Leaderboard

Ive flown with Etihad many times,I'd recommend them,never with Emirates.....I flew Qatar to Mumbai once (2006?) and was scammed at the airport in Mumbai by crooked Indian staff.....the last days of paper tickets....I never recieved any compensation from Qatar and since then have refused to fly with them....saying that,if they came in with a really cheap flight to Los from Manchester,then I would have to review my high moral principles ,and book the flight..... The big plus with Arab airlines is ......Theres no chance of them being hijacked by Isis/AL Q ,or any other mad muslims

Decided to try out Cafe Cubana. It is teeming with LBs after dark all sitting in the cafe past the patio or outside. There is a wall of LB freelancers hanging around the front of the nearby Best Western Oxford Suites too. You can grab one, and buy viagra/cialis from a dozen different hustlers on the 10 second walk back to your hotel. Some ridiculously beautiful ones that show up later in the night. They don't bother you unless you look at them and smile tho sometimes they may sit with you if brand new and don't know the game well. You can also just pick a table full of them and party it up with drinks, lots of guys did that going right to a LB table. I saw one sit in front of a guy who wanted no part in LBs, so watched them uncomfortably tolerate each other until I decided to invite over to eat with me and saved the guy. Apparently just arrived that night in Manila from a province. Bought dinner, drinks, asked me if crashing at my hotel was OK as too late to spend the long ride home to her Manila suburbs apt tho I had no intention of sex just wanted a dinner date. Didn't ask for any money, I paid anyway as was one of the greatest GFE ever. Crazy fetish for tall men, climbed me like a tree and really got off on it. If you want maximum discretion, stay at the Royal Bellagio, the hotel above cafe cubana so can bring your lb date to the elevator in the bar inside and disappear to your room. Theres an elevator security guy but the place is arab owned and they don't care at all about bringing up LBs from the bar. I unfortunately stayed at the Best Western which if you don't get one of the executive rooms and just a reg room, is a total dump with roaches in the bathroom and filthy interior, air-conditioning leaks occasionally, bed is good though. Security didn't ask for ID of LB guests which has already been posted here. Weechat around midnight had countless freelancers within 200m search by distance. Anyway if offered a 19th floor room, refuse it is a shithole. Same pick pocket Mindanao kids hanging around in groups getting constantly chased by security. Expect them to try and snatch sunglasses, phone, anything. Why Phil cops don't clear these kids permanently who knows. Traffic at night (Wed in my case) is a parking lot. Nothing moving at all except dudes on suicycles racing beside the sidewalk so prob a bad idea to taxi here at night. Edit: if you need an ATM, theres 2 across the street from Cafe Cubana outside of the Makati Palace Hotel where the guards stand at the main entrance.

[360, regardless of what the forum software tells you :)] Good posts. Everything you describe is just the way I remember it. That's why I never went back. But that's what my brother thinks of Pattaya so I guess each to their own. I've been here for a good number of years and I have no illusions regarding the thais and pattaya in specific but in my opinion it's by far better than manila. You couldn't pay me to visit Manila again.

thats a beautiful piece of prose you posted mr pigg dogg..and how accurate it was...I read The Right Stuff years ago...Chuck Yeager and all the old pioneers of space flight,a great book....

I fully concur with Duke and Archie above. The thrill of Pattaya, for me anyway, has long since gone, and I certainly don't feel the blues leaving the place anymore. What has replaced that however, is a refreshing appetite for Samui. Have spent a lot of time there on 2 of my last 3 trips, and loved every minute, Just back yesterday from a 2 week stay in Thailand, which was 9 days Samui (originally supposed to be 6 but stayed on an extra because I enjoyed it so much) and 6 days Pattaya - which was just ok, at best, I guess it is just a sign of getting older, having seen and tasted the really good times, and not so much taking to the ever evolving scene around Pattaya, as mentioned particularly with smartphones etc. Also I barely know anybody on the scene now, so I go on holiday and if I do a tour of the bars, it is highly likely I wont know any of the customers, unless dixoncox is on a rare visit, or Bruce is in town. And maybe, just maybe, it is because I can no longer party hard to the wee small hours, then do it all again the next night. Let's face it, that's really all Pattaya is about - party, drink get laid, repeat. Samui appeals to me more now because it is relaxed, the people are genuinely nicer, even Sindy was shocked at how friendly and helpful the Thai people in Bophut Samui were, and there is so much to do daytimes, that partying at night is rarely on the agenda.

Indeed service is shit but almost every bar I've gone to here the wait staff just sit on their phones ignoring everyone so I assume that's normal these days.

Cheers is a shadow of its former self although is still one of the alfresco type bars that I visit each trip. It was the first alfresco in PBurgos with previous names of Vila Bar and before that Matrix. The service has declined terribly over the years but beer prices are still good.

Alas I was going to review the LBs in LA Cafe when I ended up just dating one I met at Cafe Cubana, so to avoid playing with fire didn't go but prelim research I found a review of the Brickstone hotel attached to LA Cafe here 1500p a night, not bad rooms either and also Motel 168 looks promising if you were going to ladyboy monger there and want to avoid mad traffic back to your reg hotel. Everytime I walk past Cubana its filled with guys sitting with ladyboys, was again tonight. If I were to do this all over again I'd get a large suite at Royal Bellagio for just a few days, meet some stunners in the cafe then airbnb sexy vacation with the one LB the rest of the time near greenbelt or around Phils away from the sex district. Edit, also look at couchsurfing site, LBs in manila offering their apts with 'shared bed'

Some more advice, an Australian guy the size of hulk hogan sitting by the rail at Cafe Cubana was getting pestered by those annoying street vendors and I had to prevent him from killing the vendor and getting into police trouble. I just say no thanks, make hand signal I'm not interested and look away, they never ask me twice. Or I totally ignore them (best strategy). He made the mistake of saying hey I'm trying to eat here, can you understand to fuck off and none of these guys speak good English so just assume they can continue pestering you. It almost seems organized, usually armed security out front of cafe cubana blows a whistle then chases away the beggers and vendors harassing patrons but at the same time a distraction with security is happening the vendors exploit this and arrive like a tsunami blanketing the front patrons until security returns. Avoid the immediate rail seats and patio, you can still see all the freelancers in the street one table over. Some Europeans (Swedes?) were at the patio drinking and left their phones sitting there on the table like they were back in Sweden and no surprise it got snatched. Security caught the kid and returned it but FFS, hide all valuables away from arms reach of passerby desperate homeless and organized snatcher kids.