Chat Rooms & Pen Pals

[QUOTE=ForkTruck;2207616]Thanks to all for the great advice.

At a small local cell phone store I bought an LG AT&T phone. It is a 4 g LTE GSM unlocked with 16 MG, cost was $130. The dealer said he has many southeast Asia customers who want the same thing. I have loaded it with several apps and am ready to go. I did not buy any airtime for the phone so when I get in Manila I will buy sim and have local number to set up the new apps. More to follow.[/QUOTE]Last few times I was there the Globe / Smart people at the airport were giving away free sim cards.

[QUOTE=Shark5;2207780]Last few times I was there the Globe / Smart people at the airport were giving away free sim cards.[/QUOTE]If you get Smart SIM card then get P100 load. Then get the ALLIN99 promo for P99. This will get you 7 days unlimited texting to the 3 or more networks, 1 gb of data and 100 free minutes of calling within the network. Ask the kiosk person to help you with it.

This is only a suggestion. I reload every 7 days. This saves on the frustration of running out of load and no where in sight to reload. Of course you can buy prepaid P100 load cards to reload later.

[QUOTE=Dg8787;2207965]If you get Smart SIM card then get P100 load. Then get the ALLIN99 promo for P99. This will get you 7 days unlimited texting to the 3 or more networks, 1 gb of data and 100 free minutes of calling within the network. Ask the kiosk person to help you with it.

This is only a suggestion. I reload every 7 days. This saves on the frustration of running out of load and no where in sight to reload. Of course you can buy prepaid P100 load cards to reload later.[/QUOTE]At the airport Smart will not sell a load less than 500, and the 7Eleven in the airport does not sell the loads. I just always wait until I get in town and go to a normal 7Eleven and get a 200 load. I use SURFMAXPLUS50 which gets me 800 MB of data/day for P50. I'm only there a few days and use a lot of data, so the P50 plan works great for me.

Your SURFMAX PLUS will expire within 60 mins . To continue surfing, Subscribe again to any SURFMAX PLUS package. Available in 3 denominations: SURFMAXPLUS50 P50/day, SURFMAXPLUS299 P299/7days and SURFMAXPLUS995 P995/30days. Just text SURFMAXPLUS(denomination) to 9999 ex. SURFMAXPLUS50 to 9999

1/3 You have successfully registered to the NEW SURFMAX PLUS 50. Enjoy All day surfing up to 800MB/day. Load is valid for 1 day.

Not to rain on your parade but many ATT phones only have the US LTE bands. You should double check the specs on line at the ATT site or at least 2 other sites. Sometimes the ATT sites are actually wrong with the specs. The LG US site should have the correct one but make sure you look at the ATT branded phones.

4 G LTE bands are different from 3 G bands. 2 G got axed in the States several years ago.

As I said before, I like the Motorola G4 and above phones and the OnePlus phones. Both have Worldwide band, a term ATT uses. But those 2 really cover the world like the top end Samsungs. OnePlus is a top end flagship phone for a great price. The latest iteration is 6. The camera is great for preserving your memories.

[QUOTE=ForkTruck;2207616]Thanks to all for the great advice.

At a small local cell phone store I bought an LG AT&T phone. It is a 4 g LTE GSM unlocked with 16 MG, cost was $130. The dealer said he has many southeast Asia customers who want the same thing. I have loaded it with several apps and am ready to go. I did not buy any airtime for the phone so when I get in Manila I will buy sim and have local number to set up the new apps. More to follow.[/QUOTE].

[QUOTE=Dg8787;2207965]If you get Smart SIM card then get P100 load. Then get the ALLIN99 promo for P99. This will get you 7 days unlimited texting to the 3 or more networks, 1 gb of data and 100 free minutes of calling within the network. Ask the kiosk person to help you with it.[/QUOTE]Or look at their website for other promos, for only 1 day up to 30 days. They often change them or have new ones.
smart.com.ph/prepaid

[QUOTE=MrEnternational;2207976]At the airport Smart will not sell a load less than 500, [/QUOTE]Although I wasn't buying data, I bought 300 from them when I came through in April. Did the same for a newbie colleague whom I met at the airport a few days later. You usually come off as very sophisticated, so I'm surprised they took advantage of you in that way. Was the sales person female?

[QUOTE=SoapySmith;2208588]Although I wasn't buying data, I bought 300 from them when I came through in April. Did the same for a newbie colleague whom I met at the airport a few days later. You usually come off as very sophisticated, so I'm surprised they took advantage of you in that way. Was the sales person female?[/QUOTE]I always ask the ones next to the money exchange and the ATM. There is a double Smart booth. So there are usually several agents, male and female. Every time I go through there they say the same thing so I never buy there. I will try again this month.

Does anyone know if there are any online sites where you can buy a Smart load? For other countries I use etopuponline, but only Globe is available on that site for PI.

[QUOTE=MrEnternational;2208618]....

Does anyone know if there are any online sites where you can buy a Smart load? For other countries I use etopuponline, but only Globe is available on that site for PI.[/QUOTE]A few years ago I used [URL]worldremit.com[/URL] to top up my Smart number but now have a Globe number so have not used them since 2014.

Also Lazada sells load, with a 5% discount. You pay 950 for 1000 load.

[QUOTE=KabulGuy;2208632]A few years ago I used [URL]worldremit.com[/URL] to top up my Smart number but now have a Globe number so have not used them since 2014.

Also Lazada sells load, with a 5% discount. You pay 950 for 1000 load.[/QUOTE]Prepaid load can be added online at both [URL]globe.com.ph[/URL] and [URL]smart.com.ph[/URL]. You just need to register your number first.

[QUOTE=MrEnternational;2208618].

Does anyone know if there are any online sites where you can buy a Smart load? For other countries I use etopuponline, but only Globe is available on that site for PI.[/QUOTE]Always use [URL]www.ding.com[/URL].

Works well in most of the places I go (and I travel to a lot of counties). Apart from the usual suspects in the Philippines it also does Cherry Mobile now.

[QUOTE=WickedRoger;2208922]Always use [URL]www.ding.com[/URL].

Works well in most of the places I go (and I travel to a lot of counties). Apart from the usual suspects in the Philippines it also does Cherry Mobile now.[/QUOTE]WR I too use Ding but it is expensive I think compared to say 7-11 or other options on the ground in Ph.

[QUOTE=BrainDrain;2208940]WR I too use Ding but it is expensive I think compared to say 7-11 or other options on the ground in Ph.[/QUOTE]It costs $3. 00 for a load of 115. $1. 30 for 50 load. Yes, it does cost more for the convience of sitting in my air con room ordering it online.

Last time I went out and bought a load was 2 years ago. It was hot hot hot and muggy muggy muggy day. I walked 140 meters to 7-11 and they were "out of stock sir". And then walked to several other places with no luck. I went back to my air con room thought to myself "How much was I really saving?" And was it worth it?

That was the last time I ever bought load “on the ground”.

BTW, I use ding to load a girl who is coming to visit me.

[QUOTE=Dg8787;2209644]It costs $3. 00 for a load of 115. $1. 30 for 50 load. Yes, it does cost more for the convience of sitting in my air con room ordering it online.

Last time I went out and bought a load was 2 years ago. It was hot hot hot and muggy muggy muggy day. I walked 140 meters to 7-11 and they were "out of stock sir". And then walked to several other places with no luck. I went back to my air con room thought to myself "How much was I really saving?" And was it worth it?

That was the last time I ever bought load on the ground.

BTW, I use ding to load a girl who is coming to visit me.[/QUOTE]I use [URL]sendah.com[/URL].

"The average woman's desirability drops from the time she is 18 until she is 60," the researchers wrote. "For men, desirability peaks around 50 and then declines."

It was an unexpected finding for the researchers.

"The age gradient for women definitely surprised us both in terms of the fact that it steadily declined from the time women were 18 to the time they were 65, and also how steep it was," Elizabeth Bruch, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Michigan and an author of the study, told The New York Times.

Education was also a major component of desirability, though, again, it differs between the sexes: more education always makes men more desirable, while a woman with an undergraduate degree not higher is most desirable.

[URL]https://bigthink.com/stephen-johnson/study-women-peak-at-18-on-dating-apps-men-peak-at-50[/URL]

It turns out Filipinas are right when they start saying they are getting old at 21 years of age. Unfortunately, 40-year-old American women are still trying to convince uninterested men on dating apps that they are like "fine wine" just when they hit menopause because they have a PhD and tons of debt!

[QUOTE=ChochaMonger;2212862].....

It turns out Filipinas are right when they start saying they are getting old at 21 years of age. Unfortunately, 40-year-old American women are still trying to convince uninterested men on dating apps that they are like "fine wine" just when they hit menopause because they have a PhD and tons of debt![/QUOTE]The study was done in 4 US major cities. While there was consistency across these cities it is not a sure thing to extrapolate this data to a different culture. Over extrapolation of data is a major problem in any reviewing of any research. I am not saying that it does or does not apply, just be careful in making the extrapolation comparisons.

I would think that the results would apply as well to say Toronto or perhaps London or a major European city as the cultural norms are the same but that it is not a sure thing to apply it to the local action.

I do agree based on my experience that long replies are not always more productive but here that may be a language issue as much or more than a cultural issue. That is not data but anecdote.

There is some social biological trends that would make the results comparable. It has been noted across many cultures that men look for women who appear to be good breeding stock, hence the attractiveness of 18 to 25 year olds as that is prime child birthing years.

Women look for providers and protectors. Men with education can provide and protect and a modern society. Here just being foreign means that you are seen as rich and therefore a good provider, education may not be as key an issue here as in the USA.

I would hazard a guess that here because of the cultural relationship to age that the peak age for men would be higher than the 50 noted in the study. I'm early 60's and have 500 matches on tinder, many with women in the 18 to 25 year old range. I have rejected just about as many matches in Tinder Gold as that of the older fatter and uglier ones. (with many kids etc.). I get a good response rate on pinalove and SA as well.

As far as dating down the desirability scale, I think that that would be a constant just about everywhere. I seldom approach the extremely attractive ladies on the sites. Partially because they are usually ladyboys but also because they tend to be hardened pros as well. I wil approach a very pretty girl who looks like a normal girl and have had some good results with these. I always reject the fuglies.