girl from elsewhere and bring her with you, you'll be glad you did.
BEST FOOD
Johan's - best restaurant in town hands down. As you know food sucks in the PI, but Johan's is almost like being in Europe. Good Mexican food too. Great Belgian beer. When you order a burger it takes a while. That's because they're baking a fresh bun for it. Of course, great dive shop too, which is what the bulk of my trip consisted of.
BEST DIVE SITE
Hard to say. I liked the LST wreck as I saw 3 spotted stingrays on it. I also liked the San Quentin but mostly for the 7 giant clams about 3 feet end to end nearby it. Just stay a week and dive all the wrecks, it may be a tie all the way around.
HOTELS VS APARTMENTS
I enjoyed my last stay in Subic Bay at Arizona hotel, but for the money, 1400 pesos/night for 8 nights in high season, the apartment I rented at VIP blows it away.
http://ph.88db.com/ph/Services/Post_Detail.page/Travel_Leisure/Hotels_Accommodation/?PostId=149620
To be fair, Arizona is what I consider to be a good hotel. But it's nice to have coffee, in your own kitchen first thing in the morning w/o having to to order it through room service or get showered and dressed to go to the restaurant, to wait to be waited on, then ask for sugar when they fail to bring it to you etc. You get a 20 liter jug of purified water, the same blue jugs you see in restaurants, a pitcher so you can refrigerate it, a hot water kettle and when it runs out, another 20 liter jug is 50 pesos.
That's right, think of that they next time you open a 33ml water from the mini bar for 30 pesos and there's no drinking glass in the room, but a wall full of overpriced toiletries your girlfriend will use and you'll grit your teeth when you check out and there's an 1100 peso mini bar tab. A hotel can easily throw you a couple free bottles of water per day, they just don't. Two gas burners, pots, pans and plate ware and silverware. There's a hamper for laundry and when you want it done tell the cleaning girls and it's back the next day at the actual price, not some hotel markup.
Plus when I brought my girlfriends back, it was very comfy to chill, watch movies, drink San Miguel Lights and eat snacks that I bought from mikes sari sari at the correct price, with no fear of sticker shock when you check out. When I brought 2 girlfriends back, the 3 of us were uncramped there. Most of all it was cheaper than a standard room at any hotel and probably larger than any VIP suite at any hotel, with more in room amenities. Wifi was outside in the nipa hut, but sometimes I got the signal at the kitchen table.
I think the reason hotels come up short is all the things you have to pay for outside your room. The security guard so you can have an open entrance to the hotel, the lights in the lobby, the more often than not, rinky dink pool, the salaries for reception and the wait staff, who have to be paid even if occupancy is zero. So you're paying beyond what you'll actually use.
By the time that's all finished, there is no money left over for drinking glasses in the room and renovations are out of the question. Even Arizona was a bit worn for 2100 pesos per night for a deluxe room. Their staff was on the ball about everything including the all important issue of girlfriends in the room. The girls in the restaurant were friendly too. So I would say you can't go wrong there if you're a fist time visitor. But if you can survive without the hotel staff rent-a-friend experience, I'd recommend a serviced apartment every time to save money, get a nicer room and keep your key for the whole time. No one is telling you you can only have one girlfriend spend the night, there's a joiner fee we added on but didn't tell you when you made the reservation etc.
What about a pool to lay out by and swim in and wait staff bringing you drinks? Wild Orchid has a really nice pool and for 500 pesos you can use it. It's a 5 minute walk from VIP. Chances are you won't use your own hotel's pool every day so why have the maintenance cost factored into your room? The 500 pesos is consumable towards drinks and food. Be careful though, 1 white russian was 180 pesos and the butter fired squid I ordered was crap. Best to drink SMLs the whole time and get a 200 peso appetizer.
Johan's and Treasure Island are 25 meters away for food. Johan's is top notch food that can rival most restaurants I've ate in in Europe with a menu so big it's in a 3 ring binder. TI is typical Kokomo's crap food, but for a late night snack with the girlfriend it's ok.
For those who like the hotel “experience,” I'd check out Dreamland, it's just past the turn off to Baloy road, so it's an easy walk in the late afternoon to Barretto. Plus you can take the jeepney for 11 pesos day or night instead of trikes. I looked at an economy room, it was decent, better quality than Arizona, but had no fridge or dresser. 1500 pesos. The girl said the standard has a fridge and is bigger. http://www.dreamlandresorthotel.com/index.html
GREATEST IRONY
Lips, Mosquito, Bar Barretto and Cavern are all part owned by Tommo, if my info is correct, who used to be co owner of Blue Rock. And they're the best bars in town. In terms of atmosphere, music, drink prices and girls. I actually was not allowed to bring a guest up to my room at blue rock on my last trip and for that reason, plus the shitty quality of the rooms, I checked out and will not return.
Tommo had his birthday party at Lips on my last night and I met him as I was lining up my shot at the pool table and I heard this old gravely Aussie voice say "are you gonna play pool or what? Someone told me you know how to play." He's obviously Ozzie through and through and quite a nice guy, despite being, well a typical foul mouthed abrasive Ozzie. That could explain the bluntness of everything at blue rock. I get the feeling it was designed years ago for Ozzie punters who don't think much about creature comforts, but getting pissed and laid all the time. My girl from Lips bar explained that he sold his shares but is friends with his former partner. While I wouldn't stay at blue rock again, I will most certainly patronize the Ozzie bars as they're quite good and have the HHR
WHY I'M NOT CRAZY ABOUT A CERTAIN DOMINANT BAR GROUP
I was out bar hopping with some dive buddies when I saw the former manager of a Subic bar. Nice as ever but he was looking blue. He said he doesn't manage said bar anymore and does computer work for this group instead. They won't let him manage any of their bars because they say he doesn't have the personality for it. I said that's untrue because my friends and I had a blast at his bar largely because of him. He said tell them that.
A few nights later I was at one of their bars and he spots me and buys me and the girl I took out from his old bar a drink. He doesn't like the PI anymore and I can't blame him. He said it's like being in an amusement park where you've been on all the rides and they're not fun anymore, but you're still there. I know he'll move on to better things, and he deserves it. His experience is a good reminder to me why you probably only want to be a bar customer and not forsake your career/life in the west to live in SEA. Not without a damned superior/secure opportunity IMO.
MONEY CHANGERS / DAYTIME BARS
My last day in town my sinuses were bothering me and I knew I might not be able to equalize them when diving, so rather than chance it and be a burden on the other divers I backed out of the dive. I slathered on the sunscreen put on the shades and walked to Barretto to exchange some money. BTW, bring cash if you're staying in Barretto or on Baloy Beach as there's no ATM's and you'll have to take a trike or jeepney to one which will negate your savings. I stopped in to all of the money changers and Arlene's had the best rate. It's located diagonally across the street from Wet Spot and between hot zone and Mangos bars.
The 4 bars I know about that are open early are Wetspot (noon) Rum Jungle (3PM) Mosquito (1PM) and Lower Lips (2PM). After a nap that day I returned to Barretto at about 2 PM. Here's how things played out.
Wetspot – Walked in and no waitresses, no girls and 1 bartender. I did an about face and the bartender asked if I wanted a drink and I said no thanks because there's no girls. Then a few in street clothes started peering out from the pool room in the back, but obviously they weren't ready for business so I left. Impatient maybe, but it's not like I walked in at 12:05. They open at noon it was 2PM and they weren't going to suit up for battle until there were enough wallets in the place.
Mosquito - My next stop. They had 3 girls out front, only one was doable, in a pinc,h but I kind of dig the bartender so in I went. This is a quiet little bar that is supposed to be a short time joint but I didn't partake. I had one beer.
Rum Jungle – Next I stopped in to Rum Jungle. Not even a bartender in sight. My brothas, you know what I did.
Lower Lips – Several cute door girls in their pink waitress outfits. I go in and there's four girls standing on the bar with orange tube tops, matching orange shorts almost like hooters girls and fishnet stockings. One cutie squats down and kisses me. My brothas you know where I hung out that afternoon. I schooled this girl in connect four, and then another one and finally the bartender beat me once. I explained to them how much work they have to do as in 13 trips to Thailand I may have won once. So Rosalyn and I left and headed back to my place for a ST. She wanted LT so I said we'll see how it goes but since she told me before I bar fined her that she had mens a ST BJ was the only deal. I definitely wasn't going to keep her LT with no boom boom.
We got some beers and snacks from Mike's Sari Sari and chilled for a while. I took out the little racing girl outfit I had bought, she fit it right and I took a few photos. She then told me that she was on her last day of mens, wasn't too bloody can we fuck? Absolutely we did with that jacket on, unzipped and boobies bouncing. After I left it up to her if she wanted to stay or go but let it be known that I was going back to Upper Lips that night to possibly barfine Monica, a girl one of my dive buddies took the other night but he didn't mess with her. In his defense, he's a cherry, was in the PI to dive and is married. She was pissed though because she didn't want to spend all night entertaining him while he's sitting on the fence about it all.
That night I returned to Upper Lips with Rosalyn and bought drinks for her, Christina, the girl from a few nights earlier, and Monica. I switched up to coke zeros because getting too drunk to fuck on my last night was not in the cards. Your health teachers in school were correct: you can have fun without drinking.
After a fun time in Upper Lips, Monica, Rosalyn and I barhopped to I forget where except for Vmax which is a dinky little Filipino disco close to the end of barrio Barretto, but the local drinks are 50 pesos so if your girl wants to go there's no reason to protest. We walked up to Baloy road to catch a trike and all the trike drivers started hitting on Monica. She is quite attractive, but her behavior makes her sexy too and the trike drivers couldn't tease her enough. I offered to put the two girls in the car and ride on the back of the bike, but she said she wanted to ride on the back and she insisted on it. She sat sideways and told off all the trike drivers as we left.
At the crib, Rosalyn slept on the couch and Monica and I got in bed. She gave a pretty good BJ, but it was when she started sucking my balls and hand jobbing me that I blew it. In the morning after Rosalyn left we had sex. I got so relaxed with this girl I didn't shoo her out the door or anything but chatted for quite a while on the couch, sipping coffee etc. In fact I was so relaxed that when she said she'd better leave I gave her a goodbye kiss, she told me what a nice guy I am and I forgot to tip her. I managed to tip all the girls 500 pesos each even the lame ones, but the one I would try to see again first I forget...typical.
THE GIRLFRIENDS