Manila tips, 3/2002
by Green Grasser
greengrasser+mailcan.com

(formerly El Hunter
elhunter+email.com)


This report provides information on traveling to Manila, formerly a top destination but now not near the top. It still has good places for play, but was much more expensive than other places in the Philippines. Nevertheless, Manila girls are worth an effort at least once in a lifetime and probably many times more.

Green Grasser (formerly El Hunter) visited Manila the latter part of March 2002, the first time in about four years. Starting over ten years ago, he has spent a total of about six months in the Philippines, mostly in Manila and a few weeks in old Olongapo, old and new Angeles City, old Baguio, and old Cebu.

Nevertheless, thanks to the many playguys who have reported on PI. My thanks to those whose reports on Manila were especially useful: PI Wolf, Local Horn Dog, Aquaman, The Datuk, Daven, and DocHolliday. Also, I want to thank others for providing a few bits or a different perspective include FrequentFlyer, Indosurfer, Curious, Bill, Moze, Croc Dundee, Emeritus, Binro, Pak Waan, and Seymour_Tusch.

1. NORTHWEST AIRLINES. East coast to Detroit, 1.5 hours; wait, 3 hours (waited in the airplane on the tarmac for 45 minutes for a tow to pull the airplane from the gate); to Tokyo, 12.5 hours; wait, 1.5 hours; to Manila, 4 hours. The Detroit to Tokyo segment was in daylight and my body clock should not have been set for sleep. But, I slept most of this segment, because I got up 4 am to get to the airport before departure. I did not go to bed early, because the night before I checked my travel agent's schedule and wondered why the first flight left two hours than what I recalled and wondered why my arrival time in Detroit was the same as my departure time from Detroit on the next flight. I telephoned Northwest and was told that my original first flight was cancelled and automatically rescheduled to a later flight, which gave me no time to connect to my second flight. Luckily, Northwest was able to re-schedule me to an earlier flight. Hint, check the ticket or travel agent's schedule for enough connecting time between flights.

Detroit opened its new airport terminal in February 2002. It has high ceilings like the inside of an airplane hangar. But, the new Detroit terminal lacked a mail box in early March, which was supposed to be installed the week after I was looking for one to mail a payment to my credit card company. I mailed my payment when I returned from Manila and may get hit with a $29 late payment fee. Hint, telephone all your credit card 800 telephone numbers a few days before departure, find out the balances due, and mail a check payment early, instead of waiting for a bill like I did and received the night before departure. The new Detroit terminal has relatively few food stands and during lunch hour there were long lines. Also, the Northwest's Detroit to Tokyo segment was a little light on food about midway. Hint, bring a couple of sandwiches for lunch and for later to supplement the finger snack served between the lunch at the beginning of the flight and breakfast at the end of the flight.

2. CHANGE MONEY AT MANILA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. Flight arrived 10:15 pm, but waited an hour to clear Immigration and for my luggage. Filipinos returning home had checked a lot of cardboard boxes. Cleared Customs without any delay or question, carrying only a backpack and a 26-inch luggage. Went to a bank window and changed US dollars. Exchange rate was 50.5 pesos per US $1, the lowest of my trip.

3. EXCHANGE RATES. The exchange rates elsewhere were better than at the airport. I exchanged bills in $50 denomination. Two banks, BPI Family Savings Bank and Banco de Oro, gave identical rates (50.75 pesos per US $1 on March 13) and the latter bank made me fill out a long form with my name, passport number, serial number of the US bills, etc. Money exchange places gave slightly higher rates, which varied. Tried four different money exchange places and got a rate up to 51 pesos per US $1. One exception was the money exchange place that gave a slightly lower rate; it was on the 3rd floor of the same building where Atrium Suites Hotel is located.

Hint, do not follow any Filipino, male or female, who wants to lead you more than 20 feet away to a place that does not advertised money exchange. Ten years ago, I encountered a Filipina who led me down a busy alley to make an exchange person to person and at another time a Filipino who took me into a closed store on a Sunday afternoon, and both went through several long, slow counts of peso notes, gave me the currencies, and then took the currencies back to count them again at which point I picked up my dollars and left having run out of patience. I was lucky because I later learned that they were getting ready to switch the pesos for blank paper. Another time, a Filipino standing on the street wanted to show me a money exchange that I already knew. I said no thanks, but he followed me in and made eye contact with the cashier. I think he was claiming a commission on my transaction, so I exchanged a small bill and left.

Banco de Oro advertised a slightly lower rate (50.5 pesos per US $1) for traveler's check and for small bills such as $1, $5, $10, and $20. Robinson's department store at Robinson Plaza has a customer service station on the ground floor that exchanges currency and its rate was higher than the banks and competitive with money exchange places (50.95 pesos per US $1 on March 16). Tried my two ATM cards, which I hardly used anywhere. But, one was expired and the other had a wrong pin number. Hint, test your ATM cards at home first. ATMs with the visa or mastercard logo were not plentiful in Manila.

4. AIRPORT TAXI. At the airport, Filipinos standing inside the terminal exit doors offered taxi service from the airport to Ermita, about a 20-minute ride in light traffic, for 375 pesos. Go outside the terminal and go to the enclosed office in the traffic island where there are four more transport service desks. The Nissan desk charged 345 pesos (about $7). Others have written that a street taxi would cost about half and can be found on the upper level dropping off people who are leaving Manila. Hint, think twice if you want to save a few dollars around midnight, when arriving taxis with passengers for departing flights are doubtful.

5. INFORMATION SOURCES. The best information source on Manila for comprehensiveness was PI Wolf's report. If you do not know his e-mail address, send me your request for his report and I will forward it to him. A second good report is at www.gr2.com/manila.html. I could not locate any discussion board that specialized in Manila and contained numerous posts. The closest were boards that specialized in Angeles City, such as: gotophil.com, angeles2.com, netguard.dk, delphi.com/wildwildwest. An okay board was ladyparadise.com. I purchased its Manila guide for $7, which was a good value for a first-timer although it had some outdated references such as a Makati citation for a place which I was told had closed three years ago. For an excellent links page, try http://travelsexguide.tv/pi.htm and thank Faxxaff. Other sites that contained general information on Manila are: www.manilaguide.com, www.ermita.com, and http://pages.zdnet.com/AsiaBill.

6. INTERNET HOTEL BOOKING AGENCY. Others pointed out that asiatravel.com has the lowest price for certain Manila hotels; it did not offer any Angeles City hotels. Beelinetravel.com offered a slightly higher price on Manila hotels and could book Angeles City hotels. Both did not give good answers to my question, which Manila hotels were within walking distance of Remedios Circle (where Manila's up and coming nightlife area is located in Malate, a neighborhood bordering Ermita on the south). I booked my hotels through asiatravel.com and had no problems. It required that I faxed a completed, signed form with my credit card number for my initial reservation.

7. HOTELS IN MALATE CLOSE TO REMEDIOS CIRCLE. Hotels on or next to Adriatico Street and north by two blocks of the nightlife area around Remedios Circle and going north for two blocks include Dakota Mansion, Pan Pacific (4-star hotel), Palm Plaza, and Midtown Manila. The last is on the same block as Robinson Plaza. Hotels are located throughout the city. Selecting a hotel in Makati near Burgos Street would be a good choice. Malate is on the south side of the Ermita neighborhood, which I do not recommend, except possibly the Holiday Inn on UN Avenue. I selected the Malate neighborhood because I wanted to see how much the area had changed since the night places were closed in the early 1990s and if the neighborhood was coming back. Also, I had heard that the Remedios Circle area in Malate had a few good spots for the regular night crowd. Over ten years ago, Remedios Circle was a dark, silent area at night except for one gay place called Bananas (probably gone now) that got a crowd at midnight on the weekends. Dakota Mansion is a hotel with extra large rooms that contain the bare minimum in furnishings but has a kitchen, full-sized refrigerator, and cable television. It is definitely not a classy hotel, but it is also not a closet-sized dump. It is for working-class guys on a tight budget who need room space. The hotel rate was listed at 1,820 pesos per night. None of the Malate hotels seemed to be a particular bargain for what one gets, but seemed lower priced than equivalent-quality Makati hotels and were in a location that has some interesting activities going on and has many taxis going by, day and night.

8. ATRIUM SUITES HOTEL, southwest corner of Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue (also called Buendia Avenue) and Taft Avenue, www.genesishotels.com, asmanila@skyinet.net. This hotel is located three long dark (at night) blocks east of Roxas Boulevard, along which Visions and Chaos nightclubs are half a block away. Although the hotel was in Pasay City, it costed about 40 pesos in a taxi to get to the EDSA Complex and about 60 pesos in a taxi to get to Burgos Road in Makati. The hotel was not well known by the taxi drivers and, one time, a driver who picked me up in Makati took me to a wrong hotel, the Atrium of Makati, even after I showed him a slip of paper with the hotel name and address written on it. The hotel starts on the 15th floor and goes up another ten floors. The bottom three floor of the building has a small mall. The hotel has a great view of the city, extra large rooms, excellent remote-controlled air conditioner (after telephoning the reception desk on how to operate it, which was to power off, power on, and click until a star goes out on the control), a no-fee female guest charge (but the girl must register with the guard if you do not walk her out pass the guard on the ground floor), a refrigerator with space enough to hold two six-packs and more, a complimentary newspaper in the mornings, cable television with a large selection, no touts in front of the hotel, one entrance to an overhead railway leads into the building on the second floor, and fast food places and a 7-11 store (where I bought 4-liter jugs of water for 60 pesos) across Harrison Street and a small food court on the third floor with home-cooked plates. Disadvantages include cigarette smoke (changed three rooms before an almost smoke-free room was found), cigarette burns in the carpet and table, nothing really interesting within easy walking distance during the day, only 40 safe deposit boxes for guests (waited one day to get a box), only one nearby money changer located on the third floor which offered a rate slightly less than bank rate (50.7 pesos per US $1 on March 18), street taxis were 100 feet away on Sen. Gil Puyat Road, and requirement to prepay my room when making a reservation. My rate of 1700 pesos per day was its lowest rate and did not include breakfast. I visited the hotel nightclub on a Saturday night about 8 pm and the only person in there was the bartender and the air conditioner was not on. Saw a few other playguys with their girls going in and out, as well as a large number of ordinary Asian customers, both men and women. The hotel was a good change from Ermita and is worth a try.

9. TOUTS. Best to avoid touts. They wait outside of every Ermita hotels and the first one will walk with you for several blocks trying to interest you in going to supposedly nearby clubs and dormitories. If you talk to him, he will pursue you and greet you every time you pass by. Touts can provide information, which will cost in both tips they will solicit from you and higher bar fines paid for your lady companion. Once you let a tout show you around, he will wait for you to come out of your hotel every night. If you do not show interest and disregard him as he walks with you for several blocks, he will leave you alone on following nights, except for his occasional snide remark that you may be a homosexual as you walk by ignoring him . Hint, walk over to the nightlife area near Remedios Circle, find a taxi passing by, ask a driver if he knows where the dormitories and houses of girls are located, and negotiate a fee. Once you know where they are, you can return another night.

10. STREET TAXI. At night, the majority of drivers did not turn on their meter when I got in, until as he started to drive away, I said one word, meter. A few did not turn on their meter and quoted a price double the usual, then I said stop and got out. A few others asked if I would give a good tip, then I either quoted a price with 20 percent tip or said okay and on arrival gave him the meter price plus about 20 percent. For example, a taxi from Ermita to Makati costed 70 - 75 pesos, I usually handed over 90 pesos or a 100-peso note (about $2) for a 20-minute ride. My quote would be 100 pesos and the driver would silently agree. During the day, most drivers would turn on their meter without any prompting. For my first taxi from Ermita to Makati in the early evening, the driver refused to turn on his meter and quoted me 150 pesos. Not knowing the price, I thought $3 was a fair price for what I had remembered years earlier as a 20-minute ride and agreed. The extra $1.50 meant nothing to me, but taxis' taking advantage of a playguy at night seemed petty. The really obnoxious taxi drivers were the ones waiting outside of the EDSA Complex, and Chaos and Visions nightclubs on Roxas Boulevard. I flagged a taxi passing by. Even though I negotiated a price of 100 pesos for a ten-minute ride that would cost 50 pesos during the day and after I and my girl got in the taxi and the taxi drove about a block, nearly every driver would start whining about how 100 pesos was not enough. Hint, say meter or negotiate a price to 2/3 of the driver's quote.

11. OVERHEAD RAIL TRANSPORT. Manila has two overhead rail transport lines. They do not connect to each other and they provide service to a small fraction of the city. Supposedly some of their cars are not air conditioned. From my Atrium Suites Hotel room balcony, I could see one line, which had only four cars and passed by about every 15 minutes. The newspaper reported over several days during my second and last week, about eight letter bombs were left in the other rail line stations which goes to Makati and the bombs either did not contain explosives or were not wired for explosion and were apparently meant as warnings. Security guards at the entrances of the stations perform quick, cursory inspections of the bags of entering passengers. I did not try either line, so I cannot say if the effort would justify their low fare.

12. TRANSPORTATION TO ANGELES CITY. In Ermita, there used to be two companies with vans going to Olongapo or Angeles City. Four years ago, I took the Swagman van to Angeles City for about $10. It was not a comfortable ride due to poor shock suspension, a poor air conditioner, and heavy traffic. I considered going to Angeles City for the weekend if I could find a reasonably-priced ride. But, I ran into two problems. First, I was warned about the heavy traffic, especially on Friday nights, Saturday noon, and returning Sunday afternoons and evenings, which would make a three-hour ride even longer. Second, I got quotes of 2300 pesos from an Ermita hotel transport service, 2800 pesos from asiatravel.com's transport service called Islander Transport (522-9049), and 2975 pesos from Nissan Transport Company at the airport. They estimated the ride would take four hours. My baseline was 1600 pesos that Beeline Travel offered to pick up at the airport and transport to Angeles City. The site, www.netguard.dk, suggested using a local man listed on its web page, who charged 1600 pesos although Netguard did not know him well enough to recommend him.

13. BOOKSTORE. Go to Robinson Plaza, find a bookstore on the ground floor, and buy a map. I paid 90 pesos for E-Z Map's "2001 Metro Manila", which showed most of Manila, names of most roads, and names of many well-known sites. The same company also published other detailed maps of other parts of Manila for about the same price.

14. SOUVENIRS. I did not see an abundance of souvenir sellers or shops. The typical Manila souvenirs are wood carvings, seashell trinkets, tee shirts, barongs (see-through men's shirts for formal occasions), place mats, cigars, etc. There were a few shops around, but one has to look for them. In Ermita, they are along Mabini Street, which runs north-south from Pedro Gil Street north to Padre Faura Street. Six years ago, I found a few souvenir stores in Makati, two blocks southwest of the New World Hotel.

15. ROBINSON PLAZA, ERMITA. Over ten years ago, Robinson Plaza used to be a two-story building covering half a block with a bunch of vendors, mostly fruit and vegetable sellers, in stalls on a big empty lot on the Padre Faura side of the building. Most of the Plaza was occupied by Robinson's Department Store and a drab, roach-infested supermarket. A friend, who at that time was in a lean, muscular 30-plus year old, happy-go-lucky, nice mustache, good-looking Italian-American guy would walk through the plaza and get propositioned by the sales ladies. Now Robinson Plaza is a four-story building with entrances on Padre Faura and Adriatico, a smaller department store and a modernized, well-lit, clean supermarket, and full of all kinds of stores and eateries on all floors. US malls should take a lesson that clustering eateries in one food court is not half as inviting as eateries all over the mall. Some postors claimed that one can sit in a fast food eatery and be approached by ladies. This is probably true if you are a young-looking apparent-American guy.

16. INTERNET STORES. I used two internet stores. One was located along side of Dakota Mansions on the far side of a Chinese restaurant. Other was on the ground floor of the building of the Atrium Suites Hotel. The charge was about 40 pesos per hour. The connection was a little slow, but tolerable. Someone said that a lot of Manila ISPs have server problems of no connections and very slow connection.

17. CHEAP EATS. My basic meals were breakfasts and burgers. Nearly all the fast food stores, like KFC, Wendy's, and Burger King offered a hamburger for 20 pesos (about 40 cents). In the Atrium Suites Hotel building, Maxim on the ground floor had a combination plate breakfast, unlimited bitter coffee, and three eggs for less than 100 pesos (about $2) and the food court on the third floor had three concessions that offered a plate of chicken/meat, vegetable, rice, and juice for about 50 pesos.

18. BIG EATS. Wendy's has a serve-yourself 8-inch long salad plate for 123 pesos, on which enterprising Filipinos would build a 10-inch high mound of salad. You have to see it to believe it. In Robinson Plaza and a Makati strip mall is a chain restaurant called Calaban, where for 220 pesos, one can eat-all-you-can Filipino cuisine of chicken, mystery meat, mystery seafood, salad, soup, etc. Half a block from Robinson Plaza and next to the Midtown Manila Hotel, a restaurant offers all-you-can-eat sushi and Korean barbeque for 250 pesos. Of course, multi-star hotels probably offer buffet lunches and dinners at higher prices.

19. DIARRHEA, HEPATITIS. Two of the worst diarrhea I ever got were in an all-you-can-eat restaurant in Malate (no longer in operation) over ten years ago and in a restaurant in Angeles City. It took over a week to recover in both instances. Over ten years ago, a friend showed me a Manila newspaper article that stated that many restaurants were buying their seafood from fisherman who caught the fish, mussels, and other seafood in Manila Bay, which was known to be polluted and full of raw sewerage and many people got hepatitis A from eating such seafood. This time I did not hear anything on the current conditions. I did not get sick from any of my listing under Cheap Eats.

20. ACTION IN ERMITA. The OLD Ermita was the best for quantity, quality, and variety. It had clubs with over 50 girls dancing on stage and clubs almost empty but offered excellent bbbj's. At 16 pesos per US $1, bar fines ranged from 50 pesos to 100 pesos and a girl's all night service ranged from a minimum of 200 pesos to 400 pesos. There were over a 100 play places inside of ten blocks. Many were on the main streets, some were along the alleys, and a few were upstairs like houses full of girls. Several high-end clubs would open at noon and most were opened by 7 pm and some would start closing at 2 pm and a few were still opened at 5 am. It was great. But it was all closed in the early 1990s.

Now, this area is a poverty area of small businesses, abandoned buildings, and destitute people sleeping everywhere on the sidewalks on cardboard. Nevertheless, there were a few night places. The best was LA CAFE, on the northwest corner of Del Pilar Street and R. Salas Street. Just go south on the one-way del Pilar Street and looks for lights and one of the few lights is LA Cafe. It has one entrance leading into four rooms, of which two are upstairs, which contain several bars and pool tables. On a Friday night around 10 pm, there were over 70 girls in their street clubs and ten customers. The girl quality was low, but a few were passable. The crowd was quiet, some girls were aggressive, and the music was moderately loud. Other postors claimed that there was no bar fine and an all-nighter could be negotiated for 1,000 pesos (about $20). Hint, worth a look. Several block north on Del Pilar Street were three KTVs, which I did not try, and a beer garden on the northeast corner behind the stores with two entrances on Del Pilar Street and Padre Faura Street. This beer garden has been there for decades. I saw about 20 available girls sitting around listening to the live band, but the quality was not passable. Note that a lot of touts hang on this corner and will offer you their guide service.

Two other play places that might be worth a visit were LAKAY on Bacobo Street, near Flores Street and SPEEDY (formerly King's Cross) on Mabini Street, near UN Avenue. The first had a tiny stage with one dancing girl. Both had about 15 girls each. They charged me 80 pesos for a beer, which was high by comparison to other areas. The mama-san said that the barfine and all-night service fee (I doubted if really all night) costed 3,000 pesos plus a tip for the girl. When I did not answer, after five minutes she said that the price could be discounted. One tout told me that there were two dormitories of girls in the area, and another tout told me five. I did not visit them. UN Avenue, where the Holiday Inn Hotel (a renamed upper-class hotel) is located, now has a number of fast food eateries and a couple of nearby KTVs. One tout pointed me to this area for a good night place, but I did not follow him to locate the place. One other place crowded with people was G SPOT on Padre Faura Street about half a block west of Mabini Street. It was crowded on a Sunday after midnight, but I did not go in and determine if it was a play place.

21. ACTION IN PASAY CITY at EDSA Entertainment Complex. One of three areas for the non-Filipino playguy. EDSA Complex is a large building located on the other side of EDSA street from the Heritage Hotel on EDSA and Roxas Boulevard. The building houses the clubs: PIT STOP, JAMILA, FIREHOUSE, MY FAIR, COTTON CLUB, CASINO, BOARDROOM (upstairs above Cotton Club), and SAMBA (a new club). The bar fine was a standard 1,000 pesos. Fee for service was negotiable with the girl, with an asking price of 3,000 pesos for two hours and negotiated price of 2,000 pesos for six hours. Beer price started at 100 pesos, except for half-price before 8 pm. Lady's drink averaged a starting price of 200 pesos. Hint, prepare yourself for the constant sales pitches. Door men and girls will invite you to enter their clubs, inside someone will show a tray of food for sale, photographers will raise their cameras in your face when a new girl begins to talk to you, a waiter or waitress will ask you to buy a lady's drink for your new girl friend, and mama-sans will encourage you to pay a bar fine for a girl. Hint, go early in the week. I was the only customer in Firehouse on a Monday night about 9 pm and had my pick of 30 girls.

22. ACTION ALONG ROXAS BOULEVARD. One of three areas for the non-Filipino playguy. Look for Traders Hotel and head south on Roxas Boulevard about three blocks. Two recommended clubs were along Roxas Boulevard, and half block north of Senator Gil Puyat (or Buendia) Avenue was CHAOS and half block south of Senator Gil Puyat Avenue was VISIONS. The bar fine in Chaos was 1,000 pesos and in Visions was 900 pesos. Beer price started at 90 pesos. Along this strip of perimeter road on the east side of the boulevard were several KTV-type or karaoke nightclubs. They were similar to KTV (karaoke television, a sing-along to the music video on a monitor) in that they have girls for whose companionship in the club at the charge of 400 pesos or more per hour and usually not including her drinks, VIP rooms at the rate of 3,000 pesos or more minimum in consumables for a couple of hours more or less, and a fee negotiable with the girl for her service -- if she is willing to render service which was about the same as the room rate. These nightclubs tend to be expensive (maybe due to my being a tourist), have mostly Filipino clientele, and have a girl dancing on a stage who usually did not totally strip and flash any nipple or beaver. The most expensive KTV in this area was probably EAST ASIA nightclub at 650 pesos cover and 850 pesos per hour for a girl companion. Other nearby KTVs included MISS BRUNETTE, ATHENA, LOOKERS, etc. Hint, near Chaos were local Filipinos standing on the roadside who offered to show a house full of girls. I do not know if the offer was real or not. The side street which linked Roxas Boulevard and Harrison street had two drink-in love motels and many local people shopping and hanging out. To get to the house, one has to go via the side street and then Harrison street. The next night the same Filipino man made the same offer, showed two girls who looked okay and were sitting on folding chairs nearby, and offered to guide me to a nude show.