Manila

[Rick Rock]

Chuckle. I agree that in the states poor people often vote against their economic interests. Two possible explanations. One, many are not very bright and are easily duped by smart people with money and access to a public microphone to use in marketing and lobbying to protect (and increase) their own wealth. Two, in a country that entertains the individualistic value that people succeed by pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps, many poor people entertain the myth that they too will someday be wealthy, so they want institutions in place that will support their imagined future run at riches. I'd love to know why this pattern exists in Singapore as well.

Keep in mind that most taxi drivers in the Philippines, as elsewhere, do not own their own taxis. So cab drivers are small business owners only in the sense that they own their own time. In the Philippines most taxis are owned in fleets by wealthier individuals. In an earlier post GE explained the substantial daily lease that drivers pay to owners, in addition to paying for the fuel they consume. So profit for the fleet owners turns only indirectly on the individual fare rates. More directly, their profit turns on the daily lease rate that they charge to the drivers. So the politics about fares affects the drivers more directly than the owners, and, as I suggested earlier, the drivers, as poor people, don't heft very much clout in changing the system.

If they don't have a boss and work for a wage they're independent contractors. That is, they're small business owners. Doesn't matter if they rent tools. Construction guys often rent tools too, like heavy machinery when they need it. They can't buy it so they rent. They're small business owners, not big business. Still business though.

Small business owners don't have much clout, just like homeless people and the unemployed. They are individualistic, not united, and incapable of shutting anything down. Big corporations control vast swaths of the economy. They can shut down things with a single command. They also have enormous sway over the government. Subway drivers in New York have a lot of clout. They're organized, united, and capable of bringing the biggest city in the US to a halt. That's just how it goes.

If someone doesn't like driving a taxi, or if it proves to be an unprofitable business, they could always try getting another job. Or they could murder a passenger over fifty cents instead. Either way.

[Rick Rock]

I'll bite. The situation in BKK was not analagous with the situation in Manila. In BKK, the driver was appropriately running his meter, and the customer was being an asshole (not saying he deserved what happened). In my case in Manila, several drivers in a row purposely attempted a scam. However I think your point is that at anytime someone other than yourself (the driver in the BKK case) could go off the rails and do something stupid.

That's one of my points. Business owners who rip off others for a living don't tend to be the most humanistic of people. It's not out of the realm of possibilities for something similar to happen in the Philippines for even less, especially if someone attempts to just walk away as you suggest. After all the murder rate per 100,000 people in Thailand is a relatively high 3. 24 while in the Philippines it's a whopping 11.32!

One of the many reasons I visit the Philippines less than any other country in Southeast Asia (except Brunei) even though I'm a short flight away is stuff like this. Some Bangkok taxis try it on, but you can always find a legit driver quickly. In a place like Manila they base their life around ripping people off. It's disheartening and disgusting.

[Rick Rock]

I pay double or triple for a good cup of coffee in a foreign country. I pay double or triple for a great fuck. I pay double or triple for a great meal. I am not alone in this.

LOL!

Do you do that voluntarily or what? Most things like coffee and sex are less expensive throughout Southeast Asia than in the West. I wonder how you do that? Just triple the menu price for a cappuccino and hand it over? Does it make your coffee taste better?

An iced latte where I live in Asia is $2. Back in the US it would be $3 - $5. What should I do oh wizard of the economics?

[Rick Rock]

Been to Starbucks lately?

Hell no. I wouldn't drink that burnt garbage if it was free. I have been to Doi Chang several times though. I pay the price listed on the menu like everyone else.

[Soapy Smith]

How is that obvious? We are talking about prostitutes here; women that actively exchange sex for money. Of course I am not going to treat anyone in a negative manner, but no I do not look at them as my friend or someone to feel special about. We are conducting business.

Wouldn't a blow-up doll or a battery-operated masturbation tube be cheaper in the long run?

[Inblr01]

Hi Seniors.

Will be visiting first time philipones, so quite excited about same. If any fellow member have time to catch during October (25_28), do ping or reply.

Thank you.

Inblr01.

Bangalore.

[BrainDrain]

Obviously you view women as simply the means of conveying around orifices that are all identical and interchangeable. You don't see women as having any redeeming social value except to have orifices into which you will stick your dick.

The issue with Philippines is the blurred lines. There are Filipinas that are clearly setup in the traditional way of western prosti. Then there are the part-time freelancers that go with foreigners knowing that they will get some reward. Further still are the Filipina that will not consider themselves as being paid for sex but are happy knowing that they get extra cash for their family, study, house etc.

Over the past two years I've paid for a lot of sex in Philippines very little of which has been spent in commercial setups with prosti.

For me I am paying for the image of a 'partner' rather than just a sex.

BD.

[Mr Enternational]

Obviously you view women as simply the means of conveying around orifices that are all identical and interchangeable. You don't see women as having any redeeming social value except to have orifices into which you will stick your dick.

I truly feel sorry for you. You don't know what you are missing.

How is that obvious? We are talking about prostitutes here; women that actively exchange sex for money. Of course I am not going to treat anyone in a negative manner, but no I do not look at them as my friend or someone to feel special about. We are conducting business. I have women that are not prostitutes that I can feel genuinely as such about. I'm not about paying someone to allow me to feel special about them. I am paying them to fuck them and not to get emotions or sentiments involved.

Unless I misunderstood your post, I interpreted you as saying that the better you treat the hooker and the more you are willing to shell out to her or on her, then the better the sex will be. That is why it threw me off when you started talking about not showing her you are a low class Cheap Charlie. I'm thinking what does she care, she is in it for a set fee to begin with. As long as she gets the X amount of pesos in the agreement she should not care what you are. I will tell a chick in a minute. Of course I have money, but that does not mean I am going to give it to you or spend it on you. Call me cheap all you want. It is always the broke chick that will call you cheap in order to guilt you into spending money on her. I didn't pay all that money for school to fall for Mickey Mouse shit like that.

[Kabul Guy]

A few things wrong in your post. First, all women have a pussy. How much money she has or how much money she charges you has nothing to do with how good her pussy or sex is.

...

Obviously you view women as simply the means of conveying around orifices that are all identical and interchangeable. You don't see women as having any redeeming social value except to have orifices into which you will stick your dick.

I truly feel sorry for you. You don't know what you are missing.

[D Cups]

I pay double or triple Sometimes the cheapest is not the cheapest!

In my profession I easily charge double and get it.

You must work in sales. I understand what you are saying but as others have pointed out the price paid does not always reflect the value received. I pay my main squeeze in the Caribbean 4000 pesos (roughly $88), twice the normal amount, but she's drop dead gorgeous 42 F cup tits (not fat) and lets me video the whole thing, always provides superb service with a big smile. She's fucking awesome!

[Mr Enternational]

I am looking at 3 restaurants. One charges 500 p for a meal, one charges 1000 p and the other charges 1500 p for a meal. The description on them all reads the same.

Experienced mongers can tell if the lady is a low class meth head with no redeeming qualities other than accessible orifices and a different lady is a higher class educated woman who will be a pleasure to be with not only sexually but as a companion for either ST or LT. The clues may be harder to discover than in the case of a greasy spoon diner and a fine restaurant but they are there if you know where to look. Sometimes just treating the lady with respect and showing that you are not a low class cheap Charley during the negotiations can be the determining factor.

If you are so scared that the fine dining will not live up to its promises that you only eat at the greasy spoons, then you are not taking the slight risk in trying and experiencing the finer things in life.

A few things wrong in your post. First, all women have a pussy. How much money she has or how much money she charges you has nothing to do with how good her pussy or sex is.

Second, speaking on price points a prime example is that you can go into a soapie in Thailand where chicks wear different badges to specify how much you have to pay. You can go in one day and a chick has on a $70 badge and go in next week and the same chick has a $50 badge. What more would you get the day she has on the $70 badge?

Third, from the Bogota thread the other day. It is often said that in the cheap ghetto area of Santa Fe you can find the same chicks that you will see in more upscale places. Many guys never believe it, but those of us in the know know how true it is. One guy posted a report 2 days ago about his first trip going to Santa Fe and he saw a chick that he had known from an upscale place working in the hood for way cheaper.

I have also reported a few months back talking to a chick in a $30 hooker spot in Thailand that said at night she goes to her second job which is a spot that costs you over $100. So how would this chick's pussy felt any different by picking her up at the $120 spot over the $30 spot? In either circumstance would this experienced monger (that you have named) have looked at the chick at the cheaper spot and "known" she was worth way more or would he have looked at her at the more expensive spot and "known" she was not worth that much?

Fourth, why would you assume a higher class educated woman's sex would be any better than a chick that dropped out of preschool? And if she was that higher class and educated then more than likely she would not be flat-backing. When you show me the porn star with the PhD I will retract that statement.

[Kabul Guy]

Question: How do you know the first time (before you buy) that its a great cup of coffee, great f*ck, or great meal?

I am looking at 3 restaurants. One charges 500 p for a meal, one charges 1000 p and the other charges 1500 p for a meal. The description on them all reads the same.

Is it the same meal, offered with the same service or is one served on paper plates and plastic cutlery in a stand up eating place. Is one served on fine dishes with table cloths and well trained wait staff? Granted all will satisfy your physical hunger but some will satisfy you in a more pleasurable manner than the others.

There are ways to judge the offering before committing, sometimes we are wrong and the fine dining has a tough steak, it may be false advertising or it may just be that they had an off night. The stand up street food may turn out to be delicious and very satisfying or it may give you a serious case of the trots. There is only one guarantee in this life and that is that you will not get out of it alive.

Experienced mongers can tell if the lady is a low class meth head with no redeeming qualities other than accessible orifices and a different lady is a higher class educated woman who will be a pleasure to be with not only sexually but as a companion for either ST or LT. The clues may be harder to discover than in the case of a greasy spoon diner and a fine restaurant but they are there if you know where to look. Sometimes just treating the lady with respect and showing that you are not a low class cheap Charley during the negotiations can be the determining factor.

If you are so scared that the fine dining will not live up to its promises that you only eat at the greasy spoons, then you are not taking the slight risk in trying and experiencing the finer things in life.

[Soapy Smith]

Usually the working poor take the side of the working poor (except in the United States and Singapore where they rabidly support the filthy rich).

(snip)

That's the risk of running a business. Taxi drivers are mostly small business owners.

Chuckle. I agree that in the states poor people often vote against their economic interests. Two possible explanations. One, many are not very bright and are easily duped by smart people with money and access to a public microphone to use in marketing and lobbying to protect (and increase) their own wealth. Two, in a country that entertains the individualistic value that people succeed by pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps, many poor people entertain the myth that they too will someday be wealthy, so they want institutions in place that will support their imagined future run at riches. I'd love to know why this pattern exists in Singapore as well.

Keep in mind that most taxi drivers in the Philippines, as elsewhere, do not own their own taxis. So cab drivers are small business owners only in the sense that they own their own time. In the Philippines most taxis are owned in fleets by wealthier individuals. In an earlier post GE explained the substantial daily lease that drivers pay to owners, in addition to paying for the fuel they consume. So profit for the fleet owners turns only indirectly on the individual fare rates. More directly, their profit turns on the daily lease rate that they charge to the drivers. So the politics about fares affects the drivers more directly than the owners, and, as I suggested earlier, the drivers, as poor people, don't heft very much clout in changing the system.

[Mr Enternational]

Question: How do you know the first time (before you buy) that its a great cup of coffee, great f*ck, or great meal?

That is the same question I had. I figured he just waited til the end and added the double and triple as a tip.

[WestCoast1]

I pay double or triple for a good cup of coffee in a foreign country. I pay double or triple for a great fuck. I pay double or triple for a great meal. I am not alone in this.

Question: How do you know the first time (before you buy) that its a great cup of coffee, great f*ck, or great meal?