Other Areas

[Stroker Ace88]

I recently spent 16 days in northwest Luzon. I'm considering the Phils as a potential place to retire at the end of the year, so toured around Pangasinan, La Union, Zambales, and Benguet provinces in search of the perfect locality. I can't say I found paradise, but I decided that San Fernando, La Union is a pretty good place to start. It's a medium-sized city with nice beaches, low prices for housing, decent shopping, close to Baguio and its temperate climate, and only a 6 hour bus ride from Manila.

I used Dagupan, Pangasinan for my base of operations and spent 9 nights there. Westerners are very rare in that city and I received lots of stares everywhere I went. People were very friendly when I made the effort to initiate dialogue with them. I was looking for the "real Philippines" on this trip and wanted to stay away from cities with a large western presence. Dagupan has nothing interesting for a tourist, but I found it a suitable place to be as I traveled by bus during the day.

Unfortunately, I found it's tough but not impossible to find paid companionship in Dagupan. [SNIP]

Dagupan has very little nightlife. By 9 pm the city streets are pretty devoid of traffic and I only saw three music clubs in town. The Quattro bar on Del Pilar near the Dunkin Donuts, Padi's Point located on A. B Fernandez near the Mercury Drug, and the Music Warehouse on Perez Blvd. [SNIP]

I was getting tired of Dagupan so two days later I left and checked in at the Covelandia Resort. [SNIP]

In retrospect, I was certainly surprised to find such a place out in the middle of nowhere. I guess you never know when opportunity will knock on your door.

KEJ,

Very detailed report, nice job.

If you are seriously considering retiring in Luzon I suggest you visit and spend serious time there during the rainy season, roughly July to November when heavy rain and typhoons are common. They hit Luzon hard. Flooding and power outages that last days are the norm in some sections of Luzon.

The Philippines is now into the Summer season with mostly nice hot dry weather. Visit when a typhoon hits Luzon and then decide if it's a place you can retire in.

You also commented about the lack of foreigners and things to do. Most guys who retire in Luzon live around the Subic-AC area for just that reason. Only the guys who marry a woman from the Province choose to locate themselves that far away from civilization and most go stir crazy after a few years with only a select handful of other foreigners to talk with (if you are lucky) and nothing to do all day but sit around and watch the buko grow. Unless that's exactly what you are looking for.

[WestCoast1]

Excellent report Joe.

[Keen Eye Joe]

I recently spent 16 days in northwest Luzon. I'm considering the Phils as a potential place to retire at the end of the year, so toured around Pangasinan, La Union, Zambales, and Benguet provinces in search of the perfect locality. I can't say I found paradise, but I decided that San Fernando, La Union is a pretty good place to start. It's a medium-sized city with nice beaches, low prices for housing, decent shopping, close to Baguio and its temperate climate, and only a 6 hour bus ride from Manila.

I used Dagupan, Pangasinan for my base of operations and spent 9 nights there. Westerners are very rare in that city and I received lots of stares everywhere I went. People were very friendly when I made the effort to initiate dialogue with them. I was looking for the "real Philippines" on this trip and wanted to stay away from cities with a large western presence. Dagupan has nothing interesting for a tourist, but I found it a suitable place to be as I traveled by bus during the day.

Unfortunately, I found it's tough but not impossible to find paid companionship in Dagupan. I was fortunate in meeting a local 28 year old lady by chance at a Jollibee and we hit it off really well and she took good care of me in all ways. But she couldn't be with me every night due to having to take care of her children, so I was on my own a few nights.

Dagupan has very little nightlife. By 9 pm the city streets are pretty devoid of traffic and I only saw three music clubs in town. The Quattro bar on Del Pilar near the Dunkin Donuts, Padi's Point located on A. B Fernandez near the Mercury Drug, and the Music Warehouse on Perez Blvd.

I only saw a couple of KTVs, which were located north of the Nepo Mall on Del Pilar road which heads north toward San Fabian. I struck up a conversation with a local guy who told me there is only one girlie club in town, called the "808". Apparently it is located over near the Music Warehouse club, but I never checked it out.

I stayed at the Luxor Hotel, located about 200 yards from the Nepo Mall. 875 pesos a night for a somewhat spartan room with a double bed, but it was clean, had a lot of TV channels, fast internet and cold air conditioning. There are a handful of trike drivers which hang out along the main road in front of the hotel. One night, one of the drivers asked if I was looking for a girl. I told him maybe, and asked what the price would be. He said he could bring me a pretty college student for 2500 pesos. Normally I might have pursued the matter, but I had no need for paid companionship while there so I declined to negotiate.

One day I took the bus to the city of Alaminos, located in Western Pangasinan. Its claim to fame is that the Hundred Islands National Park is nearby and I highly recommend spending a day there cruising around on a small pump boat. It cost 1800 pesos a day to rent the boat and captain, but I made friends with a Filipino family who was waiting to board a boat and I split the cost with them. A very enjoyable day.

On the way back to Dagupan, the bus passed by a series of beach resorts between the municipalities of Sual and Labrador. The best of these is Covelandia, which has a nice pool, water slide, large restaurant and bar area, and nicely landscaped grounds. Overpriced at 3500 pesos per night. But there are other smaller beachside resorts that I checked out that cost anywhere between 600 and 1500 pesos per night. The surf is pretty high so it's not a great place for swimming. In fact, it appeared pretty darned dangerous to me.

The reason I bring this area up is that after passing these resorts, the bus stopped at a lonely bus stop out in the middle of nowhere and picked up a man and woman. They took a seat near mine and after a few minutes we started talking. The woman's name was Stephanie, a reasonably attractive 40-ish gal, and I was shocked to find out she was Brazilian. Apparently she had married a Pinoy 20 years ago but he died 12 years ago. She decided to stay in the Phils and became a business owner. She is the proprietor of an establishment called the "Chateau Europe Bistro", housed in a bright blue building along the highway to the west of the town of Labrador.

She described her place in glowing terms as a nice place for people to hang out and eat and drink. I wasn't all that interested until she mentioned that female companionship was available there too. Then my interest was piqued and I asked her questions about her operation. She houses around 20 girls. Most of them are from the Visayas region and all are between the ages of 19 and 25. It's more like a KTV, where you can sit with a girl and buy ladies drinks for 140 pesos and do the videoke thing. Take out cost 2000 pesos and the girl will stay with the guy until the morning. She says she has a lot of clients from the local resorts, which makes sense because her operation sits out in the middle of friggin no where. She says she has them blood tested each week for STDs. I have no reason to doubt her, but a part of me was suspicious of the claim. Regardless, I'm not a barebacker so it wasn't an issue for me.

I was getting tired of Dagupan so two days later I left and checked in at the Covelandia Resort. At around 9 pm I went out to the main gate and told the security guards I wanted to go to the "bistro". They smiled and told me there were many good looking girls there. I asked them if there were similar places in the nearby town of Sual and they said companionship was available there but the women were old and ugly, haha.

It took a while to flag down a trike, but eventually I ended up at the bistro. As Stephanie promised, there were plenty of girls available, I'd guess around 12. No stunningly beautiful ladies, but they were average or better. Looked a lot like the typical fare at the Manila Bay Cafe. They were dressed in casual clothing: jeans or shorts, slippers, and tank tops. But there were no fatties in the group, and all the ladies seemed pleasant.

There were about 10 other guys there (all Pinoy) , but a lot of them came just to drink and sing. Steph said 4 of the girls had been barfined earlier in the evening, but there were still plenty of suitable women for my choosing.

Steph brought them all over in a line and they introduced themselves to me, one by one. I can't remember the name of the girl I chose, but she was 19 years old with no kids from Nueva Ecija province. It was a nice low key atmosphere there. No pressure at any time, and I had a lot of fun. My beers were 40 pesos and the ladies drinks were 140. After a couple of drinks my girl started to get comfy with me and got really friendly, cuddling in close, french kissing, and rubbing my cock through my pants. There was no way I was going to let this girl get away, so after a couple of hours I paid the 2000 bar fine (all inclusive, no additional payment necessary except optional tip).

Not much to say about the nighttime activities. One pop that night and another in the morning. Lots of DFK and the BJ was more than adequate. She did ask if I would do her without the condom. I asked her why and she said she has always wanted a baby with blue eyes. Well, I don't need a band of Little Joe's running around the Phils, so I declined, haha.

In retrospect, I was certainly surprised to find such a place out in the middle of nowhere. I guess you never know when opportunity will knock on your door.

[Goferring]

I've heard that there is a strip of good bars in Battangas that may be worth a stop over on the way to Sabang / Puerto Galera.

Can anyone elaborate? I'm a frequent traveller to PG so a stopover could be interesting.)

[Goferring]

Just a quick update on PG. A lot has been posted recently so I won't repeat those but will just add the following:

PG generally is attracting many more non asian couples and groups of Western girls. I saw many more white BF / GF or groups of girls on this trip. Some of the white chicks were an easy 8 or 9. Hoewever none were P4P.

Rates have stabilised at 1500 plus 1500 with discounts available for longer stays or bulk buys.

Broadway has been turned from one of the best bars with great girls and atmosphere in to a dark featureless live band bar with no WGs. Just keep walking straight past it. The girls from the Broadway have supposedly relocated to Hammerhead but I couldn't find any old aquaintences. I have no idea why they closed Hammerhead for months for "remodelling". Nothing has changed.

Coco Lips (aka Pink Panther) and Las Vegas disco were very much the lower class bars full of girls well past their prime. New owners have seriously upgraded the vibe of these places. Coco was full of plenty of 7s and 8s. Apparently there is a pool table and ST rooms up stairs. Vegas has some great fun girls and if the mood is right will put on strip shows (however, this seems to be more spontaineous than a reqular schedule). For the anti Koreans this bar seemed to attract the least.

I've noticed that many of the girls on previous trips have left town to be replaced by new stock. The new girls appear to be well trained but having said that sometimes familiar territory is nice too.

I always enjoy PG and this trip was no exception. Again, some of the best girls with incredible, fun attitudes.

[WestCoast1]

It's more fun in the Philippines as the slogan says,

DOT Has made a believer out of me. Maybe they can use some of my pics in their upcoming campaign?

[Stroker Ace88]

I arrived here yesterday from Cebu, together with a carry-on and a small checked bag that wouldn't fit into the overhead rack of the tiny, cramped Cebu Pacific plane. No matter. The flight was only 45 minutes and my bags and I arrived intact. One night at the Tavern Hotel with a Seaview room wasn't bad. The place is basic but clean and the oceanfront terrace attached to my room was serenity itself.

However, as I write this from the airport waiting area, having checked in for the flight back to Cebu, I find my serenity disturbed by the check-in from hell. [SNIP]

What a country! You'v got to love it.

GE

I have had similar experiences in Ozamiz, everything broken and security hand inspecting my things while all the locals looked to see what the foreigner had inside his bag. Amazingly some slightly larger airports like Davao and Bacolod are just big enough to have found a way to streamline the check in and security experience so no "checkin from hell" there.

I empathize with you GE.

And still they ignore everything foreigners say and suggest about how to make it "more fun in the Philippines".

I just wish some enlightened Filipino soul with senior credentials in TOURISM would invite people (seriously) to suggest ways to make things different (which means better).

If they started with airports that would be good.

I live here. I plan to stay here. I just hate the "head-in-the-sand" attitude.

It is so simple to improve so many things if only someone would listen and then act.

Honestly things change at a snails pace in the Philippines if at all. Don't hold your breath waiting for the light to go on in someones head because when it comes to common sense, it's always brownout time.

It's more fun in the Philippines as the slogan says, just have to take everything as it comes and accept that things are often backwards and hopelessly frustrating but it is what it is, a third World Country.

If filling out a million forms and getting a million more photocopies of those same forms, then waiting around in lines all day, only to be told go to the 4th floor department of redundancy department to file makes anyone happy, it doesn't. Sucks to see things so messed up, but it's there way of life. It's the way they do things and while it's not perfect by a long shot, it works for them. I just accept it and I am beyond the point of trying to understand why.

[GoodEnough]

I empathize with you GE.

And still they ignore everything foreigners say and suggest about how to make it "more fun in the Philippines".

I just wish some enlightened Filipino soul with senior credentials in TOURISM would invite people (seriously) to suggest ways to make things different (which means better).

If they started with airports that would be good.

I live here. I plan to stay here. I just hate the "head-in-the-sand" attitude.

It is so simple to improve so many things if only someone would listen and then act.

I was chatting yesterday at my hotel in Cebu with a Tourism student interning at the hotel. She told me that she had been taught that the country is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. When I contradicted this assumption by pointing out that in fact the country had one of the lowest tourist attraction rates in Asia, andd in fact received less than a quarter of the tourists that Thailand does, she shook her head and insisted that I must be mistaken. These folks are delusional, and belong to the "If I say it often enough sooner or later it may be true" school of management. The tourism infrastructure here is pathetic.

GE

[Red Kilt]

I empathize with you GE.

And still they ignore everything foreigners say and suggest about how to make it "more fun in the Philippines".

I just wish some enlightened Filipino soul with senior credentials in TOURISM would invite people (seriously) to suggest ways to make things different (which means better).

If they started with airports that would be good.

I live here. I plan to stay here. I just hate the "head-in-the-sand" attitude.

It is so simple to improve so many things if only someone would listen and then act.

[WestCoast1]

the inspector; a full-fledged police officer, meticulously went through all of the items she found, though she missed an entire compartment, and then apparently found me fit for travel. two minutes later, boarding pass in hand, i proceeded to the "departure hall," lovingly cooled by a fan that would be more appropriate to a small bedroom. but wait! i wasn't allowed to sit on the lovingly crafted php50 plastic seats before passing "final inspection," which is located about 2 meters from the "preliminary inspection." what a surprise! the xray machine and metal detector were broken here as well, so re-open the luggage and the hand-carry. this time, they confirep001ed a lighter, sternly admonishing me that lighters weren't permitted, while obliviious to the other 3 lighters packed in my hand-carry.

what a country! you'v got to love it.

ge

exact same procedure 2 years ago, and 5 years ago. five years ago there were only 3 flights per week (not per day). the initial entry wasn't as bad as you describe, but there was no x-ray machine or metal detector. two nice older ladies opened both my suitcases, took out every item (including toiletries) , and hand-inspected everything. it was about 5 minutes watching them eyeball my stuff, including my toothbrush (as if a white man's mouth somehow differently effects the shape of the bristles). and, they did not use medical rubber gloves (who knows how often the wash their hands). once inside, i found only 5 other passengers passed into the "departure hall" area (one was kano) , and my luggage (like yours) , had to be opened and hand-inspected again. yawn. at least in the butuan airport there are two evap-coolers cranking away.

[GoodEnough]

Sorry guys, for the double post. I've tried to remove one of them twice, but the system will not cooperate.

[GoodEnough]

i arrived here yesterday from cebu, together with a carry-on and a small checked bag that wouldn't fit into the overhead rack of the tiny, cramped cebu pacific plane. no matter. the flight was only 45 minutes and my bags and i arrived intact. one night at the tavern hotel with a seaview room wasn't bad. the place is basic but clean and the oceanfront terrace attached to my room was serenity itself.

however, as i write this from the airport waiting area, having checked in for the flight back to cebu, i find my serenity disturbed by the check-in from hell. understand that the airport is about as big as a good size living room, so space is at a premium for the two or three flights a day that serve this miniscule city on the northernmost tip of mindanao. a crowd of at least 5 people (maybe 4) was waiting for the narrow, closet-size door to open that would allow passengers inside to begin the check-in from hell experience. the guy guarding the door, in his perfervid desire to prevent terrorist acts, or perhaps just to demonstrate his bloated sense of self importance, scrutiized tickets and ids like they were the rosetta stone and he had just discovered the archeological treasure, of the century, thus turning what should have been a ten second per person process into a minute or more. once the rent-a-cop had bestowed his grudging approval, we proceeded to baggage xray and metal detection screening; except wait a minute,"we used to have an x ray machine and a metal detector but they've been broken since the beginning of the millenium." so, hand inspection and "body search" were the hallmarks of the day, thus turning what should have been a ten second, tolerable experience into three or four minutes from hell.

the inspector; a full-fledged police officer, meticulously went through all of the items she found, though she missed an entire compartment, and then apparently found me fit for travel. two minutes later, boarding pass in hand, i proceeded to the "departure hall," lovingly cooled by a fan that would be more appropriate to a small bedroom. but wait! i wasn't allowed to sit on the lovingly crafted php50 plastic seats before passing "final inspection," which is located about 2 meters from the "preliminary inspection." what a surprise! the xray machine and metal detector were broken here as well, so re-open the luggage and the hand-carry. this time, they confirep001ed a lighter, sternly admonishing me that lighters weren't permitted, while obliviious to the other 3 lighters packed in my hand-carry.

what a country! you'v got to love it.

ge

[GoodEnough]

i arrived here yesterday from cebu, together with a carry-on and a small checked bag that wouldn't fit into the overhead rack of the tiny, cramped cebu pacific plane. no matter. the flight was only 45 minutes and my bags and i arrived intact. one night at the tavern hotel with a seaview room wasn't bad. the place is basic but clean and the oceanfront terrace attached to my room was serenity itself.

however, as i write this from the airport waiting area, having checked in for the flight back to cebu, i find my serenity disturbed by the check-in from hell. understand that the airport is about as big as a good size living room, so space is at a premium for the two or three flights a day that serve this miniscule city on the northernmost tip of mindanao. a crowd of at least 5 people (maybe 4) was waiting for the narrow, closet-size door to open that would allow passengers inside to begin the check-in from hell experience. the guy guarding the door, in his perfervid desire to prevent terrorist acts, or perhaps just to demonstrate his bloated sense of self importance, scrutiized tickets and ids like they were the rosetta stone and he had just discovered the archeological treasure, of the century, thus turning what should have been a ten second per person process into a minute or more. once the rent-a-cop had bestowed his grudging approval, we proceeded to baggage xray and metal detection screening; except wait a minute,"we used to have an x ray machine and a metal detector but they've been broken since the beginning of the millenium." so, hand inspection and "body search" were the hallmarks of the day, thus turning what should have been a ten second, tolerable experience into three or four minutes from hell.

the inspector; a full-fledged police officer, meticulously went through all of the items she found, though she missed an entire compartment, and then apparently found me fit for travel. two minutes later, boarding pass in hand, i proceeded to the "departure hall," lovingly cooled by a fan that would be more appropriate to a small bedroom. but wait! i wasn't allowed to sit on the lovingly crafted php50 plastic seats before passing "final inspection," which is located about 2 meters from the "preliminary inspection." what a surprise! the xray machine and metal detector were broken here as well, so re-open the luggage and the hand-carry. this time, they confirep001ed a lighter, sternly admonishing me that lighters weren't permitted, while obliviious to the other 3 lighters packed in my hand-carry.

what a country! you'v got to love it.

ge

[Econo Tech]

Can anyone recomend a hotel near station 2 in Boracay? I will be there for 2 days only so looking for convinance more than anything. Pool, close to beach and D Mall.

Not close to beach, not close to the mall.

But, cross the road for the beach (the other side of the road belongs to the hotel) and free shuttle to the Mall, and stay away from the hustle and bustle of the area around D Mall. Look up Boracay Beach Club!

Quite and nice pool and good service. And they package in a in-room massage as well.

[Mc Don]

Can anyone recomend a hotel near station 2 in Boracay? I will be there for 2 days only so looking for convinance more than anything. Pool, close to beach and D Mall.