd you

[Vacancier Permanent]

Saw your pm L, but still doesn't answer my questions as mentioned in my previous post, mainly:
a) are we each going to have our own private room with private bathroom or not?

Thanks.

[Richie]

Think Im going to hit the Philippines in a couple of weeks. Hang out in Manilla for a few days before heading to the beaches. I was wondering if there are many euro girl tourists out there? I know there are plenty in Thailand.. especially Swedes. Not sure the Philippines is a typical holiday destination?

[BaronStanley]

you'll find scandi's in Boracay but not in Manila.

[Habit]

(12-23-2010 07:41 AM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  

Well, I'm initially skipping Manila and going straight to Cebu then from there, anything's possible and I might check Manila for a weekend or so. Reason I'm skipping Manila is because it's so dirty and polluted and massive traffic issues that compared to it, BKK is a breeze on the country side. LOL But I'll see how things go.

If you're looking for a BKK/Sukhumvit experience in Philly, you should head to Makati City in Manila.

[LatinStylez]

I'm in Makati right now and enjoying it... It's a pretty upscale area and close to the malls. I will be writing about the Philippines on my blog.

[Richie]

Hey guys,
Can anyone recommend a good hostel or hotel on Boracay island? I have a budget of about $25 per night. I read some good and bad things about Frendz Resort Boracay? I'll be there for about 10 days so would be good to find something decent!
Cheers.

[Lumiere]

(01-10-2011 07:30 AM)Richie Wrote:  

Hey guys,
Can anyone recommend a good hostel or hotel on Boracay island? I have a budget of about $25 per night. I read some good and bad things about Frendz Resort Boracay? I'll be there for about 10 days so would be good to find something decent!
Cheers.

Yeah I have stayed there twice. I would recommend it.

[Richie]

Just checked and all their private rooms are booked up. Damn.. I need a relaxing break and don't particularly want to share a dorm with 6 hairy backpackers. Other options?

[Craig88]

I just got back from 3 weeks in philippines. I really enjoyed it. Had some crazy parties and met some awesome people from around the world. I didn't go purely just for women but it turned out to be much better than my trip to thailand last year. If you're good looking women will eye fuck you 24/7. I had girls coming up and asking for my number. A cell phone is essential there. I think I sent about 300 msg's whilst I was there.

The main problem with local girls is that everyone knows everyone, at least in the smaller towns, which means you can create quite a bad rep for yourself. I had girls telling me how they hated me etc.

I spent a few nights in manila, then boracay for NY and few days extra, then moalboal which was possibly my favourite. The diving there is amazing and it's easy to pick up girls at the bars as most of the guys there are just there for diving and thus lack looks and game. Then spend a night in cebu which was also good.

It got to the stage where I got really tired of fucking. Some nights I would just chill with mates and drink and not be in the mood to go out for girls.

Persistence seemed to be the main thing for me. What I mean is that I would be hitting on girls and they would be showing very little reciprication which would make me think that the f-close is not possible. But the reason was that they're quite conservative and even feel bad if the taxi driver thinks they're a slut. I would get pissed off thinking she's just wasting my time but as soon as I got them into my room things got messy. Maybe this was just because I was gaming upper class girls rather than cheaper ones but the main thing I learnt was that girls would act conservative around other people.

My conclusion was that it was an amazing trip. Cheap to live it up, not many normal westerners, amazing beaches, diving, girls that see good looking westerners as 10's and lots of relaxing.

[Lumiere]

(01-10-2011 10:48 AM)Richie Wrote:  

Just checked and all their private rooms are booked up. Damn.. I need a relaxing break and don't particularly want to share a dorm with 6 hairy backpackers. Other options?

They only have like 2 or 3 private rooms. I stayed in a dorm.

Both times I was the only person in the dorm so I took girls back and banged them in the dorm. There is no charge for bringing a girl back (although she might be asked to show ID) as long as the girl is not still there after 10pm.

If she is, you will get charged an extra 500 pesos (10 bucks) if the staff make a note of it.

[Richie]

Lumiere thats funny man but for me It's not worth it. I have missed out on too many lays because of staying in dorms. In Latvia I had a girl insist on paying for an extra bed in the dorm I was at so she could bang me. It was just all too weird! So I have myself a little cottage type affair. Will have a look around when I get there if it sucks.

Good to hear your report Craig. By the sounds of things Im getting all the sloppy seconds. I think Im going to hold out rather than go for the first thing that throws herself at me.... otherwise Im going home with my cock between my legs. These girls sound way to promiscuous for my likings. Saying that, after a few drinks Im anybodies. Nuclear strength condoms anyone?

[LatinStylez]

I just closed my first Filipina chick on holiday from another island in Boracay...
It was an SDL from day game at D-Mall and she also had a bf... Looking forward to what more the Philippines has to offer.

[Lumiere]

I met LatinStylez's chick when I came back to the pad. She was smoking hot.

This pad we are in is so sick too! You can actually stand in one spot on the balcony and be in view of a swimming pool, golf course, pool bar / restaurant, 2 beaches and a roof terrace.

[Vacancier Permanent]

Lumiere,
Are you still in Boracay in that sick pad? How's your meshpod project going? Anyone else from the forum there with you? Can't wait to get back to the Phils and I'm currently checking airfare prices to get back there asap. Funny how the Phils grow on you. First few days there, I hated it and couldn't wait to be out of there fast enough, then it slowly but surely and irrevocably grows on you. Funny little place, I tell you.