Makati

Someone complained Makati thread is dead. Trying to help.

Manila / Makati is almost 100% open now. Bars on Burgos are the slowest to open. I would estimate 40-50% of the bars have gone out of business. Tickles, which I liked very much, is gone. Ringside and all the ones between G String and Bourbon are demolished (Papillon etc).

Bourbon is completely renovated into a nice resto / bar to survive. A couple girl bars are open cautiously. Lipps is a new bar replacing the bar in the alley behind Bourbon (Russian sounding name formerly, I forget). Quite a few girls. OK, but not hopping. All dressed in t-shirts and jean shorts. I guess to pass as waitresses.

Also, as mentioned the nautically themed one up the street is open too. Didn't go in. Both probably paying lots of protection money.

Quezon City KTVs are open. Pegasus which is OK, high end place, got to visit once. Heartbeats which I very much like is open. HB always has lots of pretty girls, nice stage show. Chill place. Pick a girl from the fishbowl or the stage. No one bugging you for drinks non-stop. If you've never ventured to Quezon Ave check it out. Classmates closed (good riddance) and renamed. Many other KTVs across from Heartbeats.

[QUOTE=BigFun;2640473]Someone complained Makati thread is dead. Trying to help.[/QUOTE]Good FR, thanks.

I mentioned cleaning before, but I forgot to mention before the importance of cleaning the ears. This twiglet understands. Daddy likes a clean everything. Long live the 'fresh filipina'.

[QUOTE=BigFun;2640473]...Quezon City KTVs are open. Pegasus which is OK, high end place, got to visit once. Heartbeats which I very much like is open. HB always has lots of pretty girls, nice stage show. Chill place. Pick a girl from the fishbowl or the stage. No one bugging you for drinks non-stop. If you've never ventured to Quezon Ave check it out. Classmates closed (good riddance) and renamed. Many other KTVs across from Heartbeats.[/QUOTE]Thanks for the report. One of the problem I have with Quezon area is the drive from Makati. It takes an awful long time to get there. I tried Sundays. It was better but still quite a hike. I am wondering whether the solution is to get a hotel in that area. Never tried that.

[QUOTE=WestCoast1;2641960]Good FR, thanks.

I mentioned cleaning before, but I forgot to mention before the importance of cleaning the ears. This twiglet understands. Daddy likes a clean everything. Long live the 'fresh filipina'.[/QUOTE]Yes indeed, head to toe.

[QUOTE=Docwiltro;2644726]Yes indeed, head to toe.[/QUOTE]Beautiful bottom. Perfection.

[QUOTE=Docwiltro;2644726]Yes indeed, head to toe.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Locamotive;2645196]Beautiful bottom. Perfection.[/QUOTE]Ya, Doc. Givin' me a stiffie.

And don't forget to clean BOTH of your 3-some gals. Before the sessions, between the sessions, and after the sessions. Its not easy, but I try to vax one of them in the first session and the other in the second session. Doctor Westy works *hard* for the health of his ladies. I regret that I have but one schwanztooka to give for the ISG cause.

Twice.

P Burgos Street located in the heart of Makati is a sorry sight today compared to pre-pandemic times, most of the girly bars are gone and those who have chosen to remain open are operating in a very different model to before. My favorite bar Rogues is no longer and I fear it may not return. However there are still some bars open, today I will talk about Lips, this was mentioned in a previous post so I will expand upon that and relate my own experience.

Lips is almost, but not really a girly bar, several of the waitress are attractive and some have clearly been dancers or hostesses in previous lives to Lips. In general while you might be able to bar fine a waitress, I don't see this occurring very often as the bar is generally trying to keep a low (ish) profile while riding out the pandemic. From time to time it does feel like a bit of life is happening there with it's dance heavy sound tracks / DJ in operation at all times and the energy of the bar staff, but there is no official dancing girls, so those who do end up dancing are customers, waitresses and sometimes freelancers depending on alcohol intake and party mode level. .

Sometimes some free lancers do venture into the bar and it was building up into "at least" somewhere you could go and most likely get a cute young thing to take home for the night, this happened before Christmas during the L2 Alert level, since going back to L3, the place gets raided by cops once a night to once every few days, who are mainly checking on overall numbers (30% occupancy levels during L3 Alert levels) and ensuring that everyone has a vaccine card of some sort, in fairness the staff do seem to be on their toes and keeping in line, so at least there is somewhere to go for a beer and little bit of atmosphere.

The business model is a combination of regular drinks, ladies drinks and bar fines, so for those who don't know this system the ladies drinks tend to cost around 300 pesos (compared to 150 for a regular beer, of this 300 the waitress gets 100 pesos while the bar keeps the remaining 200, this is why you keep getting asked to buy her (and her friend) a drink. This system is used across Asia and if you are not very careful you can run up an extensive bill in a short time, by being too nice a guy or just wanting to cut loose and party. An example of this is, the other night I wanted to just hang out in the bar and chat with some of the waitress, I was feeling generous so bought 3 of them some drinks, maybe 3 rounds, combined with my 3 beers and 1 whiskey by bill was close enough to 4000 pesos (roughly USD $77), which is a lot for a few drinks, but I knew the story as I have been there several times before, I enjoyed the night and got caught up on the latest on the street as they understood it.

The bar fines are not too bad, it is 3,500, but then the lady does expect 2-3 K in the morning, depending on what deal you strike up, sometimes I do see a mamasan in there, but not since L3 came into effect, that might change as businesses get a little braver and chase the money, I also go there infrequently.

I am unsure if there are some free lancers who can go in without incurring the bar fine system, I doubt it, but haven't verified it yet.

I see a few new places open or getting ready to open on the street, so will check them out and take some street photos to share for those interested.

It is pretty much the same across Asia and parts of the US. Many nightlife areas in Asia are in the ICU or vacant. The US border with Mexico might be better because that cesspool will be hard to shut down.

Many countries are trying to open up and, quoting Johnson, let the bodies pile high. I suspect they will label Covid endemic soon. That might bring back travel and tourism. 5 days, 14 days and 21 days quarantine on both sides of travel is hard as the ex head of Credit Suisse will probably attest to based on his avoidance strategy.

I took some photos recently to share of P Burgos Street, it's bleak compared to pre-pandemic times, hopefully the street bounces back to life in the future.

I think I have to upload 1-2 images per post, so hopefully this works.

The map image provides a bit of context, I started at Makati Avenue and then walked up P Burgos Street most of the photos are of establishments / buildings on the right hand side of the street as there is very little to see on the opposite side.

OK, I need to compress the photos to upload.

String is on Makati Avenue just by the entrance to P Burgos.

These are of Rogues and next door to it.

The view down the street.

[QUOTE=GhostD;2653183]These are of Rogues and next door to it.[/QUOTE]Good pics. Re-posting a couple of yours.

First pic. I think the boarded up building next door was previously Hollywood bar, and next to that on the corner is Bourbon. When I was there a few months back, Bourbon had changed its interior to include pool tables, and its become a regular restaurant.

Second pic. Previously during pandemic I was there on different evenings around 8 and 9:30-10 pm. In your pics there are more people and vehicles moving than when I was there. When I was there, every few minutes you'd see a small flurry of motorcycles (3-4-5) turn from Makati Ave onto Burgos and zip by. Ten seconds later a similar number of cars (mostly taxis) would do the same. Then a period of several minutes of no street movement (other than us walking), followed by that cycle of bikes and cars again. In this second pic, just up the street before the 7-11 (on the 7-11 side), you see a white SUV at the street corner attempting to turn onto (or cross) Burgos street. At this corner each time I went was a group of Bakla.

All of my Manila regulars told me at various times during the pandemic that this or that bar on Burgos had re-opened. "I have friend worked Hollywood before. She says its open now". Others said Mirrors, Plan bee, and Go Bananas were open. Really sweetie. "Yes I want to go there". Um, sweetie, I'm not so sure its open. "I want to go sometime". So, a few weeks later when the curfew shortened, we taxi'd over. She was in shock at the continued death of the place. On another occasion I took another of my Burgos regulars to a ST hotel nearby for the night. We went walking up Burgos and she had the same reaction. All of my girls were wrong about Burgos. I posted recently about LGU and government misinformation. Misinformation flies around Phils faster than Omicron.

Westcoast your box is full, please clear some space buddy.

[QUOTE=WestCoast1;2653351]Good pics. Re-posting a couple of yours.[/QUOTE]Thanks WestCoast, it's all about knowledge sharing, and photos show how it really is, hopefully the street can bounce back to some if not most of it's former glory.