Sun is just for metro Manila, globe and smart are both national. These are just good as a back up IMO.

What sort of pay do english teachers (CELTA, 2 years experience) make at non international schools?

Not very much....Around $400-$500 a month at a guess

Sun gets some kind of signal nationally, it just pretty much sucks.

Anyone know a decent cheap mobile phone/brand? Unfortunately I lost mine today and I don't think I'll carry an expensive phone around anymore.

Moved to Two Serendra today and I'm very impressed with Bonifacio High Street and its surroundings. Just strolling down for the first time brought a huge smile on my face. So much stuff, restaurants, whatever. And wtf@market market. Decent size Bye Salcedo Village - would not recommend.

Get the cheap cheap nokia that has a Flashlight on the top. Costs about 1300 without a Sim but they might be cheaper in Manila.

For phones, www.tipidcp.com or one of the other Phil classifieds sites.

Been in Manila almost two years now. I should do a big write-up.

Thanks that helps.

For those hunting apartments for rent online. Approved/legit brokers/companies/sites:

www.housinginteractive.com - Diverse selection in a lot of locations and other cities, from studios to houses. Run by a Danish founder for 7 years, decent guy - I've hung out with him. Very good service. Friendly agents.

www.pearlslettingagency.com - What makes these stand out are relatively good prices for both short-term and longterm. The agents that helped me out were great. Flexible and knowledgeable about what's available and when.

www.sulit.com.ph - A ton of private ads in tons of locations. Beware that some may not be legit. Great for getting a good idea on "list prices" of the standard&location you're looking for.

Beware of shady brokers. If they give you a bad or suspicious feeling - like they're trying to "get" something from you, ask irrelevant questions and such - avoid them like the pest even if they might seemingly offer a good deal.

go for it man, you guys def had some interesting discussions earlier itt with alot of good info so I would def be interested in reading it.

yeah, throw in a few pics if you can

Okay here we go. At first I thought I'd just write a few paragraphs about life here, then I realized there's way too much to write about, so I'll just break it down into different aspects.

Poverty, Safety, Crime
One thing I noticed when I arrived was that there's a lot of poverty here in the Philippines. I'm from NYC though, and not from the best neighborhood, so this wasn't anything new to me. But I can understand how it might be somewhat of a culture shock for someone who isn't so used to poverty.

I know a lot of people come here, they see beggars, homeless people, guards in front of banks holding shotguns, and they think it's a dangerous city. My opinion is that if you use common sense*, the Philippines is extremely safe. I feel safer where I live than back home.

*Don't carry lots of money, don't flash money, don't wear expensive jewelry, ignore anyone who tries to talk to you on the street, research where you're going, stay out of trouble areas, stay in well-lit open areas, etc. and you'll be fine 99% of the time.

Random tip: If you ever go to Divisoria/Quiapo (a trouble area), be careful as there are snatchers there. Here is a Youtube video of them in action. People on jeepneys are talking on cell phones and snatchers are grabbing their phones from behind and running.

The Visa Issue
I get the 21-day tourist visa waiver each time I enter the country, then I extend as needed. I think over time, it has cost ~$40-50 per month to stay here, which has been very reasonable.

Rockwell Center
This is where I live:









I wrote in a previous post about why I love it here, but basically for $650 per month I live in one of the most exclusive apartment complexes in the country. I've seen some famous people around here like the Aquino family, Ding Dong Dantes and Raymond Gutierrez (the US equivalents would be the Clintons, Brad Pitt, and Ryan Seacrest).

Everything I need is here (mall across the street with supermarket, restaurants, stores, etc.) and if I didn't want to leave the area I wouldn't have to.

For comparison purposes, here is a typical Manila street:



TV
I have SkyCable and it's decent. Almost all the 70+ channels I have are in English. I don't watch much TV but when I do, I watch: HBO, Showtime, Discovery Channel, Nat Geo, CNN, Myx (music), Channel V (music). The Balls Channel shows UFC events for free, which is awesome since it's like $40 in value per event. The one thing I hate about the TV here is ESPN SportsCenter Asia. It sucks compared to SportsCenter USA.

Internet
I have SkyBroadband and it's been excellent in my recent experience. When I first moved in, it was great, but then it got worse as Sky got more subscribers. Then after Ondoy hit, it became good again. It's good now. Very reliable (can't remember the last time I've been disconnected due to internet), good speeds, no complaints at the moment. I will probably get PLDT as well when I move into my next place and use it as a backup.

Others have had trouble with Sky, but I don't know why it works for me and not them.

Stuff to do
Metro Manila is a major metropolitan area with not a lot of nature and it isn't very touristy. But there's tons of stuff for residents to do in the city:

Restaurants
Shopping
Nightlife (clubs, bars, lounges, wine bars, karaoke, prostitutes, strip clubs, shows, etc.)
Concerts (Usher, Justin Timberlake, John Mayer, Rihanna, etc.)
Spectating cockfights, boxing matches
Go karting
Laser tag
Shooting range
Sports: Basketball, tennis, golf, swimming, BJJ/MMA, even surfing
Live poker
Movies (P185/$4 for a movie)
Games at Timezone
Billiards
Ice skating
Cooking classes
Massages
etc.

Travel
One of the best things about living here is its proximity to other Asian countries I've always wanted to visit. I've been to Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Later this month I'm going to Indonesia.

There are also a lot of beautiful places to visit in the Philippines.


Banaue - Rice Terraces


Bohol - Chocolate Hills



Boracay


Palawan


Camiguin

And countless other places.

My personal favorite vacation was in Ozamiz where I went swimming with dolphins.



There you can swim with and feed dolphins (these are not my pics btw).

Here's what I want to do next:

Waterfall jump


White water rafting in Cagayan De Oro.

Okay, that's it for now. I'll finish my write-up another day. Still a lot more to talk about.

Wd paul, but I would recommend everyone to stay away from ice-skating I tried it on Tuesday and today(Sunday) is the first day I can walk semi-normal after landing on both knees on the ice in Mall of Asia. Those teeth on the figure skate blades are dangerous!!

Cool stuff we need more of that. I assume Paul, you sit on tons and tons of experience from traveling and that's very valuable. Invaluable to some, if they listen which is hard in my own experience - I've ran into some stupid **** just to go read about the exact same things happening to others earlier in this thread

BTW I wanna jump from a plane. With at least a working..umbrella. So if some people stumble upon a good deal for skydiving/similar or even courses that are reasonable, let me know.

cool post and keep it going Paul B (or if any of you other guys wanna chime in go for it), some area's Id like to hear from you about are massage places, what area's of manila you think are still good for finding chicks (this has been mentioned before but any incite you can offer to how things have changed or better places than like LA cafe or what your guys opinions of some of these places are or your fav spots to check out) degencery activities of all sorts like casino's and how the games are besides poker which has been covered extensively but do you guys know if they have dice, blackjack, baccarat etc... + how they are diff from the states, betting on cockfights (if you got into that I used to do it in the states) how you have dealt with the girls and some of the locals.

Things are pretty quiet out here for me so I'm always overwhelmed when I land in Manila so it would be cool if any of you guys got some trip reports or something and some cool spots to check out down there.

that's crazy cheap. but It was in 2008. How outdated is it?

I'll chip in with some Manila bars I frequent when I'm there

Howzat- Ex-pat sports bar. Reasonably priced drink and decent food. Happy hour till 8pm and between 5-8pm 300p all you can drink SML, SMB or local spirits & mixers. Good as a pre booze spot before hitting up the girly bars on Burgos.

Hard Rock Cafe- Decent night out, Have a live band every night who are usually pretty good. Not that you have to do much to impress girls here but taking them to the hard rock ticks some boxes.

Havana's- Inside Greenbelt its a great place during the day to knock back mojitos and people watch. At night it greats pretty rammed and a place for picking up freelancers.

Tabu- pretty sweet spot, restaurant /cocktail lounge, Starts picking up around midnight pretty fancy crowd and relatively cheap, Cocktails were about 180p each

Amazonia- Only popped in briefly, live band but the waitresses wear the best uniform in the world.

La Cafe- Place is crazy, wall to wall packed full of freelancers. You can be talking to one and other girls are still coming up to molest you. Totally full on. When I went me and a friend got a bottle of JD for 2400p but have to buy mixers.

All those are cool places, only one I haven't been to is Tabu, where is this place located?

Some other places worth checking out too:

Cowboy Grill - Ermita area
I believe this is the largest of the cowboy grills, there are several of them, they have pretty good food, fairly cheap drinks and usually a very good live band. Mostly Filipinio crowd there and a good place to pick up regular girls, don't think there are many freelancers there.

Hobbit House
Funny place to check out, the one I've been to is in Del Pilar Street in Ermita, not far from LA Cafe. All the waiters are little people/dwarfs, and they are really cool. Usually a live band playing, often acustic guitar, relaxed and nice atmosphere.

The Fort - Lots of places, I believe the biggest one is Encoure now, used to be called Embassy?

Bedrock in Adriatico Square Malate
Mostly Filipino crowd, good live music though and I really enjoy the Mexican food there. There are also lots of other bars and night clubs around Adriatico square, most are pretty cool.

For playing pool 1 Side is a great place, when I was there last time many of the famous Filipino pool players you see on TV were playing there for big money. Still you can rent your own table at 200-300/hour or something and play in the same place. Another cheaper pool hall called Rolling Stones is also near by.

Ozamiz looks cool, that part of mindanoa safe? i take it is is cause u been there. i'm doing a trip island hopping in august probably, dolphins there that time of year?

fanapathy, i might be up for doing a bit of coaching, not a lot tho pm me. live in alabang.

also off note, i've got some pedigree english bulldog puppies i'm selling next week if anyones interested. only female left, 50k each.

think i'm gonna play that fpt 10k on the 25th, anyone know what time it starts?

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Yo I was there yesterday and for those wanting to buy in in the FPT - you can buy tickets cheaper from other players. Just ask some of the regs if they have extras - or if they know someone that do.

I got mine from a dude for 8k, surely you can get cheaper than that if u bargain properly.

And ****ing hell I'm so tilted because I now have too many crushes there and can't think straight, ugh. Why did I even come to this country wtf falling in lust with everone **** it massive tilt they are too nice why can't they just be *******s and problem solved :S

I tried using both a Sun stick and a Smart Bro. They were both crap. Barely worked, could not even play with them. Had nothing to do with my computer, probably had a lot to do with my apartment building or my specific apartment.

Location is the major factor in signal strength or failure. Time of day (congestion) has some effect too. Sometimes it is actually a problem with the modem.

A few years ago I would play on a dial-up modem (phone line) using prepaid cards and it would drop connection sometimes but it was at micro micro stakes so I didn't tilt much because of it.

To be fair when I went to Sun the very first time they actually told me that the signal wasn't that great in Rockwell and showed me a map of how it has no access in certain parts of Rockwell. Everywhere else I tried it in Makati it was pretty good. Sky was awful though no doubt, and the smart usb stick was fairly bad as well.

Ok, so back in 1st world now wtf am in Chicago,,, looking for apartments pretty much a terrible experience all around. like i've been sleeping on floors and couches now for like 3 weeks ****ing sucks. found a sick ass place today in the ghetto, sick as ****. it's a 3BR and it's only $1600 because it's in the ghetto and my friend is hesitant because it's out of his budget wtf? it would be like 475$ for him / month. Why the **** are all my friends just graduating from college and super busto?

Also, paul alredy did TR for Manila which was informative and awesome, etc etc. In case anybody was thinking of living in Chicago, my TR is contained below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDpdxSbvzSg

How ghetto? what neighborhood?