Last night I was at the opening night for a new club called Club Bureau it’s located on Makati Avenue besides A.Venue. The music I guess like many clubs here is themed, meaning each night they have different DJ’s and different sounds, be it House, Techno, HipHop, etc. Nice big venue smoking allowed which can be a good thing depending whether you smoke or not of course.

Thursday night was salsa night at Mezze in Greenbelt. I’ve never been to any salsa clubs here but I gotta say I was impressed. The music was great and just like in my country guys just came up to ask for a dance without a hidden agenda, heh, well, mostly. After that we went for a drink at M Cafe and I was introduced to some PANAMANIANS woohoo! I was so excited to speak my language again but sad to realize that I have lost my Panamanian accent long ago. The good thing is that speaking your language is like riding a bike, once you get back on it, you realize you never really forgot. So I will make it a point to hang with my new Panamanian friends to talk stories of home.

All in all, it’s been a few interesting weeks. Lots to do and most importantly I am no longer unemployed which sort of puts a break on my social life but I’m actually ok with that. Gotta be careful with the boyz, don’t wanna get your heart stumped on too many times right?

In addition to all of this, of course there were the nights of hanging out with friends.  On Tuesday I met some friends at MCafe at Greenbelt 4 nice, cozy place with great food and comfy ambiance.  Every Tuesday a group of people get together for this dinner to network and just hang out.  Wednesday my friend Danny and I decided to do the local thing and we went to Seaside just behind Ortigas Home Depot.  If you’ve never heard of this place and you like seafood, you’ve got to go.  One of the best kept secrets around if you ask me.  There are a bunch of little restaurants in a row and you order off the menu.  The difference is, they just prepare the food, behind the restaurants is a fish market so they buy the food for you and cook it however you want.  so you pay a fee for the cooking and whatever market price for the food.  Pretty cool and fairly inexpensive.

Friday night, Danny and I went to my friend Chico’s house and just stayed there getting soundly wasted all night.  Believe it or not, this was the best night of my life.  Saturday, was Alchemy at Warehouse which is really close to my house I found that a little surprising and great at the same time.  Nice trans music pretty big place, definitely a place to party.

Now that my efforts actually paid off and I am once again gainfully employed, I won’t be out too much but concentrating on my new gig.  I’m sure I’ll still find time for a fun night here and there but I actually welcome the very needed brake.  If I ever find a way to get this plug up, I’ll be posting some cool pics to go with all this ranting…

The place was once more Martini’s at the Oriental. I really like this place, good music, drinks and it usually is a place to just chill. This night was a little different, the place was packed because it was Natalie’s birthday whom I had never met until that night but we have some friends in common so it was great to meet her. Very nice, beautiful girl but most importantly she owns a girl beagle. I have a boy beagle although my Stanley currently lives with my ex. Either way, I still got Natalie’s number because we are both interested in mating them… Can’t wait for that!

So not really much more to say about that night other than me and my friend Danny got completely wasted and I lost my damn umbrella… again. Second time within a week… I always loose shit, kinda annoying actually.

Friday night, I met up with my new girlfriends Summer and Leah and went dancing. Now here is a little third world country action for ya… About a month ago, one of the hottest clubs in Manila got shut down for two weeks. The reason? A drunk DJ. The action? He decided to beat up the WRONG person. Apparently he got into a fight with a club goer and it just so happened that this fella was well connected. He filed a complaint with the police and the club was shut down. Take it a step further, because of this seemingly small altercation, all the other clubs in the area were put on a curfew… no more booze after 2am…. WTF??!!?? Yeah, one guy with a grudge fucks it up for the rest of us. So the night out was not all that exciting, the club I went to was Ascend located on High Street at The Fort. And go figure, the place was curiously empty compared to what it usually is. But there was dancing nonetheless so it wasn’t a complete waste. After curfew we bounced with our friend Greg to another after hours bar in Makati called Martinis, this one is at the Mandarin Hotel. Great place to just chill and grab that one last drink that you will regret in the morning.

So there it is, that’s what a single girl in Manila does, goes clubbing, takes the jeepney and MRT (ok that might be just me) and hangs out with good friends. Leaves the bad friends behind and re-evaluates those choices

Getting around in Manila is actually pretty easy, there are taxis, jeepneys, buses and even a rail system. Sadly for most foreigners taxis are the main option of transportation mainly because it’s a bit scary to try and figure out the rest. Me? I’m lucky that even though I am a foreigner, I actually look like a local. I am 100% Hispanic, I was born in Nicaragua but grew up in Panama which means I’m brown and for one of those faith things I have an asian look to me. Not sure why but lucky for me, it works to my advantage. I can actually blend in an infiltrate hehehe.

So I’ve decided to try and save some money and hassle from taxis and do the local thing, jeepneys and the train. I’ve only taken a jeepney a couple of times in my almost 2 years here and I’ve taken the train three times. Two of those times… yesterday. I had to go from Makati to Ortigas which depending on traffic can be anywhere from P70 to P150. So I went to the 7-11 and asked the girl at the counter which jeepney to take to the MRT station and how much. The fee P8.50 and the accommodations, heh, a little snug but I made it there no problem. Just when I was about to get out, a whole opened in the sky and the Niagra Falls came pouring down. Even my umbrella was not enough to stop me from getting soaked while walking the short distance to the inside of the station. Once inside it’s all real simple, you buy a ticket P11 and go through to the platform to wait with the rest of the cattle. And when I say cattle I don’t mean anything bad by it, that’s just the way it is, as soon as the train arrives, it’s time to push, shove and hit little people over the head or you stay around to wait for the next ride. All this aside, it is the best mode of transportation, you get there in 10 minutes versus an hour in regular traffic. And as far as safety, well there’s a few guards standing around with big riffles at every corner so it does give you a warm snuggly feeling… well that and 100 sweaty people cozying on up and exchanging their own brand of BO and other interesting smells.

To sum it up P39 for a round trip to Ortigas instead of P200+ for a scamming taxi ride… I’ll take that any day. And one last word of caution… If you do venture into public transportation, try not to sit at the tail end of the jeepney if you don’t want to inhale enough smoke to turn your lungs into ash AND if it’s raining, step back when the train arrives or you’ll feel like you just finished your first ride at Wet ‘n Wild.

So about internet cafe’s… All the ones I’ve been to are in the Makati area and there are a lot of young people that frequent them.  Most are fairly nice but like everything else, the nicer the more expensive, the shittier the more you have to keep an eye on your purse.  The one I go to is called iHooked and is close to Makati Medical on Urban Street.  First things first, if you want to freeze your balls off, then you should come here.  If you want to smoke in the middle of a bunch of kids from 15 to 35 (yeah 35 yr olds act like kids too) then you should come here.  If you want peace and quiet and think the “quiet” room will be the answer, then you should NOT come here.

But not all is bad, I discovered today that they actually brew their own coffee and it’s pretty damn good, doesn’t taste like dirty water with a splash of ass.  Much appreciated.  The staff is also very helpful and always courteous but then again that can be said for any Filipino establishment.  Unfortunately as nice as the staff is and the fact that this is not the cheapest place, I still have to educate them on how to do things like scan in PDF, oh wait, they didn’t know what a PDF was so I had to start there.

To sum it up, internet cafe’s are for kids, if you want to do any serious business, you are better off going to a hotel and using their business centers (if you can afford it).  If you don’t have a choice, then bring noise canceling headphones and stay away from the smoking room.