Review of a few places;
Manila
So, I always had a bit of a soft spot for Manila. I couldn't see what other people hated about it and thought the traffic wasn't that bad. This trip has kinda made me change my mind and definitely consider it a third world shit hole. Burgos has gained a new lease of life though with several bars having a refresh / rebrand. I stayed at City Garden Grand. Listed as 5 star, it really isnt, but its right near Burgos, has a great restaurant on the roofdeck (or simply order in room service) at reasonable prices and is very reasonably priced. I'm constantly amazed at how this hotel has well to do guests staying amongst some right reprobates visiting Burgos and the staff are imossibly polite to all of them. The IM hotel and St. Giles are on opposite corners of the junction, but both are slightly inferior in terms of quality in my opinion.
I'd hold my hands up and say this is a night where I made all the newbie mistakes possible...
Wanted to go to Fyre as its prices are higher than the others on Burgos and wanted to see if that corresponded to a jump in quality, but we really didn't need to. We went to Maison, which had about 30 girls in with 10 of them being pretty hot. Definitely a seedier bar where a lot can happen inside the place, more on that later... After a couple of drinks we moved on to Lips, which is where the old Kojax used to be. Downstairs is a legit bar I believe, so we didn't bother with that and went to the gogo upstairs. Its really just as I remember it. Probably 50+ girls in the place with the vast majority of them being absolutely stunning. Honestly, the quality here, if you like young spinners, is far in excess of any FKK or anything like that. I still prefer Globe in Zurich, because the girls were fit and knew how to carry themselves well, but I've been to Sharks and this is far better quality. Downside of course is that if you like curves and tits, you aint gonna find that here. Had a couple of drinks with a mate. I had settled on this stunning girl who would later tell me she was 19 from Siargao. During one of the slots where the girls are asked to go on the main stage she positioned herself at the back, always a bad sign, but I asked her over for a drink regardless. Conversation was stilted, but she seemed to be opening up - she was just incredibly shy. So my mate bar fines his girl and I decide to bar fine mine (4k) and we agree on 5k for the girl, although nothing is discussed (again, newbie mistake). So we go out of the bar and I take her straight to the hotel (its 1am by this point). Upon kissing her, it was quite apparent that she wasn't ready for anything. Perhaps my fault, but I would have thought she would at least know the basic expectations. I ask her if she wants to order room service and she suggests going out for food, which I'm not against so we go back on to Burgos and sit in a restaurant. She orders food and proceeds to eat without really engaging or giving a shit that I'm there at all, even asking them to bag up the food for take out before I pay the bill. At this point, I'm annoyed and decide to cut my losses. When we leave I walk towards Lips whilst she walks behind me asking 'Where are we going?' I point her to Lips and say goodbye and walk off. I didn't pay the 5k. Don't know - I definitely fked up throughout this whole process and ignored a load of red flags, but I'm not paying a girl to have dinner with me. Some of you might even suggest I go back to the bar and quibble about the bar fine, but I just considered the 4k a sunk cost and a lesson fee. The mamasan does make a point of saying 'Have you discussed with the girl?' before bar fining so probably caveat emptor. I never went back, so I have no idea how the bar would perceive my actions.
Went back to the hotel and decided to go to bed but then changed my mind and went back to Maison. A very insistent girl sits next to me and eventually I relent. Shes a solid 7, but not top tier and not even the best available but at least shes dirty. We end up in one of the dark corners whilst she has my jeans down and her hand on my cock. I'd pretty fucked at this point and agree to bar fine her for 4k. I'm fairly certain I paid the bar fine as the mama said "OK, you pay me bar fine" probably to avoid me backing out of the deal. I then got my bill which was 6k pesos, which I'm fairly certain included the bar fine again as I'd only been in there for a couple of hours and whilst I'd ordered her a couple of drinks I hadn't been going nuts. For comparison, me and my friend were in Lips for the same period of time and spent 3.2k on our bar tab so I think 2k was about right. Again, I made a lot of mistakes this night but didn't expect this level of scammery going on. I only really noticed this when I realised my wallet was empty later in the night and wondered how that could possibly be so given how much money I'd started the night with... Reverse engineering it, I think this is the likely explanation.
After this, we went to secret door because I wanted to see what its like. The original degen plan before the night went to shit was to get to Burgos, get a girl and kick her out by 3am and then go to SD afterwards. SD is full of the girls from the bars as its there off hours (and their last chance to snag a customer for the evening). So if you fancy a place without a bar fine, its not a bad shout to hit up, although you'd expect the top quality to not be there. At this point I was too drunk to really remember anything coherently, but I think it was good... Anyway, took the Burgos girl back to mine at about 6am, one shot, sleep and then repeat. 5k to her and she left at about 1pm.
Cambodia
136 in PP is a little overwhelming. Theres probably 200 girls on the entire street and I saw 20 male customers all night (was there for about 4 hours). I sat on the corner in Ostex, which is a legit bar, having a couple of beers because it was a bit too much to take in at first. I don't like that the girls sit outside as I feel that (a) you have to walk down the street really slowly to see all the available talent and (b) you've got to commit / pick before you go in. I'd much rather them have the usual system where girls take rota's standing outside trying to cajole customers in but most are inside where you can sit, ogle, observe and pick. I wanted to go in to the corner bar opposite Ostex as I knew there was a pool table there, but unfortunately I could see it was in use. This is another bug bear of mine in PP, there is very little to do in the actual bars themselves other than drink. I ended up in Secrets as I knew the name and it had no girls outside. 20+ girls inside, but none were particularly attractive. It was nearing 3am at this point, so plausible that they had already been taken but the options werent great. I ended up sitting at the bar with a girl that was clearly a cut above the rest. I suspected this, and it turned out to be the case, that this girl was a honeytrap that doesnt go with customers. At this point, I didn't particularly care so spent $50 or so on having a few drinks and a bit of fun - her English was reasonable. It got to 5am and the bar closed, I asked her if she was coming and she said no. She then sends me a message after I'd left saying that she will come with me, presumably to either avoid the bar fine or losing face. I offered her $100 knowing that is the usual expected rate for top tier in PP and she comes back with $200. Its not a lot of money to be honest, and I'd probably have given her it if she'd have come and was good, but I wasnt going to agree to a price I knew was far higher than the going rate so I refused and she would not budge. I'll probably make a trip back at some point to test the waters further - I saw enough to have another look even if this evening was a wash out.
Siem Reap - Plenty of freelancers on Pub Street. Unfortunately many of them were absolutely shit faced and aggressively hitting on me at about 10pm whilst I was trying to watch the Saturday 3pm KO football, so I told them to fuck off. The rooftop of temple bar is the best place late in the evening with a handful of freelancers and normal Cambodian girls looking to hook up. Didn't need to punt this evening, but they were mostly Viets which I tend to avoid as they are mercenaries. Didn't enquire about pricing.
Best punting of recent times went on in Bali surprisingly. I'm hesitant to recommend this as I think it is very subjective based on many factors, even possibly the time of the year. The clubs in Seminyak & Kuta (Favela, Engine Room, Sky Garden) have lots of freelancers in them. One night there were about 50 Indian guys in a club; clearly a bachelor party. The young guys just wanted to dance amongst themselves and have a laugh whilst taking over the DJs music selection and making the entire club a Bollywood place, whilst the older pervy guys knew whats was up and were running round the fringes engaging with the freelancers. Spare a thought for the two blonde western women who had ended up in this club thinking it was a legit place, who would probably get a lot of male attention on a regular Friday/Saturday night, dancing in the middle of the floor wondering why nobody was hitting on them this night.... Anyway, my mate took two girls from here on two different nights and I took one. She was very cute, slim, said she was 26 and I'd believe her, and a lot of fun. When we got back to my place, we showered together, plenty of kissing, went down on her knees in the shower to give me OWO, then enthusiastic sex. We slept together and had another round in the morning before she left. Price for this? 1 Juta. About £50. Their opening offer was $100, but they snap accepted the counter of 1 Juta. I say hesitant to recommend because I have no idea how regular this is. It might simply be a thing in low season, as I can't imagine this club being full of freelancers during high season when its crammed with Aussies. I think its time to make a trip to Jakarta and test the Indonesian waters further.
