Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Arrange meetups and get togethers with other Happier Abroad members in your area, or coming to your area.
User avatar
Winston
Site Admin
Posts: 37670
Joined: August 18th, 2007, 6:16 am
Contact:

Re: Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Post by Winston »

I met up with billy last night. Hes still doing great and looking healthy, positive and active. Hes one of the very few expats in angeles that looks fit and athletic and high energy. He goes dancing every night at a disco club and is in his element there. He gave me a 3 hour pep talk last night about being happy and how to maintain it. It was very interesting. Ill post about it in my updates thread.

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9537&p=246794#p246794
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
zboy1
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 4648
Joined: October 3rd, 2007, 9:33 pm

Re: Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Post by zboy1 »

I'll be in Angeles City in February, the second week of the month for about a week. Anyone interested in meeting me? I would like to meet other HA's, which I've done on my other trips abroad. It's always been interesting for me to meet new people and make friends while abroad.
User avatar
Yohan
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 6121
Joined: April 2nd, 2014, 10:05 pm
Location: JAPAN

Re: Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Post by Yohan »

I will be in Cebu City around beginning of May 2016 for 2 weeks. Contact me if you are in that area.
User avatar
Winston
Site Admin
Posts: 37670
Joined: August 18th, 2007, 6:16 am
Contact:

Re: Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Post by Winston »

Update:

Well it looks like zboy and marcoszeitola will be coming to Philippines during second week of February. I will try to organize a meetup with them here in angeles city.

So in total, it will be me, rock, billy, zboy and marcoszeitola. Five of us in meetup. Ill try to invite Mr S too but its hard to get him to meet nowadays. Hes always busy with work and family.

Anyone else want to join?

Marcoszeitola, u wanna meet dianne and angelo too, since u always talk about them? Lol

I also have a new Italian expat friend now and an Italian-Swiss expat friend as well who makes a living online too. You guys can meet them too. They are both in angeles city.
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
User avatar
Winston
Site Admin
Posts: 37670
Joined: August 18th, 2007, 6:16 am
Contact:

Re: Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Post by Winston »

In case anyone needs directions from manila airport to angeles city, here are the instructions i sent to zboy1:

Directions from manila airport to angeles:

1. You will probably arrive in airport terminal 3. When you go out the exit doors after getting your baggage from carousel, turn toward the right. Walk toward the right until you see a line for the yellow cab. All the taxis there are yellow. If someone offers u a ride, ignore them. If you dont see it or the yellow taxis havent arrived, ask someone where is the yellow cab line. If they tell u it doesnt exist then they are lying and have an ulterior motive to lead u somewhere else, so ignore them and ask someone else.

The yellow cabs are run by the airport and more safe and honest. The meter starts at 70 php, which is a little more than the 40 php taxi standard. So the difference is only like 50 cents.

* Make sure to get Philippines cash, pesos, at the currency exchange booth inside airport before you go out the exit doors of course.

2. When you line up in yellow cab line, someone may ask your destination and write it down on paper and give it to you. Just tell him your destination is pasay 5 star bus terminal. Show the paper to the taxi driver. When u get into cab tell driver "5 star bus terminal in pasay". Or you can go to victory liner terminal in pasay too. But that one may run less frequently and u may wait longer there.

3. When you reach 5 star terminal, or bus station, get out and pay the metered taxi fare. Should be between 150 and 180 pesos.

Look for the bus marked marquee mall on the front. If u dont see it, ask the attendant wearing white shirt and name tag. Tell him you wanna go to angeles city or dau. Its pronounced da-ooo. If u go to victory liner, there may be a direct bus to dau. Im not sure. Ask rock.

If u need to go to bathroom, go at bus station first in the rear area, since the bus will not have a restroom inside.

4. The bus ride will be about 2 hours. If its late and no traffic, maybe 90 minutes. When you see marquee mall, get off and u will be at a bus and jeepney station across the mall. If u arent sure if ur at marquee mall, ask someone on the bus to tell u when bus arrives there. Same with dau.

5. At the bus or jeepney terminal in marquee mall or dau, you will see buses and jeepneys lined up. Look for the one marked C point or checkpoint or SM clark. All those go to the SM mall or checkpoint, which is a big jeepney station across from the SM mall.

6. Once you reach checkpoint or SM, just take a trike to your hotel. A trike consists of a motorcycle with box car attached to it for passenger. U can put yourself and ur luggage in the box car. Tell the trike driver where u want to go, but make sure to NEGOTIATE the price in advance, or else he may ask for 150 pesos when u get off because trike drivers tend to be greedy. Try to bargain it down to 70 or 80 pesos. If not then bargain down to 100 pesos. But dont accept any more than that. Most trike drivers will accept 100 pesos.

If you arrive in dau station, which is a huge bus station, then take a trike there and follow the same procedure above. The trike drivers know all the hotels in angeles city.

The trikes are easy to find. They are everywhere and will call out to you when you get off the bus. So you cant miss them.

7. Once u reach ur hotel, check in and get familiar with the area. Ask receptionist girl or other expats for directions on how to take the jeepney to fields or SM or wherever u want to go. Jeepneys are only 7 pesos. Much cheaper than trikes which cost 100 pesos for foreigners, but less for local filipinos of course.

I dont recommend trikes unless u are new and dont know your way around. Once u are familiar with the area, u can start taking jeepneys, which are almost free. So have me or someone show u the jeepney routes.

As of now, 47 pesos = 1 USD dollar, if you want to know the conversion rate.

As u know, if u get lost during any of the above, just ask someone. But if they take advantage of u and offer a ride, make sure to negotiate price in advance.

Let me know if you have any questions.
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
User avatar
MarcosZeitola
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 4268
Joined: May 31st, 2014, 12:13 pm
Location: Europe

Re: Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Post by MarcosZeitola »

I'm shocked the trikes are so expensive for you, drivers in Angeles City must rip guys off more often. Out here in the province, I inquired what the locals pay and that's what I pay, too. It rarely exceeds 20 pesos for small distances, comparable to jeepneys for longer distances.

Other then that, those are some pretty solid directions.
On "Faux-Tradionalists" and why they're heading nowhere: viewtopic.php?style=1&f=37&t=29144
User avatar
Winston
Site Admin
Posts: 37670
Joined: August 18th, 2007, 6:16 am
Contact:

Re: Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Post by Winston »

MarcosZeitola wrote:I'm shocked the trikes are so expensive for you, drivers in Angeles City must rip guys off more often. Out here in the province, I inquired what the locals pay and that's what I pay, too. It rarely exceeds 20 pesos for small distances, comparable to jeepneys for longer distances.

Other then that, those are some pretty solid directions.
Really? I was told the average trike price in Philippines is 8 pesos or 10 pesos for most places. Angeles is an exception. In manila trikes are only in residential areas and cost arounf 20 or 30 pesos.
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
Rock
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 4206
Joined: April 21st, 2010, 9:16 am

Re: Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Post by Rock »

MarcosZeitola wrote:I'm shocked the trikes are so expensive for you, drivers in Angeles City must rip guys off more often. Out here in the province, I inquired what the locals pay and that's what I pay, too. It rarely exceeds 20 pesos for small distances, comparable to jeepneys for longer distances.

Other then that, those are some pretty solid directions.
Marcos,

Trike/Trycycle prices in Philippines vary dramatically depending on location and local market dynamics. For example, in Bicol, a ride about anywhere in Naga City will run just 8 pesos, foreigner or local. If you go very far way to the outskirts, it might jump to 16. Price is same whether local or foreigner. BUT, in Legazpi only 2-3 hours away, they generally start at 50 for a fairly short ride and it jumps up to 100+ for any ride of reasonable distance. And that's the local price which can be same for foreigners as long as you negotiate just a bit. Why the difference? Latter is much more spread out and touristy while former is concentrated with tight supply/demand. So the drivers in Naga can get over dozens of fares a day whereas in Legaspi, they might only get a small handful.

Angeles City has an oversupply of Trikes and is over run by foreigners. It's natural that the drivers charge what they do. Generally, I can get a ride from Fields area directly to Dau bus terminal for 80-90 with a bit of negotiating but generally, my attitude is just drop em' 100 and keep things simple. That's about a 15 min ride by the way. It's the shorter rides which are bad value for money cus they still usually want at least half of that.
User avatar
Winston
Site Admin
Posts: 37670
Joined: August 18th, 2007, 6:16 am
Contact:

Re: Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Post by Winston »

Well it looks like marcoszeitola isnt coming to our meetup. Apparently his wifes relatives are more important than us. Lol

So it will just be zboy, me, rock and billy.

Btw theres a Return of Kings meet up in Makati on February 6 if anyones interested. ROK is rooshv's blog. See below:

http://www.returnofkings.com/78021/full ... meetup-day

http://www.returnofkings.com/78592/freq ... february-6

Im not sure if i should go though. Roosh's group doesnt like me.
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
User avatar
Yohan
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 6121
Joined: April 2nd, 2014, 10:05 pm
Location: JAPAN

Re: Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Post by Yohan »

Winston wrote: Btw theres a Return of Kings meet up in Makati on February 6 if anyones interested. ROK is rooshv's blog.
---
Im not sure if i should go though. Roosh's group doesnt like me.
I think, it is better to stay away.

RooshV is too much into pick up of Western women, his way to argue is very impolite, and this goes into the wrong direction, it makes feminists and especially manginas stronger and not weaker with their arguments.

He is plainly unable to present good arguments, despite some what he says is true, for example the bad situation for men concerning false rape allegations.
User avatar
Winston
Site Admin
Posts: 37670
Joined: August 18th, 2007, 6:16 am
Contact:

Re: Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Post by Winston »

Update:

The meetup went well. It was me, rock, zboy and billy. We all had great genuine conversations about many things. I introduced them to some of my new italian expat friends here too. Rock and zboy got along great. They had a lot to talk about, and rock was more talkative than usual, probably because he was excited to meet a new forum member. I knew that two easygoing, down to earth, freethinker type guys would get along well.

The thing about rock though is that although he is a critical person and realistic person, he likes to see the glass as half empty, and focus on the limitations of a place rather than its benefits. So he is not completely neutral or objective, but has biases. That comes across when hes making observations and analyses about countries and places.

Btw when zboy first arrived, I took him to the mall and immediately a tall hot sales girl asked him if he was single! Ive never seen that happen before. She was so forward and beautiful and tall! So far he got two numbers from two tall hot girls already! It was surreal!

I guess the girls here can sense if someone is new and so they try to snap them up before anyone does. Lol. :)

Later on, me and rock introduced zboy to more girls and when we took him to a disco, he found a girl to take out for a walk and back to his place. Like me, zboy finds discos to be too loud and noisy, not a relaxing place.

Maybe zboy will write a trip report at some point.
Check out my FUN video clips in Russia and SE Asia and Female Encounters of the Foreign Kind video series and Full Russia Trip Videos!

Join my Dating Site to meet thousands of legit foreign girls at low cost!

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne
droid
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 3127
Joined: September 19th, 2013, 11:38 pm

Re: Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Post by droid »

Winston wrote:Btw when zboy first arrived, I took him to the mall and immediately a tall hot sales girl asked him if he was single! Ive never seen that happen before. She was so forward and beautiful and tall! So far he got two numbers from two tall hot girls already! It was surreal!
Later on, me and rock introduced zboy to more girls and when we took him to a disco, he found a girl to take out for a walk and back to his place. Like me, zboy finds discos to be too loud and noisy, not a relaxing place.
But he is a gentleman, he doesn't sleep around, that's below him :wink:

Winston wrote:Maybe zboy will write a trip report at some point.
yeah with pics, don't hold your breath :lol:
1)Too much of one thing defeats the purpose.
2)Everybody is full of it. What's your hypocrisy?
zboy1
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 4648
Joined: October 3rd, 2007, 9:33 pm

Re: Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Post by zboy1 »

I recently broke up with my Chinese girlfriend because of some issues (mainly her parents), so I'm single again. Anyway, I'm single and just enjoying traveling and going on dates with girls.

Angeles City is nice, but the bar/nightclub scene is not my thing. I don't like the vibe, but I have been on a date with a nice girl who someone on the forum introduced me to.
Rock
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 4206
Joined: April 21st, 2010, 9:16 am

Re: Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Post by Rock »

Winston wrote:Update:

The meetup went well. It was me, rock, zboy and billy. We all had great genuine conversations about many things. I introduced them to some of my new italian expat friends here too. Rock and zboy got along great. They had a lot to talk about, and rock was more talkative than usual, probably because he was excited to meet a new forum member. I knew that two easygoing, down to earth, freethinker type guys would get along well.

The thing about rock though is that although he is a critical person and realistic person, he likes to see the glass as half empty, and focus on the limitations of a place rather than its benefits. So he is not completely neutral or objective, but has biases. That comes across when hes making observations and analyses about countries and places.

Btw when zboy first arrived, I took him to the mall and immediately a tall hot sales girl asked him if he was single! Ive never seen that happen before. She was so forward and beautiful and tall! So far he got two numbers from two tall hot girls already! It was surreal!

I guess the girls here can sense if someone is new and so they try to snap them up before anyone does. Lol. :)

Later on, me and rock introduced zboy to more girls and when we took him to a disco, he found a girl to take out for a walk and back to his place. Like me, zboy finds discos to be too loud and noisy, not a relaxing place.

Maybe zboy will write a trip report at some point.
Keep in mind, the biggest point of contention I felt with the last Italian guy (the one doing e-commerce who is very well travelled) was regarding some of the negative comments he made about Filipinos (from Luzon and Visayas) such as, they are the most most selfish, least appreciative, least friendly, etc. of all people he's met in the world.

This guy was mostly negative on Filipinos whereas I was much more positive. In this case, not only was I seeing the glass half full, but more like 85% full whereas he was seeing as 85% empty.

My other main point of contention with a few of the foreign guys is the desirability of Angeles City. IMO, there are mostly 2 types of girls there - transplants from other parts of Philippines from lowest stratas who come to work in bar industry AND native Pampangans who are on the reserved and conservative end of the Filipinos scale and who tend to assume western guys they see around and about are Fields Ave. mongers. So you've got relatively poor uneducated bar girls from other provinces who get spoiled by continuous revolving door of visiting foreign men and real local girls who assume you are a monger. That combo does not IMO make for a great place to find quality longer term gfs if you are into more middle class and/or traditional types.

The fact is, every time I visit Angeles, I start to feel physically and emotionally ill after a couple days or so. For me, there seems to be this weird vibe that starts to bog down my spirit and soul after 48 hours or so. And I also often catch colds there (happened on my last 2 trips and one other forum member I met during New Years got seriously ill there as well). I do love meeting new expats and having long discussions with many of them. But there's something about Angeles area which I so far have not been able to adjust to at a gut level.

And the overwhelming majority of the girls I see walking around and about Fields area when you look at them closely and imagine them without the make-up or high heels and alcohol/dim light goggles are shortish native looking types, with a very high percentage who are desperate to support a kid or more. The glitz and glamour of Angeles City is at least 95% smoke and mirrors. The naughty boys are carousing with uneducated farm girls and peasant single moms for the most part. It's a fun illusion for many but harder to appreciate if you've been around the block a few times and have a critical sober eye.

Sure if you go to Marquee Mall, SM Pampanga, or even SM Clark, you see some attractive Pampangans of course. But westerners tend to carry a stigma in their eyes. I'm glad zboy met nice girls working in mall. But as I told him, SM employees tend to be long hour slaves with very little free time so he probably will be challenged to secure a date with one unless she's really into him.

But we all know there are exceptions galore. You got Dianne after all! And I introduced zboy to Marissa who's another decent Pampangan. BTW zboy, how did that date go? Any longer term potential?

End of day, it always amazes me how widely some of perceptions vary when you talk to multiple expats with years or even decades under their belt in host culture.
gsjackson
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 3758
Joined: June 12th, 2010, 7:08 am
Location: New Orleans, LA USA
Contact:

Re: Meetup in the Philippines? Many HA members are there!

Post by gsjackson »

Winston wrote:Update:

. Rock and zboy got along great. .
Well, that's certainly good news, and quite the surprise. People on this forum don't seem to have long memories of grievances, which is all to the good. Winston and Stephan, mortal enemies, reconciled? Jester and fschmidt became good pals, subsequent to jester calling him something that can't be repeated in polite company. Very impressive.

Next thing you know, PaloAltoGuy and OilTradingAcademy will be voted most popular posters.
Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “Meetups and Get Togethers”