But if I know the Philippines correctly that would absolutely NOT be ok and will be complained and whined upon until death :-D. If pinoys do it it's ok and not punishable, if foreigners would do it.... :-D.

Did anyone try the crazy burrito restaurant the food is great there

Killah is right you need a common language to make it happen, anyways doesn't matter colluding didn't seem to be happening in DA, not when compared to the other cardrooms.

Btw, last time I checked Crazy Burrito was pure dog food, lol. Maybe it has gotten better?

The owner is African American and he cooks by himself, actually he is the only one working there, me and my girlfriend loved the food and the prices is half what you would pay at tequila reef

This! Two Koreans said 2 sentences during a hand at Resorts the other night and table went crazy. Made the dealer call the floor. 15 minutes later I ask the group of locals not to discuss potential holdings when one of them is considering calling a bet and they get super offended.

Hahah, so standard..

So I got here Saturday. Got a condo in Mandayulong City, Manila. Which I will be moving into Friday. Tried to set up a bank acct but they wouldn't do it without the ACR-I card. Went to immigration office in Makati today. Got the 2 month extension and the ACR card. It was 7,000 for the visa and card and fees and ****. But then there was a 2,000 charge for 'express lane fee'. I was gonna dispute it but decided **** it it's only 2,000 and I want to get the **** out of here. Was done in about 20 minutes total so maybe it wasn't a scam. They said I can pick up the ACR-I card in one week. Is that all pretty standard? Or did I get ripped off?

I have been to the Phils. before for 3 weeks but my impressions so far is I am in ****ing heaven. I can get any girl's number I see with ease, even 9-10's. The types of girls I wouldn't even dream of approaching back in the states. It's ****ing awesome. Went to Resorts World Sunday night and played 50-100. I got schooled by a filipino guy for my whole buy in and decided to leave cuz the game wasnt great. Game seemed OK tho nothing great but wasn't as tight as I thought it would be and absolutely no signs of collusion. Went out drinking with my filipino uncle tuesday night. We went to his friends house in the slums. This was the type of place where foreigners would be scared to go and rightfully so but I was with my uncle so I figured I was ok. Everybody was super nice and went out of their way to see I had a good time. Stupid ****ing third world building tho has no lights in the hallways and there is flights of like 15-20 stairs. I was super drunk and ended up tripping and falling down a flight of stairs in the pitch blackness. Sprained my ankle and will be on crutches next 3-4 weeks the Doc said. Been a whirlwind 5 days but so far I ****ing love it here.

7k is right price they always charge those express lane fees, your next extension should be like 2830ish


how much is your condo in mandaluyoung and is it nice? furnished? how did you go about finding it?


how friggin great is it knowing that you can walk up to any girl and have a great chance at getting her number and knowing that even if she doesnt give its no biggie cuz the next one will

how bad is the food there really?.... thats pretty much the only thing that keeps me from going to the Phills for a while!

I'm picky like a 3 year old!

can you get good bread, ham, cheese etc. for a fair price?

how are the restaurants in general, compared to Thailand?

Whats the city with the most western restaurants, or lets say what would be the best city for a longterm stay in general, thinking of 4-6 months!

malls are loaded with western food or decent quality food, not 5 star restaurants but decent enough

then as you stay longer you find more and more places to eat

im sure manila has some good food options and i found good places to eat in both subic and angeles


food shouldnt hold you back lol

Well, it kind of does... i hate fast food, McDonald n stuff if you consider that as western... just in case!

All ppl so far I've been talking to so far said girls are better than in Thailand, English is way more common, and in general its a good option to Thailand, BUT food was horrible!

Been quite a while in Thailand and have to say that food-wise i didn't miss too much and was pretty happy with the restaurants esp. and what i got in supermarkets was alright too.

I'm looking for the whole package, its not like i just wanna go there bc of girls or so... in Th i ate really good meals for 8-15$, just like the standard meals i have 2 times a day (schnitzel almost like momma makes it!!).

Food at least makes 50% for me. lol.

so...experts? where do food lovers get happy and a happy end at the same place!?

why not fly to phils next time you are in thailand and judge for yourself?


the only time i ever eat at mcdonalds is like twice a month to get pancakes so no i didnt mean mcd's


they have big grocery stores at the malls where you can find whatever you need, i was in thailand before i came here and there is a thai restaurant that has much better pad thai than any i had in thailand


i was very worried about the food before i got here but its not a concern

okay cool!

yeah i am up for little bang around the world tour again and wanted to stop by in the Philippines either way!

Bc I got really tired of the Thai mentality last time, so i was considering staying there my whole trip..... if the food wouldn't be a problem.

I am just curious what to expect and what not!

It's the best feeling in the world man! Truly priceless haha. I read ur thread before I got here and was so jealous and now I'm experiencing for myself and it's amazing haha. I ****ed a girl last night, that I met at the mall, with the worlds tightest pussy! Seriously I didn't know they made vaginas so tight. It was awesome.

As for the condo its nice as ****. Kinda small, only a 1 bedroom. Furnished. Nothing too fancy but nice. But the property itself looks like a country club. Has like 4 pools, gym, sauna, massage place, restaurant, etc. Its pretty balla. And there's so many smoking hot upper class filipina girls there. I seen a few checking me out as I was touring. I have a feeling I will pull a lot of tail at this place haha. And only 23,000 php a month. Roughly 530 a month not including utilities. So cheap.

Oh and an extra bonus: I didn't know this at the time I signed the lease but it's right down the road from Burgos Street! Cha-Ching! (Still haven't been there since my last visit to the Phils. 4 years ago)

I've never been to Thailand so I can't compare.

But, I don't understand why ppl on here bitch about the food. I think it's amazing. Truth be told, I love filipino food, though. Chicken adobo is to die for... In Manila at least, they have everything. It's a major city so you can find any type of food you want. There's a wide variety; French restaurants, Steakhouses, Italian, Mexican, basically everything. If you want to spend a lil more money you can easily find anything here you can in the states. For example, I went to a Japanese place the other day. Pretty pricey by Phils. standards (about the same prices as I would expect to pay in the states) but I swear to God it was the best sushi I ever had in my life. But, then I also go to small filipino restaurants and pay 2-3 dollars a meal and I love the food there too. Also, I went to McD's yesterday expecting it to taste different than in the states, but nope tasted exactly the same.

Quick question: I remember reading somewhere in this thread that you can just go to the pharmacy and say you lost your doctors prescription and just pay for the drugs and receive them without a prescription? Is this correct? How does this work? I need some painkillers but I don't want to go there and them being like WTF? and then leaving feeling embarrassed. Is a small bribe required? Help me ppl!

just walk in and ask for the drug by name, if you say "im feeling pain and need a painkiller" they will say you need a prescription, if you say "i need 8 ...... pills" you are likely to get it, if not walk out (with no embarassment) and go to the next pharmacy


how long of a lease did you have to sign? how did you go about the apartment search? did you see any that didnt require a long lease?


23k a month is a solid price for a nice place in manila but so much more than you would have to pay in other cities here


burgos is overpriced but its gotta be a great place to collect numbers, i got a really cute freelancer on the street there for my first night, but barfines/ladiesdrinks/any drinks are just ridiculously priced there

Thx for the advice homie!

I signed a 6 month but they have month by month options as most of the places I looked at did. They just charge higher rate per month for short term. And I just did all my searching on craigslist. I could put u into contact with the girl I went thru to find this place, if you are interested.

Ah yes, it definitely is. I only went once my last time here, as I was only here a short period of time. Got the girls number from the girly bar I went to. Took her on a date and **** and ****ed her like 3 different occasions for free . But, then she started telling me she loved me and I lost her contact info when I left for the states. I feel kinda bad about that one :/ But, yeah u can score numbers easily and get free or cheap pussy when they're off work EZ

The food issue really isn't a problem you just have to know where to look. Most major cities have delis with imported meats/cheeses and usually they make there own bread. The meats and cheeses are priced pretty fairly.

I was actually going to make a post yesterday about food availability in SM supermarkets. I went there yesterday and was surprised at how more and more stuff I would expect to find in a British supermarket I can now get here.

quadeuce2222, it's clear by your posts that you're in the honeymoon stage. Be careful!

I have been here before for 2 weeks. But, you may be right. OK, duly noted. I'll let you know how I feel in a couple months haha.

Edit: The food is good in Manila tho imo. I don't care what anybody else says.

Read through the whole thread over several rainy days, good stuff, thanks to alex23, paul b, yoyo, mrgoodcat, jaypez, mnlgrind, FightRight, RiverJohn, Pooter, kick2dante and many others

As I went along I copy/pasted posts into google docs to refer back to, thought I'd share those cliffnotes here. It's roughly chronological so stuff like LA cafe being renamed and poker venues changing corrects itself, and paragraphs sometimes reply to the one before. Just recycled content from posters living there

General
Manila
Angeles
Davao
Cebu
Sabang
Boracay / other

I've since changed my perspective on a lot of those topics (cost of living, food, safety, internet, etc) I wrote about before. If I get some time later I'll try to elaborate.

Well that just sounds like me after my first trip to Thailand... loved their food and everything....but after half a year there, I felt the complete opposite about their food and the quality of most places.

at the end i probably went one time in 2 weeks to a Thai restaurant...

No offense!! but i been to the states about 5 months in total, its really a great country and had a lot fun, but your food is horrible too...the only thing i missed all the time over there was once again food (bread etc.) ... so i been unhappy about the food in America all the time as well.


That would be interesting!

how are the prices in general?

how much do milk products cost, in Thailand they were so ridiculously overpriced, 200gr of cheese 200-250 bath thats 6-7$, 200gr cup of sour cream 120 baht thats another 4$.

so i had to make decisions whether i go to a restaurant and can have a whole dish for that money or just get myself a piece of home
(just a piece of cheese, mustard and some bread), if i was cooking a whole dish by myself.... well that held up a while but each plate was more expensive than in a restaurant IF i been using a lot of milk products.

in general i can say milk products were 3-7 times the price than in Europe...

In no particular order my favorite places to eat around Makati are;

Cafe' Med
Howzatt
Gorilla
Chillies
Out Back
Wendys
The Posh Thai resto in GB (know the name Paul. B ??)
Bollywood Queens (awesome Indian)
Crusoe's
Picasso's
Shangra La'
The Village Deli & Sandwich shop (awesome sandwiches)

Jsp I gotta tell ya, you have way to much time on your hands!