Philippines Trip report Part I

[Jim]

My friend Barry met me at LAX which made the wait for the plane and the trip accross the pond more enjoyable. He was off to Cebu and then Thailand and Divina and I were off to Dumaguete. He was the person who brought me to the Phils and his friend fixed up Divina and me.

Divina and I had a four hour wait for the plane to Dumaguete so we found a hotel nearby to rest. I had been trying to sleep seated for 24 hours and Divina hadn't slept much in two days.

In Dumaguete we stayed at the San Monica Beach Resort. It costs under $40, is on the ocean and has a nice restaurant. We slept most of the first day after arrival and met Larry and Rony for lunch the second day. Larry is the man with two failed relationships (K-1 visas) to Filipinas and he lost most everything he had in them. What he had left was eaten away by sevelal failed businesses and in July, when I met him, they were scraping by on $300/month in odd jobs he picked up.

They are a great couple, 44 and 27. Their economic fortunes have improved dramatically. Rony sells real estate and Larry builds Dune Buggies (for the recreational use of foreigners) and also investigates filipinas for their foreign boy friends. I quickly realized that there is a level of gullablity and stupidity that people of the two gringos board couldn't imagine. I'm sure there are similar situations in LA.

One man had Larry and Rony take a two fay trip to Mindinao to investigate his GF who he had never met. He had sent he $12,000 in seven months to cover emergencies that had come up. We laughed that when the amount got above $500 having never met her, this gringo was either stupid or mentally retarded. He's making decent money from the gullability of others.

Our last night, we took L & R to dinner. Four great dinners, fresh seafood ogf top quality and mucho cerveza cost $32 including tax and tip. Although Dumaguete is not the party capital of the Phils, Divina got Larry to take us on a tour of hooker clubs. Lots of beautiful women and Divina loves to make me happy so it was a fun evening.

Saturday morning. off for Cebu. We took a tricycles into the center of Dumaguete, a Jeepnay to Sibuland where we took a high speed boat accross the Talon Straight to Cebu and a three hour bus trip to the capital. Divina and I were watching "The Terminal" on my portable DVD player and the conductor asked if he could play it on the bus' DVD player for all the passangers. On the plane from Manila to Dumaguete there were about ten foreigners but I was the only one on any part of this trip.

I liked Dumaguete a lot and Divina does too so that's probably where I will start my retirement. It's a city with some nice restaurants, shopping and night life. Plus it's not inundated with foreigners like Cebu and Manila.

Hope you all have happy holidays and I'll send a Cebu report in a few days.

Tongiht I amy go clubbing with Megan, Divina's other personality.

Jim

[Clay]

"Tongiht I amy go clubbing with Megan, Divina's other personality."


My wife wants to drink champagne on south beach, new years.
We are on lock down through the holidays.
It's very fortunate for gringos abroad to have the luxury to go out clubing and I salute you all.
Jim, my friend, enjoy this while you can because it aint gonna last

[Charlie640]

She's dragging you to the strip clubs?
No wonder you spend an entire day in an airplane to get there.