General Info

[QUOTE=Zero Dude;1487589]I am arriving into MNL in Nov, 14 10:30pm. That will be too late to take the swagman bus. Should I jut let the hotel pick me up for 2700? I then have a flight out at 7:30am on Sunday. Should I take the swagman bus Saturday? I don't want to miss my flight. What would be the best way to handle this?[/QUOTE]Yes, it would be too late upon your arrival to take FTB to A. C. (the last one leaves at 8:30p) ; take the hotel car. The last FTB from A. C. Leaves at 3pm; so, it would be best to arrange another private car to take you to the airport after a Saturday night of partying. Your hotel could probably do it, or Swagman could arrange an early morning ride too as could a number of other travel companies.

[QUOTE=Petertaylor; 1486610]Thanks guys. Really useful. The bus is a "no brainer". I saw reference to buses, but did not know if restricted to people staying at Swagman.

Which hotels do you think are better value than La Corona?

I'd like to see as much as I can in manila. Would I be better heading for Hyatt or Heritage?

Peter[/QUOTE]There are many hotels in Ermita from low end to high. My favourite is Bayview Park mainly because of location and cost approx $56 total with taxes if booked through Asiatravel. Com website.

All hotels are girlfriendly. Sometimes they ask you to register the girl. When you book, book for two persons and it is the same charge. Bayview has buffet breakfast for two. La Corona has it too but I do not like La corona

Window air conditioners. Bayview is right around the block from Swagman if you are taking their bus to AC.

Upscale hotels in the area include some casino hotels.

Hyatt is good but Heritage is kind of rundown.

There are three main areas for girls. Ermita with its freelancer bars famous being Manila Bay Cafe.

Makati with its expensive bars and equally expensive girls, streetwalkers and freelancer Havana Cafe place.

Opp Heritage hotel is EDSA entertainment complex with number of bars full of girls. Some have really good looking young girls. Unlike AC barfine is not all inclusive. You pay barfine and negotiate with the girl for her payment.

There are freelancer girls you meet on the street, malls. 7-11 stores and generally everywhere. If you are bold enough taxi drivers will take you to casas which contain many girls.

Whatever you do negotiate first. You do not want problems later. Generally if you have pre-negotiated the price girls honor it and will not demand more money.

Although there are isolated scams these girls are afraid of dragging the police as much as you are. They are locals and will be hassled by police continuously if the police help them one time.

If you want to do touristy things in Manila search the web.

Before my trip to Phils, I had already read numerous reports on how bad the food is in the Philippines so I was prepared. What was surprising to me was during my week long trip which covered AC, Manila and Sabang Beach, I had really good luck with the local cuisine.

First in Sabang Beach at the Big Apple restaurant. Instead of ordering off the menu, I simply asked the waitresses to suggest a local dish for me. And each time, my dinners came back as very nice choices. The only time I didn't enjoy the local food was when I bought a quick lunch off a local street vendor. One day was okay and another day the meat was pretty tough. But for 60 to 80 pesos, I really couldn't complain.

Dinners in Manila were only at the Swagman hotel and again I ordered only Filipino dishes. Each time was very tasty.

In AC, I had brunch each time up at the rooftop restaurant of the Devera hotel where I was staying. I had my girl order Filipino dishes again and I must say they were among the tastiest breakfast brunches I have ever had. For dinner, we went out to a local Korean / Filipino restaurant and she ordered the Filipino dish while I ordered the Korean (I'm not Korean). Both choices scored well.

So maybe the secret to enjoying food in the Philippines is not to order any western fare. I have a feeling the cooks do a much better job in preparing their own local dishes as opposed to trying their hand at any western dish. On top of that, the local dishes were always cheaper than the western choices. I always try to eat the local fare wherever I travel.

So that's my two cents on the food there as I was more than satisfied during my entire week in the country.

As my father used to say, if you get hungry enough, you'll eat it.

My problem with the food here is less with the preparation than with the content. I find it bland, unimaginative and generally unhealthy given the high content of salt, sugar and cheap oil.

[QUOTE=Slippery;1488797]As my father used to say, if you get hungry enough, you'll eat it.[/QUOTE]It goes against the common wisdom here, but I'm with E-Spirit. The food IS fairly bland, and has too much salt.

However, one can find both deliscious and healthy food in the grocery stores if nothing else. I like the street BBQ stalls also. Recently my half-my-age date and I walked from Robinson's Malate to Bedrock Cafe on Adriatico for some live band and beers. She had eaten before we met up and wasn't hungry. A few hours and drinks later we were walking / stumbling back to my hotel, and we stopped at a street bbq on Bocobo (across from Bellagio square and a new high-rise condo). Four sticks of bbq chicken, a bag of rice, and 2 juices were about 120 pesos. Not a lot of food, but dirt cheap and a fine evening cap-off. She was more horny than I was and nothing happened in the room. In the morning she was still frisky and so was I. Her kisses had enough calcium in them to cause a six-inch bone to spring to life, and the street foods seem to have sustained me enough hours later to give her some protien back. Everybody won. What a wonderful memory; I can still smell the sex lingering in the air afterwards.

Oh, the food is bland. Did I say that?

Tanigue steak. Love it.

I have been living here about a year. The only dish I liked at first was fried eggs on rice, but I have grown weary of that too.

A few months back we invited the neighbors to join us at an Italian restaruant. Afterwards the husband told me it was his first meal ever without rice.

There is a new Buffet restaruant here in Davao called Vikings, it has a huge selection and is not inexpensive. My wife, her friend and I went there for lunch the other day. We got our table and headed off to fill our plates. When we came back to our table they each had a mound of rice dominating their plates. I got pissed and said why did we pay 588 php each to eat rice?

Today I made Rachel Ray White Bean Chicken Chili. (Google it). I almost got into a fist fight with my wife's niece who stands 4'7" as she insisted on making rice.

Fuck it.

[QUOTE=Wjmpsr; 1488947]A few months back we invited the neighbors to join us at an Italian restaruant. Afterwards the husband told me it was his first meal ever without rice.

When we came back to our table they each had a mound of rice dominating their plates. I got pissed and said why did we pay 588 php each to eat rice?

Today I made Rachel Ray White Bean Chicken Chili. (Google it). I almost got into a fist fight with my wife's niece who stands 4'7" as she insisted on making rice.

Fuck it.[/QUOTE]I loved this story and it made me chuckle so wich as I experience the same.

In Cebu I go to Tavalota and the chef refuses to serve rice, even when the cuties flashes the eyelids etc and asks. I tell all the girls I take there that there is no rice and to enjoy the food without the carb boost. Some are like your niece, others enjoy the food and like to return.

I also tell the girls that white rice is fattening and makes them chubby, brown rice is better and wild rice really good. Those that know there are alternates say only white tastes best. We can't win! But those who stop eating rice for a month or so lose weight and tone a little and voila, they understand white rice is bad (my latest squeeze lost 6 lkgs even though she really need t but she proved to herself rice in moderation is OK)

When I tell them it makes them chubby I also say I am chubby enough for 2 so I don't want any more LOL.

But the no rice policy at meals is a hard one to break and is one of those conundrums we face for liking and loving pinays.

[QUOTE=Wjmpsr; 1488947]A few months back we invited the neighbors to join us at an Italian restaruant. Afterwards the husband told me it was his first meal ever without rice.

There is a new Buffet restaruant here in Davao called Vikings, it has a huge selection and is not inexpensive. My wife, her friend and I went there for lunch the other day. We got our table and headed off to fill our plates. When we came back to our table they each had a mound of rice dominating their plates. I got pissed and said why did we pay 588 php each to eat rice.

Today I made Rachel Ray White Bean Chicken Chili. (Google it). I almost got into a fist fight with my wife's niece who stands 4'7" as she insisted on making rice.

Fuck it.[/QUOTE]Even the breakfast buffets at hotels always include rice. Way of life. I even see fish selections in the breakfast buffet sometimes.

[QUOTE=Wjmpsr; 1488947]I almost got into a fist fight with my wife's niece who stands 4'7" as she insisted on making rice.

Fuck it.[/QUOTE]Been married to a Pinay for 25+ years in the US. She still eats plain white rice all the time. She uses the smoke detector as a cooking timer and can really stink (I think it stinks) up the house. She buys fish and mussels, etc from the local Oriental market and when she cooks, she wakes me up from a sound sleep with the smell. She bought some fish sauce that smell rancid but says it tastes great. Rice cooker is at the standby and it's always plain white rice. Got to have some gravy on my rice being a southern boy. I like my fish rolled in cornmeal and fried, she just pours a little cooking oil in a pan and throw the fish in. Finally got used to eating fish that stares back at me. She did find a frozen white fish that had its guts removed and stuffed with I don't know what. I have found if I like the taste, don't ask what's in it. She's recently gotten on a big health kick after both her parents contracted type 2 diabetes. She keeps asking me if I read the label before eating what I like.

All I can say about Filipino food, is it's pretty good if done right. Plus you have those cute little Pinays to share it with.

So quit complaining about the food and eat more sweet young pussy.

Enjoy youth while you have, growing old sucks.

Slim

Rice is the staple food to be eaten every day in much of the world. Most of Asia if not all use rice. They eat it for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. Rice is very healthy as plain rice without mixing it with other fatty foods.

In Phi they use two kinds of rice. One plain and the other garlic rice. It is the garlic rice which can stink up the whole house if the house in enclosed.

I happen to like garlic rice. Always served at breakfast buffet. Of course it leaves a garlicky breath after. Nice brushing with mentadent will cure that.

I like adobe style seafood. The taste is an acquired one. I avoid most other Phi food. Girls love fried chicken and will eat all day again and again. I have stopped taking them to expensive restaurants since all they want is the same.

Thankfully Phi is full of cuisine from all over the world readily available.

[QUOTE=Wicked Roger;1488957]I also tell the girls that white rice is fattening and makes them chubby,[/QUOTE]But can you imagine what they'd look like if they ate those greasy fries that seem to accompany every meal at the fast food joints in the USA? Soon they'd be just like the majority of the American girls; very chubby to obese and in comparison you'd then look thin next to one of them. So be grateful, and besides, I think a little rice belly can look cute sometimes.

[QUOTE=Pip Jaeger;1489533]But can you imagine what they'd look like if they ate those greasy fries that seem to accompany every meal at the fast food joints in the USA? Soon they'd be just like the majority of the American girls; very chubby to obese and in comparison you'd then look thin next to one of them. So be grateful, and besides, I think a little rice belly can look cute sometimes.[/QUOTE]Putting that way I would agree but I am fussy. Look at me I eat healthy and sensibly LOL.

I does seem that many pinays who move to the USA get chubby ad / or grow huge boobs (most the corn fed chicken). That is a good advert IMHO not to take them anywhere except on vacation (the chubbiness not the boobs!).

[QUOTE=Nvslim;1489344]Finally got used to eating fish that stares back at me. Slim[/QUOTE]LOL. For many Filipinos, the head of the fish is the most delicious part. It is quite disgusting to watch a pretty young Filipina sucking the brains out of a fish head. But I keep my peace as I know that, a little later, she will be sucking the brains out of me!

However, what I really find stomach churning, is the way they will tuck into cold leftovers from dinner the night before, as their breakfast the following morning. How the hell anyone can eat lumps of cold rice first thing in the morning is anyone's guess.