Wild Times in Metro Cebu

When Beth, Gaigai and I got back to metro Cebu, we had a taxi take us from the bus to the Kiwi Lodge, where I spent my previous 3 nights. They were all booked up, though, so one of their employees took us to another place called the Ringtop, but it was a little pricy for our tastes (p1600/night, or about $32). So Gaigai had a taxi take us to the Metro Park Hotel, where we got a room for p1100. Our first order of business was to go buy some provisions, including a few bags of peanuts, a bunch of Nescafe 3-in-1 instant coffee, and basically anything other odds and ends that the girls needed or wanted. After I took a shower (per their recommendations), we headed out to a place called the Sunflower Club, a full-blown dance club where you could also have dinner. I ordered some hot wings, which came with one of the tastiest dipping sauces I've ever tried. The girls claimed to not be hungry yet, so they just ordered some beers and tequila shots, and I had my usual water.

The lighting in the club consisted of disco balls and strobes, and it pretty much drove me crazy as I tried to eat my dinner. There was a live band playing on stage, one of those deals where they play at such a high volume that any time one of my friends says something to me, my reply is always "WHAT?!?". If there were more ladies in the club at the time, I think I would have been having a better time. But seeing as it was a Tuesday night, there were not that many people. It sure did SOUND busy, though. Nonetheless, I still got a few nice pictures of us at our table. The cover charge was p100/ person to get in, and including that, our tab quickly found its way up to p1000 ($20). I made my case to the girls about the fact that I had not been to any kind of bikini bar or strip club yet on the whole trip, and they decided to remedy that.

We got into a taxi and Gaigai told him to take us to wherever they have lots of cute girls who shake it in a guy's face. He suggested the Jaguar club, and away we went. Cover to get into the Jaguar was p200/person, sending warning bells off inside my head of a potentially expensive night. The three of us made our way inside, walking past lots of cute and friendly-looking young ladies. We sat at an empty booth a row back from the stage, and we ordered beers for the girls and my customary iced tea. Gaigai went to talk to the mama-san (the word for the owner or supervisor in this kind of place). When she came back, she said that the price would be p400/hour to have a girl come sit with me at our booth. I thought that this was actually a pretty good value, since I wouldn't be up by the stage tipping girls dancing there with 50s for that amount of time. So I agreed, and when Gaigai asked me to go choose a girl, I told her to just go ahead and surprise me. She liked that idea and promised to select one of the hottest girls there, no worries.

After maybe 5 or 10 minutes, Gaigai returned with a gorgeous chick named Emily, who promptly sat down next to me. For the next couple of hours, Emily and I hung out and talked about all sorts of things, while Beth and Gaigai had a blast enjoying their beers and shots while observing the dancing chicks on stage. It was a new experience for both of them, their first time in a place like that. After spending a couple of hours there, I payed the bill, which included p600 cover charges and p800 for 2 hours with that girl at our booth, for a grand total of about p2500 including drinks and such. We jumped into a taxi and told the driver to drive through McDonald's on the way back to our hotel. We got a bunch of fried chicken and we all ate it when we got back to our room. The girls passed out shortly thereafter, and I jumped online to do some blogging.

The next day we hung out lazily in the room until it got closer to dinner time. We headed out to meet up with Beth's gorgeous friends Angie and Shi at a nice little restaurant where the food is very good and very cheap. We had a great dinner, one of my best on the whole trip, and the whole thing only cost me about p700 or $14, including tip. This place was awesome. I ordered scallops in butter sauce and also some oysters that had been roasted to such perfection that they reminded me of mussels, another one of my favorites. I ordered a coconut as my drink, and after drinking the milk from it with a big straw, it turned into a nice snack. I used a tablespoon to cut big strips of coconut from the inside and it made for a great-tasting dinner option. The girls ordered plenty of rice, barbequed chicken, soups and also sizzling sisig. Sisig is a common Filipino dish consisting of minced pork and liver. It usually looks to me like corned beef hash. It's really good, and I had it several times on the trip. After dinner the five of us went back to the hotel room to hang out. We all had a good time just relaxing and watching a movie on my netbook. We had some Nescafe and peanuts, and the girls also got to do some online stuff. Eventually Angie and Shi had to head home, which made me somewhat sad because those 2 were just awesome to hang out with.

Later that evening we decided to do the same thing as the night before, but at another place. Emily had mentioned the night before that I should try a club called the Arena, so we had a taxi take us there. When we walked up to the door of the Arena, the girls paused at the sign by the door that informed us of cover charge of p200/man and p500/lady. When an employee opened the door for us, I just quipped something about how they must be out of their minds, and we walked back to the taxi stand. I stood there looking fairly annoyed while Gaigai walked back to the door to see if she could rectify the situation. Apparently she did, because they let us in for p200/person, regardless of gender.


So in we went, walking past armies of Filipinas on our way over to sit in an empty booth near the stage. Gaigai went to talk to the mama-san, returning to inform me of the price to have some hot chick hang out with me for a while. It was either p450 or p500 per hour, but I can't remember exactly which. I said to just go for it, pick me out a winner. She came back with a really cute girl named Betty, who was really nice and sweet. We all watched the dancing girls on stage for the next couple of hours, and Betty got to hear my commentary regarding seeing girls dancing but being unable to see their faces due to my crappy eyesight. Honestly, just being able to shoot the breeze with a random girl seems to be a good form of therapy for me. Of course my camera had been flaking out on me lately, so I was unable to get a photo of either Emily or Betty. But they were both beauties for sure, and the experience of hanging out in those more risque clubs there in metro Cebu was definately a favorable one. It is much cheaper to have that kind of night out than it is back in the USA, for sure. Once again, our tab came out to about p2500 or about $50. Gaigai nearly had a meltdown when one of the guards working there mistakenly thought she was one of the girls employed at the club. Wow, was she mad, she really let that guy have it. She also let the mama-san know her feelings on the matter, and we jumped into yet another taxi to head back to the Metro Park. We hit KFC this time, and it's just unbelievable how great fried chicken tastes around 3am ;)

The next day I had to leave for my flight, which was at 12 noon. Gaigai wasn't going to fly back to Ozamis until the following day, so instead of checking out, I just added one more night to the stay so the girls could stay without having to look for another place. I had to trust them to not do anything crazy or stupid while in my room as I was heading back to Manila. I must admit that I was fairly nervous about that, but my nerves were alleved when I arrived in Manila and checked my bank account online. The credit card had only been charged the appropriate amount by the hotel, and the girls hadn't even gone on a room service rampage. There's something to be said about choosing your friends wisely, especially that far from home. I'm looking forward to hanging out with Beth and Gaigai again someday. They were very nice and helped me get around, and I really appreciate their time. Plus, that's the first time I ever had girls take me to strip clubs, which was a great time for all of us.

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Bank machines and earthquakes

As I stood sweating in the hot sun for over an hour waiting for my turn at the lone BDO bank machine in Bogo, I began pondering my experiences with Philippines bank machines. They rarely let you withdraw p10,000, usually only about p5,000 (about $100 US). Some of them are nearly impossible (at least for me) to read, especially ones that are facing directly into the sun. I quickly became a big fan of the BDO machines, because all of them are cool with Visa cards, unlike some other banks there. Some of the machines just seem to be there for no other purpose than to psych me out, leading me on to think I'm about to get some money, only to just come up with some vague error message.

It's especially annoying when you need to withdraw 10-15-20,000 pesos, and you have to keep repeating the p5,000 process over and over. I think that's why the line was so long at that machine in Bogo. Not only is Bogo in need of more machines, but this particular instance was right after an earthquake, so I think most of the people in line had the same idea: Panic and withdraw as much cash as you can, because we just had an earthquake and maybe the apocolypse is near, and they don't take plastic in the apocolypse. I wasn't worried about that, but I just needed to pull out p20,000 because I was on my way to Bantayan Island, where (to my knowledge) there is no bank machine that I can use, and I had to make sure I had plenty of cash for a stay that I didn't yet know the duration of. Of course I had to stand at the machine and make 4 back-to-back transactions, and I couldn't help but wonder if the line would move much faster if each person is allowed to withdraw up to p20,000 at a time.

The aforementioned earthquake hit while Beth and I were in our hotel room, shortly after waking up. Poor Beth was in the shower, and I know it really scared the hell out of her, I was in the regular part of the room, standing at the foot of the bed and packing my bag. The shaking from the earthquake nearly knocked me off of my feet, and I wondered if a bomb had just gone off or if it was just strong gusts of wind that were shaking the building. Then I felt and heard the aftershock, and I knew what had happened. Our room phone rang, and it was the shaky voice of the front desk girl telling me that we had to evacuate because of an earthquake. About 15 minutes later when Beth and I finally made our way past the front desk, the girl was visibly shaken up and her voice was still nervous. Apparently she had a lot to live for. Beth and I had been taking our sweet time finishing our packing process before evacuating, because the last thing I wanted was to have to wait outside the hotel for hours before I could get back into our room to grab our things and check out. We were trying to get on the road to Bantayan, and it would have really sucked if we had to delay it until the next day due to missing the ferry boat from Hagnaya. For the record, the earthquake was indeed nasty enough to crack the window in our comfort room while Beth was showering in there. We told the front desk girl about this, so they wouldn't try and charge me for the damage.




There was some speculation in that long and un-moving line that the earthquake had done some damage to the lines that run to the bank machine, causing the slowly moving line, but I will stick to my theory that everybody was just taking forever trying to get as much cash out as possible because of the panic. The 10 days and nights that we ended up spending on Bantayn cost me the p20,000 I had withdrawn, plus p5,500 that my friend Gaigai spotted me upon checkout at Tristan's Resort. At an exchange rate of about p48/1USD, that's about $500+, not bad for 10 nights' stay at a beach resort and all food, drinks, and fun for the entire stay. I bet that $500 would last about a day in Paris ;)

Here's the kicker regarding bank machines in the Philippines: If there are any fees for their use, I wouldn't know about it. Whenever I log in to check my bank account online, a p5,000 withdrawal always shows up as costing me about $210 US. At an exchange of about 47-48/1, it doesn't sound like much of that money went towards an ATM fee. I was expecting to be getting stuck with an ATM fee of at least $10 each time I use my foreign debit card, but it seemed like there was no need to worry about that. I've read some horror stories of expats getting stuck for exorbitant fees at ATMs in the Phils, but it never happened to me.

One more thing that I would like to point out is that several bank machines there use the word "Current" instead of "Checking". So if you want to withdraw some money from your checking account at one of those machines, just select Current and you should be good to go. I should also point out that my bank in the USA is a credit union, not just one of the big banks that love to nickel-and-dime people every which way they can. Perhaps if you have an account with one of the less-scrupulous banks, then you might be in for some fees. I personally appreciate the fact that I was able to spend more on food and fun instead of just totalling hundreds of dollars worth of fees due to the number of times that I made withdrawals there.

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Bogo City 2 weeks later

My friend Beth and I acquired a new friend during our stay on Bantayan Island, and she decided to join us for our trip back to metro Cebu and reality. We checked out of Tristan's and begrudgingly made our way to the pier to catch the boat back to Hagnaya, the little town where the big ferry boats get to and from in that area. Instead of cramming onto a bus with all of our bags, we opted for a motor trike, which had enough room for the 3 of us and all of our stuff. The ride was perhaps 20 minutes long and cost a total of p150, or about $3. Our trike driver dropped us off at the Nagano Pension House, the same place Beth and I spent our first 2 nights a couple of weeks ago. On our first stay, Beth and I got the biggest and most expensive room they have, a room at the end of the hall with 1 big bed that dominates the room to the extent that we didn't have too much room to maneuver around in terms of floor space. It cost p1200/night. The comfort room was better than usual, including a large bathtub. But the p1000/night room the 3 of us got this most recent time was actually nicer, and it had an even bigger CR, with the same big tub but also more floor area, too.

After dumping our things in our room, I went wandering for a bit to ask about buying a plane ticket. I went up the street to a little stand that sells odds and ends, with four cuties working there. I ended up hanging out with them for a while, they took my picture with their camera and I took theirs with mine. I needed some SMART prepaid phone load, so they hooked me up with p100 worth, and they loaded it into my phone for me, which is always helpful. I was dying of thirst after all the travelling, so I bought a cold Gatorade, but the real treat was the free cup of buko milk and slices they gave me. Buko is the word for baby coconut, and I just can't get enough of the stuff. I'll never forget the first time I tried buko, in the form of buko pie, while my Makati buddies and I were driving around the Luzon area. A steaming hot coconut pie in my lap on a steaming hot Manila day, in a moving car to boot. It was a big risk to eat hot pie in that situation, but I got away with it ;) Well, this cup of buko I had was kind of like an unblended shake, an un-shake, if you will. It was not cold either, but room temperature (very warm).
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I imagine that it would be perfect if served cold like a shake, but damn it sure hit the spot just the way it was. I hung out with my lovely new friends for a while, then I finally went back to get Beth and Gaigai, and the 3 of us went to a travel agency. We passed my cute new friends on the way,, and I got some comments about how a bunch of girls were smiling and waving at me. One reason I love this country is because the moment I step off of the plane, I automaticaly become some sort of superstar. Strange but true. All of a sudden my hairline is just fine, and my bingo wings become bulging muscles ;)

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After getting my plane ticket to get me back to Manila (p1966 or about $40), we headed across the street to one of the salons to get my itchy beard trimmed down and cleaned up. The dude did a great job, using the #1 clipper just as I specified, and painstakingly made each and every little bit of stubble look symmetrical and perfect. He mercifully did my nose hair with his micro-scissors, too. The service cost me p70, and I gave him a p100 note and told him to keep the change. $2 including tip, and it was actually twice as expensive as the barber shop I went to on our first foray into Bogo. Now THAT is value, my friends.

After waiting while Gaigai got a pedicure, we headed to the BBQ joint by the bay, to be met by my expat buddy and his lovely pinay girlfriend. We had yet another feast of barbecued pork chops, chicken wings and legs, pork belly and isaw (chicken intestines). The five of us pigged out, and I treated everybody that night. The total bill was p661, including everybody's drinks and a beer or 2 for Rusty. He once again gave me one of his cigars, which I enjoyed very much. We all then went back to their house to hang out. His monkey Juliet is always very entertaining, although she hates me for some reason. The girls brought Gaigai's laptop so they got to spend some time online there, too.
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While the girls did their online thing, Rusty and I hung out and Juliet got to roam around on her cable run. We all had a good time until I tossed an empty tuna can up in the air for Juliet to play catch. I lobbed it with a nice, gentle arc to make it easy for her. But as the can was coming down, she turned and looked away, so when it banged off of the concrete right by her it freaked her out and she came over to express her displeasure to me in a way that only a crazed monkey can ;) She was PISSED, and I'm glad she was on that cable run, because her slack ended about a foot or two from me. We all got a good laugh about it, and I sure do wish we could have gotten that little episode on video. Finally the girls and I headed back to Nagano to call it a day.
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Our room at Nagano had 2 single beds, and that worked out just fine for us. I got oneand the girls took the other, and we all had a good night's sleep. I woke up with the biggest cockroach I hve ever seen staring me in the face, and it creeped me out a bit. The thing was so big that I think it even had a harness on it. I must admit that, when it comes to things like bugs and spiders, I'm not exactly Mr. Manly Man, and there is a fair chance that I will be the first one in the room to jump onto the chandelier. No worries though, Beth came over and took the little beast away.
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We all hulked up the next day for our long bus ride back to Cebu, having our trike driver take us to a couple of good photo spots for me on the way to the bus terminal. Upon arriving in Cebu, we went to the Kiwi Lodge, where I spent the first 3 Cebu nights earlier. They were booked up, but one of their porters took our bags for us to another place called the Ringtop to get a room there. It was a little pricy for our tastes (p1300-p1600 for really nice and big room), so went had a taxi take us to another place, the hotel which we are staying at now. Nice to have wifi in the room, and that's where I am typing this, in one bed while the girls goof around on the other laptop in the other one.

I am looking forward to getting back to Bogo and possibly moving to there for at least a few months, as early as this April. It's a cool little town, and I feel at home there already. Only time will tell how things go for me, but I think that Bogo is the top candidate for me at this point when it comes to a place for me to move to.

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Cou Cou Bar

I've decided to take a little time to do a quick write-up of the Cou Cou Bar here in the Santa Fe area of Bantayan Island, the area that I'm staying in. I'm at Tristan's Resort, just a few blocks away, and Cou Cou is the place with wifi, so I have hung out here lots over the past few days. I ate here yesterday and also today, and I drink lots of ice water, some Cokes served in the nice, cold glass bottles with a straw, and coffee. Yesterday I had a long day here online, getting here at 4pm and staying until they closed around 11:30. First Ihad a medium size Overloaded Special pizza (p260). It had tons of toppings, they aren't kidding wen they say "over-loaded", and starving as I was, I could only put away all but 3 pieces of it. Several hours later I had the Cheese Burger (p135), which had cucumbers and tomato and such on it, all good for me. It came with included french fries, too, and they had enough salt and what tasted like a honey mustard dipping sauce. All the food was tasty and priced just about right for me.

Oddly, a Coke is p30 but a Coke Zero (which always seems to be in very short supply and high demand in the Phils) is p45. My total tab for that day, in which I got to use the free wifi as well, cost me p585. That's about $12. My drinks included 3 Cokes, a Coke Zero, a coffee or two, as well as lots of glasses of ice water. A bottle of local beer costs p45, but as I've pointed out before, I'm cool with just water and Cokes. Ironic how a beer costs the same as a Coke Zero, though. Try finding a place back in the States where you can match that claim ;) When it was time for me to head back to Tristan's at the end of the night, I paid my tab (once again hard to get change for a p1000 bill but it's like that everywhere). I left each of the 4 girls a p100 tip, which prompted genuine smiles and words of thanks. I actually gave one girl a p200 tip, because on my first day here I forgot to tip, and I felt it was only right. She said to not worry about it, but she had taken good care of me on that first Cou Cou foray. So I actually ended up tipping a whopping p500, or about 10 bucks. It wasn't gonna break my bank, but it really does help the kind and attentive wait staff who have ben so accomodating to me.

Today I had the Chicken Strips (p145) and a side order of those french fries (p85) because I rather liked them. The chicken strips/fingers were fried in a tempura style, and they were served with honey mustard dipping sauce,, just like the fries. Everything was once again tasty and fine, and I'm now just hanging out online. I'm enjoying yet another of those cool, old-school glass Cokes, which I wish we had back home. I haven't seen my tab yet, but I'm sure it will be quite reasonable. On a side note, don't expect to have to pay taxes or anything like that on most prepared meals here in the Phils. If the menu price is p200 for the Chicken Cordon Bleu, and you have a Coke for p30, then you can expect your tab to be p230, no BS. Also, tipping in most places is not expected, it's just not very common. But if I get kind, sweet service, I will always try to leave them p50-100. But please, no matter where you go to in the Philippines on vacation or if you move here, please don't assume that, just because tipping is not expected, that the wait staff gets a high base pay to compensate. Don't ever assume that the girl gets a whopping p500+ (about 10 US dollars) per day, because the chance is fair that she might only be getting about p100-150 per day, and that is usually many more hours than our standard 8 that we observe back home. So try to leave the girl a couple bucks, it will really make a difference in her life if more people do that :)

Wi-fi has actually been fine here at Cou Cou Bar, and they even have a generator to get through the brownouts, router and all. It's the internet service itself that flakes out somewhat frequently, although I have had quite a run today, not really any issues. It's just a short pedicab ride (a pedal bike with a sidecar) from Tristan's, and the ride should only cost about 5 pesos, but it's common for the pedicab guys to try and get p20 out of you. Last night I was ok with that, I didn't try to argue and haggle, since I knew he could buy a lot more rice for his family with p20 than with p5. For me it's only the difference between about 10 and 40 cents, so not such a big deal. No taxis here, by the way.

You won't see any taxi cars anywhere here. Lots of pedicabs, and if you want/need to go to Bantayan town where the market and stuff are, you can just rent a motorbike for cheap, around p100-200 depending on who you get it from. I should note that Cou Cou Bar is an open, outdoor place that is covered overhead, although they also have several table out front that dont have coverage, but they are surely great for hanging out just the same as long as it's not raining and such. Sitting at the bar, it's got plenty of fresh air breezes and also plenty of fan coverage. There is a flat panel tv in the corner, and they have concert dvds of several bands and singers. There is always something good on here.

The first time I walked in and sat down, Pink Floyd's "Pulse" concert tour was playing, and after enjoying the whole thing, the owner (a kind French gentleman) put in the Guns N Roses "Use Your Illusion II" concert tour disc. That was the moment in which Bantayan truly felt like total paradise to me. They also play lots of other gems, like U2, Bon Jovi, Air Supply (Filipinas LOVE Air Supply), Styx, and even the concert DVD from Nirvana's unplugged concert in New York City. Very nice selection. It's a very cool concept, and I like this idea better than even the good old-fashioned jukeboxes of back home. Heck, they even have a disc of the band America playing in a studio back when they still had Neil Young. NICE!

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