how much money per month you need to earn, to live by average western standards more/less, in a nice part of phillippines where good interent connection is availiable?

In earlier parts of this thread most people said about 2k/month.

divino has russian dancers

Seriously?!!! Why would russians go to the Philippines to work?

whats the place in cebu where u can play poker?

close to beach or not?

cheers

PS: I have already 1 month in PHP, will stay 1 more. Will write some stuff at the end. Not many surprises, most already said here.

Yo,

I booked my tickets to Manila yesterday and am looking for some advice on a place to go. I'll be in the Philippines for 7 days (not counting travel days).

I'm going with my girl. She dives, me, not so happy when I have water above my ankle so there is no way I am going underwater.

We want a place fairly remote, not too touristy, beach bungalows of course, nice diving (I hear you find that everywhere) and if possible, a card room max 1-2 hours from the place we are staying, so when my girl goes diving, I go play some cards.

Any suggestions? thanks!

Anybody know if the Waterfront Hotel and Casino in Cebu/Mactan has holdem?

Yes.

I have a list with all PAGCOR poker clubs in the philippines. Ask me if you need other cities.

These are the clubs with holdem in cebu:

Club: Pacific Poker Palace AND All-In Poker Club
(I dont know how these 2 clubs are connected)
Location: Waterfront Cebu City Hotel Salinas Drive, Lahug Cebu City

Club: Straight Flush
Location: The Forum, Archbishop Reyes Cebu

i need a place to stay. any recommendations? 2 bedrooms.

i want a nice place. want to spend at least 50k a month. up to 75k. php obv.

Thanks, I'll be in Cebu on the 12th (Thursday), only spending one night there before I hit the beaches. What limits do they play there? Good games going on on Thursday nights?

@jude

Sorry I have no specific information blinds are usually 10/20, 25/50 sometimes 50/100 please give us a report. I played only in Manila and Angeles City.

What currency is that? it seems high for USD and low for pesos.

pesos

Anybody living over there right now? I'm coming next month and might be interested to meet fellow 2p2ers.

Looking at living in Boracay (or other islands regionally) for a couple months, are there nicecondos/houseshares or are hotels the only option for accommodation? Has anyone hooked that up in the past or currently, a link or info would be sick. Thanks.

Check out Rockwell Joya. I'm paying P70K/month for a 2BR and I move in on Monday. It's the best place I've seen so far, but I've only seen Manansala(also located in Rockwell) and One Serendra which is located in Fort Bonifacio. They have a bunch of 2 BR units still available.

Here's the link to the leasing rates. You should be able to negotiate it for P10-15K cheaper than the listed rates.

http://www.e-rockwell.com/downloads/joya_leasing.pdf

Manansala is fuked. ******s run it. I lived there for 8 months and it took almost 5 months to get my security deposit refunded from the unit owner after I moved out. The Leasing Office was like "talk to the owner" - idiots.

When I got my security deposit back, it was short about 30,000 peso. I'm like "wtf is this ****?" and the Leasing Office is like "talk to the owner" - idiots. I've written the money off.

I will write about my experience after staying 2 months. Long vacation. No poker stories (just won a live APT Manila seat for 2.7k$ and spent the money ).

Only 2 russian dancers, and these are very big girls. Didn't like em.
All the others are filipino.

Had fun there with 2 pinays, although its not like Spearmint Rhino... the girls cannot dance at your table. but you can take them to the vip room where the fee is only 500 pesos one time only.

The problem is the waiters come every 10 minutes to ask you to buy drinks; annoying. Maybe is better to buy a bottle. But
Moet is 10k (in embassy 6k).
Cocktails I dont remember, around 500-600.

If you stay near the pole bar and the girl dances for you a 200 pesos tip is expected. You can lay down and she will jump on you for a few minutes.
- - - - - -

Beaches

I'm in love with Palawan, Dos Palmas private resort. Its hard to like another place after I stayed there 2 weeks
Not cheap but awesome. Japanese or filipino can get 30-50% off prices when booking at the agency at Dusit Thani Hotel.





Bohol, Alona Beach, Amorita
Hated the beach... there are like 40 ships. Loved the tour (tarsier, Loboc River, Chocolate Hills)



--
Food:
Hated filipino food, really a nightmare. Im more into spicy food.
Only liked beef tapa and ube stuff. I think lebanese food is the best in the world. Found 3 restaurants (Mediterrean Caffe, Ziggurat, Houssein < best from these 3) but they are not great either :/
Also I wanted some nice pancakes and went to Pancakes House @ SM Mall of Asia. Surprise, they had 5 pages with food and only 2 types of pancakes. Wtf...

Hotels
Dusit Thani Hotel - decent, good rate when Asian Poker Tour was there... really expensive after it was over.
Loved the bar down with the piano and lady singing (Sinatra, Diana Krall and so on). Awesome restaurants (Thai, Italian)
Bad connection (streaming very poor).

Royal Bellagio on Burgos - special rate if you stay one month (like 50% off).
Some problems: internet is so expensive, 960 pesos for 16 hours wi fi, laundry the same. They got only 1 elevator (at dusit there are 6) so you wait alot. Also I could hear every time the neighbour was washing hands or taking a shower.
Theme roomed maybe are nice but so small.

Oxford suites on Burgos - Stayed only a couple of days. Looks like a better option

Citadel Inn - 33+ floors~ Rooms arent great at all but cheap. They have the best prices for wifi but the connection seems bad when I tried.
---
I kinda hate how aggresive are people into selling you things on the streets.
I also hate how the hotel staff greet you many times a day, from every department. Even if they just saw you 10 minutes ago theyll do it again.
---

Other places Ive been:
Embassy - best club, decent prices. But it closes at 2:00 AM. lol
Hobbit House - smallest waiters in the world and live music (folk or covers)
Ocean Park - decent
Imax 3d Cinema - first time for me, missed it in Vegas. Love it. But at the beginning of the movie they make us standing up for national hymn! lol

Bars on Burgos - I went only when I was really drunk cause I had a pinay girlfriend and we met almost daily.

Bronx - many girls. One supervisor still asked for bar fine (4k) even I had like 20~ drinks (for me and girls). Adios
Flamingo - cheaper drinks and bar fines but few girls and they are shy
Ivory - few and not nice girls
Wild Wild West -should have tried it

Most of the girls here have kids, maybe some lie.
Some (from the bars) are really crazy, I almost changed my number.
Check this messages from same girl (and I dont even replied to most). Just cause I gave good tip and had some meals with her:
"Good evening. I am fragile coz im not a bitch. 1 mistake i done was when i go with u. I never done it all my lyf but only with u coz I believe u. Anyways, dats a lesson I learn and I will never do it again, not anymore. Thx" I heard you went to embasy, and yesterday to Bronx. Wtf stalker?

I regret not trying a good escort agency. When I stayed as Dusit I saw some really nice asians coming or leaving: tall, boobs ...

Girls being late here?? For sure... 3-4 arrived after 70-80 minutes.
Some times its really cheap here: one taxi driver asked for 25 pesos. Or had a hair cut for 100 pesos (and someone from hotel staff told me that was expensive!).

I'll come back here when they'll have APT Manila (Stars) and also to check Boracay.

Last pic, police with shotguns near ATMs in Makati.

I've tried Ziggurat a few times and it's definitely "YMMV" - some stuff is very good and some stuff is meh. I think it really depends on what you order.

On the topic of Filipino food, Anthony Bourdain made his first visit to the Philippines recently and noted that there were huge regional differences in taste, like a dish of something in Manila would taste different from another in Pampanga (only two hours away) even though it was the same type of food. He also said that the best pork he ever tasted was slow-roasted lechon in Cebu. So although I've yet to eat any good Filipino food, I'm certainly not giving up on it, and you shouldn't either.

99% of the street sellers will leave you alone if you just shake your head and don't make eye contact. With the other 1% you can give them a firm No and ignore them. This is not only in PI but everywhere in Southeast Asia.

I also don't like the excessive greetings and use of the titles "Sir/Ma'am" but it's just part of the culture here.

Standard text message, lol.

But on a more serious note, I think a lot of girls have psychological problems stemming from a missing parent or abuse within the family. There are a LOT of single moms in this country (becoming pregnant is a blessing and abortions are illegal) so that means a lot of daughters are growing up with fathers, or growing up abused. And growing up dirt poor probably doesn't help.


Question: The 2nd Palawan picture obviously contains baby turtles. Were you able to watch big turtles lay eggs and then watch baby turtles in the morning?

Edit: I just checked out the Dos Palmas site. How much did you spend during your two weeks there? P14,500 per night for single accommodation is a lot.

Edit2: Btw I've never encountered a girl who has lied about whether or not they have kids, considering how easy it is to tell by looking at their stomach. Stretch marks = they were pregnant.

My room in Dos Palmas, Palawan was 7-9k a night, booked at an Agency.








I only saw the baby turtles. They made conditions there for the turtles to lay eggs on some part of the beach. That morning they released like 100 babies into the water. Too bad only 1 from 4 will survive.
The place is so clean, its amazing. They give you different fines if you see throw something on the ground one, two or three times.
For 4th time u can go to jail.

You can see turtles at Balicasag Dive Resort, 30 minutes from Alona Beach in Bohol. I went there but I'm not a diver.

At Ziggurat I tried: Babaganouj (some eggplant speciality with lemon or pomegranate ... they got no idea how to make it, it was hot instead of cold and couldnt and it had other stuff in it), Lamb & Beef Kebab < decent, but plain simple, Hommous (awful, like from a can and more like beans taste instead of chick pea), Baclava < awful and some african duck with eggs (not that bad).

About Filipino food... its very hard to find something I like. But I just remembered a good burger with pineapple in Bohol and some spicy chicken soup cooked for 3 hours in a coconut. About pork, they use too much the 'fat parts'.

Awesome pics. I've never seen water so clear before.

heh, check this place in PHP

only 1k$ /day

Tom Cruise was here

http://www.amanresorts.com/amanpulo/picturetour.aspx

Hey, between fort, legaspi (makati), salcedo (makati), and rockwell what is the ordering for cheapest to most expensive?

I need some help making calls from Macao to Manila.
I tried from my number or from a HK one but i cannot figure out the correct format.

I tried 001 - 632 (philippines) - 9xxxx (the php mobile number is 09xxxxxx)

If you calli a mobile you dial

001-63-9.....