WOW, that would get you a superb apartment in most cities in Sweden with everything prepaid and a night life better than the most. I never thought of my country as being cheap to survive in, now I understand why so many indians come to study here lol.

^
Yes it is true that when a girl has a perceived rich BF then family thinks that their lottery ticket finally hit, and obviously I cannot relate to the amount of pressure and expectations some of these girls have from their family. And I cannot relate to how it's like being pushed into going abroad and work as a prostitute for the family. I'm sure it's a ******ed heavy burden.

Ex was pretty much cast out after a while from her family, I told her at once "Hey your ATM is over there (pointing at older expat). If you wanna hang with me, never ever ask me anything. Especially for your family."
That was apparently fine but some of these girls think you might fall in love over time and snapdonate your life savings, they just won't give up.

To go off-tangent from girls to food, while I'm not the biggest fan ever of local food, you can't just eat at any random local restaurant and expect it to do Filipino food justice. I would say you should eat at a better place like Cafe Juanita, Abe, or Fely J's and then if you still don't like it that's quite fair.

btw, aren't the Philippine people with Chinese (and Spanish?) blood usually middle to upper class? Why not just put "speaks Chinese" under your dating profile online? That might weed out quite a few, and it's hard to fake obviously.

i know you need a vpn to watch netflix on the comp, does anyone know if netflix works on ps3 or xbox without having a vpn?

All the same mate in SEA, the only difference in Phils is because they speak reasonable English in many cases we understand them and their scams more. This is not my quote but that of many of my friends that have been there and done it over and over.

The secret is to remove them from direct day to day contact with their family so the pressure on them is not so extreme. I know 3 that have taken phils girls to Thailand and they seem to be doing pretty well so far..........

On the topic of food has anyone eaten at Robot on Makati Avenue? Had some drinks in there a few weeks ago and it the place was awesome. Wondering if its worth heading there to eat?

I haven't been there personally but I spoke with some friends when I was about to get tickets for another concert. They said that General Admission is pure ****, you need a binoculars to see anything. That almost goes for upper boxes as well, the arena is big, old and in need for major renovations.
So Lower boxes are absolute minimum but then you risk getting seats far on the sides unless you go with 200 & 201.

kudos to you if you have internet good enough for this

5mbps pldt is enough to stream netflix.

TY L4F. That helps I'm gonna get the more expensive ones if I go then.

Looking for a 2nd hand laptop. Anyone wanna sell their old one, needs to function decently without crashes and run poker software that's all.
Bought a p8k laptop 6 months ago at MarketMarket, but was pretty ******ed and value next to nothing. Anyone know about this stuff lmk. Or really cheap new laptops, like previous generation(s). It's just for poker and downloading. Would want to try before buy. Uncomfortable using online ads for obvious trust issue reasons. Cheers.

I could be wrong here but my standard play would be to purchase the cheapest entrance ticket and then bribe my way into the ideal area once inside. Then you get a better feel for where you want to be once inside with stage location, crowds etc.

Pros & cons having a poker house / apartment in davao =) ?

Not been but I've heard from many that its pretty nice. Apparently the Mayor has done a Rudy Guliani with crime and its pretty safe there too. I plan to go at some point.

Not big for nightlife/degen stuff though.

Alright guys randomly decided to come to Manila today.Will be here for a few days. If anyones up for drinking or whatever hit me up. I've heard there is beer pong and table tennis at Encore tonight so might go over to that if anyone wants to join.

I'm heading out now but if anyone wants to join new number is 09475651355 (or if anyone wants to degen it up anywhere else my mind is easily swayed)

Gonna be back in Manila around the 7th-8th if anyone wants to hit some slut bars pm me.

How long u gonna be there Pooter?

beerpong/karaoke bar at cable car bar 822 pasay. Filled with 18yr olds expats in first/second year of college. Been twice.. once was hella fun, other time was 80:20 guy/girl. KTVs next door though

philippine airlines doing a good deal at the moment called fly asia. You buy a ticket for $270 usd and it allows you great discount on return flights around asia if you fly from philippines. even goes to USA.

touching down in Cebu in 15 hours... yay for me!

I'm sorting my bookmarks and I figured I'd share some that I think would be helpful for people living here:

Skyscrapercity Philippines: Forum for discussing skyscrapers in the Philippines - great for figuring out where you want to live (there's a thread for almost every condo building in the Philippines). This is where I learned how to buy condos. Mostly in English

PhilMUG: Forum discussing Apple stuff but good food/travel info, broadband internet info, etc. This is where I learned where to buy my glasses, jeans, wagyu steaks, etc. Has an online marketplace on which I've bought/sold countless things. Mostly in English

Pinoyexchange: Forum discussing everything. Loads of good food/travel info. This is where I found my dentist, clinic, etc. Has a marketplace. Mostly in Tagalog

Femalenetwork: Like pinoyexchange but female-related topics. This is where I found my dermatologist and learned where to buy a sewing machine and furniture. Has a marketplace. Mostly in Tagalog

MTC: Forum discussing nightlife in Manila... I'll just leave it at that. Surprisingly also a great resource for food/travel. Mostly in Tagalog

Pokermanila: Forum discussing the local poker scene. Mostly in Tagalog

Pinoyphotography and DPP: Forums discussing photography, great resources if you're into photography. Has a marketplace for photo equipment.

PinoyDVD: Forum/marketplace for DVDs/Blurays and TV related stuff. This is where I bought my big screen TVs.

Pinoyhandyman: Forum for handyman-related stuff. This is where I found someone to give me woodworking lessons.

Couchsurfing Manila: Forum for couchsurfing meetups and get-togethers, I should use this more. Mostly in English

Tipidpc and Tipidcp: Primarily marketplaces for PC and cellphones respectively but good discussions on tech stuff in general. These are go-to sites for buying/selling gadgets. Mostly in Tagalog

Sulit: Online marketplace. I've bought tons of stuff using this site and it's also how I found my current condo.

Olx: Like above, not as good but still worth mentioning.

CashCashPinoy and Ensogo: Like Groupon for the Philippines. I've bought vouchers for Spiral at Sofitel and jiujitsu class. People sometimes sell their vouchers on this Facebook group.

Ourawesomeplanet and Foodiemanila: Food blogs. In English

Chowhound: worldwide foodie site, there are some Manila specific posts like this. English obv

Munchpunch: Like Yelp but not as comprehensive. Food delivery option. In English

Quickdelivery and Delivery.ph: Food delivery sites. In English

Chuvaness: Blog of a rich fashionista Filipina married to the owner of Pepper Lunch. She usually posts rants but sometimes there are gems like this. Mostly in English

CACS: CACS (Center for Asian Culinary Studies) recreational cooking classes.

Mia's car rental: Decent prices for car rentals. Never used this but it could be useful some day.

Roma Enterprise: House keeping. I have an assistant who cleans my place but maybe someone else will find it useful.

Splash Island: website of Splash Island in Laguna. Man I really wanna go there. Soon.

Aqualogic Swim Co: where I got my swim lessons. Highly recommended.

That's it for now.

Hey ppl....

last time i read a little bit about the Phils
and everyone ! says its like suicide wear fancy clothes and watches and so on...

so my question...is it really very dangerous wear armani, gucci, prada, expensive watches and so on ?
thought about come to phils 3 months or so with my wife....but seems phils is not for me
?

thanks for the links paul, great info, ive been trying to get an account on philmug for over a week and it always gives me

"Registration denied, this forum runs an active policy of not allowing spammers. Please contact us via the "Contact Us" page link if you believe this is in error"

and i have sent 4 emails to their contact us page already, idk whats up with that sites registration.

It depends. If you drive around or hire Avis/Nissan/etc. chauffeured rental cars to go everywhere, live in an upscale area, and don't hang out in shady places it's fine. Tons of locals/expats have money and have fancy clothes. On the other hand if you take taxis off the street everywhere and walk around red light districts at night it might not be such a good idea. Also, regarding Paul's last post, even in the tagalog forums you can post any questions in English and ask that the reply be in English and that will generally work.

Anyone have any hotel recommendations for Boracay. Likely want to be near the nightlife activities. Not overly concerned with cost, but its of course can be taken into account. Also, If anyone wants to trade USD/BoA for my Peso's I would likely be interested. I am leaving to go back to the States on August 18th and will have around ~250k in pesos (Might have more or less depending on how some live poker goes)