A day over two full weeks in Manila and the only thing i miss about Thailand is cheap fresh chicken breast. (but i only been in two supermarkets so far)

Lucky you. I did not quite like Manila when I visited (going on a trip from Thailand).

Even so, I am thinking about going to Philippines again.

Anyone knows/can make an informed guess on how tough/soft the field of AAPT Cebu main event is going to be? How was it last year? Is there a lot of local degens in the field? I guess the buy-in is too high for the common gamblers to play...

Well, I'm pretty sure there are some higher level professional players that play in it, especially some of the Asian ones (Johnny Chan, some of the Trans, etc.) so right there, that makes the field a bit less soft.

I'm assuming decent grinders from other areas of Asia would come as well.

Still, will definitely be softer then equivilant level tournaments in the west.

An ACR card is pretty simple to aquire. When you go to immigration to apply for a visa just get one. Im not sure about the cost but they are under $100 I think. Bank account is then pretty easy.

Then with a bank account you should be able to set up something to get your Utility bill.

Airphil express?

You might want to look at the super ferry website. Quite a few overnight locations get yourself a stateroom then go and drink Red Horse and sing videoke with the locals.

$50 equivalent in Pesos.

poot can u just not find cheap chicken breasts or none at all?

with ACR card does that give you the extension for 59 days as well? or is it $100 on top of the normal amount u have to pay?

If I recall the ACR cost would be on top of the visa extension, after 6 months here you will be forced for an ACR card so if you know you will be here more than 6 months then you might as well get it now.

After the first 59 days, you have to extend your visa again and get an ACR card for $50. The total cost was something like P8500.

Hey guys I just got into Cebu this last week. Not sure how big the 2+2 community is here but if there are any regular meet ups let me know.

I'm also going to be putting together an entrepreneur/poker house. Since black Friday I've pretty much been moving away from poker and into "lifestyle businesses" and there is a decent size community of location independent entrepreneurs here in the PI.

I've put it out to my mastermind group and as there are a lot of similarities between the poker world and lifestyle entrepreneurs I thought I would open it up to 2p2 also.

Hey Natewc are you playing live or online?

I'm here in Cebu as well. Been here since December.

@ArtofWar, I haven't really played lately...just been working on my online businesses. When I do play I play pretty much only online though.

I got together with Paul and Spets last night, pretty cool guys. Had dinner and then hit up Mango Square, it was a good time.

Hey guys If anyone is looking for a spot in a very nice poker house in Cebu check out here

This video with the "20 reasons why I dislike the Philippines" is a bit
negative :-) but everything with the exception about the good looking ladyboys is true. enjoy its really fun to watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETbsyFzPOMc

He didn´t even mentioned the real problems of the Philippines:

The high corruption, the crime rate, the extremly bad education system, the lack of even the remotest social security for more than 90% of the people and so on...

The video is not longer available :-(.

I guess he got a lot of negative feedback from Filipinos. Anyway this is probably the same video :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbjDK...&feature=share

Only watched the first 5 minutes and it's pretty clear that the guy is still pretty naive (or just dumb) even after 3.5 years of living there.

I'm out of town right now but when I get back I'll type up my final thoughts on Cebu as a city.

I could make a better video titled;

101 reasons i dislike the united kingdom.

Dam a lot hate floating round this whole travel forum right now.

I thought the video was funny.

Anyway, how does the Philippines compare to Thailand, and specifically Pattaya, if you're a degenerate gambler, borderline alcoholic and fan of hookers?

If I want the "Pattaya experience" where should I go? Do I have some options? Anywhere that is viable for a longterm stay? And yes, I consider Pattaya a very viable/perfect city for a longterm stay so that should give you some insight into my mindset :P

Stay in pattaya.

Naive and dumb both seem extreme, since everything he points out is stuff that actually exists.

Thing is, most of the things he points out, will be just as bad, and sometimes even worse, in pretty much any 3rd world country, so he'd be better off calling his video

20 reasons why I hate the 3rd world.


Furthermore, I can say to him, and anyone else that has been to Cebu, but never Manila, if you hate those things about Cebu NEVER EVER go to Manila, pretty much everything he mentions happening in Cubu, happens in Manila but on steriods, to a much more extreme level.



What amused me the most what the construction site he flashed to near Ayala.

The video appears to have been uploaded earlier this month, I haven't been in Cebu in over 1 1/2 years now, and it literally looks like no work has been done on that construction site whatesoever in that time, it looks like it haven't even been touched in that time. So I guess he has a point there, that it's never going to get finished.

I think he was trying to be a bit funny in that video but much of the stuff he mentions is small stuff. I really don't think any of those things are a deal breaker. Actually its all true but I have learned to embrace those things. It adds character to the place.

As far as Pattaya or the Phils well the Phils has live poker and women/hookers that actually fall in love. You can speak english to them and they back to you. They are dying to leave the country (mostly) and you are a ticket out. You can (for good or unfortunately for some, bad) leverage this day in and day out. I remember years ago in Cebu meeting some girl and her brother at Osmena from Philipina Heart (now Cupid). The the girl could barely speak english and the brother was like "ok we can eat later now let's go meet her mother". I was like "really"? I bailed so quickly. She never told me she was bringing company! LOL

Thailand has everything else, food entertainment and an all round better infrastructure. However the females and live poker kind of won me over to the Phils recently (last 3 years)...

can confirm nate and paul are cool guys. If anyone wants to meet up with us as well pm me ur number or something we might head to mango square or somewhere like that.

by the way i have a question, im spending way too much on txting people (girls mostly lol). Right now im with smart buddy, what should I get? chikka or something?

Lets organize some big party meeting in Cebu. We are 3 poker houses we know each other and we go out often together.

i use smart and texting is 1php/message. u really text so much?