Other Areas

[Henry R]

I plan to be in Manila November 1, and to be in Puerto Galera or Boracay for a few days beginning about November 2 or 3. Anyone interested in getting together drop me a line. I most likely will go to Puerto Galera unless I can find someone to travel to Boracay with me.

[Augie]

Thanks for your post GE. My trip has been postponed. I had read that 25% of the place is Muslim. Did it seem like there were more there?

In following the local newspapers in Davao, it seems that the Zambo mayor is a lot more accepting of Americans and a lot less accepting of Muslims, than is Duterte.

[GoodEnough]

This post may be redundant, and if so, I apologize. We just got back from our second trip to Zamboanga in the past month. This time, we stayed at the Hotel Lantaca, which is a lovely, older hotel on the harbor. It'a quite romantic and a really nice setting for those of you who want or need to go there with a lady. There are some nice Chinese Restaurants and an Italian one as well, plus there are a couple of clubs around town.

The women are not nearly as readily available as in the larger cities. After all, this is largely a Muslim place, but it's pretty open and tolerant of alcohol, music and Western dress.

I would not make a special effort to get there. The Philippines has lots of nicer beachs and resorts, but if you do have to go, it's not at all a bad place to be.

GE

[GoodEnough]

I was there a couple of weeks ago and will be there again next week. Check out the bar in the Orchid Garden Hotel. The hotel is not much, but there's a band in the bar, which is open until about 2AM and there is some action there from what I could observe. There are also a couple of discos in town, but I did not get a chance to check them out.

GE

Hey Joe (that's all of you),

Been in PI almost a year. 15 different cities/towns, laid in all of 'em. Not the hardest thing to do in this country. Been in Davao the last 4 months, drowning in pussy, best place so far. (Yes IMO even beats Angeles.)

I'm going to Zamboanga for a week. Not going for sex, want to be immersed in the Chabacano language for a while. But after a couple days without my Davao regulars I presume I'll be waking up with a hard-on. (I hate that!)There's a cheap boat from here to there, so why not?

I've read the last 6 mos. posts here on this forum, and the only info is Dragon Slayer's from '95. Hmmm, a lot can change in 9 years.

Can anybody help?

Gracias, and may none of your sacks hold a load for more than 24hrs.

[Lion Killer]

I found that in Puerto Galera the freelancers were much better than in Angeles City & Boracay can't even be considered. Most freelancers in Puerto Galera hang out at the Big Apple Hotel/Bar. The best floor show is at the newest club called the Broadway. They have a special dancer about every hour that does a 3-4 song melody. There are usually about 2-3 special dancers a night.

Diving in Puerto Galera is probably the best in the Philippines, IMHO, with Boracay being pretty nice and Dumaguette good also. But as far as the combination of night life, scuba diving & freelancers, Puerto Galera wins hands down. Sounds like you had a good trip. Wish to return there soon myself.

LK

[Robbo]

After deciding to take a girl I met in EDSA Firehouse to Boracay I decided just to take her to Puerto Galera as well. I wasn’t sure of the quality of girls there so didn’t want to take the risk. Negotiated 10,000 pesos for 11 nights and there was no bar fine to pay as she made an excuse to the bar she was going back to the provinces.

The girls doesn’t speak much English and she was keen for her friend to go with her. My friend and already bar fined her the night before and after a quick report I decided what the hey and along she came as well for 7,000 pesos. I am glad I did this as she did all the transport arrangements and basically cooked all my meals, washed and ironed all my clothes, etc. It wasn’t long before she was also saving me money on my trip.

As I was staying in City Garden Makati and we had missed the 8am Si Kat departure time we had arranged a taxi through the City Garden hotel to Batangas, 2900 pesos. Way too much (1500 pesos is maximum) so instead we got a taxi to the local bus station and for 109 pesos for three people we got a bus to Batangas (couldn’t figure out how this was calculated). Can’t remember the cost of the boat direct to Sabang Beach (left at 2.30 p.m.) but it was cheap. Stayed at the Seashore resort for 4 nights for 1000 pesos a night for big room with kitchen.

The nightlife in Sabang beach has been discussed before but I will add my opinion. If you are interested in a place to go purely for the night life then I wouldn’t recommended this place, only three go-go bars with an average of 6-7 girls. A few 8’s and if you do want the 1 or 2 two 9’s going about get there early (8.30 p.m.) as they all seemed to get bar fined very early. However, at least the girls on stage put on a bit of a show, more so than in EDSA where all the girls just seem to shuffle their feet. The beer is cheaper than in Manila (circa 60 pesos a bottle) and there’s free popcorn in two of the disco’s.

I went to each go-go bar each night and had fun with my two companions each night. The young pretty girl got drunk on 1 glass of wine and was always trying to get on the bar and start stripping, generally wearing no bra or panties. This pi**ed off the bar staff no end as she was getting all the intention from the guys. Plus doing tequila body shots on each other also got a few stares. I was thinking of bar fining a couple of girls but didn’t know how this was going to affect the rest of the holiday so I didn’t bother. I was having enough fun having threesomes twice a day and they both got into each other just as much.

I never made it to any other places when in Sabang as I was busy scuba diving every day. And that is why you should come to this place, good dive sites with reasonable night life but to come hear purely for the go-go bars I wouldn’t recommend, only if you are a ‘cheap-charlie’ as some of the girls mentioned. For the record, bar fine is still 500 to 1000 depending on time and girl is standard 1000.

Remember to bring enough cash with you to Sabang as everyone slaps on between 6 and 8% charge for visa and this can get quite expensive after a while. If you desperately need cash, there is a travel agent next to Village disco who can get you cash from visa for 7% surcharge.

My original plan was to get ferry and bus back to Manila, spend the night then fly down to Boracay via Caticlan airport. However, one girl never had any ID so there may have been problems getting her a ticket. Instead we took the cheap option and got jeepney/bus to Roxas and ro-ro ferry across to Caticlan. Prices as best I remember are as follows: Jeepney from Sabany to Puerto Galero 15 pesos each, trike to PG jeepney station 10 peso each. Jeepney to Calapan, 60 peso each (2 hours) and another trike 10 peso each. You need to find the place where there are buses or air con vans to Roxas, we just asked a local. It was 180 pesos each for a 3 hour ride in an air con van. You can also hire a jeepney from Sabang beach to Calapan for 1500 or direct to Roxas for 4000 but that seemed a bit uncomfortable for my liking.

There are ferries I think at 9 and 10 pm from Roxas ferry port to Caticlan but it was recommended we take the 2am ferry as this would get us into Boracay for about 6 (arrived Caticaln 5.30 am). We had arrived about in Roxas 7 pm after leaving PG at 12.40pm. So for 6 hours we sat in a bar called Colt 45 drinking beer at 25 pesos a bottle and red wine at 250 pesos a bottle. There was a kareoke machine and pool tables to keep us amused for that length of time. Ended up playing drinking games based on our scores from the kareoke, good fun but smashed by 1am when we boarded the ferry. Cost of ferry 210 pesos each I think. Total for trip was about 1500 pesos for 3 people compared to 9000 pesos for flight only to Caticlan from Manila. Another 7500 pesos saving and cost of 1 night hotel in Manila.

In Boracay we stayed at the Villa Sunset resort close to boat station 2. Nice room with kitchen and additional attic bedroom for 2000 peso per night, although the prices change dramatically in high season and high-high season starting next month. Boracy was a nice place, great beach of course but the night life was a bit disappointing. I was expecting a place like Koh Samui but it was no where near it. The bars were almost empty and there was only one disco worth going to called Wave. There was a bar close to Cocomangas near boat station 3 which was full of Filipino students and bouncing. I did see a few freelancers in the bars, Summer Place was a popular one, nice bar as well. There was also quite a few lady-boys going about if that floats your boat.

Managed to get air tickets for all 3 of us back to Caticlan with a little hassle by airport security, cost 9000 pesos for 3 one-way tickets. If you are flying outside Philippines directly you need to get a taxi from the Manila domestic airport to the international airport, which is 4km away, cost 45 pesos.

As recommended by Firedick BYO to Boracy and you may be lucky in Sabang. I was looking for a place with great night life, beaches and scuba diving. A found it in this overall package but next trip I plan to go to Cebu direct and take a partner to Bohol and/or Malapascua island.

Robbo

[Augie]

Hey Joe (that's all of you),

Been in PI almost a year. 15 different cities/towns, laid in all of 'em. Not the hardest thing to do in this country. Been in Davao the last 4 months, drowning in pussy, best place so far. (Yes IMO even beats Angeles.)

I'm going to Zamboanga for a week. Not going for sex, want to be immersed in the Chabacano language for a while. But after a couple days without my Davao regulars I presume I'll be waking up with a hard-on. (I hate that!)There's a cheap boat from here to there, so why not?

I've read the last 6 mos. posts here on this forum, and the only info is Dragon Slayer's from '95. Hmmm, a lot can change in 9 years.

Can anybody help?

Gracias, and may none of your sacks hold a load for more than 24hrs.

[BigDawg64]

Hello my first posting and I will be heading to San Pedro, Laguna in few weeks. Can anyone recommend any fun or good hotel, foods there. Thnk in advance for any good informations.

Thank you all.

[MasterBlaster]

Read one guy's view of Catarman Samar from

http://tonettego.tripod.com/travel/escapades/101.html

[Marc25]

To mongering one,

My girlfriend and her family live in Caterman, very few tourists, beautiful beaches ,and there is a university. It is a farm economy and I would be very careful that the girl is not a virgin. Law and order is usually handled by the locals. Very safe, much safer than manila, my girlfriend wants me to live there, you can live like a king for 600 and pick up a great girlfriend but not a place for professional girls . Only one hotel and it is okay, my girl is a gem sending her to nursing school and then will get her ajob in US. If you have any questions I will ask her. Northern Samar is almost all rice farms and coconut farms,no roads ,electricity etc, if you want to get back to nature ,it is the place. Houses in Samar not locked but the dogs will eat you for lunch,even my girlfriends neighbors who want to come over yell to her to bring the dogs in the house before they get too close and of course everyone owns a gun. I asked her if she is worried someone will steal ,she said that last year one person from outside the province did, no one ever heard of him again, did not elaborate but I have not visited the farm.

[GoodEnough]

Guys:

Currently in Cotabato City, and am here out of professional necessity. For anyone even contemplating going here for enjoyment, my strong advice to you is to forget it. The place is a virtual slum, with few buildings over 3 stories, and most businesses are housed in tin-roofed shacks.

The hotels are consistent with the quality of the town. There are only two and they both suck, from the standpoint of amenities, food and service. I am told that there are one or two bars where you can meet women "by special arrangment," but why bother?

Fortunately, I'm here with my girlfriend, which is what makes the experience somewhat bearable, but coming here is sure not worth the four hour drive, over lousy roads, from Davao.

GE

[Mongering1]

I need info on Catarman, Northern Samar. Plan to relocate there. Is safe?

Bud

[Henry R]

I plan to visit the area near Puerto Galera, Mindoro, the third week of October. I am a little worried about the weather. Does anyone know if there is usually non-stop rain at that time of year, or does Puerto Galera usually get a few days of sunshine once in a while at that time?

[Member #1066]

Any info on Alabang? I already have a sure thing, but I'm looking for some variety!

[Flying Scotsman]

Anyone know if there is any action in Baguio these days?

FS