Lol, as I told you, good steak is easy. Elbert's or Mamou's. Both are pretty good. Decent late night delivery is trickier. You can order in New Bombay up to 11:15 in Salcedo Village (just google it), and there is a Seattle's Best with decent simple food right outside your doorstep on Valero, but it's true Manila's late night delivery options are lacking. Oh, and try Swiss Inn next to Peninsula (cheap, good eating 24 hrs, but no delivery).

Steak thread: http://www.philmug.ph/forum/showthread.php?t=31065
You can also use that forum to find other good food. Let me know if you want to hit any place up.

24/7 delivery: Wendy's, Andok's, Yellow Cab, Shakey's, and I'm sure there are more that I can't think of right now. I only order from the first two.

Hey guys im going back to the philippines today but flying into clark this time instead of manila anyone recommend a good hotel to stay in? Also anybody know where the best place to change your pesos into USD/HKD will be?

Royal Amsterdam if you're gonna stay in Angeles/Balibago. P1390+ per night, rooms are nice and clean.

Howzat Inn if you're gonna stay in Metro Manila. PItom told me about it and for the price (P1350/night) it's a good deal.

If you want to change your USD to pesos, Sanry's Money Changer. They have multiple locations all over Metro Manila and usually have the best rates.

If you want to change your pesos to USD, one of the posters here or I may be able to help you with that. BDO can exchange your money but you have to have an account there.

P1350/night sounds like a great deal in Makati, is it just above the Howzat restaurant? I've eaten there many times but didn't know it was a hotel. In Malate there are lots of options around that price range though, heading back there from Subic today, hopefully a crazy night in LA Cafe and the other bars there.

Yellow Cab pizza is 24 hours, 789-9999.

Hi,

I'm going to Manilla and Makati in particular later this year for a couple of months (min 3). I have a couple of questions:

Is it possible to rent an apartment on 3 months minimum at Rockwell (serviced preferred)?

If 3months deal isn't available at Rockwell, is there any good alternative you would recommend within the area?

At Rockwell, is the internet pre-install and ready-to-use from day one?

What kind of distances are we talking about within Makati? Are most clubs etc within walking distance or is taxi the way to go for most things?

Have anyone found any decent sushi place so far? (yes, I'm a sushi fan)

Thanks

FYI

Just quoting this to tag the link to the only Cricket-themed Bar/Restaurant I have ever seen or am likely to see outside of India.

Many excellent ones but expensive

Tsukiji on pasay road, Seryana in little tokyo, Kuretake in rockwell an Sushi Tsumura are the best ones. The Japanese restaurant in Makati Shangrilla is also top notch.

Deccent is easy to find just stay away from the ones that look like chains. Go to little Tokyo in Makati many choices

Just go and play at Metro club at 100/200 and you can eat sushi for free I assume it is very easy to make raw food, so even Filipino chefs cannot mess it up.. Of course there is different fish quality..

Taking some computer courses in my spare time down here in cebu and so many hot girls at this school

I was reading some of the debates earlier itt (TONS of good info guys esp page 12 and beyond) and would share a few of my experiences since I been here. I know this thread has gotten kind of quiet since so much has been discussed but it would be cool to have some new discussions going and perhaps some new insight, I have almost 0 interactions with foreigners as I the area I live in is mostly locals and Koreans so I guess its kind of cool to read through and see some of you guys and other people experience some of the same things. This will be a little long but I guess I have some time to reflect and I've been living here for a little while now (over a year)

I do live in Cebu city so I do have to admit it is quite different from manila in some aspects (I jokingly refer to Manila as the filipino LA and Cebu as the filipino San Diego...kinda lolz) I can def say I'm not in the norm situation, my wives family is very traditional and took me in as there own son, it really opened my eyes because I too was naive at one point and got burned by a stupid bitch that I easily fell for. I really assumed the worst about people here for awhile yet somehow I found a girl and family here who cares for me more than my blood family back in the states. All my in laws are college educated and some of which are involved in some semi high level government positions/have there own family run businesses so I can say for sure 100% I am very blessed to have a family here who isn't after anything. This is far from the norm here so I'm not trying to mislead anyone, frequently its the busto family desperately trying to squeeze everything they can out of foreigners who come near them. I have had that situation completely flipped where sometimes Im totally busto (injured and had to deal with long processing times for compensation) and they completely take care of me whether its food, hospital/medicine bills when im sick etc... When I do have money and we go out they insist on paying the majority of the time. If I insist and give them money they will only invest it and not waste it(most people are saying "invest?" uh oh and indeed I wouldn't recommend this unless you have a very high level of trust with someone out here and even than its a risk, I only made small level investments, I was the one interested in having them make some investments and they are doing ok). My wife and her family joke all the time about how lucky I am to have good people looking out for me and TBH I severely doubt Id still be living here if it wasn't for this. Why am I writing about this?

Well TBH I got burned out on the american lifestyle in some ways and def have some conflicts with my family back in the states, when I do talk to them its very apparent that they look down on me for living here (yet I honestly am more comfortable and am 10 times happier here than I ever was back in the USA) and without a doubt they think the worst of my family, my wife and filipino people as a whole. I have come to really respect the more traditional filipino way of viewing family that they should always be there for each other, if one person in the family is successful than you shouldn't let another starve/suffer unnecessarily. Yes some people do take advantage of this mentality and this value has been lost in many IE poor people with 20k+ php phones, those who choose to sit around and depend on income being sent from people abroad vs people who actually work hard, study and genuinely try to better themselves and need help sometimes to make ends meet.

The stereo type of filipinos is of the sooner rather than the later and indeed most stereo types do hold some truth behind them but it is immensely ignorant to try and think of everyone like this. No matter what I tell my family about how happy I am here and how good my family is they still talk down to me which makes me upset but I try to take solace in the fact that they just really dont know what my life is like out here. There ARE some very good hearted filipinos out there and if you get close enough to them you will find that some will treat you more like a brother/son than just a friend. I think some of the jaded views are coming from and are towards alot of the people in Manila and TBH I experienced alot of the same things when I was there. I mean Manila is a large city chock full of foreign money and people fly from all over the country to try make a buck there. The attitude of people out there is noticeably different, to try to put it in some type of american context the closest thing I can think of is the more a-hole city new yorker type (manila obv) vs the laid back country hospitality (some of the less foreigner city dominated places) types. Obviously there are good and bad people in both examples but the overall attitudes can be different when you see other parts of the countries/areas I mentioned, the taxi thing for another example. Here if a driver is polite and doesn't drive like a maniac I will usually tip them a little extra as I do live a little out of the way (like handing them a 100 peso bill on a 65 fare) and they will generally stare at me and say its too much, while in Manila sometimes Ill tip a driver the same amount to only have them scoff and pffffffttt at me and demand more or frequently try to not turn on there meters...etc It is just such a different lifestyle in Manila vs other parts of the Philippines that I dont want people to be turned off by bad experiences they had in Manila.

Yes if your a visiting tourist somewhere there are going to be some people out to take advantage of you and being a different nationality/skin color from most people makes you easy to identify but you will find that at some level anywhere else. I mean try be a fresh tourist in high traffic cities like Vegas or NYC and tell me you wont deal with some price gauging and a-hole taxi's... But there are alot of good experiences and people out there you might never see if you completely limit yourself to the beaten path. Ok that's my rant for now and I def have enjoyed going through this thread and would suggest anyone seriously considering staying out here for awhile take the time to sift through it all and take in some of the good info.

Good post, FightRight. What do you do for work?

General question: Are there jobs available for foreigners in the Philippines? I teach English in Korea but would love to live in the Philippines.

Yes, plenty. They don't pay well though.

Working out here is def not worth it, you do rarely meet some foreigners who work here but are usually very high level management positions and receive foreign wages to reflect it. The Filipino's here who work and are successful (Philippines rich vs American rich are completely different idea's obviously though) usually have some type of outside income from a business, for example a college professor who also runs a internet cafe, a bank manager who also has a store etc...Filipino salaries are very low compared to developed nations so the ones who are considered wealthy here are going to be involved in some type of entrepreneurship normally. The majority of the americans/euros/aussies you meet who actually live here, year round are going to be in the retired category with some type of pension to depend on, some invest and run businesses but are usually doing so with the assistance of locals which can be disastrous for some but works for some others.

Personally I was injured in my previous job and receive some compensation for that, its def not alot by far but here it does go a long way for simple cost of living things. Funny thing about Cebu is there is an extremely high % Koreans compared to other foreign nationalities, the ratio I'm guessing is like 3 to 1 or more. Most of them come out here to open businesses like restaurants, beauty parlors, car dealerships, or kids who's parents sent them to school because the cost is much lower out here etc... I had the best most authentic Korean food here in Cebu (Im from hawaii so I have been to quite a few asian restraunts before) and its got to be just about the same as eating there in south korea. I am actually considering teaching abroad as you do, some people you meet do contract work abroad like 6 months out of the year, save up a brick and just come back here and relax for awhile until they want to return to work.

To touch on this again I meant foreigners accepting contract work in developed nations, there are ALOT of filipinos who work and stay abroad (also known as OFW's) who are usually working for a agency which takes a large portion of there wages and some of which are victimized (particularly in places like Saudi Arabia etc...) So the money some of them do make can seem to be very little to us but to the poor here even a few hundred dollars a month can be significant to them. I do know of some OFW's who have done very well working directly for major companies (no shadey agency antics) in well developed countries where there are more regulations protecting workers but these are usually highly skilled positions and are far from the norm.

I think even though these are technically OFW's people generally don't call them OFW's if they're say an architect, software developer, or executive, as OFW tends to be associated with maids/drivers/other low end jobs.

I wanna say that was a good read, FightRight. Interesting and I find it a bit sad that your real family is so judgmental. I'm happy you're with people that care.


In other news,
I'm interested in getting live coaching in online cashgames. I'm a sng/mtter and would for convenience love to become decently profitable in NL 6max (or FR). I am currently very unsure of my abilities in these games, so looking to get some input live - I can come to your place for some sessions, strategy talk, etc. I have CR/Stox/bluefire videos etc but still would like some more personal follow-up
Payment - to your desire, I don't know much about it, whatever is reasonable - note I'm not loaded so I can't compensate huge hourlys (I'm not very low, but somehow spent $6k in 4weeks or something on I DONT ***** KNOW WHAT ). Either that, in php or starsmoney, free beers or make a x% of profits over y10000 hands.
PM if interested. We'd start out at 50NL so ideally you're decent levels above that.

There are a few International schools here so teaching is always an option. Although I think you have to be qualified in the curriculum they teach.

Or you could be an expensive English tutor.

The only poorly paid job that I can think of would be Dive related. If you are a Divemaster or Instructor you should be able to get a job. You would be lucky to make $500 a month but you get to dive for free.

From what I have read here it seems ther arnt really any great beaches around the Manila area. How is Cebu for beachs? I know it's more touristy but is there sandy beaches or just coral and diving? I wanna move out here but want a place pretty close to a nice sandy beach for maybe around 600-800 usd a month for long term. 1br or studio is fine and obv Internet, but I don't mass table. I also haven't heard too much talk about the satalite Internet cards for laptops, do they not work in the Philippines?

Any info would be great, btw I'm not planning on just moving out there right away I will likley fly out for about two weeks and explore to fiqure out what I would like.

Cebu beaches are artificial. That said, I believe Shangri La Cebu is still pretty nice. The best beaches close to Manila are in Batangas, about 2 hours away. You could also live in Boracay, or you could just live in Manila and just take weekend trips to the beaches (Batangas, Palawan, Boracay).

Mactan Island beaches are artifical, and I think you have to pay to use the beach. If you are going on weekend trips, you can also try the Bicol area and wakeboarding in CWC(Naga).

Im using a satellite card (smart bro) right now to grind away. Its quality depends on the quality of signal + time of day.

Beaches- In Mindoro you have the White Beach area. On the surface it looks a bit grimy and intimidating but its actually a fun day or night out. A short walk away there is a really nice and quiet beach at Talipanan.

For $600-800 a month you would be able to get a 3-4 bed house with Swimming pool in Mindoro

Oh regarding those usb modems, you really have to do your research. They all advertise national coverage but in fact some are great in some areas but terrible in others (for instance, globe was great in davao but sun barely worked, while in makati sun was generally the best). Tbh given that the price of the service is so low (sun mobile broadband is about $15/month), it might be worthwhile to have two or even all of the services if you'll travel around a bit.