Manila

[GoodEnough]

Forest, this is an endless debate with no correct answer, but I'll cite some of the more obvious differences and similarities. As to availability, there's not all that much difference, though Bangkok is more commercial, better organized and more in your face. However, the Philippines is more GFE (by a country mile), less nakedly mercantile and the girls are everywhere. You have more options for picking up freebies in the malls, the shopping centers and restaurants in Manila, but your not going to find the abundance of massage parlors here that you so there.

If you're interesting in a little more than pussy, that is, in things such as cultural richness and food, Bangkok wins hands down. It also wins in the "shopping" department and regarding general efficiency. The Philippines is a bit more off the wall and chaotic, that is, more anarchistic than Thailand.

In terms of English speaking skills, there's no contest. Most Filipinas speak at least some English and you will be able to communicate with them. Most Thai ladies that you will meet in the bars speak but a few words. The sex in Thailand is more cut and dried. You pay x, it buys you a certain amount of time, the girl leaves. In the Philippines, if you're reasonably courteous and the girl likes you, the arrangements become very fluid and she just might like hanging out with you and stay around as long as you want her to.

For a farang (foreigner) in Thailand as a short-term visitor, your chances of a freebie are about zero. In the Philippines, they're reasonably good. And even if you get into a P4P situation, if you go somewhere like the LA Cafe and avoid the bar fines and ladies drinks, you're just as likely to find out that what you pay is "up to you."

So there you have it. In Thailand the commercial sex scene is ubiquitous and actually a lot of fun, but its strictly commercial. In the Philippines, it's more amateurish, for the most part, and somehow more genuine (or at least it feels more genuine.

GE

[FreebieFan]

Its an eternal argument. same as Chelsea Man U or Ferrari Mclaren etc.

I had a friend who lives in Bangkok.. has more than he can handle there.. saw him in action two weeks in Manila and hes like an animal. Just has a liking for Filipinas.

I have a strong liking for Filipinas.. but 4 weeks ago I was like an animal in BKK.

Tell a cute gal in Manila you are going to BKK and she will ask if girls are sexy there.

Same thing in BKK.

In BKK its more readily available and in your face. Everything is for sale.

In Manila its a bit more discreet , and girls will love you more.

But as to choice... who knows.. both places excellent!

[Key Master]

In general, I am not worried about an extra $20-$50 for a girl, but I see no reason to pay New York City prices if I am not in New York. I really like the availability of "non" or "semi" pros. The availability of English speaking girls is important to me, as I like to communicate with my ladies. Most importantly, which place is easier to have fun on such a short amount of time?
F

I'm not going to compare Bangkok and Manila. Based on what you said above speaking english and non or semi pros, I think Manila is the way to go easily. I think both places can be a lot of fun in a short amount of time. If I was staying longer, I might side with Bangkok, but I like the women and how they treat you better in the PI.

[Member #4643]

I have recently read the last year's worth of reports on Bangkok and Manila. The reason is that I have the opportunity to visit one or the other for a 72 hour stay next October (I am quietly tacking on a stay in one of these two cities as part of a business trip elsewhere). As I am making my plane reservations now, I am requesting that one (or more) of my ISG colleagues compare the mongering situation in these two cities for a short holiday.

Of course, everyone has different priorities. Some guys want the most inexpensive girls and the cheapest hotels. Others want model types and luxury accomodations. In general, I am not worried about an extra $20-$50 for a girl, but I see no reason to pay New York City prices if I am not in New York. I really like the availability of "non" or "semi" pros. The availability of English speaking girls is important to me, as I like to communicate with my ladies. Most importantly, which place is easier to have fun on such a short amount of time?

I think a well-reasoned comparison of Bangkok vs. Manila would be of interest to a lot of guys, not just me, so I hope that someone who is an expert in Asian travel will humor me with a nice discussion of these two destinations! Many thanks, F

[HenryV]

Had a gal meet me at Cafe Havana, same thing happened to her. It was a meter deal, however, when she went to get out he tried to charge her 800 pesos. Luckily she had no luggage.

Being a feisty gal she immediately got out of the cab, took the guys license plate and suggested she call the police and have them settle the matter. The cabbie saw the wisdom on just settling the matter.

She came into the Cafe and said to me: "I don't believe it, I'm Filipino and they tried to rip me off."

Hi Igor,

Sorry to hear about your gf being ripped off at the airport. It just illustrates the point that it is not only tourists and foreigners that get ripped off by these sharks.

Unfortunately there appears to be a taxi cartel in operation at the airport and IMHO it is a national disgrace that tourists arriving in the Philippines get such poor first impression of the country. It used to be the same at the old Don Muang airport in Bangkok until the goverment cleaned up their act. Even the coupon taxi's are ridiculously overpriced. An even crazier scheme is that they actual charge admission to the arrival area for relatives/friends wishing to meet arriving passengers. Is there any other airport in the world what does that? I know of none. Its only 50 pesos or so but that is a lot for the average Filipino.

The only way to beat the taxi mafia only works if you travel light. This is to walk down the ramp 200 metres towards Sucat Road. Once you are beyond the security gate you can pick up an empty cab leaving departures who is usually only too pleased to have a fare and will use their meter. But is it worth the effort to save 5 bucks? Probably only if your highly principled, a backpacker or a Yorkshireman (like me).

[Huis Wijn]

Local people transfer from Arrivals to Departures at Terminal 2 (Philippine Air, Domestic and International). Just go up one level, and find an arriving taxi there, using the meter of course. My advice is to take a taxi ride to Coastal (pesos 70 to 100) for further bus connections. I do not have experience with the other NAIA terminals, but I can imagine it is worth wile trying there too. More in general I always go from Arrivals to Departures, e.g. on Bkk Suvarnabhumi airport and KL International Airport. Lower taxi fares guaranteed!

[Amavida]

..The only way to beat the taxi mafia only works if you travel light. This is to walk down the ramp 200 metres towards Sucat Road. Once you are beyond the security gate you can pick up an empty cab leaving departures who is usually only too pleased to have a fare and will use their meter...

Honestly GH Its a hassle to try to walk out of NAIA on a good day & at night or in rainy season i personally dont think its worth the discomfort/danger.
So my suggestion try take a coupon taxi to a nearby destination & then switch to a street taxi. Bearing in mind the small change we are talking about I just get a coupon taxi to the hotel. If you have family/GF with you they will appreciate it.

AV
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The foregoing post remains my personal opinion.
It is not intended to offend any person either living or dead.
It is not a statement of fact and is for discussion purposes only.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Key Master]

Last month I flew into Manila via PAL. I never flew into that terminal. I was worried about finding a metered taxi in that terminal since I've never been to that one before. I saw a metered taxi sign and was kind of confused because I thought there were no metered taxis at arrivals. The taxis were brand new and yellow. I think the meter started at 70 pesos and went along pretty normal. I was told by the driver that he was new and so was the taxi service. Apparently they are supposed to only pick up at the airports and their shifts were 24 hours long. It worked out fine for me. We'll have to see if they do ok and survive, but they do have a stream of constant traffic from the airport.

[Amavida]

The most unappealing aspect of visiting Manila, I do so about every six months, is the cab drivers.

There are many things here which are 'different' to home. if you let these things become annoyances they will drive you mad. S'up2u!

Maybe I have just had bad luck over the years but they seem to make it a challenge to get from one place to another. I actually plan my visits around avoiding/minimizing the use of cabs

I love walking too but wow it must be a pain for you to get around without using Taxi's!

Last week I arrived at the airport with two large bags. I struggled mightily to put the bags in the cab - the driver never left his seat. As soon as I sat down he asked me how much of a tip I was going to give him. I politely explained a tip is given for good service and “as you did not even get up to help me with my bags none.

Honestly Bill I can't relate to this. I live in the Phils & I will grant you that you will have an occasional bad experience. I strongly suspect you tried to bypass the coupon taxi's, which are clean courteous, honest & instead tried to catch a street taxi lurking there. Bad Idea. Better way to go is to use a coupon taxi to your hotel then use street taxi's from then on. Or if you have a longish trip, say for instance Quezon city, then take a coupon taxi to pasay & then hail a street cab for the remainder of the trip. A westerner with travel bags is a flag for crooks.

The next day I had to hail five cabs before I could get one that would use the meter

That's NORMAL Bill. Mabuhay!

In front of the LA Café they wanted 300-400p for a 75p trip

That's NORMAL Bill. Naughty boys gotta pay more! hehehehe ;) Mabuhay!

The day I was leaving the cabbie ran out of gas about 2 klicks from the airport. Can you imagine, a cab driver running out of gas. I told him he should consider another profession.

Its not unheard of. I've had cab journey's interrupted by 'pit stops' for gas occassionally. Welcome to the Philippines :D

Yes, I have experienced the occasional nice guy who is just making a living, however, my experience is they are far and few between.

You know I think if you get off a plane, tired, cranky, expecting it to be the same as 'back home' & expecting to get ripped off, then you will hate it much like you do. Not saying I know anything about you Bill, just sayin is all..

Thank god I love to walk.

Thank God I dont HAVE TO walk..It must be lonely out there in the monsoons.. tee hee :) joke lang!

Cheers & take care mate!
AV
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The foregoing post remains my personal opinion.
It is not intended to offend any person either living or dead.
It is not a statement of fact and is for discussion purposes only.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Amavida]

Sadly, my GF got scammed at the airport.... Some female tout in front of the terminal convinces her to get in her “airport taxi” for the ride back, which was just a private car. They give her a ride back to Makati and demand 1500 P!!! F#$K! She had no choice but to pay because her bag was in the trunk.

Are you sure this is really what happened?? Who got scammed here? I bet you got bit for the P1500.. just wondering..

I was surprised and saddened that she would get ripped off in this way.

Girls for the province are easier prey but locals in Manila are not that dumb... hmmmm... thinks....
If its true then you have my sincere sympathy IGA.

Take care mate
AV
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The foregoing post remains my personal opinion.
It is not intended to offend any person either living or dead.
It is not a statement of fact and is for discussion purposes only.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Soapy Smith]

The places where you quoted as examples of your bad experiences with Manila taxi drivers are the very places that the very worst sharks congregate to bottom feed I. E the airport and venues such as LA Cafe. The vast majority of the taxi drivers you flag down on the street are relatively straight. Of course they will try it on but if you are firm with them (remaining good humoured), I find they are easy to deal with.

I'm not on a mission to defend taxi drivers. They annoy me as much as others, particularly the way they hike their fares when its pissing down or when they hum and harr as to whether to take you or not, particularly if you live somewhere out of their normal comfort zone of operation, like I do. But its a buyers market and if I don't like their attitude, I tell them to move on, knowing theres another one right behind.

G,

Your comments are exactly why we shouldn't pooh-pooh the complaints of some mongers who report taxi problems. There's substantial wisdom in what you offer here as background (deviant behavior is more likely near mongering sites) and advice (don't put up with violators), and this wisdom was acquired over time.

I have taken perhaps 15 to 20 cab rides in the metro area, and the majority of drivers were courteous, friendly, and professional. But when I first arrived in Manila I received a sort of cultural orientation from a professional Philippine organization with ties to the U.S. Embassy. They warned us about taxi scams. This wasn't like exaggerated U.S. Embassy warnings to avoid Mindanao; this was Filipinos telling us they considered it a problem. Among other things they told us where to look for the meter, and that a large orange sticker on the passenger side of the windshield means the meter had been officially inspected recently. (Don't know if that's still the color to look for) This information may have biased me mentally to think of taxis as a problem, but it also caused me to be a more informed consumer, and so I probably minimized the likelihood of problems because I knew what to look for. Even so, I did have two experiences (so roughly 10-15% of my cab rides) in which the driver tried to rip me off. Were the amounts involved large? No, the total ripoff, had I not circumvented the larger of the two, would have been about 12 USD. But if I'm going to decide how to spend 500 pesos, I'd prefer to use it to upgrade a p4p lady from ST to LT rather than a dishonest cabbie.

I think it's not good advice to newbies to provide whitewashed accounts about taxis, nor should impressions created on the basis of one or two bad experiences necessarily prevail. I think you've offered good advice here, as have others. Even though some insist that they've never had problems, my own experiences lead me to believe some of the reports of bad experiences are also valid. The sum result of this dialogue has been the sharing of a lot of advice and a balanced discussion that would not have occurred if nobody had raised the issue in the first place.

[Cunning Stunt]

Sadly, my GF got scammed at the airport. We took a cab from Makati to the airport, cheap, only 200 pesos or less. We had our tearful good-bye. Some female tout in front of the terminal convinces her to get in her “airport taxi” for the ride back, which was just a private car. They give her a ride back to Makati and demand 1500 P!!! F#$K! She had no choice but to pay because her bag was in the trunk. I was surprised and saddened that she would get ripped off in this way. I had read in Lonely Planet to stay away from these touts, but even locals can get scammed.

Regular cabs are not allowed in front of the airport terminal except to drop off passengers, so your best bet on arrival is the “coupon taxi”. Just find the office just to the left as you exit NAIA 2 terminal. You tell them your destination, they give you a paper which tells you how much it will cost, and you head to the airport taxis, you pay the cabbie on drop-off the pre-fixed cost, which as i recall is about 350 P or so to Makati/Manila.

Ignore the touts trying to sell you a ride in front of the terminal! Do not get into a private car!

Hi Igor,

Sorry to hear about your gf being ripped off at the airport. It just illustrates the point that it is not only tourists and foreigners that get ripped off by these sharks.

Unfortunately there appears to be a taxi cartel in operation at the airport and IMHO it is a national disgrace that tourists arriving in the Philippines get such poor first impression of the country. It used to be the same at the old Don Muang airport in Bangkok until the goverment cleaned up their act. Even the coupon taxi's are ridiculously overpriced. An even crazier scheme is that they actual charge admission to the arrival area for relatives/friends wishing to meet arriving passengers. Is there any other airport in the world what does that? I know of none. Its only 50 pesos or so but that is a lot for the average Filipino.

The only way to beat the taxi mafia only works if you travel light. This is to walk down the ramp 200 metres towards Sucat Road. Once you are beyond the security gate you can pick up an empty cab leaving departures who is usually only too pleased to have a fare and will use their meter. But is it worth the effort to save 5 bucks? Probably only if your highly principled, a backpacker or a Yorkshireman (like me).

[Cunning Stunt]

Hi,

I'm female 28 from Manila look friends.

Hi Babe,

You sure are looking in the right place to meet many new 'friends'. Are you for real? How about posting a photo?

Best regards GH

[Cunning Stunt]

the most unappealing aspect of visiting manila, i do so about every six months, is the cab drivers.

hi bill,

the places where you quoted as examples of your bad experiences with manila taxi drivers are the very places that the very worst sharks congregate to bottom feed i. e the airport and venues such as la cafe. the vast majority of the taxi drivers you flag down on the street are relatively straight. of course they will try it on but if you are firm with them (remaining good humoured), i find they are easy to deal with.

i'm not on a mission to defend taxi drivers. they annoy me as much as others, particularly the way they hike their fares when its pissing down or when they hum and harr as to whether to take you or not, particularly if you live somewhere out of their normal comfort zone of operation, like i do. but its a buyers market and if i don't like their attitude, i tell them to move on, knowing theres another one right behind.

i sometimes, when i'm feeling adventurous or not in the mood to dicker with taxi drivers and travelling alone, use the air con fx share taxi's that are as ubiquitous as jeepneys. they can be a bit of a squeeze (they carry a max of 10 pax) but are a great way of getting up close and personal with local folk and its a good way of meeting normal girls. when you have her leg draped over yours and one of her tits almost in your hand its easy to extend the intimacy. and for reason of security, it seems that you get a higher ratio of females to males using fx's. but of course you have to know where you are going and are able to understand the, sometimes esoteric, route signs.

[HenryV]

The most unappealing aspect of visiting Manila, I do so about every six months, is the cab drivers.

Maybe I have just had bad luck over the years but they seem to make it a challenge to get from one place to another. I actually plan my visits around avoiding/minimizing the use of cabs.

Last week I arrived a the airport with two large bags. I struggled mightily to put the bags in the cab - the driver never left his seat. As soon as I sat down he asked me how much of a tip I was going to give him. I politely explained a tip is given for good service and “as you did not even get up to help me with my bags none.”

The next day I had to hail five cabs before I could get one that would use the meter.

In front of the LA Café they wanted 300-400p for a 75p trip.

The day I was leaving the cabbie ran out of gas about 2 klicks from the airport. Can you imagine, a cab driver running out of gas. I told him he should consider another profession.

Yes, I have experienced the occasional nice guy who is just making a living, however, my experience is they are far and few between.

Thank god I love to walk.

Good advice Amavida, I think that Manila taxi drivers are unfairly demonised and those assholes who sit outside bars etc probably deserve it but the average working joe taxi driver is, like you say, just trying to earn a crust and is basically honest and decent. They work incredibly long hour, something like 16-18 hour days and earn peanuts so don't be mean with your tips guys.

One thing that amuses me with taxi drivers is that you can 99% guarantee that the first words out of their mouths after you tell them your destination will be "Oooh traffic". Guaranteed every time. They will use their meters (it is after all the law, hahaha) but they will normally ask for 100-150 pesos over the meter price so it sometimes better to prearrange a fare before you get in.

Also remember that their knowledge of Manila is somewhat rudimentary at best (their is no 'knowledge' tests here) so it helps if you have some idea of how to get where your going, just in case your driver gets lost! Don't laugh, it happens a lot. I love driving in Manila, its a real adrenalin rush and you need eyes in the side as well as the back of your head. Indicators. What the fuck are they for. Hazard lights. Great at New Year or when your feeling happy. Carve me up. Please do. I love it. I'll do it to you first chance I get. And remember your horn is for getting the attention of that cute chick on the corner or any other reason except alerting other roadusers of your presence. Remember these simple rules and you'll have a ball. Oh I forgot, overtaking on tight bends is mandatory and all motorcycle riders are on a kamikaze mission.