Just a little advice. Stay away from agents(especially Anne Matias) operating in Lafayette in Eastwood, they will steal as much of your money as possible when you move out with bogus charges.

Wow I almost rented there, ty for info. Don't remember the name of the agent but.
They were very eager to rent out to me - which tells me they have problems getting clients.

Still haven't heard on my ****ing security deposit (that's 2k US probably I'll never see again - ****ing pisses me off so hard).

The place we saw was in Bridgeport. Andrew wants to live in Bridgeport. It's not a black neighborhood, it's historically Irish (white) but now it's like 1/3 white, 1/3 asian, 1/3 latino. But it's on the S.Side. It's raw for sure. It's really big like 2x HP, but I'd bet money for sure that during the Spring and Summer months, somebody get's 187 there on a weekly basis.

This place was sick though. Pure gentrification. It's like nestled between two crack dens is this ****ing 4 story , 4 unit condo bldg, just amazing sick as hell honestly - the place we saw was like guaranteed get you laid by a dumb girl if she saw that place - finish was sick, bamboo floors, big windows, marble island in kitchen, master bedroom with private bathroom including steam shower and jakoozy, balcony, FUNCTIoNING fire place, new stainless steal appliances, in unit laundry, 11ft. ceilings, etc etc. And it's 3 bedroom for $1600. But my brah can't afford to pay 475$/month to live there wtf?

Update on Malate, actually 2 days old, but LA Cafe was closed down by the police, according to rumors about 200 girls arrested. And if you like Malate, check out Adriatico Towers just over Robinson's mall, I just moved in there 35k with a 15k deposit, 1 bed room corner apartment and looks pretty cool fully furnished, even a sleeping couch for guests, outdoor swimming pool on sixth floor and gym and just on top of the mall with hundreds of restaurants and shops. It's my favorite area of Manila, but know many people here don't like it. Drop me a pm if you want number to the agent I went through, he has more apartments here I believe.

lol worthy for sure, they forgot to pay there "rent" I can only assume.

Part 2

Food:
People in the past have said the food here sucks, but I strongly disagree. I think there are a lot of great places to eat in Metro Manila, including fine dining restaurants. Anyhow, here's a list of my favorite places to eat. I should also add that the Korean food here is excellent, the Philippines is probably the best place for Korean food outside of Korea due to all the Koreans here.

I know Alex disagrees with this but imo the late-night delivery options here (and delivery in general) are excellent. I can think of ~8 places that deliver 24/7 and that's like ~8 more places than I had back home.

I'd say my biggest gripe with the food here is that there's no decent pizza. Then again, I am from NYC and have been spoiled by excellent pizza all my life.

Other than that, I've been able to find everything that I want: burgers, steaks, sushi, Korean food, Chinese, Vietnamese, degustation, etc. As an added bonus, there are tropical fruits here that are hard to get back in the US: lychee, rambutan, custard apple, and my personal favorite..


Mangosteen

English:
I'd say, in all of Manila, about:
~95% speak and understand beginner English
~50% speak and understand intermediate English
~15% speak and understand advanced English

More or less depending on the area. English is taught from elementary school through college, and while the level of English here is nothing like in America, it's definitely higher than every other country in Asia (I would put money on it too). This should be a given but sometimes it's necessary to "baby talk" (use simple words and speak slowly), which after a while is a breeze.

Tagalog:
The main language in Manila. Not necessary to learn due to Filipinos being able to speak English but I've learned a bit and I can say it's been worth it. It's helped me in every way, from getting discounts to getting girls. I would 100% recommend learning at least the very basics for anyone who plans to live here. For English speakers it's very easy to read and write since it uses the roman alphabet, and a lot of English words are used in Tagalog.

Slightly off topic, there are some English phrases that Filipinos use that I find amusing. For example, the term "nosebleed" describes when someone is having difficulty with something, usually with English. "Pogi points" is another one that I like.

Girls:
Probably my favorite part about living here. I like Asians almost exclusively and basically everyone is Asian here.

To get straight to the point, since I've been here, I've been with more girls than I could have imagined. I haven't counted exactly how many but I would have to imagine it's approaching 100, although many (probably around 30-40) I paid for their companionship and not all have been here in the Philippines. With a couple of exceptions, it's been awesome so far.

Slightly off topic again, I think the best looking girls here are the ones who have or look like they have mixed blood (half Filipino mixed with Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, etc.)

Some examples of I'm talking about:


Filipino but I would guess she has some Spanish blood in her.


1/2 Filipino, 1/4 Korean, 1/4 Chinese = hawt imo.

Anyhow, pretty tired of writing. Part 3 to come soon.

+1 to this I wouldn't say the food here sucks at all, the problem is your def not going to be getting some western foods at the same level as you would at home, there are a few specialty restaurants but its not so common and overall won't be as good as where your from. Philippines is the melting pot of asia with even some spanish culture (tagalog has alot of similar words with spanish) so you can find some excellent asian cuisine here. Probably the best chicken I ever had in my life was right here in Cebu at a local Filipino delicacy barbecue. Some of the seafood is great as well like grilled bangus and some of the squid and soup dishes are very delicious.

The food is so diverse with soooo many different dishes and ways to prepare them that each region and restaurant usually do something different so some people seemed to get turned off right away when they taste a few dishes or eat at a few different places and dont like what they taste but I would advise them to keep looking for good places to eat where the locals go and give it a try because you might find a new favorite.

Is there anyone in particular I should speak to in regards to moving into a poker house somewhere in the Philippines?

Right now, there are none going that I know of - and I've been asking around a fair bit. You could post in the pokerhouse thread but PI isn't the most mainstream destination for those purposes.
There is some interest in starting one. The main issue is that renting houses in almost all cases require a 1 year lease, which is a lot of time to commit to. I for one would love to get one for 3-6months but it's a tough find.
The other issue about getting a house is that you might have to sacrifice living in a great location. However tenants could/should chop car+driver to make up for it.

And also it's a lot of stress driving around looking at houses and apartments, so noone probably want to spend the time and do so. I'm sure there are places you could get in Manila/Cebu/Boracay/Subic/Other decent location? for 6 months, but it requires time and research.

Anyways, LA Cafe is still closed here in Malate and it seems they are taking the 10pm to 5am curfew more seriously here now. This is a curfew for girls who are not working in the area walking alone on the streets. Amazonia seems to be the new LA Cafe now, about a block away, with worse live bands and more expensive drinks.

I'm still trying to find a good wireless broadband that works at 24th floor and up, for some reason my SUN broadband won't work well up there. Any tips? I live on top of robinson's shopping mall in Ermita/Malate.

Did you bump into this girl again?

im down for organising a poker house, i've met up with fanapathy and we both agree that theres too many distractions here and we could use a little help staying focused. how long are you planning on staying?

and if anyone else is interested in starting a poker house here in manila theres 4/5 bedroom condos in some places here.

I am interested but I am poor.

...

Hi Paul,

great info and also helpful even for me as a resident!

I have 2 questions:

1. Where can I find a nice pool (at least 25m long) in the Makati/Taguig area? I don't want to pay more than 250 Pesos entry fee. I know that some hotels allow non-guest to use their pool for a fee but I have no specific info.

2. Which are your favorite restaurants in Fort Bonifacio and Makati (I am looking for Asian food: Thai, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese).

Thank again and I am looking forward for part 3...

Cheers,
slimbob (living in Makati since 2008)

Cool that there's interest, I'm def down for something around 3-5ppl total but might be signing a 6monther here in serendra today. Because I'm absolutely in love with the location! I might forward it tho.
Yeah getting around to playing online is ******ed, I was literally playing more in freakin Sahara a year ago than this

gumaaa - I don't know about your version of poor but whatever condo we'd be getting probably wouldn't be the most expensive in town, decent+ is a must tho imo. And shipping some maids etc

Lemme know if u know/get some decent interest CMR, would def help out with viewings and arrangements. PS Burgos st is el oh el

Hey guys,

I am gonna be coming to the phillipines next week as part of my mini expedition around SE Asia and have a few questions.

Someone mentioned issues with the amount of money you can withdraw at the ATMs. What is the maximum you can withdraw in a day? I wanna play poker for a few days so should i start stockpiling cash before i get there?

The best cardrooms/casinos? Will only be playing US$1/2 or 2/4 equivalent (PHP100/PHP200?)

Should i be worried about security etc at the cardrooms if i win a lot? Do you guys feel comfortable carrying lots of cash around?

Other places I should visit apart from manila other than the obvious places?

Can anyone recommend a relatively cheap central ($20 a night) hotel/guesthouse?
Any other bar/club/restaurant recommendations?

Im sure a lot of these have already been answered in this thread but i have limited access to the internet at the moment so don't have time to read read it all. Have already got some really useful information from what i've skimmed through so far.

Also, if any of you guys living out there would be up for showing me around the bar/club scene when i get there PM me. I find its always better to go out with people who actually live there when it comes to clubs etc. Ill be more than happy to buy you a few drinks for your troubles and am up for some crazy drunken bull**** as i have been lounging around on beaches for the last 10 days or so. I'm most probably arriving manila on the 14th.

Thanks,

Just make sure you plan your trip to Manila ahead. It can be a fun place if you plan it right but a lot of people end up hating it because they stay in Ermita or something like that, which is an acquired taste to say the least.

I'll throw in some cents as well

This is card/bank dependant. If you have an unknown bank, you might encounter problems. I could only withdraw p10K at a time from each bank, and only 2-3 bank-atms were working. So at times when I needed larger sums it was pretty bad running around 20 different ATMs etc, avoid that, also because the fees really add up. It's tough to get more than 30-50K in a day.

This depends a little on your motive. If you want the best games go to hyatt/rw - they don't run all the time though. If you want the best experience, fun, and hang out with poker players - go to Metro.

Not really any problems. If someone asks, don't tell them how much you won. If you're returning to the same place later, make a deposit account so you don't have to carry large sums around all the time. I've never felt even remotely close whatsoever to a potential mugging btw.

However in general I would say avoid talking about money and how wealthy you are, especially when people start digging

For nightclubs, Encore, Icon, Distillery are supposed to be the best.

Jer.sey716 defies any analysis wtf

dude just blows my mind don't understand how it works like that

http://www.pokertableratings.com/sta...arch/jersey716

Thanks for the responses guys. Incredibly useful and much appreciated.

Yo what's up, me Paul B and probably some others are going to Aubergine for dinner tonight, then whatever later It's on 32nd&5th in Fort and a top notch resto so might be expensive for PI standards.

If you wanna join txt me 9065503311 or meet up at 7ish

Crazy weather last night or what

I found a pretty awesome video blog on youtube of some guy literally blogging his trip to angeles city almost day for day, he ends up living there for a few months and is pretty funny sometimes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGMiP...eature=related

it goes up to like 80 days and can be very hilarious if you been here for an extended period of time you can probably relate to the situations that come up.

A general question:

Can any of you younger western guys (45-ish and younger), who are living in the Philippines, see yourselves staying long term and putting down roots?

Or do you think this is just a phase of life, and that you will eventually return home?

The reason I use the cut-off age is to eliminate people who are considering the Philippines with a heavy emphasis on retirement age financial planning, rather than for pure lifestyle and enjoyment purposes.

But all are welcome to respond.