Printable View
Here's a link to an easy travel spanish guide that should help out non-speakers with some of the basics.
[url]http://www.studyspanish.com/travel/index.htm[/url]
Please keep in mind that not all the phrases listed there are common to the Dominican dialect.
I have used my old verizon cell phones in the Dominican Republic. Recently I bought a $30 dollar Verizon prepaid cell phone, samsung camera phone, at Walmart. I brought it to a Claro cell phone shop in the Dominican Republic (in Carrefour, big store in Santo Domingo) and they programmed it for use in the Dominican Republic, gave me a new phone number and 300 pesos worth of airtime, for around 800 pesos. There is also a cell phone shop across the street from the casa marina in sosua, same side of the street as the baseball field. They programmed my old verizon phones for free. They are very nice.
Orange uses sim cards (gsm network) AT&T here. I have not yet tried to program a cell phone with a sim card in the DR. You can buy cheap prepaid cell phones at Walmart. Claro uses CDMA network, which is Verizon and I believe Sprint (no sim cards).
To add minutes to a CDMA phone, (i.e. Verizon) all you do is buy a Claro card at most shops, they range in price from 250 pesos and up. Scratch off an area on the back of the card to reveal a set off numbers. I believe you dial 1133 and press send, you will here a message and then enter the set of numbers from the back of the card. Very easy. You can text message and set up voicemail as well, also caller I.D.
When you have little time left on your minutes, you will here a message that you have so and so minutes or seconds left for this call. Whenever I go back to DR, i just buy a card and add minutes to my phone. I have the phone numbers saved in my phone. Very easy and cheap. I bought a new LG Aloha prepaid cell on Amazon, however they were unable to program that cell in DR.
[QUOTE=Jaosousa]I have used my old verizon cell phones in the Dominican Republic. Recently I bought a $30 dollar Verizon prepaid cell phone, samsung camera phone, at Walmart. I brought it to a Claro cell phone shop in the Dominican Republic (in Carrefour, big store in Santo Domingo) and they programmed it for use in the Dominican Republic, gave me a new phone number and 300 pesos worth of airtime, for around 800 pesos. There is also a cell phone shop across the street from the casa marina in sosua, same side of the street as the baseball field. They programmed my old verizon phones for free. They are very nice.
Orange uses sim cards (gsm network) AT&T here. I have not yet tried to program a cell phone with a sim card in the DR. You can buy cheap prepaid cell phones at Walmart. Claro uses CDMA network, which is Verizon and I believe Sprint (no sim cards).
To add minutes to a CDMA phone, (i.e. Verizon) all you do is buy a Claro card at most shops, they range in price from 250 pesos and up. Scratch off an area on the back of the card to reveal a set off numbers. I believe you dial 1133 and press send, you will here a message and then enter the set of numbers from the back of the card. Very easy. You can text message and set up voicemail as well, also caller I.D.
When you have little time left on your minutes, you will here a message that you have so and so minutes or seconds left for this call. Whenever I go back to DR, i just buy a card and add minutes to my phone. I have the phone numbers saved in my phone. Very easy and cheap. I bought a new LG Aloha prepaid cell on Amazon, however they were unable to program that cell in DR.[/QUOTE]
I bought a Blackberry last year on Ebay for $18.00.
When I got to the D.R. I took it to the Orange store, a couple of blocks from Casa Marina in Sosua. They gave me a sim card and programmed it. Free incoming calls 10 cents a minute out going. They also loaded it with 300 pesos of air time and gave me a number. Your phone has to be GSM to run on the orange system.
I've been to Boca Chica twice, but my last trip was in 1998. I've been going to Costa Rica with an initial trip to Colombia this past April. Both times in Boca Chica I stayed at the Hotel Garant International. I had a terrific stay both times.
Where is the best place in the DR now for fun? I have heard that fun moves around.
[QUOTE=Highwayman51]I've been to Boca Chica twice, but my last trip was in 1998. I've been going to Costa Rica with an initial trip to Colombia this past April. Both times in Boca Chica I stayed at the Hotel Garant International. I had a terrific stay both times.
Where is the best place in the DR now for fun? I have heard that fun moves around.[/QUOTE]
Try the north coast of the D.R. Sosua or Puerto Plata. Check the Sosua and Puerto Plata thread for additional information or trip reports from fellow boardmembers
[QUOTE=Highwayman51]I've been to Boca Chica twice, but my last trip was in 1998. I've been going to Costa Rica with an initial trip to Colombia this past April. Both times in Boca Chica I stayed at the Hotel Garant International. I had a terrific stay both times.
Where is the best place in the DR now for fun? I have heard that fun moves around.[/QUOTE]
Having made multiple visits to both, I agree that the N. Coast (Sosua, PP) are much more active locales, but I have still found plently of gems (semi-pro and non-pro) in BC. If you are looking for clubs packed w/ chicas then hit the North, but if your looking for a low key trip where you could spend some quality time with some low mileage chicas, BC is still the place.
I was wondering if the bars in the DR operate like in Angeles City and Pattaya where there are mamasans and you pay a barfine if you find a girl you like, or do things work differently in the DR bars? I have never been to the DR but hope to go in 2009.
I have never been to DR but I was wondering if the bar scene works the same way as in Angeles City (talk to the mamasan and barfine the girl you like) or does it work differently in the DR?
No mamasans but at many discos and bars there are waitresses or staff you have to pay a salida (exit) fee to the bar to take them off work. At discos or bars with lots of P4P chicas there is no salida for most of them. You can take-out from many massage places for a salida. If you don't need to take the chica with you during working hours you can usually get her number and have her come over later with no salida.
I am reading that DR has higher rates of HIV, herpes, Hepatitis. Is this place a slightly more dangerous place for BBBJ?
[QUOTE=Marc Anthony]No mamasans but at many discos and bars there are waitresses or staff you have to pay a salida (exit) fee to the bar to take them off work. At discos or bars with lots of P4P chicas there is no salida for most of them. You can take-out from many massage places for a salida. If you don't need to take the chica with you during working hours you can usually get her number and have her come over later with no salida.[/QUOTE]This helps me quite bit. I had seen the word "salida" mentioned a few times in the DR section but I never knew what the word meant. I assume that if you pay a salida fee, then you shouldn't need to pay the girl any more. (unless maybe a tip for good service)? I see the initials BB mentioned a lot in this forum (I assume it refers Black Beard Adult Resort). It sounds like a good place to stay for a noobie who doesn't know his way around.
[QUOTE=Lucky Streak]This helps me quite bit. I had seen the word "salida" mentioned a few times in the DR section but I never knew what the word meant. I assume that if you pay a salida fee, then you shouldn't need to pay the girl any more. (unless maybe a tip for good service)? I see the initials BB mentioned a lot in this forum (I assume it refers Black Beard Adult Resort). It sounds like a good place to stay for a noobie who doesn't know his way around.[/QUOTE]
The salida is a separate fee paid to the bar. Many of the places in Santo Domingo and Santiago operate like this, but with the expection of Crystals in Puerto Plata, most places on the North Coast (Sosua and Puerto Plata) have freelance chicas with no salidas.
BB is Blackbeards or Barba Negra en Espanol. BB is a good place to start for your 1st DR trip especially if you don't speak Spanish. You will pay more, but its a controlled environment with alot of pretty chicas.
[QUOTE=Blackknight]The salida is a separate fee paid to the bar. Many of the places in Santo Domingo and Santiago operate like this, but with the expection of Crystals in Puerto Plata, most places on the North Coast (Sosua and Puerto Plata) have freelance chicas with no salidas.
BB is Blackbeards or Barba Negra en Espanol. BB is a good place to start for your 1st DR trip especially if you don't speak Spanish. You will pay more, but its a controlled environment with alot of pretty chicas.[/QUOTE]
The salida (= "exit fee") is basically a legal device. DR law, like the law of many countries, does not allow pimping or taking a cut of the earnings of prostitution. Hence in many clubs and bars girls are nominally employed as bartenders, srippers, waitresses, or dance-partners, while in reality they are prostitutes, and if they wish to leave their nominal job during working hours, then a compensation fee has to be paid to the employer for their absence.
The base rate pay for the job may be extremely low, maybe just a bed upstairs and one meal a day, so in reality the girls are entirely dependent on their ability to earn extra money by having sex with clients. From the bar owner's point of view the ideal girl is one who earns a salida several times a day.
The problem with the system is that what happens is that some girls get barfined all the time, and others almost never, which leads to jealousies, disharmony, and frequent turnover in these establishments.
Sometimes you can get around the salida by arranging to meet the girl after working hours or at another venue. For example, at Blackbeards at Costambar there is no salida, and it is by no means uncommon for girls who work at Blackbeards to show up later at night at the Cristal club at Long Beach, near Puerto Plata, if they have no date. If you go to Cristal, you will then have to pay a hefty salida to take them back to Blackbeard's for the night, which obviously is not a good business propostition from your point of view.
In Sosua the main bars such as the Merengue Club (underneath Classic disco) and its neighbor don't have salida fees. They rely more on female "customers" attracting plenty paying male customers who will buy the somewhat expensive drinks.
Seacrets, from what I have seen, is a pretty scummy place that does not get a lot of drinking business, so probably relies on trying to make some money from salidas.
Girls who work for salidas tend to have to be contracted to be at the bar every day, so can be classified more as pros. My preference is for freelancers, who work when they feel like it or when they need the money. While they may well also be pros in the sense that they are taking money for sex, at least they may also have a life away from the job, and if you are lucky, you may meet girls who are relatively new to the game and still sufficiently interested in sexual experience to be able to respond to you and give you a good time.
To me the real dividing line is between the girls who become sexually aroused when they have sex with you, and the one's who don't but just go through the motions anyway. There is no sure fire way of telling in advance which are which, though it is a good idea to spend a little time flirting before you make a purchase.
[QUOTE=Frannie]For example, at Blackbeards at Costambar there is no salida, and it is by no means uncommon for girls who work at Blackbeards to show up later at night at the Cristal club at Long Beach, near Puerto Plata, if they have no date. If you go to Cristal, you will then have to pay a hefty salida to take them back to Blackbeard's for the night, which obviously is not a good business propostition from your point of view.[/QUOTE]This was the only part that confused me. If the girl is employed by BlackBeard's and then goes to Cristal, I do not see why Cristal would charge the salida for the girl to exit the bar if she is a BB employee?
Question. Is there any place on the DR North Coast that imports Colombianas to work? Please avoid the obvious comment: "If you want Colombianas, go to Colombia." I just got back from there, I'm looking for a cheaper thrill in DR.
Thanks.
Rodeo