dazedandconfused

Coracao Tambor by Ian Pooley. Just one from his fantastic Since Then LP - by far my favourite 'summery' album of all time, it's full of latin beats, beaches and a super happy feel. Lovely. http://youtu.be/6YophSf5ApE

Great tale DC and a killer final paragraph

Time was that I would have entirely agreed with you but....last time back in UK I stayed with my brother and family. They were on a temporary boycott of HP for having changed the century old recipe (First World problems eh?) and had switched to Daddies. Can't emphatically say it changed my life - that would be a wee bit sweeping - but hey, it's great. Daddies all the way for me now... Great thread idea as well. Looking forward to a few breakfast blow-outs later in the year with you my friend.

Aus / NZ release date is set for July 18 US release date is July 19 UK sometime early August Can't find any release dates for Asia region yet. Not sure about Thailand but in PI films are quite often released a few weeks ahead of the US - gives the distributors a chance to reflect on opinion from an English speaking market sector before opening in the US....

Sam, I originally wrote a long winded reply about drugs here in the PI but have just deleted it because a. it was dull and b. it trampled over Ernesto's piece. Simple answer to "drugs........in PI it is damn risky on all fronts?" YES it bloomin is! Be cautious. I do like reading your stuff though Ernesto and seeing what you get up to - it's definitely edgy!

So......Drive by Nicolas Winding Refn was a great movie, beautifully shot and bathed in colour, cool music and some great performances. And it was violent. And he has done it again with his latest film, only it seems increasing the violence levels further still. Apparently its been dividing critics / audiences at Cannes this week - they more or less seem to fall into the love it or hate it camps. Anyway, Only God Forgives has Ryan Gosling, again, a fascinatingly blonde Kristin Scott Thomas as the mother from hell and some famous local Actors. It's set and shot in Bangkok which no doubt makes it doubly interesting for many of us. Probably best to suspend disbelief about the story line and sit back and enjoy the ride, it should be wild. http://youtu.be/HEFCN4qaYt4

I have pretty broad tastes in porn but some, in fact many, of those featured in the links posted by JaiDee over on the Femboy thread are particularly lovely. Thank you Sir!

Part 1. Somewhere in Mandaluyong, next to Makati, in Manila is a beautifully installed shower tray......years and years ago on my first travels here I met a GG. Later, filled with love and lust and and struggling with a streaming cold, I used air miles to fly from Europe to Manila for a long weekend stay with her. She was living with 3 other girls (courtesy of a range of sponsors) in a small and fairly run-down apartment. First night I realized that the shower floor flooded each time it was used. No idea what possessed me but I volunteered to fix it all. Fuelled by Sudafed, jet-lag, rum, some weird male machismo and the possibility of multiple grateful BJ's I spent all weekend buying a new tray, removing the old one, finding new tiles, grouting, putting on sealant, adding an extra overflow outlet and so on. I barely left the bathroom - I was completely obsessed. I finally finished about 3 hours before my flight was due to depart. It looked lovely. Didn't receive the ultimate oral thanks from the residents though. Some three weeks later the first e.mail arrived requesting help with college fees / rent / clothes etc. Never saw her again. The strangest thing is that rarely before had I done anything that could remotely be described as DIY and to this day I still can't work out how I managed it all.

Hi xyzzy Flat rate on trikes in AC tends to be around php 100-00 which is a usurious charge! If I can't be bothered with the argument then this is what I always seem to end up paying. The hotel is fairly near the Hosto bars up on Fields / Don Juico and it's normally 100 to get up there. As well you might recall

Course, I am biased but easily the Philippines for me.

You are probably right DC. Time to agree to disagree and move on. Maybe we can revisit the old 'Which is best: Pattaya versus Phuket' debate?

Hello Surin Nix and, as a fellow forum traveler, welcome! Cheers d&c.

Yeah, but that doesn't make it any better does it? There is no disputing that many folks believe that she was a wonderful human being and she certainly enriched (quite literally) many peoples lives. Sadly she also trampeled over millions of others whom, as leader of the Country, she should have had a duty of care to. Instead she inflicted a grevious amount of suffering on those who were not part of the plan. Quite simply that period of time was morally wrong and the compassion compass was lost. I would like to hope Tomcat that you are playing devils advocate with the crack about Pinochet! It would be very hard to make a positive case for the man who tortured, imprisoned and disappeared thousands of his fellow countrymen....

So a sad and confused old lady lost in a closed world of dementia died the other day. I'm certainly not gonna dance on her grave but here's why I think the world would have been a better place without her (and her acolytes / cronies) - In order to rebuild British Industry she first smashed it. Then determined not to rebuild it. - She signalled the death blow for Mining, Steel works, Shipbuilding, Car manufacturing, Railway engineering and other core industries - She wasted the revenue stream from North Sea Oil - She seemingly had a pathological hatred of the Trade Unions and the Working Class - She set workers against workers and communities agains communities - Talking of communities - she reduced vast swathes of the Midlands, the North and Scotland to an industrial wasteland and the once proud communities within were the subject of an economic scorched earth policy. They have NEVER recovered. - She described the Mineworkers as the 'Enemy within'. These were men and families that had fought for their country in WW2, who helped keep the UK running during WW1, who lived and worked in often extreme hardship and incidentally included my Lancashire based Grandfather who had worked at a Colliery and voted Conservative all his life until she described him as the enemy. - In near illegality she used the Police and Judiciary to break industrial disputes - Having taken on the Miners, Steelworkers, Shipbuilders she turned to 'softer' Union targets - Nurses, Teachers and Council Workers - She oversaw the economic and political centrification of the UK to the South East regions - She moved the UK from a post WW2 welfare leaning Social Democratic state to a neo-Liberal one and helped sow the seeds for future economic disasters - She began the sorry sale of every State / Nationalised asset that have engendered profits for big business but manifestly failed to deliver significantly improved services for Consumers. - She made low cost housing available to Council House owners but never replaced the houses that had been sold with a State house building initiative. - If you were 'one of us' you were on side. - She picked on the vulnerable; gays, single mothers and immigrants - She preferred confrontation and destruction to compromise and consolidation - Under her watch the flag was seized by the Nationalists - Against all advice to the contrary she fought for the introduction of the Poll Tax arguably the most unjust and unfair taxation policy in the past 200 years - She was a zealot for whom it was all about ideology. Her economic policies saw unemployment hovering around 3 million for the duration of her term of office but this appeared a small price to pay. - The largest and worst urban rioting in over 100 years were a domestic back drop to her time as PM - She did little to advance the cause of women - certainly she was no feminist - Her record on Human rights support was poor - She supported some of the very worst Dictatorships and State Terrorists of recent times: both publicly (Pinochet and Chile and the Apartheid Regime) and tacitly (the Khmer Rouge (FFS!) and Suharto in Indonesia) - And finally she tried to destroy social cohesion and replaced it with the cult of the individual and the notion that winner takes all is good. I'm glad she's gone but sadly her legacy endures to this day....

Not always so though. Recently I have bought Azithromycin, Doxycycline and Cefixime over the counter in Manila from different pharmacies without a prescription. To be fair, the main chain - Mercury Drug - are unlikley to hand them over without a prescription but many of the others will. Nb The eagle eyed amongst you (rxpharm) may have detected a certain link in my choice of pharmas above. Purely coincidental, your honour, and not all of them connected to certain lb related type activites

Hi azza, if you are looking to buy Condos then there is no end of stuff out there. However, if you are looking to rent for a short time it's something of a nightmare finding accurate info. There's a BM out here at present who spent quite a lot of time wandering round and round various condos in Makati trying to find one to rent for a month. It took him ages and I'm not sure he's recovered yet from the experience! You might find the following websites useful: http://www.tripadvisor.com/VacationRentals-g298450-Reviews-zfs3-Makati_Metro_Manila_Luzon-Makati_Apartment_Rentals.html http://www.sulit.com.ph/index.php/classifieds+directory/q/short+term+rent+condo+makati Cheers.

I'm not sure that I agree with this statement Stealth. To be sure it can't always be easy out in the Provinces being an LB but to say they are not accepted is not wholly true - especially in the bigger cities and particularly in Manila. I have LB friends and friends of friends who hold down regular jobs in call centres, hotels and corporate life. Most of them are fairly well educated, young and moving on steadily towards management. I think they would probably all concur that they come across prejudice but on the whole they feel they are doing just fine. In that environment they are accepted rather than tolerated. Out in mainstream land one of the best known, most popular and well paid TV stars here is ladyboy (of sorts) who advertises all sorts of products including the major cellphone network provider. Another very out gay (who has been known to put on a frock) also dominates day time tv chat shows and is equally popular with advertisers. Of course I know it's not all great out there and many LB's find it quite tough in the PI but hey try living as a 21 year old transvestite / LB in South London! For me the Philippines is probably the least homphobic / most gay positive country I have spent any time in and this in spite of the supposed negative influence of the RC church. It's probably about people just being a bit more relaxed and easy going here... Just my couple of pesos worth.

The Philippines is strange - there are over 7000 islands but not that many have the picture postcard soft white sands, blue seas etc you might expect. Those that do are either very developed (Boracay), small (Malapascua) or very difficult to get to / ridiculously expensive (Amanpulo). On the other hand if you don't mind some grey sand, pebbles and not hugely busy islands then there are quite a few choices. If you do want some great beaches, loads of restaurants and bars and a lively break then take a gulp on the cost and definitely head over to Boracay. As Hefe, Azza and Co say White Beach at Purto Galera is pretty easy to reach, not too expensive and is a fair place to spend time. Your LB friend is not going to look out of place there either... Agree on Mactan Island (Cebu) - lots of fairly expensive Resorts set in their own grounds where you are going to be a bit trapped. Cebu City is a good place to hang out but strictly speaking its not even close to a decent beach. North of Cebu (about 3 and a bit hours) Malapascua island is a nice place to hang out for a few days. Easy to walk round, sandy beach and very relaxing. Not lots to do (aside from diving and watching the world go by) but a few restaurants and bars are dotted around. Check out Ocean Vida Resort – right on the beach. Alona Beach on Panglao Island (adjoining Bohol) is another nice place to head to. I really like the area around Dumaguete on Negros Island. But there aren’t white sandy beaches there. Check out Pura Vida and Mikes Beach resort – both on the beach. Agree, Camiguin is very cool as is Siargao (good surfing if you catch it right) but they are pretty QUIET. Coron in Busuanga Island and El Nido north of Palawan have some of the most beautiful island scenery in the country, simply stunning, but you shouldn’t head there if you don’t appreciate a bit of peace and downtime. Some folks quite like the action around Subic but I'm never really convinced by the place. Think that's just me though... Hefe; Saud Beach is great but Man it’s a long long trip to get there! Its rightly popular with kiteboarders and windsurfers and there are 3 or 4 places to stay there

Not sure it's obscure but seems to be long forgotten / overlooked: I watched 1941 again for the first time in years last night and it's mad, funny, weird and totally overblown. Dan Ackroyd, John Belushi, Ned Beatty, Warren Oates and John Candy. Hard to go wrong really. It also seems to be the polar opposite of pretty much any other film that Spielberg has made. Last time I saw it I was probably very stoned - seemed even funnier then. Ho Hum. Well worth a re-visit though....

Hi guydesavoy, I've lived here for years and yet to find or hear of a hotel in Manila that does not allow LB's. It's your money, your room etc. You may well have to register any guests at reception but that's pretty standard the world over. Five star hotels here are also generally more relaxed than any others about the number and gender choice of your companions. Hotels such as the Shangri-La, New World, Dusit Thani etc always seem to have a sprinkling of LB joiners heading out in the early morning Staying in a Condo should mean absolutely zero issues with LB guests. You might get a few curious glances in the lift but hey, that's part of the fun right?

Not sure if it has been mentioned anywhere else here but Cebu Pacific are now flying Bangkok - Cebu direct (and vice versa) on Thursdays and Sundays. It's not a friendly arrival time in Cebu - 00.55am - but the flight back out of Cebu is a late afternoon departure which is a bit happier. A quick search indicates that flights are going to be around $300-00 USD for the standard round trip fare but they regularly have on-line promos as well and that will significantly reduce costs. It's prolly worth signing up for their e.mailed 'seat sales alert'. Downside is that booking / purchasing on-line with a non PI credit card can sometimes be a nightmare and can lose you hours of your life....

Hi sasquatch, looks like you are having fun! The tall LB in the grey dress in your first pic; where did you find her? Simply out of curiosity of course........

The whole of the perfect 'A Christmas Gift For You from Phil Spector' (aka Phil Spector's Xmas Album) is great and is the stand-out festive album for me. This is my favourite track on it:

Not sure this is exact enough but Jomtien Complex?

Mactan Island / Lapu Lapu City has a bunch of Resorts and is an ok-ish place to take your LB with you but there is no night life there to talk of and is definitely not the place to find them if you are out looking. Far far better to stay in Cebu City to start with. I used to be a Diplomat regular but now prefer Premiere Citi Suites for location (walk to Mango and close to Ayala), it's recently opened and is good value. Agree with thaibound and randi, time permitting get out to Malapascua, Bantayaan or Moalboal. Nearly all the beaches on Mactan are artificial and a bit soul less. Thaibound - currently looks like you are more likely to have large amounts of rain dumped on you in Cebu come early Weds morning rather than the stronger typhoon winds. You never can tell though and it's certainly going to be a bumpy weather ride for a day or two so keep your head down and maybe get some company in.... For a change it looks like here in Manila we are going to miss most of it.