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

(formerly El Hunter
elhunter+email.com)


23. ACTION IN MAKATI. Burgos Street and Kalayaan Avenue. One of three areas for the non-Filipino playguy. The two streets have about 20 clubs, some restaurants, and several hotels. Six years ago, it seemed there were more clubs on Burgos. Many clubs were owned by an American and his syndicate, so their prices were the highest of the clubs. The bar fine was 3,000 pesos. Fee for service was negotiable with the girl, with an asking price higher than the Roxas clubs. Beer price started at 130 pesos, except for half-price before 8 pm at some places. Lady's drink averaged a starting price of 300 pesos. Clubs to note were: IVORY, a club with rooms upstairs for 1,500 pesos and some girls who offer BJ for a fee in those rooms. FOXY, a club with a high ceiling and a spacious feel. JOOLS, a club with three shows at 10 pm, 11 pm, 12 midnight, and 1 am and the show charge of 150 pesos can be avoided by telling the mama-san and waitress not to add the show charge because you will leave when the show begins. CATHOUSE, a pub that charged 73 pesos for a beer, although it has less than ten girls and no show. WILD WEST (also called GRAND PRIX) charged a bar fine of 1,000 pesos and three lady's drinks. Hint, in this area the high-rise City Garden Hotel had a sign in front advertising 950 pesos per night.

24. OTHER ACTION IN MAKATI. For pickups, try the entertainment venues of the four-star hotels. On Friday night about 9 pm, visited HOTEL SHANGRILA, 2nd floor bar which had a live band playing rock music. There were a few older Filipino girls in the lobby, on the 2nd floor, and in the bar who stopped their conversation to stare at any Western male entering. Also, HOTEL INTER-CONTINENTAL has a bar on the first floor which had some Filipino girls with curious eyes for Western males and a discotheque that opens at midnight and reportedly attracts a regular crowd.

25. ACTION IN QUEZON CITY. Hardly any non-Filipino playguys seen in this area. The action consisted of two types, massage places (also called spas) that opened in the late afternoon and KTVs (actually, nightclubs that has a regular show of one girl dancing and partially stripping and that has private rooms). The best massage place was MAALIKAYA, 386 Quezon Avenue, opened at 2 pm, 1st floor girl for 1,500-peso massage, 2nd floor girl for 900-peso massage, and 4th floor girl for 500-peso massage. Girls on the first two floors can be seen sitting in a room and the fourth floor girls can be seen only from their photos in an album. Additional service can be negotiated. Other massage places were located downstairs from and in the building with a KTV, such as SYLVANUS Health Club and PEGASUS, Quezon Avenue, near Scout Chuatoco Street. Pegasus charges started at 155 pesos for a beer and 205 pesos for a shot of rum and was probably the one of the best KTVs with its plush sofas and huge stage with poster-quality girls. Could not find Metallica Disco and Club Giorgio on Tomas Morato Street, which other postors said were closed. PADI's POINT, Timog Avenue, a supposed pickup place, charged 150-peso cover; later, a postor said that the pickup was at a neighboring restaurant. A big area for KTVs was on Quezon Avenue, with half on one side of the street and half on the other, and were: HEARTBEAT, ODC, MYSTIQUE, and STARDUST. Also, there were two bars in between but without available girls around midnight, Friday called CATWALK and STEVE's PALACE. Prices varied. ODC charged 75 pesos for admission and 45 pesos for a beer but the menu said 90 pesos for a beer. STARDUST charged 125 pesos for the first beer, 1,800 pesos for an hour with a girl including a BJ or HJ according to a mama-san, and bar fine of 5,000 pesos for three hours. Hint, a taxi from Ermita to Quezon City costed 150 pesos and took about 45 minutes.

26. ACTION IN CHINATOWN. Hardly any non-Filipino playguys seen in this area and not many Chinese either. Similar to Quezon City, the action consisted of two types, massage places (also called spas) that opened in the late afternoon and KTVs. Postors listed six places for this area. Places looked a little rundown and girls looked below average but passable.

27. ACTION IN OTHER MANILA AREAS. I did not try the houses and recommended places in other parts of the city. I ran out of time and the Makati clubs, EDSA complex, and two Roxas clubs kept me busy.

28. LEGIT MASSAGE. The Ritz, M. Adriatico St. 1614, Malate. Charged 1,000 pesos for 1.5 hour body massage and 1,100 pesos for 2 hours of body massage and foot reflexology. Only problem was its lack of explanation of what you will get. Paid my money at the front counter, went into the men's dressing room where a male attendant checked my receipt and gave me a towel, flip-flops, and a key for a locker. Undressed, wrapped the towel on, and was directed by an attendant to a shower room where two hot tubs were also located. After showering, an attendant gave me shorts and a bathrobe to put on and directed me to the stairway to the second floor. Upstairs a female attendant took me to a room where there were three rows of lounge chairs in front of a television and several other men were laying and receiving foot reflexology massages. Laid in my chair and watched the others and waited about fifteen minutes. A middle-aged female attendant placed a plastic pale of some liquid with funny-looking stuff floating in it and put my feet in it. For about an hour, she massaged my feet, lower legs, thighs, arms, upper back, and head. The massage was good although laying in a half reclining lounge chair was not relaxing for a massage and she was particularly painful on my feet and legs. Then she gave me a chit to sign, which had a place on it for her tip. I asked if that was it. She said yes. Total time was about 1.5 or 1.7 hours from when I paid. So, I went downstairs, put on my clothes, and headed out. The ladies at the front counter asked me if I liked the service and gave me the chit I signed and collected my tip. Then one lady made a phone call and said that I did not get my body massage. Looking back, I guess she was looking for a second chit. I said that nobody told me what was happening and I already had my clothes on and was leaving. According to my watch, I had already spent nearly two hours there. Hint, it is not in the Filipinos character to give a full explanation beforehand.

29. DAY ACTIVITIES IN MANILA. Manila is a big city and has other things to keep one busy. Sighting-seeing, bingo (Robinson Plaza, 4th floor), movies six-months old, two huge malls in Makati and betwen Makati and Quezon City. There used to be a jai-lai court for watching and gambling, but it may be gone now.

30. ENGLISH. Filipinos speak their own brand of English. It was basically understandable. Some words were given a different meaning. For example, bald pictures refer to photos of a naked person. With the US military gone from the Philippines, except for occasional training exercises and the training mission in the southern island of Mindanao, Filipinos seemed to be losing their fluency in English. For example, on Filipino television ten years ago speakers would use English and occasionally lapsed into Tagalog, but now the speech was about 60/40.

31. VEHICULAR TRAFFIC. Manila traffic was heavy during the rush hours in the morning and late afternoons on the main roads. One person said traffic was especiallly heavy Friday afternoons when a lot of people escaped to the countryside and on Saturdays after 11 am or noon for those who had to work half of that day. One time I took a taxi from Makati to Ermita about 11 am and it took me an hour instead of the usual 20 minutes in the evening, and one time I took a taxi from Ermita to Chinatown about 4 pm and the traffic was standstill on Roxas Boulevard.

32. AIR POLLUTION. Manila has the reputation of being the second most polluted city in the world. I did not spend much time outdoors during the day such as walking from my hotel a few blocks to Robinson Plaza, but did spend some time outdoors at night moving between play places. I was okay for about ten days. Then the air started to bother me and I started to develop a cough and my throat began to hurt. A guy I met who lives in Manila told me that he ran water over his air conditioner filters every month to clean them and instead of getting dirty water, thick dark ooze came off his filters.

33. HOTEL TO AIRPORT DEPARTURE LOUNGE. Reserved and paid in advance 330 pesos to the taxi service on the ground floor of the Atrium Hotel for a hotel vehicle to take me to the airport at 5 am. The driver was waiting for me. It was still dark outside and only one local taxi passed the hotel entrance at that time in the morning. Had I not reserved a hotel vehicle, I would have had to carry my luggage 50 yards to the nearby main road which was not well lighted, but it did have a lot of empty taxis driving by.

34. AIRPORT TERMINAL. Arrived about 5:20 am for my 8 am flight. Although the airline said to arrive at the airport three hours before departure, 5:45 am would have been better. Reason was that Northwest also had a 6 am flight and processed those passengers first making us passengers for the latter flight wait. Checked in by 6:15 am. Then paid 550 pesos (or US $11) for the airport departure fee. Only bank window opened was located before the area where the Immigration desks. After passing Immigration, the cheapest coffee was 30 pesos and cheapest sandwich was 70 pesos. In the departure area, the traditional ice cream stand was still there, charging 600 pesos or US $14 for a gallon of ice cream on hot ice (solid frozen carbon dioxide), which others claimed was delicious.

35. RETURN FLIGHT. Northwest Airlines. Manila to Tokyo, 4 hours; wait, 2.5 hours; to Minneapolis, 10 hours; wait, 2 hours; to east coast, 2 hours. Relatively quiet, uneventful, faster return back. Due to my prior trips and mileage, the airline upgraded me to a first class seat on the Minneapolis to east coast segment. Enjoyed the wider seats, more leg room, meal of better food, and extra two drinks. But, 2 out of over 20 hours in the first class section were not a lot.

36. MY E-MAIL ADDRESSES. My current e-mail addresses are listed above. I checked them at least once every two weeks. Kindly do not use my former e-mail addresses which are defunct, such as: greengrasser @visto.com, greengrasser@acmemail.net, elhunter@mauimail.com, elhunter@visto.com, elhunter999@nightmail.com. Thus, do not use the e-mail addresses stated in my prior reports on Singapore, Batan, Bangkok, and Pattaya.

37. HIGH POINTS OF MY TRIP were:
-- Seeing for the first time some action places in Quezon City and Chinatown.
-- Communicating with Filipino girls.

One of the things that I missed on this trip was the fellowship of other members from a playguy discussion board. To walk into a club and recognize a friendly face of a brother member, and then trade tips and stories like I did last November in Bangkok and Pattaya. This may be due to Manila not being a top destination. But, there were plenty of girls to keep me busy although my wallet suffered.

Manila is, at best, number four on my list of Asian cities for playguys based on number of available girls, number of places and places with dancing girls, and cost. If girls speaking English is important to you, then the Philippines should definitely be high on your list. Better Asian cities for play are Pattaya, Bangkok, and Angeles City. Other Asian cities like Jakarta, Cebu, Cambodian cities, Hainan, and Singapore could be better, but I do not know them. Nevertheless, Manila has advantages that appeal to some and may be worth at least one visit during your lifetime. As for me, I shall return again sooner or later.

Green Grasser

You mention tagalog--is there any Spanish spoken?

No spanish really, but I guess Tagalog historically contains some elements of some spanish lexicon but not enough to understand if you speak spanish.