Cebu Philippines Trip Report – Day 3

Day 3 begins by waking up too late to enjoy the breakfast buffet and Ms. Cute Waitress and I say goodbye. I offered to walk her downstairs to grab a taxi but she no problem, she’s a big girl. I slip her 500 pesos ($10) and tell her it’s for the taxi and for her tip last night that I forgot to give her when I paid the bill at her bar. She smiles and gives me a big hug and a kiss.

After my shower, I decide to walk to IT Business Park for some coffee, breakfast, and some day-time gaming. The downpour outside quickly changed my plans so I grabbed an umbrella from the hotel and head across the street to Ayala Center. The first coffee shop I come across is Starbucks but it’s way too crowded. I head up to the 3rd floor terraces and settle on Bo’s Coffee shop. I order my coffee and Panini sandwich and then take a seat at the only available table. The crowd is a mix of westerners, locals, and what I assume are Koreans. They are Asian but definitely not from PI.

I am busy reading the news and catching up on my emails when a lady asked if she could sit at my table since the place is full. No problem I reply. She is rather tall for an Asian, slim body, but probably only a 5 on the looks scale. We start the normal chitchat and she claims to be from Thailand. She didn’t look Thai to me and when I started speaking a little Thai, her face went blank. My Thai sucks big time but if she couldn’t even reply to my ‘Sabai dee mai krub’, I knew she wasn’t from Thailand and was probably a working girl. I never did figure out where she was from but probably a Filipino mix because her English was very good and she had no accent when speaking. She made some suggestive comments but I wasn’t biting and after about 15 minutes she leaves.

I continue catching up on my emails while keeping an awareness of what’s going on around me. I see several ladies that are obviously working ladies sit down with some of the male customers. It’s obvious they know each other from previous encounters I assume.

It’s time to pack up and take a stroll through the mall. This mall is the 2nd largest in Cebu City and since it is located downtown in the business district, the number of visitors is much higher than the other malls. As I am walking around, it is very easy to spot the professional working girls. They stand around leaning up against a rail pretending to be busy on their phone. Most of these girls are on the lower tier of the looks department and not dressed very well. If you make eye contact, they will give you a seductive smile that leaves no doubt what they are up to. A few of them approached me asking the typical questions of where you going, what you doing, you want company, etc. One even asked me for the time as an icebreaker and I just pointed to her cellphone stating the obvious.

I continue exploring the mall looking in stores for a potential opportunity to get a number. I approached several girls that were shopping and a few of the sales girls. I was only able to obtain one number because I agreed to buy some cologne only if she agreed to give me her number. Ms. Cologne was quite the funny lady and after I made the purchase she told me she would have given me her number without all the BS.

I venture back to the hotel to get some much-needed sleep. I am about to doze off and my phone receives a message. Of course I am curious so I look at the message. It is Ms. Davao from Starbucks the day before and asks me how I am doing, what you doing, etc. After a few messages back and forth, we make plans to meet that evening 7 PM at Ayala Center.

I am awakened a few hours later by a horrendous storm brewing. I check the Internet and sure enough a big storm is rolling through the area but should be over with in about an hour. I take my shower, drink of couple of SMLs, and then proceed over to Ayala Center entrance near the taxi drop-off point and wait for Ms. Davao to appear. I am punctual and arrive at 7 PM but having already experienced PI time, I don’t expect her to be there until 7:30 or so. I message her at 7:15 PM to check her status and she replies at 7:30 saying she had some work to finish and she would be there soon. I politely reply and tell her to forget about the evening and maybe we can try another night when she’s not so busy. She then asked if I could meet her at the Starbucks in IT Business Park. WTF? Again, I politely declined and said maybe some other time and that I was very hungry and didn’t want to wait another hour.

I proceeded upstairs to the 4th Floor terraces to grab something to eat and hopefully see Ms. Etouffee from Murray’s New Orleans I had met 2 nights before. No such luck. The rain was keeping most of the customers away and she had gone home early. After another decent meal at Murray’s, I make my way to the taxi area only to find a very long line of customers and no taxis. So I venture back to the hotel hoping to catch a taxi there. The rain had caused some flooding in parts of Cebu City and taxis were very scarce that night and walking the 20 minutes was out of the question not knowing if the streets were flooded between the hotel and Mango Square. I waited almost 2 hours for my turn even after giving the taxi hailer a nice tip that allowed me to skip a few people in line.

I finally make it to Mango Square area and when I hurriedly exited the taxi, I left my 2 mobiles on the seat as mentioned in my initial submission. I was able to retrieve my phones from the taxi driver with the help of a stranger who allowed me to use their phone. Was the taxi driver that honest or did the system keep him honest? The hotel I was staying, Quest Hotel, would write down the plate number and name of the taxi driver on a piece of paper and hand it to the customer in case the customer has a complaint or what not. Great system and I would recommend this for anyone taking a taxi.

I walked by the bar where Ms. Cute Waitress worked but she wasn’t there so I went to Semi-final hoping to see Ms. Brown Eyes. No luck there either but I sat down and ordered a beer. The place was void of customers accept for a few people in the back playing pool, the in-house tattoo artist, and the work staff. A couple of obvious pros walked in, had a look around and then departed. A slow night all around thanks to the rain. I decided to head over to Time Out Bar that was suggested to me by Ms. Vixen a few nights earlier. It is located on F Ramos street and about a 5 minute walk from Mango Square area. The rain had slowed to a drizzle by now and the only real obstacle to avoid was the water puddles.

I entered Time Out Bar and the place was full. Downstairs is a small bar area with enough space for about 20 customers while upstairs was much larger with room for a pool table (free), a couple of dart boards, a band, and 40 customers. I forget the name of the band but they were very good playing mostly 70’s – 90’s rock.

I order a beer and place my name on the wait list to play pool. While I wait my turn, I glance around looking for any potential possibilities. The customer base was a good mix of 50% locals and 50% expats; definitely no pros in this place. The wait staff/bartenders were extremely hospitable, friendly, easy on the eyes, and never let my beer get empty before another one was on the table.

I played pool, drank more beer, chatted with the waitresses, the locals, and the other expats. I was befriended by a long-term expat American who filled me in on some of the wait staff on whether or not they have a BF or husband. He pointed out a couple of the cute waitresses and said they were probably my best bet but don’t rush things and be discreet. They are just hard working girls that come from poor families and they like to party just like most mid-20 girls but they can’t afford it. Talk to them, buy them a drink, and say stupid funny crap that makes them laugh. Basically make sure they are comfortable with you before making any type of approach for a date.

The band had stopped by now and about half of the customers had left which gave me more opportunity to talk with the cute waitresses and slowly lower their guard. By the time closing rolled around at 2am, mission accomplished and had the phone number of one of the waitresses. She was 27, single mother, a cute 7, and had a smile that would melt your heart.

I said my goodbyes and headed back toward Mango Square. Almost all of the beer bars were closed by now for lack of customers so I opted to stroll around inside Mango Square for a look around. There are several discos including J Ave., Club Ultra, Alchology, Club Hype, and Club Holic and Mixx. All of the clubs either play Hip Hop, Electronic Dance Music, RnB or a mix of these. On this night, J Ave was by far the busiest and was occupied with about 50% Koreans and probably 50% of the local girls in attendance were working their trade on the Koreans while the other 50% seemed to be there just to party with their girl or boyfriends. Not many non-Asians in the place and specifically only a couple above 40 including me.

The other clubs that night were not nearly as busy and I couldn’t say I liked one more than the other. Alchology seemed to have a better mix of locals and expats and drinks were ridiculously low for a disco. It was very easy to spot the working Pros. I bought a drink for one attractive Pro and we talked for about an hour. Typical story for a Pro….28, single mother of 2, husband run off, 10th grade education, etc. She and her sister work Mango Square about 5 nights a week and lucky if they get 3 customers each a week. Asking price was $40 but would accept as low as $20 depending on the time. Her sister joined us after 30 minutes and I couldn’t stop looking at her. She was definitely a 9, no children, 26, and a body to die for. It didn’t take long talking to her to realize something was missing between the ears. I don’t know if she was on drugs, mentally challenged, or what. If I were looking for a quick one-pop short-time, I would have dropped the $40 quicker than Trump fires his staff.

Speaking of short-time, there are no short-time rooms in the bars like you find in Pattaya. However, I was told by a young back-packer that very cheap rooms are available by the hour not far from Mango Square. I’m not exactly where he was speaking of but I am sure any of the local expats can tell you and I am certain the working Pros can as well.

I decided to call it a night and I went back to my room to literally watch a movie by myself and get some rest for the weekend. Smart decision on my part but I just didn’t know it yet at the time.

There was plenty of P4P in Mango Square that I could have thoroughly enjoyed but my decision to stick with the non-Pros this time around brought me much more satisfaction. I didn’t mind going home alone knowing that the next day would bring a new and exciting experience with these lovely Cebuanas.

The author can be contacted at : rich.clay65@gmail.com