smart added lots of new HSPA+ towers, some of you might be getting higher speeds with bro or the rocket because of this.

http://smart.com.ph/bro/products/hspaplussites.htm

I've used my smart bro is Subic and Manila in the last couple of months and I have been getting 2mbs+ pretty consistently.

Had dinner at Oh Georg! tonight.

Not bad! Some of the other places on the list sound good too - maybe a 2+2 dinner is in order somewhere?

Has anyone tried Lechon prepared like this? Anthony Bourdain says it's his favorite pork dish in the world. When we get our house set up I wanna have this guy over to make one

For food in general, if you go to a random local restaurant and order something like...steak, hamburgers, tenderloin strips, pasta etc it's on average gonna be pretty disappointing. If new here, you're probably not gonna enjoy most Filipino dishes either, especially street food. So try finding specialty restos and authentic ones.
Clientele can tell you a lot about food quality and obviously most of the time an empty resto is a huge tell.

There's not a ton of Cebu residents posting ITT so there's little information on food there, the Cebu Lechon is supposed to be awesome
I went to a great seafood restaurant called Sutukil when I was there, many places have that name tho and I don't know the city well enough to describe where it is other than it's on Mactan somewhere between the bridge and the Shangri La.

I've not had Lechon in Cebu but in general its pretty ****ing awesome. Its a whole Pig slow roasted over charcoal for hours.

I got one for my Birthday and it set me back about 9000 piso for a 70kg pig. If you go to a major celebration such as a wedding/christening/babies first birthday they often have a Lechon.

Going slightly off topic here but Filipino celebrations are pretty awesome. Being forced to drink copious quantities of horrible alcohol (matador, Ginebra, tandauay) whilst listening to songs being murdered.

Haha Tom, drinking with Filipinos is always epic. I dunno how much Ginebra they gave me first time but became brain damaged enough to start drinking it regularly myself

I haven't yet but my roommates did and said it was delicious. Looking very forward to trying this soon for myself.

Seriously. Stupid stupid PLDT. I was told by multiple people this week that it would be installed by today. Now I call again after calling nearly every day and talking/waiting for up to an hour a day and they tell me, "oh, can't guarantee, but it will happen by end of next week." WHAT? Anyone have any ideas for how globe is for playing in quezon city?

Okay, I admit... been kinda miserable here in Cebu City so far. The area right around my hotel is just disgustingly poor, it stinks, it's ugly, walking is a nightmare. The nicest place I've been to so far has been the Ayala center where I've had dinner two days in a row... and that's a mall.

What should I do tomorrow for a nice change of scene? Any hotel suggestions in a nicer area that wouldn't be too expensive?

What about bars? Is there a good bar somewhere with good conversation and maybe expats and not just filipinas who want my money? (those are okay but it would be nice to mix some conversation in, lol)

Sorry wish I could offer some advice, kind of new here myself.

This might be an epic rehash of a question... BUT...

What's the best 4G HSPA+ USB deal at the moment... specifically for speed and quota? are there any unlimited data plans? thanks

It is.

Smart bro Rocket

Stick costs 4k

You can use unlisurfX (50=1day/24h, 100=2days, 200=5days) so 1200/month using unlisurf200
No caps. Still unknown if this will be available for long or what kind of postpaid deals will be available later

Took >3 weeks for them to install my DSL and they told me every day it would be installed the next day.

^same here

ah i see, thanks!

i applied for pldt 2 different times over a 3 week period, at a kiosk at sm and online on their website and never heard anything back from them for those three weeks. finally went to a pldt store and applied and they said they had my application but it had not been put in the system, they put my application in the system that day at the store and guaranteed for it to be installed in 5 calendar days, took 7 for them to actually come out though. 1 month just to get internet, lol.

can someone explain to me why smart have launched this new smart bro rockit and are upgrading cell sites to hsdpa+ when they already have faster lte technology... which they launched and tested in boracay earlier this year.

http://smart.com.ph/bro/promos/Smart+LTE.htm

But these lte dongles branded smart evolution still arn't available to the public.

Are they just doing this to make more money? because smart bro rockit is going to be useless in about 6 months when everyone wants to get the new smart evolution lte.

edit:
i suspect they done this because to compete in the '4g' market which actually isn't 4 g.. since hdspa+ isn't true 4g. Smart were planning to have the first 4g network with LTE, but then globe came out with tattoo lamborgheni and smart wanted to compete for that in market also.

Any way it's a total joke, they should be concentrating on upgrading all sites to LTE and getting Smart Evolution on the market. Their stupid "Launch" 6 months ago is tilting me, since the product isn't even available. I think I might launch my i9 cpu tommorow.. you guys can buy it in 2014 tho.

I hate philippines.

Thanks for the info K00P (response to me and others). So if someone binked a WCOOP for a large sum lets say $150k, and you wanted to collect. What kind of bank strategy is wise? I think someone mentioned certain banks may have caps on foreigner inflows above certain amounts?

Also, since I have experience in almost all aspects of philppines living I thought i'd be helpful and post some quotes from throughout this thread all in one post.. sorry no screen names - i'm just copy pasting.

This is philippines..

"Took >3 weeks for them to install my DSL and they told me every day it would be installed the next day."

"I've had the power go out 10x as often as the internet. Make sure you have a backup system when the power goes out."

"People that are a bit too friendly are often in it for some money. Just by having white skin you will be considered rich by many people no matter your financial status. " - ps. everyone wants your money. even your gf, even your gfs mum, even your gfs mums brothers friends bfs dad.

"manila traffic, **** is horrible. dont try to travel during rush hour, took me 2 1/2 hrs to go 5 miles from resorts world to quezon city during friday rush hour"

"taxis are the worst, when you get in a taxi make sure that bitch has a meter and he turns it on, many taxi drivers if they know you are a foreigner you get in they tell you some bs price which is double the normal price cause they are trying to scam you" - ps. this isn't just foreingers, they scam filipinos also.. they would scam their own mother (if she had any money).

"air quality is horrible, i dont even know if they have emissions here, you feel like you are breathing in through a gas mask hooked to a exhaust pipe during rush hour. "

kk.. thats just from the last 20 pages of this thread getting a bit bored now, so i've move on to the good thing about philippines

you can have sex with girls here.

yup, even if your old and ugly... you don't have to give them money. they don't have to be hookers. you can have sex with hot regular non hooker girls for free.
"huh? but i thought filipnos just want my money?"
they do, so just tell them you have money. most of them didn't finish high school and they all are under the expectation that some guy is going to come along with lots of money and solve all their problems. so keep their dream alive.

some more info.

This is fact: They have an acronym here in philippines which I can't remember. It basically translates to Rich / Old / Dying. Parents teach this to their daughters when they are young.. to look for a man like this.

story: an ex friend of my girl friend, last year married an older american guy and went to live in the states. this girl was ~ 20 and had a baby. Before this girl left to go to the states she told my girl friend, that her plan is to go over for 1 year get a green card.. then divorce the guy. During the time she was in the states, she also had another boyfriend in sweden who was sending money back to philppines for her family.. she had told him her plan to divorce the american after 1 year, then she would meet him (the swedish guy). Ok, so 1 year later.. she came back to philppines.. meet a different guy.. went to thailand with him on a holiday and through this new guy has now found a job in Dubai.
-- it would not surprise me, if while she is working in Dubai.. both the american and the swedish guy are still sending money back to Philippines for her family.

this is standard.

smart came out with the rocket to compete with the lambo stick,they wouldn't sit there and let globe have a monopoly on the 4g stick market while the LTE service is still in a testing phase, thats just bad business. there is a big difference between a public "launch" and a test "launch", smart never launched LTE service for the public nationwide, it was launched in Boracay for testing purposes. its not any different than google testing out their new fiber optic 1gb/sec internet but only at stanford university. LTE is supposedly to be released nationwide by the end of the year or early next year, so even when it does come out, rockets and lambo sticks will not be useless, they will just become more affordable for the general public, since most filipinos probably cant afford or will not want to pay the high price which undoubtedly will be associated with the LTE service when it is released. i.e. 112mb internet is available here but most people in PH are still using 2mb internet cause of the price.

how does you "having experience in almost all aspects of philippines living" correlate with pasting quotes only stating the bad things people have to say about PH? there are many more positive things about living in PH besides just easy girls.

poor girls looking to marry a "rich" foreigner and or scam them for their benefit,(greencard, money etc) is standard is SEA. 90% of girls on these online dating sites are these types of girl, along with many of the girls that try to dress like they have money and hangout at bars where expats frequent. i personally prefer to meet girls at places where people go to sharing a common interest, live music shows, art shows etc, i've met nothing but college educated girls that have good jobs and are financially independent. if you keeping looking in the trashcan all your gonna keep pulling out is trash.

thanks for the reply.. couldn't be bothered quoting. but what u say makes sense.

although i still disagree about the girls, i believe even the college educated ones have "find a foreign guy with money" programmed into there brains, this may change abit as all cultures do with younger generations. you still have to deal with mums, dads, uncles etc tho.. until the older generation all die off.

an example of this is my gf, who is fine.. but dealing with her family is very annoying. my general observations about the non hookers are from hanging around her friends.. or any girls we/she meets. havn't meet a decent one yet.. and this is seeing the real side of them, not the fake side they put on show for guys.

edit:
im obviously not talking about rich filipino girls.. they might be different. i'm talking about standard girls guy here will meet. even most college educated girls are quite poor.

Everyone has their own opinions about the female situation there. I will say as a standard to anyone. "Don't slap first world expectations on third world situations". Meeting a girl that is in college is a good idea. Chatting up a poker dealer at a live venue also is a good idea, at least she is working. However, the idea that she can become CEO of the national gas compay is very far fetched so you are in some way shape or form her way out, whether she is college educated with a job or not.

I find you have to roll with the punches out there. You can't expect to have everyone just follow your plan, you take the good with the bad. The smog with the women, the taxicabs reluctance to use the meter with the availability of soft live poker and 90 degree weather. You can't complain too much because at the end of the day you have a rock star outfit on. Don't be mad when the folks that can't date you try their angle...

I am having serious chipotle withdrawal, this place and mexicali have been helping...

Also, there a ton of food bloggers here, for whatever reason. Use them to figure out which restaurants are good, also if your craving something in particular they offer ideas.

http://www.ourawesomeplanet.com/awes...nners-are.html

Couple other things, if you eat a lot at the mandarin they have a pretty good promo called the privilege card. It costs like 7000 PHP upfront but you get a book of really good coupons (couple free buffets, free haircut, excellent room rates aka junior suite for weekend for 11k PHP, free one night weekday stay). In addition, the card gets you a pretty big discount at the restaurants. If two people are dining and you have a card it is 50% off. If there are three people it is 33% off, and so on. Also get 10% off at the bar.

Also asia miles(google it to sign up) will let you get airline miles at the Shang, if you are staying or eating there, and because the Shang is expensive you end up with a decent amount of miles.