Impressions of the Philippines
I finally made it to the Philippines. Most of my experience comes from Thailand, where I lived for two years. Here's some of my impressions after being here a month. There probably won't be any surprises for those who have already been here.
-Angeles is a hell-hole. But so is Manila. I also spent two weeks traveling around the north of Luzon, and nowhere here is luxurious. The Philippines is a poor country, and that is visible everywhere. Angeles is pretty sketchy too. I never really felt threatened, but I never wanted to get too drunk.
-There's absolutely nothing to do in Angeles during the day. If I didn't have my own stuff to work on during the day, I would go crazy.
-If you have a girl, there's nothing to do at night either, besides take her to Jolibee's. But they will love that.
-I was worried about bar raids. There has been no evidence of raids while I've been in Angeles for three weeks. Everything seems to be operating normally.
-The food is shit. For a while I was dutifully eating pork sisig and chicken adobo. You pretty much have to outside of the cities. But now that I'm back in Angeles I can't stomache pinoy food anymore. But there's no healthy alternative. I'm subsisting on a diet of pizza, burgers, nachos, and donuts here. That kind of food makes me ill. I miss real, healthy food.
-Choreographed dances with hand motions! Half-assed, but mesmerizing. I've never seen Thai bargirls dancing like that.
-Double lady drinks. I guess I didn't RTFF, because I couldn't figure out why I was spending so much at first. The waitresses all made sure I was OK with buying "Lemon," but they didn't make clear that the price was double. Now that I know I always specify a single drink, but that is kind of like starting out with a negative with your disappointed girl.
-The girls are pretty! At least I think so. I tend to get burned out on Isaan girls, and spend an inordinate amount of time looking for the one northern or central girl in Thai gogos. The girls here don't have the ethnic Isaan looks. Some even look kind of European. Rather than coming from just one part of the country, they seem to come from two: Mindonao or Samar. A few I talked to came from somewhere in Luzon. Sure, there's a lot of ugly girls too, but in many bars here I have trouble picking a girl because so many are pretty.
-Everybody has an I'd! Not just the dancers, but everybody in the country seems to have an I'd pinned to them. It seems kind of silly since they could be easily forged.
-The girls are in no hurry to leave. I did have a couple runners, but most girls hang around past noon. The upshot is, three, or even four pops, two at night and / or two in the morning. Thai BG's are usually out the door after the morning session.
-Most girls don't ask for condoms. Danger, Will Robinson!
-English! Some hardly have any, but many are pretty fluent. At first it seemed weird to converse with bargirls. Now I just talk to them normally. They don't have a lot to say.
-The action outside of Angels / Manila / Subic / Cebu is nonexistent. There may have been a couple sketchy little massage parlors and karaoke joints in Baguio, but it was a very local scene.
-Filipinos are huge travelers. As I visited some of the sites in North Luzon, I was usually the only Western tourist, and the places were packed with Filipino tourists, many of them hot women. They travel in huge groups, so approaching them is difficult.
-Small boobs. I'm a boobs man, and I'm pretty disappointed in that regard, although Thailand isn't better. Many of the girls have beautiful, delicate faces, but no boobs. Even when I take girls that appear to have big boobs, it turns out it's all their bra. Compounding the problem is their tiny nipples. I must continue searching for that elusive big-boobed girl.
-An unhealthy obsession with virginity, thanks to the Catholic church. Many girls ask when I lost mine, which is none of their business. The cutest girls are inevitably "cherry girls," who will often let you buy them a drink and waste a half hour talking to them before letting this important fact be known. The closest Thai equivalent would be the dreaded coyote girls.
-Nosiness. This is where I miss the language barrier in Thailand. When I tell them I'm 40 and have never been married they expect me to explain why. It would probably be easier just to say I used to be married. In Thailand saying my job is "computer" was always sufficient, but here they want to know exactly what kind of computer work.
-Glasses. I have a serious love of nerdy girls. Quite a few regular pinay girls wear glasses, and a few dancers do. Whenever I find one I buy her a drink. I never met a Thai bargirl with glasses. I suppose I should just get some novelty glasses and make girls I barfine wear them, but I like knowing they are real.
-Better attitudes. There are exceptions, but in general I think the girls are a lot less mercenary and easy going than in Thailand.
-Really? You love me? This happened to me twice. I think my first girl really was special. Beautiful, 19, two years of university, smart, fluent English. Working to put her brother through seminary (such irony). She was also pretty businesslike, calling her Korean customers every day. But she provided me good GFE service for my first week. During our second session she whispered I love you. I quickly put a stop to that, and she wasn't too taken aback. She was also half-serious about taking me to Mindanao, but I would have had to pay her 2,000 peso barfine for each day. After I left Angeles she called me every day, and I got kind of annoyed after a week and ended it. I also wanted to try new girls.
-Stalking. On my first night back I was pretty horny. An older massage girl sat next to me at Ponytails. She was 31 and spoke poor English, but was sort of cute, but probably only a 7. But she was affectionate, so I paid her barfine. And the sex was really good. But I'm here for young, pretty girls, so I moved on. Two night later I had a 21 year old cutie (who was terrible at sex and did a runner) in my room when my room phone rings. The front desk said baby was here? Baby? WTF? Did I knock up a bargirl already because she didn't ask for a condom? I went down and there was Bebe from Ponytails! She had come by after her shift ended at 9 for a freebie! In my two years living in Thailand, I never had a bargirl come over for a freebie! I had forgotten her name and it was pretty obvious I had another girl in my room, but I asked her to come back tomorrow. Surprisingly, she did, and I got my freebie, but it was freaky. The sex was incredible, but she kept telling me she loved me, like she meant it. She said she would quit the bar to take me to Samar to meet her mom. Most disturbingly, she had found out my last name, and was asking me about my (former) employer. That was the last straw. I gave her 500 pesos, which she was not expecting, to keep the relationship about money. When she texted asking to come over after work again, I "broke up" with her.
-Young, slim, less experienced girls. Despite the comment below, I have found quite a few, and have been gravitating towards them after the older chick fell in love with me. Finding girls like this means biding your time, and rebuffing the flirtation of the older ones. The younger ones are often shyly lurking in the background, and you will have to call them down yourself. I don't think the young ones even know what a condom is.
I think that's all my observations about this place. I have three more nights here before I leave for Palawan, which I'm worried will be extremely boring in comparison.
Small advice on Jeepney rides and pickpockets
I've had this experience twice already, so I'm writing my advice here.
Jeepney seats are arranged as two opposite benches, one to the right and the other to the left of the cabin.
When going on a Jeepney at the first station (the terminal), people would usually sit down at the order of climbing in. That means, first ones would usually sit at the back (near the door) and then the following passengers would sit besides them, until the last ones reach the front of the cabin. In some cases things could work exactly the opposite way, but never in a random order.
If you see a person insisting to sit somewhere in the middle of the bench (in-between two people already sitting there), this is a sign of trouble. That person knows why he would like to sit in that position. Usually he "enjoys" the company of the person on his left or right side, for the purpose of checking out the content of his pockets. In addition, be aware of any (empty) bag on that person's lap. It is placed there to hide his hand as it is making way towards the pocket of the person sitting next to him.
If you see one or both signals, you probably had the luck to meet one of those guys who would pick your pocket. Usually they would give up the idea if and when they know you are on to them. Just a look might be enough to pass the message.
