General Info

[Fastpiston]

Just a heads-up for any guys who might be planning travel in or through Manila on November 18 & 19.

APEC will be held in Manila on those dates and with 21 country leaders in town Metro Manila will be in a state of semi-lockdown. All businesses have been requested to close on those dates.

Schools and Universities will close for 4 days on November 17,18, 19 and 20.

It may not be easy to get around the city on 18 and 19 if you have an advance schedule hoping to meet up with dating site conquests.

The only advantage of APEC: The scammers at Manila airport will keep a low profile on those days. They would not want to put bullets & white powder in leaders' bags!

[Fastpiston]

I know Filipinos are known to over act, OA, as they themselves call it.

When the pope came, and when he flew to Tacloban, they shut down NAIA which is totally disregarding the Pope's request to minimize inconvenience to the common man.

As for APEC, I am booked to go on 20th, though as of now, there is no confirmation of the no-fly zone. I hope saner senses prevail, though since the US, Russian, China and Japanese Heads of State are due, the Filipinos may totally shut down NAIA, just for the fun of it.

God Help the Philippines.

God gave up long, long ago.

[Simmer]

Furthermore she has to pay 50 PhP a day for lunch.

I happened to be talking to the wife about schools and lunches just a couple of weeks ago. In her school (Negros Or) kids either went home for lunch or brought a packed lunch. She didn't mention any lunch fee but I'll ask her tonight if I remember. The subject came around because we were talking about school hours elsewhere in the world, while her area was an early start, a late finish. And a long, 2 hour lunch. Said to be that long so that kids that had to walk home for lunch had time to do so, as only a few could afford trikes and living a couple of miles away from school and walking was common.

But could well be different elsewhere.

[Econo Tech]

Just a heads-up for any guys who might be planning travel in or through Manila on November 18 & 19.

APEC will be held in Manila on those dates and with 21 country leaders in town Metro Manila will be in a state of semi-lockdown. All businesses have been requested to close on those dates.

Schools and Universities will close for 4 days on November 17,18, 19 and 20.

It may not be easy to get around the city on 18 and 19 if you have an advance schedule hoping to meet up with dating site conquests.

I know Filipinos are known to over act, OA, as they themselves call it.

When the pope came, and when he flew to Tacloban, they shut down NAIA which is totally disregarding the Pope's request to minimize inconvenience to the common man.

As for APEC, I am booked to go on 20th, though as of now, there is no confirmation of the no-fly zone. I hope saner senses prevail, though since the US, Russian, China and Japanese Heads of State are due, the Filipinos may totally shut down NAIA, just for the fun of it.

God Help the Philippines.

[Red Kilt]

Just a heads-up for any guys who might be planning travel in or through Manila on November 18 & 19.

APEC will be held in Manila on those dates and with 21 country leaders in town Metro Manila will be in a state of semi-lockdown. All businesses have been requested to close on those dates.

Schools and Universities will close for 4 days on November 17,18, 19 and 20.

It may not be easy to get around the city on 18 and 19 if you have an advance schedule hoping to meet up with dating site conquests.

[Mogwai]

Public education in this place is extraordinarily poorly funded and only putatively free. Students, for example, are provided a minimum amount of school supplies at the beginning of the year; supplies that do not last beyond the first couple of months of school terms. It's up to parents to replace them. It's also up to parents to provide the means of transport, appropriate school clothes, lunches and funds for the endless, and mandatory "special events" that take the place of classroom education for days on end. Many poorer parents lack the means to fulfill these requirements which partially explains the high drop out rates.

GE.

Thanks GE for your contribution! My GF told me that beside new uniforms she has to buy new books as well because they are using other books in the new school and they only teach Tagalog and not English (much to the chagrin of her daughter because she hardly speaks English and is very eager to communicate with me).
Furthermore she has to pay 50 PhP a day for lunch.

Meanwhile I've finally understood what she meant by 'have problem trasper'. She simply meant the transfer from the old school to the new school.

Hopefully the kids can go to their new school next week.

[WhatsUrName]

Gentlemen,

Thank you for your wisdom and guidance over the previous year. I haven't been posting much at all, but I have been logging in regularly to keep track of the gossip and goings-on.

I've just returned from an 11 day trip to the Philippines. Spent 1 day traveling each way from the US, 5 days in Malate, and 4 days in AC.

I basically did a M-F in AC, and the weekends of each side of the week in Malate.

I spent the majority of my Malate mongering time in LA Caf. This may seem a tad odd and a little way of out the norm, but I used two hotels concurrently while in Malate.

I am just a tad on the paranoid side, and try to fly under the radar and avoid risk to the degree that I can. My main hotel was Cherry Blossom, next to Robinson mall. This is where I stored my luggage, credit cards, passport, laptop, etc. I like their hotel office safety deposit boxes (like a bank safety deposit box) behind two locked doors and a security camera along with my own private key. I don't trust hotel room safes. I also like to stay in CB's two story townhouses with entrance from the garage. I don't care about the walk of shame, but I do care about privacy and having to walk through the Lobby with my "working girl".

I also used the Brickstone Hotel as a "Staging area". The Brickstone is right next door to LA Caf. I like it because it is a 24 hour, cash based short time hotel available for 1500 PHP per 24 hour period. I would have LA Caf FLs meet me in the Lobby. I liked this setup for a couple of reasons:

1) It greatly cut my travel back and forth between CB and LA. While not a long walk, it does get me quite sweaty every time. Plus, being in the rainy season, one can never predict when the next deluge will occur.

2) It increases my safety. I didn't have to travel the seedy streets of Ermita at 2 AM. In addition, the street people didn't see me in the company of suspected prostitutes. Moreover, if I ever did have a problem, I could be packed up and gone from the Brickstone in a matter of minutes. No credit cards, no luggage, no names, no checkout process.

I didn't let my CB world and my Brickstone worlds collide. I took perhaps 10 ladies from LA all to the Brickstone, and none to the CB.

Most of my LA Caf ladies were repeats. I had some real sweet ladies. I know that a lot of my fellow mongers think LA is a fugly show. But I think there are some sweethearts there. One sweet young lady was really, really, cute (at least to me). I took her 3 times over the course of my trip.

Most of the FLs were starting the bidding at 2500 PHP, but they will gladly accept 2000. I could have gotten probably down even below that but instead negotiated bareback, two pops, and vibrator use. Some ladies are hesitant about going bareback at least at first, but I think they are more worried about getting knocked up that catching an STD. I promised to cum outside and they all agreed.

If you want to go bareback, I recommend you negotiate this up front.

In AC, I stayed in the New Central Park Tower. Really liked it. I stayed in the Penthouse across the street on my last visit, and think. I like the Central Park Tower a little better. While I did have a great view of Mt Arayat at the Penthouse, there is some amount of street noise from Santos street. Central Park Tower street noise was almost non-existent.

I stuck to the Fields Ave bars, and probably took the most ladies from Atlantis. Had no problems at all.

Thanks again for your year of wisdom and guidance. Especially GE for his periodic rants about "Life in the Philippines". It serves as a reminder to me that the Phils is a nice place to visit, but I should think very, very carefully about whether I want to live there.

Fly Under the radar when in the Philippines.

Peace Out.

WhatsurName.

[Member #4351]

Since few can find their way to the Cebu threads I am crossposting here to get out the word:

It's that time again; Friday October 16 at 11:00 a.m. ISG forum members will be meeting for the ISG Free Lunch in Cebu City. As always, no hidden agenda, no time share sales spiel;, only interesting conversation and good food. Reserve your place by PMing me.

[GoodEnough]

Public education in this place is extraordinarily poorly funded and only putatively free. Students, for example, are provided a minimum amount of school supplies at the beginning of the year; supplies that do not last beyond the first couple of months of school terms. It's up to parents to replace them. It's also up to parents to provide the means of transport, appropriate school clothes, lunches and funds for the endless, and mandatory "special events" that take the place of classroom education for days on end. Many poorer parents lack the means to fulfill these requirements which partially explains the high drop out rates.

GE.

[Hutsori]

Thanks a lot Hutsori! Just one more question: if she means 'transportation fare' does it mean she has to pay for the school bus?

You're welcome. The only school buses I've seen, which are little more than small vans and Mitsubishi L300 panel trucks painted yellow, belong to private Filipino schools. Maybe the expensive international schools have something better. I reckon her kids will take the jeep or a trike.

[MrWoolyBooly]

But she texted "pass crap". She was also a college studlent. I replied, that's the name for a CR, not a ferry. Eventualy by a similar linguistic analysis, I figured out "Fast Craft".

Hilarious! It goes both ways. On my first ever visit to the Philippines I was looking for a place in the Saint Francis mall in Ortigas, located near the Podium building. I must have gone back and forth three times between the two asking locals: "Where is the Saint Francis?" Reply: "Next to Poe-joom (pointing)" As I walked in the direction of pointing I'd ask: "Where's the Poe-joom? Reply: "Next to Sinpransis (pointing back the way I came)". As ridiculous as it sounds, I now usually pronounce English names Pinoy style to avoid confusion.

[MrWoolyBooly]

Thanks a lot Hutsori! Just one more question: if she means 'transportation fare' does it mean she has to pay for the school bus?

I think it likely means tricycle (motorbike with sidecar) or jeepney or pedicab fare for students going to their local school. In a distantly related situation, I Google mapped the distance from house to school to see whether it was reasonably walkable. It's not unusual, though, for them to catch a ride regardless.

[Mogwai]

I recently alloted P750 for a single uniform for a college student of a parochial school. So P750 for two uni for elementary school sounds right.

Thanks Cbea20! Good info.

[Mogwai]

I suspect 'trasper' is her attempt at 'transportation fare'; ask her is she means 'pamasahe', which is 'fare'.

Thanks a lot Hutsori! Just one more question: if she means 'transportation fare' does it mean she has to pay for the school bus?

[Cbea20]

I recently alloted P750 for a single uniform for a college student of a parochial school. So P750 for two uni for elementary school sounds right. My student was bemused that I wanted her to come dressed in the uni. And she's right, it's not at all sexy compared with her street wear. I was only ensuring that the funds had been spent as agreed.

One of my regulars says she needs money to send her two kids back to school. She has recently moved to another part of Angeles and has to send her kids to another elementary school. She claims she needs 1825 PhP plus another 850 PhP for two uniforms. Could this be true? I have googled a bit and it seems to me that the public elementary schools are free (except maybe for the uniforms).

She says 'have problem trasper'. I don't know what the heck she means with 'trasper'. Maybe (money) transfer? Or transport?

You may have noticed that the letters p and f are interchangeable in filipino languages. Also, there are no doubled consonants. So transfer becomes trasper.

I had a girl coming to visit by ferry. Because there is more than one line, docking in different places, I asked for the name of the ferry, and told her to read it, not ask another passenger. But she texted "pass crap". She was also a college studlent. I replied, that's the name for a CR, not a ferry. Eventualy by a similar linguistic analysis, I figured out "Fast Craft".