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Manila tips, 9/2009
by greengrasser
This report updates information I have on Manila, as of September 2009. Basically, this report notes changes from my prior reports on Manila and covers topics that have been raised by newbies.
I arrived in early September 2009 and spent a few weeks relaxing in the city.
A. TRAVEL INFO.
6. Money. At 10:30 pm, Tuesday, three bank stalls were opened with a window on one side opened behind the custom stands and a window on other side opened to the lobby. About 10:45 pm, two banks lowered their blind on the lobby side, evidentally closing for business.
Exiting the baggage/custom area into the lobby, to the left were three ATMs. PhilTrust ATM had a sign that said PhilTrust card only. BDO (Banco d'Oro) had a sign that said maximum of 5,000 pesos and check with your bank on the total amount allowed per day. BPI ATM had no sign. I selected BPI and selected Fast Cash, which listed the highest option of 10,000 pesos which I punched and subsequently received that amount of currency in 1,000-peso bills. In previous trips, I have manually punched in an amount higher than the maximum shown in the Fast Cash option and have never received the higher amount.
7. Taxi. Exiting the terminal, turned left where there is a sign that says Metered Taxi. A couple of guys pointed me to a stand where a lady asked me my destination, which she wrote on a piece of paper. They directed me to the first waiting taxi and loaded my suitcases in the trunk. The driver asked for the paper. He did not know my hotel in Ermita, but I gave him the street address and the nearest major cross street. His meter started at 70 pesos (higher than the usual 30 pesos). The meter for the ride from the airport to the Executive Plaza showed 254 pesos. I gave him 300 pesos and he seemed satisfied.
Last year, I paid over 500 pesos to the other taxi company that operates from the middle island of the driveway in front of the terminal's arrival exit.
B. CHANGES IN LIVING, primarily in Ermita.
8. Weather. Storm clouds were over Luzon and other PI islands. Tuesday night, a few parts of Roxas Blvd had wide puddle over one lane. Sporatic sprinkling. Wednesday morning had heavy rains and strong wind gusts. Thursday was sunny. Friday was overcast with frequent showers. September is apparent in the middle of the rainy season. Typical tropic weather, that is, sunny mornings, quick hard short rain in the afternoon, and clear at night.
Exception was Saturday, 10 am - 8 pm, September 26, 2009 when a tropical storm poured rain and blew gusty winds. Mabini and Adriatico streets were flooded up to mid-calf wading and even inside Robinson Place mall in front of the supermarket was an almost wall-to-wall puddle of water, that probably seeped from underground.
9. Exchange businesses. They are mostly clustered on Mabini street, between Padre Faura street and Pedro Gil street. I only do business at the ones that post their rates that can be seen from the sidewalk while walking by. Thus, I usually exchange US bills at Sheeha, Sheena, and Skyline.
If beggars and other odd locals waiting on Mabini sidewalks near exchange businesses make you want to go elsewhere, try the exchange booth inside Robinson Place mall, ground floor, near the elevator. It gives a rate, usually 0.05 peso per US dollar less than the Mabini exchange businesses.
Avoid going to any exchange place indicated by a local person holding up a piece of paper showing high exchange rates. Finally, I met a guy, who ran into this scam. He said that he followed a Filipino with a piece of paper showing high exchange rates, who took him to an exchange place. He gave the exchange cashier a US$100 bill. The exchange cashier counted out some peso bills in front of him and handed them to him. He counted the same bills, found them short by a few hundred-peso bills, and handed the bills back to the cashier. The cashier counted the bills again, cited the full amount again, and handed them back to him. He counted the same bills, found them short by the same few hundred-peso bills, handed them back to the cashier, and asked for his $100 bill back. The cashier gave him a $100 bill back. He took the $100 bill to another exchange place, where he was told the $100 bill was FAKE. He took the $100 bill to a bank, where he was again told that the $100 bill was counterfeit.
His advice were two: Do not follow anyone showing a piece of paper with a high exchange rate. Mark your $100 bill, so that you know that it is yours.
Then I understood why when I withdrew money from my PI bank, it listed the serial numbers of each $100 bill given to me.
I get my US dollars from my dollars savings account at a PI bank. Luckily, I opened my account a couple of years ago, before it began asking for an ACR, which is a certificate of residency obtained at a PI government office. To build up my dollars without bank fees, I can deposit my personal checks drawn on my US bank and wait about 30 days. But, I can only make such deposits at the PI branch where I opened my account. To find a bank that will let a foreigner open a foreign currency savings account (not a checking account), try the list of banks at the web site of the Philippines Retirement Authority, or
.
I can never forecast when the rates will be up, so I cash one or two hundred dollar bills about every two days. One exception is the weekends about Friday noon to Monday noon), when the rate generally but not always seem to go down a little from the previous mid-week high. At
, I checked last year's exchange rate. It went from 46.6 pesos in Sep 2008 to 49.8 pesos in late Nov 2008, then dropped in Dec to 46.7 pesos before a big rise in early Feb 2009.from 47 pesos to 48.8 pesos about the first of Mar 2009. I have not deciphered whether this rise and fall of the dollar-to-peso exchange was correlated to anything.
10. Cell phone. In the Padra Faura wing, ground floor of Robinson Midtown Mall is a section full of phone stalls. A Globe SIM card cost 100 pesos and prepaid call card good for 60 days cost 300 pesos. Smaller value cell cards are valid for fewer days. There are many cell phone SIM and prepaid card vendors everywhere, but there are also warnings about fraudulent cards. I have not heard of anyone encountering a false card.
At one counter at the entrance into the section of phone stalls, a lady sold me a prepaid card and gave me a two percent discount.
11. Wireless internet. One vendor is Smart, which has an office on the 3rd floor of Robinson mall in the Del Pilar wing. It has four plans, of which three plans involve a commitment of 12-24 months with monthly payments. The fourth plan involves a payment of about 2000 pesos for a USB key-sized wifi device to plug into your laptop and prepaid cards, such as 300 minutes for 100 pesos. One caution. The Smart office had a long waiting line of customers. I was not able to determine if my netbook could receive any of these signals at my hotel.
In the Ermita/Malate area, I saw signs for two free wi-fi hotspots. One hotspot was Bellagio Square, which is on Jocobo Street, a half block south of Pedro Gil Street and Robinson Place mall. This square has about half dozen restaurants and other stores. A second hotspot was a new coffee shop on Salas Street, between Mabini and Adriatico streets.
Of course, some hotels offer wi-fi. Note that there are reports that scammers can hack wireless internet connections. One remedy is to use a VPN (virtual private network) on the wireless connection. However, I have not located a free VPN for Manila.
12. Internet Cafe. Rates varied. Lowest rate was 25 pesos per hour at the Santos internet cafe on Mabini Street, a half block north of Pedro Gil Street, and at the Mountainside internet cafe, on Salas Street, between Mabini and Adriatico streets. A higher rate was 40 pesos per hour with a 20 peso minimum, at the Adsum internet cafe located at the rear end of the first floor of the Imperial BayFront Tower on Mabini Street near the Executive Plaza Hotel, and slightly lower rate but higher minimum at East Game internet cafe, locate across the street.. One complaint was that amid empty computer stations, the cafe staff placed a new customer(s) next to me, especially a person coughing or talking to others.
One recommendation to avoid using the computers at internet cafes is to hook your laptop to the internet cafe's connection. I did not try this. Instead I use various techniques suggested to avoid key logger programs from recording passwords and taking screen shots of what you type. I hope they worked.
13. Cebu Pacific Airline office. It was located inside the Robinson mall in the Adriatico wing. It moved about a year ago to one of the outside offices of the mall along the Adriatico sidewalk. It opens at 7 am and I went there at 7:30 am on a weekday morning without other customers waiting for service to confirm my flight to Bangkok, which I had purchased on the internet over a month earlier.
14. Supermarket, Robinsons Mall. It moved from its old location inside the mall to the Adriatico wing, where the old Cebu Pacific Airline office used to be as well as other stores.
15. Cheap Food at Robinsons Mall. McDonald's burgers price increased to 38 pesos. (At another McDonald, the price for a burger was 41 pesos, but has a McDoo burger for 25 pesos which has a sweet odd taste.) Jollibee burgers are priced at 28 pesos. KFC chicken burgers cost 30 pesos. Lowest-priced plate at the 3rd floor food court was 65 pesos. A 15 oz can of salmon at the supermarket cost 50.5 pesos and sardines cost about 30 pesos. One unique food stall is in the anterior of the supermarket, where you pick the ingredients for a take-out meal and a mongolian hot pot (costs of 70 pesos and 110 pesos) is cooked while you wait.
There are cheaper food option. One is the 19 peso hot dog at 7-11 stores. Try it with kim-chi, which you can buy at the supermarket for about 50 pesos a jar in the refrigerated section.
16. Buffets. See comments on G Point and Amazonia Bar below, which I recommend. Ermita has other restaurants that offer buffets daily or weekly, but I do not recommend them for one reason (expensive) or another (Filipino cuisine, may not be clean, and/or other). They include Dad's (on Padre Faura street, where Adriatico street ends), Calaben (on the first floor of the Robinson Place mall), Don Henrico's pasta-type buffet lunch (on Pedro Gil Street, across from the Robinson mall), Joe Pepperoni's 150-peso pasta (4th floor of Robinson mall, near the bingo gaming arcade), and XYZ Lounge's 99-peso buffet and 25-peso beer (on Arquiza Street, next to Ralph Anthony Hotel on the corner of Orosa Street, a block north of Pedro Faura Street). .
17. Vitamins. More stores are offering some vitamins. But prices are double to triple the prices available by mail order in the USA. A Filipino told me that some Filipinos ordered their vitamins from the USA, which with the shipping charges is still cheaper than the vitamin prices in PI. See
for one shipper of small packages, which by-passes the PI postal system, known for its lost letters and package.
18. Haircut. Cymar salon, east side of Mabini street, between Padre Faura and Pedro Gil streets, near the Calle 5 outdoor band stand. Ask for Jun, a mid-20 year old male Filipino. He used only scissor and comb, and did a very careful job. He said that he worked 9 am - 10 pm, seven days per week. Cost 100 pesos.
19. Massage without Happy Ending. Mendez Clinic, on 3rd floor of Robinsons Mall, advertised a 10-minute massage for 19 pesos, but another sign stated a 30-minute massage for 99 pesos. Yin-Yang Balanced Massage, on Pedro Gil between Mabini and Adriatico streets, and Asian Massage on Napkil street, a block east of Adriatico street provided fairly decent massage.
Cost was 300 pesos for one hour and proportionately more for more time. YYBM's dry massage used too much palm push/squeeze, which was probably not effective for accupressure benefit, but might be beneficial in another way and begins with feet washing that the other does not include. But, YYBM's facility is better than Asian Massage's, although neither used a table, especially a table with a hole for your face to look down without nose breathing blockage.
However, Asian Massage's 90-minute massage was actually 70 minutes for my last massage there. When I pointed out the time I entered the place which I wrote on a piece of paper, the desk clerk handed me a receipt on which he wrote an earlier start time and insisted on a price for 90 minutes. I emailed what happened to its email address and received a reply offering me a free one-hour massage. Unfortunately, I was scheduled to leave Manila before the next time my body needed external stimulation.
20. Ballroom Dancing. Instruction and practice of ballroom dancing were offered at Rothman Hotel on Adriatico Street, and at Rivera Mansion Hotel on Mabini Street next to the Executive Plaza Hotel.
21. Shabu (local name for amphetamine). A newspaper article described a police roundup of a dozen-plus shabu labs and dealers over the past several months that has made available shabu of very low quality. It claimed that substances, like MSG, were used to cut the shabu such that the only resultant sensation is a full feeling, as though you had eaten a big dinner. I wonder if MSG can be used as a diet substitute; but I do get hungry about two hours after eating a Chinese dish?
21. Taxi Reporting. A new service has been setup to handle reports of bad taxi service, in addition to the other reporting service. This new service will supposedly be used to verify when the bad service occurred and for use when taxi license renewal is considered. The aggrieved customer is supposed to text a cell number, the incident with the license plate number and the taxi number immediately after the incident. The cell numbers are: for Globe users, 0917-561-8709, and for Smart users, 0920-947-2116.
22. Traffic, Ermita to Burgos Street, Makati. Getting worse. Many taxi drivers refused to drive there during the evening rush hours. Some taxi drivers demand double the metered fare, or ask for an additional 100 peso tip plus the metered fare. Finding a taxi driver who will charge only the metered fare is difficult to find. Exception to the traffic are Saturdays and Sundays. But, the exception to the exception is the Saturday night traffic around Robinson Place mall and Adriatico street to Remedios Circle. Beyond the circle, the traffic was light to heavy. Another exception was the five days/nights after the storm-flood on Saturday, September 26, 2009.
See item #51 below where I described an alternative to a taxicab.
23. Beer. San Miguel already has beers sold as pilsen, light, strong ice, and dry. Now, it has a new one sold as "premium all-malt". The pilsen cost 19 pesos at 7-11 stores and the all-malt cost 48 pesos, either in a can or a bottle, at the Robinson supermarket.
Another seasonal San Miguel beer was called "Oktoberfest Pale Pilsen". My dying taste buds said that the preminum all-malt had a rich taste with a watery undernote and the Otoberfest Pale Pilsen had a taste between light and pilsen, which might be described as a tangy light. (On a side note, a better tangy beer is Utica Club, available in upper New York state).
Cost for Red Horse now is the same or exceeds San Miguel, which is unusual since Red Horse for decades used to keep its price one peso under San Miguel's price.
24. Radio Music. For continuous house music with little or no interruptions, 107.9 FM in the evening was good. Also, 103.5 FM advertised continuous plays of rock music.
25. Movies, television series on dvd's. Sidewalk vendors of dvd's are mostly clustered on Pedro Gil Street, from the Robinson mall going east towards Taft Avenue.
Those vendors usually ask for a price higher than the vendors at the Makati Cinema Square, on Amorsolo, Arnaiz, and Pasong Tamo streets. There I purchased television series for 50 pesos per disc and movies for 100 pesos per 3 discs (a movie on each disc). Be sure to tell the vendors that you do NOT want the CINEMA version, which is produced by a recording camera in front of a movie screen and contains audience noise and people moving in front of the screen. A taxi ride from Ermita to MCS cost about 100 pesos. Also, note that I suspect that a single disc containing an entire season of a television series may not contain all shows, and I have encountered discs that would not playback the last few shows listed on the disc index.
26. Information Sources on Manila. For concerts, movie schedules, and television schedule, see
. For television schedule, see also
. For available generic medicines and their cost, see
.
C. Hotels.
27. Short-Time Hotels. Sogo Hotel is a well-known chain that has many hotels all over Manila, except around Burgos Street. Many other short-time hotels are located in Ermita and near the Edsa Center. A major short-time hotel in Malate that has been around for about two years is Eurotel, which is on Pedro Gil street across from the Robinson Mall. It has been advertising a lot. A friend told me that he paid over 400 pesos for up to 4 hours for a Eurotel room.
28. Hotels in Ermita. Executive Plaza Hotel has been recommended by many guys. If you book through Action Travel Agency in Angeles City, the cost is a little over 2,000 pesos total. My only complaint is that the hotel provides a very small mini-frig that is already filled to capacity with sodas, beers, etc. Las Palmas Hotel's renovation of last year has ended. Palm Plaza Hotel was under renovation. Exterior of City State Hotel was being renovated. Amazonia Bar has on its third floor a hotel, where a friend said that its short-time rate was 600 pesos.
29. Hotels on/near Burgos Street, Makati. The Clipper Hotel, theclipperhotel@yahoo.com.ph, 632-890-8577, 632-756-0939, 5766 Ebro Street, is located on the block behind Ivory club. Rates of 1,640 for single (one person) for a standard room, and 1,900 for single for a deluxe room, and additional 500 pesos for double (two persons). Moonlight Hotel is located above the Blush club,
and it advertised a rate of 1,200 pesos. Makati Palace Hotel advertised a special rate of 1,999 peso for October - December 2009, but has to be booked by the end of September 2009. I did not take a look of any room.
30. Condo Rental. I have never done this myself. I did inquire a year ago and the few replies I received indicated a minimum rental period of six months and unfurnished. Then there are related problems, such as getting your deposit back before leaving PI, hiring a maid to clean the condo, doing your own laundry especially sheets and towels, etc. Others have mentioned they had a condo rental for a few weeks at condominiums called Mirage, Two Adriatico Place, Robinson Tower, Midland Plaza. I suspected that such short-term rental condos are handled by the owner or his/her rental agent. A year ago, I did run across two buildings that had condos operated almost like a hotel, Dakota Residences (formerly, the hotel Dakota Mansion) on Malvar Street, near Adriatico Street, and and a building ??? on Roxas Blvd about two or three blocks south of United Nations Avenue.
There are ways to find condo rentals. On the internet:
is a real estate agent's site and
is the current listing by a twice-a-week news publication, namely, Buy And Sell. Newspapers listings: Buy And Sell, which is published twice a week, and one of the Manila daily newspapers has a Sunday classified ads (it might be the Inquirer or the Bulletin). Best way to locate the condo building that seems to be the best location for you and go to the reception desk and ask if there is a list of available rentals.
D. CHANGES IN THE NIGHT SCENE.
There are three major areas of clubs/bars in Manila for white foreigners. They are grouped in order of the three areas: Ermita (baranguay or barrio), Edsa Complex (a building on Edsa Street, a block east of Roxas Blvd), Burgos Street in Makati. They also serve other races, while some clubs/ktvs only serve Japanese or Koreans. But, some girls will ony go out with certain races.
E. NIGHT SCENE IN ERMITA.
31. Ermita, LA CAFE. Beer price was up to 110 pesos. Price should be about half during its happy hours of 8 am to 8 pm.
32. Ermita, LA CAFE ANNEX. Beer price was 75 pesos at night and 50 pesos during the day. Small crowd, but less cigarette smoke.
33. Ermita, AMAZONIA BAR. Beer price was 120 pesos. Hardly any customers inside, even on nights when a live band was playing. Band stand replaced by another pool table. Where the second pool table was located, a new waist-high stage was constructed. Lunch buffet for 245 pesos, M-Sa, 11:30 am - 2:30 pm, was still excellent. After the lunch hour, waitresses practice Oktoberfest-type alpine dancing on stage to recorded umph-pow-pow music.
34. Ermita, BUTTERFLY BAR. Beer price was 110 pesos. Hardly any customers inside.
35. Ermita, G POINT. Beer price was 50 pesos during happy hour and 75 pesos during the night. Live bands begin playing 10:30 pm. Lots of people danced, but the small dance area was not jam packed. Lunch buffet cost 199 pesos plus one drink and was extended to six days a week, M-Sa, 11 am - 3 pm. Caution - the buffet trays were not refilled, at least after 2 pm.
36. Ermita, CAFE TWENTY EIGHT. Situated in the stone building, where Tesoro, a souvenir store, was located for decades. Tesoro moved next door. At 9 pm, the cafe had a few customers, but no available girls. The waitress said the cafe had been opened a month and girls did not come there. It has a long bar, so its scene may change.
37. Ermita, BIG MAMA'S. Beer price was 40 pesos. Located in the open air on the street, a block north of Padre Faura street and a block west (towards the bay) of Del Pilar street. For old timers, the location was where the razed Andy Capp club was located. The night I visited the DJ was a keyboard player and two girls sang. The owner is supposedly the captain of the baraguay (neighborhood).
38. Ermita, POSEIDON. Beer price was 55 pesos and during happy hours of 4pm - 7pm was 35 pesos. This is a beer garden with narrow (almost hidden) entrances on Del Pilar street and Padre Faura street and is located on the northeast corner of the streets intersection. The night I visited the singers were excellent, but the male singer was particularly good at singing in different styles. This open-air club has been in operation for two years.
My previous visit had been several years earlier. I stopped going there until now, because a tout followed me into the club, sat at a nearby table, and kept pestering me. Touts no longer hang out on this intersection, but can be found near the Executive Plaza Hotel and around the corner of the block on Adriatico street next to the Palm Plaza Hotel
39. Ermita, CRYSTAL D'NOIR. This small bar has a half dozen girls, a pool table with one wall too close in, and an adjoining KTV for your singing pleasure. The bar has a menu offering a bucket of 5 bottles of Colt 45 and a big plate of mushroom sautee with garlic and peanuts for 195 pesos. For garlic lovers, the odor is mouth watering. Price of a San Miguel beer is 75 pesos.
This bar owner has also opened another new bar next door.
40. Ermita, PATCHEZ. This bar has a pool table and ten bar girls. Beer cost 75 pesos.
41. Ermita, HOLLANDIA. This small bar is scheduled to close at the end of Sep 2009. The Dutch owner supposedly lost his lease and has never operated his bar very well.
42. Ermita, GIN 'N TONIC. Gone.
43. Ermita cathouses. The four cathouses were still in operation. Their names are Music Lounge Moare (2nd floor, on Del Pilar street, about 50 meters south of LA Cafe), Japlac, Tudor Court (adjoining clubs on Jocobo Street, near Arquiza Street), and Bistro Emilio (on UN Avenue). Of the four, only the last has a room on premise.
I asked for the current price and a mama-san replied asking me what I paid last time? I said 1,500 pesos. She said that I had entered without a tout and thus I had gotten the house price. If a customer pays more than 1,500 pesos, the tout would get the difference. Some customers have paid 3,000 pesos, so the tout got 1,500 peso commission.
The mama-san said also that the girls were changed every three or four months and one reason for the change was that some of the girls married their customers. She said those customers were usually Aussies and asked me why? I guessed that the Aussies wanted someone to clean their home and to cook, in addition to being able to have regular sperm releases.
Two notes. One time, I told a house manager that another customer had taken out the girl I wanted and the manager said to wait two hours when the girl would return. A house manager said that the girls were at least 18 years ago, because that was the minimum age for them to be licensed by the city as a waitress.
44. Malate, BELLAGIO SQUARE. Located on Bocobo Street, between Pedro Gil and Malvar streets, and next to the Manila Manor Hotel (a deteriorating dirty hotel). The small square has a half dozen restaurants and on Friday and Saturday nights it has an outdoor stage of live band music starting at 8:30 pm. It supposedly has a free wi-fi hotspot.
45. Malate, CROBAR. This bar was a popular watering hole for the university crowd in the Remedios Circle area, where there are many straight and gay bars and clubs. Crobar bar on Malvar and Orosa streets had a sign advertising pole dancing on Wednesdays, ladies night; but it does NOT have it. A bar staff told me that the bar has two pole dancers on Fridays and Saturdays at 11 pm.
46. Malate, ROOM 526 INTERNATIONAL. This is an elegant KTV, with women in sleek long evening gowns and waiters in vest, tuxedo shirt, and dark slacks. I did not stay because it was too dressy for my beat-down attire and the KTV had high charges by the hour a year ago. I do not know if the women are allowed to leave with a customer.
47. Malate, SKORSKI. This is a modern discotheque with a live band (starts at 9 pm) and recorded music on Adriatico Street, on the north side of Nakpil Street. It is not located amid the Remedios bars/clubs. It is small-to-moderate size with balcony seating, a long bar near the dance floor, and a pool table. It did not have a big crowd for a weekday night, so it would be a good meeting place for a couple or small group. Beer cost 95 peso and Cutty Sark cost 110 peso. Excellent sound system.
F. NIGHT SCENE ON EDSA AND ROXAS BLVD.
48. Edsa International Entertainment Complex. Same as always. Beer price is still 110 pesos and lady drink is 195 pesos and 300-plus pesos for a special lady drink. Bar fine is still 1400 pesos, up from 1,000 pesos over a year ago. VIP, a club on the 2nd floor, was closed for re-modeling.
49. Pedestrian Walkover. About two years ago, a pedestrian walkover was constructed from a corner (block east of Heritage hotel) to a corner (near Edsa center). A friend told me that he stayed at the Heritage Hotel before the walkover was constructed. He walked across Edsa street one evening and was stopped by a Pasay policeman for jay-walking. He said that the policeman asked him for his identification, which he said that he did not have any identification because he heard that the police would keep his identification. The police told him that for 3,000 pesos his jaywalking problem was solved, but he refused to pay. He said that the police made him sit in a motorcycle sidecar for half an hour, while the policeman talked with other police, before letting him go. I guessed he looked too prosperous, because during the day, traffic police stopped traffic for me to jaywalk across Edsa, but I did this on the west side of Roxas Blvd. and not on the Heritage Hotel side of Roxas Blvd.
50. KTVs on Roxas Boulevard. Across Edsa Center and down the block to the west is the Heritage Hotel on the corner of Edsa Street and Roxas Blvd. Along Roxas Blvd heading south about two blocks from the Heritage Hotel are 3 or 4 KTV-type clubs, where a taxi driver will entice a male tourist to visit because the driver gets a commission. These clubs and nearly all such clubs along Roxas Blvd, from Airport Road to Quirino Avenue, where is the Aloha Hotel, can be expensive and unwarranted charges have been known to be added to your bill. They change their names frequently. One of these clubs was mentioned by a fellow member as a place that he enjoyed, called BLUE PACIFIC.
G. NIGHT SCENE ON BURGOS STREET, MAKATI.
51. Travel from Ermita to Burgos.
Taxi. Many taxi drivers did not want to take a fare there at 8 pm on a weekday and those who would wanted 250 pesos, double the usual fare.
Skytrains and taxi. I tried a non-taxi mode of travel. I took the skytrains to Makati route on a Thursday evening. Walked along Pedro Gil Street, from Mabini Street to Taft Avenue. LRT train at the Pedro Gil station to Edsa station, 15 pesos. Walked along the walkway around MetroPoint Mall to other skytrain station, where a second fare card has to be purchased. MRT train at the Taft station to Ayala station, 10 pesos. Walked to a taxi stand within the Glorietta Mall and wait for a taxi. Taxi along Ayala Avenue, turn right onto Makati Avenue, about 60 pesos. Arrived at Burgos Street.
Total travel time was 1 hour and 20 minutes. At 8 pm, the traffic was bumper-to-bumper on Edsa street, as seen from the MRT skytrain. At 8:30 pm, the traffic was bumper-to-bumper on Makati Avenue; my taxi driver explained that Makati Avenue was a major route for those going to Quezon City. Returning to Ermita via taxi at 11:30 pm, the traffic was bumper-to-bumper on Buendia Street heading to Makati.
Skytrains and walk. I tried the same skytrains a week later, also on a Thursday evening. Traffic on Edsa, as seen from the MRT skytrain, was not bumper-to-bumper, but was moving. Instead of a taxi from a Glorietta taxi stand, I walked from the Ayala MRT station, along Ayala Avenue about three blocks to Makati Avenue, turned right and walked about five long blocks to Burgos Street. The walk at a moderate pace took about 30 minutes, but left me sweaty which could probably be avoided by walking slower.
On Saturday night, the traffic was heavy around Pedro Gil Street and Adriatico Street down to Remedios Circle. After that the traffic was light to moderate. An excellent night of the week to travel from Ermita to Burgos Street.
Note that after the storm-flood on Saturday, September 26, 2009, I went to Burgos on Tuesday evening about 8:30 pm. Getting a taxi was easy on Del Pilar Street and the traffic was light and no puddle or flooded streets were encountered going or returning. However, unlike the Edsa Complex the night following the storm-flood, the Burgos clubs had a little over half their usual number of girls.
Speaking of traffic, the intersection of Burgos Street and Kalaayan Street now has a traffic light with a WALK light.
52. I stopped going into many clubs on Burgos Street, when they raised their prices several years ago to 130 pesos for a beer and 3,000 pesos for a bar fine. Exceptions include my visiting one or two of such clubs if I am there before 8 pm for their happy hour. Otherwise, the Burgos clubs I visited are the following:
53. Burgos, FLAMINGO and BANDIDO BAR. They have happy hours, 7 pm - 9 pm when a beer cost 75 pesos , but only a handful of girls danced on stage. Stage is filled at 9 pm. I made the mistake of sitting at a table against a side wall, which made me a target for the older, ugly, dressed women walking by who planted their butts on a seat next to me -- without invitation. A mama-san said that the bar fine was 2,200 pesos which included two lady's drinks, at 350 pesos per lady's drink.
54. Burgos, BOURBON STREET COYOTE BAR. New club. Located where Mogambo club and another bar used to be, but with an entrance on Burgos Street. Only two dancers on stage, so I did not stay.
55. Burgos, PAPILLON. This club or the former club with this name used to be on the corner of Burgos and Kalayaan streets, across the street from the Ringside club, until the building was razed. Now, it is next to BSCB. A beer cost 80 pesos during happy hours. Small club with a foot-high oblong stage for four dancers.
56. Burgos, PUSSYCATS. A sign outside said show beginning at 10 pm. But, the club staff on a Saturday night said that the show began at 11 pm. However, on a Tuesday night after the storm-flood on Saturday, September 26, 2009, the door staff said that there was no performance due to the flood.
57. Burgos, BLUSH. Lowered its beer price to 100 pesos. Had a continuous show of groups of four different girls doing synchronized dancing costumed in different two-piece attire (halters and shorts). A mama-san said that the show began at 11 pm.
58. Burgos, JOOLS. Increased its beer price to 150 pesos. But, it has the best show on Burgos with highly-trained dancers, stunning costumes, clever stage backdrops, and occasional dance number with the girls wearing translucent tops showing tat-tats. One issue was that sometimes the music was too loud and also was distorted. Show was 20-minute long, every hour, starting at 10 pm, 4 times a night, Tu - Sat..
59. Burgos, STARDUST. Beer price was still 100 pesos. Show was every hour on the half-hour mark, from 9:30 pm to 12:30 pm, Tuesday - Saturday. Yes, a few of us customers shuffled between Jools and Stardust. The show is second to Jools' because the girls are trained but not highly trained dancers, no stage backdrop due to an irregular stage with a pillar blocking view of the full stage. The show has a sexy slow number to stimulate the senses. A waitress claimed that the club girls were NOT allowed to go out with customers; I doubted her statement but I never saw a girl leave with a customer, identified as a Stardust girl.
60. Burgos, ROGUES, 2nd floor. Beer price was still 50 pesos for most hours. Lowest beer price for a club on Burgos Street and also lowest bar fine, 1600 pesos. More girls than before. Nine girls dancing on the main stage, others on the tiny side stages, and four girls on the stage by the entrance.
61. Burgos, IVORY. Beer price was 160 pesos. A lady drink cost 390 pesos. Normally, I avoid this club because it is one of the many Burgos clubs that are under an American syndicate that has high prices and the club girls are overly-aggressive. I was showing a friend his first visit of Burgos clubs and this club has upstair rooms and on-premise bj. He wanted to try the club. He apparently liked the club, because he was surrounded by five-to-six girls and enjoyed their attention. But, he did not buy a lady's drink; instead, he gave away 100-peso bills to the girls surrounding him at different intervals during our one beer there. I guess he gave away 1,500 pesos, equivalent to four lady drinks and made a half dozen girls very happy.
62. Burgos, DIVINO. The club door staff said that the club's cover charge was 10 percent of your bill, so a beer cost 200 pesos with a total of 220 pesos. They said that a lady's drink cost 600 pesos, show was pole-dancing from 8 pm to 4 am, seven nights a week. These prices were supposedly lower than a year ago.
63. Burgos, MIXED NUTS, 2nd floor, above Ringside. Butch was the MC for Billboard, where he used to hold weekly dance competitions between various clubs. He said that Billboard decided no more competition, so he was at Mixed Nuts holding competition on Tuesday night at 1 am. He suggested bringing a girl with you to Mixed Nuts, because the club has a gay reputation, which was being changed.
64. Burgos happy massage parlors. There are two in the vicinity of Burgos Street. They are Imperial (2nd floor, on Makati Avenue, two blocks north of Kalayaan Avenue) and Palacio (side street off of Kalayaan Avenue, 2nd side street east of Burgos Street). A manager for the latter parlor said that the costs were 1,200 pesos for the room and 1,500 for the girl. Girls sit behind a window in a fishbowl room.
Enjoy your visit to Manila. There is much more to Manila, as you can expect from any city that has millions of residents in its metro area. However, during this visit, I did not go elsewhere such as escort services, Air Force One KTV, many small bars in Ermita, bars in 5-star hotels, pickup scenes at coffeehouses near the exit of malls, discotheques, Chinatown's happy massage parlors in old Manila, cathouses in the area between Malate and Makati, Quezon City's KTVs and happy massage parlors. By the way, I think Magellan (a happy massage parlor on Buendia, two blocks west of Taft Avenue) is gone.
Για το Άντζελες δεν χρειάζεται να ξέρεις τίποτα. Διαλέγεις ένα ξενοδοχείο και παίρνεις τα bar με την σειρά.
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