Before I start I would like to clarify that I wasn't able to post this trip report due to my job schedule, but, I felt it has many good pointers and info to share with all menbers. I'm kind of late in sharing it but was always my intentions to post it. Once again, apologies for the force delay.
Once again i was able to embark on another holiday break and I happened to be in the Island of Guam. this chunk of land in the middle of nowhere is not a desirable place to be, nothing worthwhile, except for the good warm weather.
The Agana international airport is not a mega airport but suffice for this island to connect with pretty much the rest of Asia, with a few exceptions.
My early morning ( 6:00 am )travel to Manila was on a schedule Philippine airlines flight and it was quite comfortable. nothing to mention about any snacks or meals since the air time was around 3 1/2 hrs, more or less. still, after so many headaches with this airline I was very surprized I couldn't find anything to bitch about it.
Arrival at the Ninoy airport was stress free and with usual congestion at the inmigration counter and the compulsory waiting for my bags it was off to find my way to the Swagman hotel in Ermita for a quick snack and my ride to angeles city with Swagman's "Fly the bus" shuttle service.
This is the info of the Swagman hotel;
Swagman hotel Manila
411 A. Flores st., Ermita, Manila 1000
Ph; 63-2-523-8541 to 45
Fax; 63-2-522-3663
email; bookings@swaggy.com
www.swaggy.com
One nice change this trip was that I had the honor to share some barhopping in AC with a fellow Hombre menber (pretty much all my trips are solo trips) that turned out to be a pleasant guy to hang around with; this is to you SanFran!!!. Had to wait til 11:30 am for the ride to Angeles city and the ticket cost me PHP 500; not bad considering that they would drop you at the hotel of your choice; make you feel like a Pinoy balikbayan box (door to door)!!!!!.
One small conplaint was that you would think that bags should go in the baggage compartment and NOT inside the bus on the seats!?!?!? it was a real mess sorting bags at each drop off; guess Pinoys still don't know the meaning of "first impressions last forever", oh well, welcome to the Philippines!!!! another thing was that the bus was kind of old; "Swagman guys: take a look at the Southern Cross shuttle bus and learn"!!!!!!
My reservation with the Swagman Narra resort was smoth and actually the room that i choose was a standard one, but, since to my surprized it wasn't available I was given for a few days a VIP room with no extra charge, not that I was complaining about!!!!. think the rates for their rooms still the same up to this present time.
Swagmnan Narra Resort
S.L. Orosa st., Diamond Subd., Balibago
Angeles city 2009
Ph: 045-322-5133
Fax: 045-322-5231
cell: 0918-923-5527
www.angelescity.info
email; bookings@angelescity.info
The VIP room was a real beauty and I was kind of sad I had to leave it a few days later.
I heard some complaints about this hotel concerning its installations, distance to Fields avenue and so forth. to be honest, the Swagman Narra is an acceptable hotel, you get all the comodities that any decent hotel could offer; ac, cable tv, full bath wt/hot water, phone, room service 24 hrs, no problem bringing your lady for the night, travel office, safety box, swimming pool and bar area, and even free trike service to/from Fields. why still some guys would dislike it!?!?!? it beats me and not bothering with it a bit. bottom line, if for any reason you don't like it, well, DON'T stay here, period. there are more than enough places in this town for all budgets and taste to please anybody. I honestly think is a decent hotel and on and off I would just walkk to the bars and most of the tiume I would take a tricicle was when i needed to get somewhere quick or, of course, when bringing my honey for the nite; no way I would be that cheap and make the lady walk. those are the instances when comon sense must be use. I did have some back up plans if i couldn't get a room here, among them were the Ciy park hotel/Euroasia hotel and the Clarkton, luckily it didn't come to that.
My initial bar I went in with SanFran was the Dirty Duck, midway Fields. it was really jumping that night and a lot of eye candy real good to my taste, that evening I ended up with the sexy Jenny, a real head turner. barfine was about PHP 1,500 lt. Only thing about this girl was that she was ready to leave the hotel around 4 or so early morning. didn't mind after all 'cause i was still kind of needing more sleeping time.
Photos: Jenny - Dirty Duck 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09
The following days were a kind of mixture of barhopping and plain looking around town. one bad thing about this town is the lack of alternative ways to spend time, specially during daytime, wish it would offer things like you could find in places like Singapore, Pattaya and even Bangkok for that matter, oh well, welcome to the Philippines!!!
I have included some pics of the Swagman Narra to show what it offer to its guests. As far as the clubes and bars on Fileds and Perimeter road, they are pretty much the same and it would be redundant to say it all again. some of the big ones like Dollhouse, Crystal Palace and Atlantis always leading the pack in shows and quantity of ladies for the taking. Again, a real concern of those places I mentioned is the steep barfine: PHP 3,000 !!!!. personally that's a ripoff and plain customer gauging. Once again the way to answer this is not to patronize these premises as far as barfining any lady. more than enough Pinays among the rest of the bars to go around. the real loosers are the girls themselves that are prevented from the chance of earning more money. thoe clubes themselves already pocketing a ton of money and that barfine from hell is plain greediness, no more no less.
Among some eateries places of interest are the Vindalos Indian cuisine restaurant on Perimeter road, the American fried chicken restaurant on the way to the Swagman hotel, Margaritaville of course an Angeles city landmark on its own right among others.
I did have such a good impression of the Dirty Duck bar that decided to give it another visit and that time I got this cute Pinay, Jackie was a real spinner, actually wsa a lot more fun than Jenny and was quite happy to stay with me in my room that i had to kind of tell her it was time to leave or she would had stay there most of the following day.
Photos: Jackie - Dirty Duck 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Well, it came the day for me to switch rooms 'cause my standard room became available; not that it wasn't a bad room but 'cause it wasn't as big and flashy as the VIP I got.
Most of the daytime I used to chill in my room or lounge by the swimming pool since there wasn't much to do in town. every now and then I might make a run to the old market downtown to buy me a bunch of pirate DVDs and CDs. quality of them was quite good and happy with them. most if not my whole movie collection comes from PI, Thailand or Mexico. can't beat the prices and i'd be damn if I'm gonna pay US$ 25-45 per movie back home.
Sometimes when I got together with SanFran it wasn't that difficult to move around, specially with the free trike service from the hotel.
One thing I enjoyed much is just walk in and out and up and down Fields just soaking in the sounds of the bars around. it sure beats the hell of hearing some of the voices in my job.
Sometime during my stay at Swagman Narra, they had some kind of boxing telecast and it was annoying 'cause the bastards just packed the pool/bar area and I couldn't go for a swim that day; waste of time trying to get the employees of the bar to clear some of them leeches and let the hotel guest enjoy their time!!!; once again, welcome to the Philippines.
Not bad so far and was still looking forward to good times and more barhopping with fellow Hombre menber SanFran.