VACATIONS AND OUTINGS
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FIRST HAND EXPERIENCES IN ANGELES CITY
Submitted by: Jimmy Regina
Titled: My First Time In Angeles City
This story was submitted to me a couple weeks ago by Jim and he obviously took a great amount of time to write 22 chapters of information about his first trip to Angeles City, 3 chapters of which we have included here. Jim happened across this site, saw our offer of free tickets and has recruited 10 of his friends and workmates to take on a tour himself. Of course, Jim can now use the money he saved on his airfare and use it in Angeles on his second trip which he has scheduled already for February 2006. Here are Jim's first experiences in Angeles City.
MY FIRST TRIP TO ANGELES CITY, PHILIPPINES
Vince and I had just set out on our very first trip to Angeles City in the Philippines. We had waited months for this very day and now it was here. Excitedly packing and preparing for weeks, we couldn't wait to finally see it for ourselves. Our curiosity sparked by the colorful stories and tales we'd heard of this far-away wonderland, we now wanted to live it and make stories of our own. So much anticipation, so much hope, so much enthusiasm! As glorious a time as this was, we still had almost thirty hours of travel ahead of us. It didn't seem fair after we'd waited all this time but it was the only way.
This would be Vince's first time out of the country and first time on an airplane for that matter. So, to ease his tension about flying, we stopped in a little airport bar in Baltimore to have a few of our last over-priced beers. Wouldn't you know it, the bartender was nothing but a gorgeous little Filipina! No kidding, really! We thought this to be a good omen since we hadn't even left the ground yet. She was very attractive, about 30ish, and once we told her we were going to the Philippines, a delightful conversation ensued. Things were looking good already!
After a short hop from Baltimore to New York, we then boarded a China Airlines flight going to Taipei (ohmygod, one day after they had a major air disaster). But we had drank enough to brave through it and get on board. Note to self: Don't ever fly China Air again. Uhh...bad food, bad service and no speakie Englishie. But they were cheap, so I guess you get what you pay for as the saying goes. After seemingly endless hours on the most painful, excruciating flight ever, we were finally in Taipei. Thank God, now only an hour and a half to Manila. After a shaky approach, we cheered graciously with the homeward bound Filipino's as the China Air pilot finally touched down at Ninoy Aquino International. (Whew, that was scary!)
So we made it! At long last we were here in the Philippines! We whizzed through immigration and customs since we brought only carefully packed carry-on bags and then followed the instructions for locating our Margaritaville driver who was right where they said he'd be. Although, we then had to literally push our way through a sea of other prospective taxi and van drivers who all seemed overly eager for us to ride with them instead. The ride up to Angeles was interesting for the fact that Vince, having never been to the Philippines, was teetering on the edge of his seat as our skillful van driver darted and dashed in and out of the lively Manila traffic. This would mark my fifth time in the Philippines (but first to AC) and I must admit, it is still scary when they cut right in front of buses like that.
I saw a huge, dark, volcano shaped thing off aways in the distance and I assumed we were getting closer as it turned out to be the infamous Mt. Pinatubo. He dropped us off at the entrance to the Orchid Inn where we had reservations two months in advance. We soon found out what all the hype was about. It's just a super place with a great staff at the best location. As we were checking in, Vince and I both felt like we were intruding some sort of secret society or something by a few of the looks we got. Could've possibly been because we are both a tad bit younger than the average Angeles City visitor. Vince is twenty-five and I am twenty-one. Yes, we stuck out like sore thumbs---and we knew it. After previewing our rooms, we settled in, unpacked a little and then met to decide on what was next. It was now about 1:30 in the afternoon and we had just been traveling for close to thirty hours door-to-door. Should we lay down to rest from our long, tiresome journey? NAAAAWW!!!!
We emphatically got showered and dressed before meeting down in the lobby twenty minutes later. Pretending we knew what we were doing, we pranced right out the front of the Orchid past the bar. The first thing we noticed was the HEAT!! Oh my goodness that Sun was so hot. You could almost feel it penetrating your epidermal layers and seeping into you blood. We then must've looked like two fish out of water coz we had absolutely NO idea where to go. We wanted to go someplace but we just didn't know where. We had to move, because the guys selling t-shirts had surrounded us like vultures. We haphazardly sauntered down the street but not before Vince made the mistake of promising one of the buggers that he's buy a shirt from him tomorrow. (He hounded us the remainder of our stay) We ploddingly made our way to the famous Kokomo's and decided we needed a good meal after the atrocious China Airlines slop. During the dusty, dirty walk, which seemed to last forever, we saw girls, girls, girls-----everywhere!!!
Our heads were spinning in amazement! They were walking all around us, hanging in the doorways, sitting up inside Kokomo's--it was heaven on Earth! Some of them looked right at us and shouted "guapo" or "pogi" and some just turned their heads and pointed. Others rendered sly winking smiles all making us feel like we were fresh meat or something. Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around? Now me and my friend are not bad looking guys but it was like we were friggin' Brad Pitt and Ben Afleck from the responses we got! It lasted the whole trip too. No matter where we went it was non-stop attention. It was great!
As we clumsily stepped up onto the porch of Kokomo's, I then felt like Luke and 3-po walking into the bar at Mos Eisly. We were most definitely out-of-place and by the looks we got from some of the guys, it showed a great deal. If I didn't know better, I might've believed we had "newbie's" tattooed across our foreheads. Trying desparately to fit in, we sat and ordered a pizza. It wasn't bad, but they cut it into these little square pieces instead of triangles making it difficult to eat. Different, but still good. Our coke's were brought to us by an adorable little waitress wearing a blue and yellow uniform. They served it in these gigantic glass jars which I'd never seen done before. They were like big pickle jars with coke in them. Pretty crazy I thought. I don't even think I drank a quarter of it. Queitly finishing up, we payed and walked out aimlessly onto what we later learned was Fields Avenue. That's when the real adventure would begin.....
Chapter II - The Fun Begins...a Stunning Success!
Almost like bear cubs venturing out of their dens for the first time in the Spring, we awkwardly stood and looked around for where to go next. It was madness! Tricycles whizzing by us and all around us, t-shirt and sunglass men harasssing us for a sale, filthy street kids begging for loose change and beautiful bargirls walking with their "more distinguished" dates in tow sending us longful, lusting looks. It was a lot to take in at once for two kids from the Philly suburbs. We took a left and moved down the street aimlessly, really not knowing where we wanted to go or what we wanted to do. Passed numerous bars with sexy-looking doorgirls standing outside who accosted us as we went along. "Hey handsome! Come in here! Come inside!" Being total newbie's, we were a little taken aback at the agressiveness of these girls and kept on walking. It seemed strange since we'd waited so long to get here and now were too intimidated to even go inside a club yet. Made it down a ways until stopping at a place called Insomnia. They physically clutched and grabbed at us until pulling us inside through a big black curtain. Once inside, there was flashing lights, loud music, and the shrieks of about two dozen girls screaming, "Ohhh shaat! Guapo
Vince and I must've both been blushing like ripe tomatoes at that point. Trying to act like we'd done it a million times, we sat down at the stage and ordered two San Miguel beers. There were immediately four or five girls gyrating right in our faces on stage in their bikini outfits. Our beers came with these little white napkins wrapped around the open end for some odd reason and we drank slowly, trying not to look nervous. One of the predators sat right down ontop of me and began groping and hugging me while asking the basic questions. Then, after only a minute or two, she came right out and asked that I barfine her! This came as a total shock to me as I didn't realize before I got here how open the subject was. I played dumb and came off like I had no idea what a barfine was. "Barfine? What's that?" That went over for a few laughs from the girls and our first experience in an Angeles City bar went extremely pleasant and continued on for a few more rounds.
By that time it was already about 4 p.m. and we both wanted to see more and do more. We told the Insomnia gals we might be back and they put up a good fight to keep us there as we left. Pushing out past the big black curtain into the still-hot Philippine Sun, we moved cautiously down the filthy, pot-hole filled street and discovered the famous Margarita Station. Not wanting to wander far into unchartered territory, we turned back around and headed towards the Orchid. We hit a number of clubs for the first time on the way back down: Blue Fox, Cottontails, Y-Bar, Welcome Inn, Dirty Duck and then finally ended up in Top Hat. Getting pretty much the same reaction as we first got in Insomnia in all the other places, we were thoroughly juiced up and ready to have our first "Angeles City experience". It was nearly 7 o'clock now and we WERE pretty well spent from the horrendous journey. We felt after hitting those half dozen clubs that we were now somewhat in tune to the whole game and had seen enough on our first night to settle down and get some.......rest
So there we were, lounging on the couch-style seating in Top Hat, downing a few buds, just basking in the glory of it all. This was it! We were actually here! With the combination of weariness, alcohol, and adrenalin working together, our heads were now high above the clouds from the sheer excitement of being dropped into this dream-like fantasy land. Like the other clubs, we saw many lovely baby-dolls staring back at us onstage. Decisions, decisions. Then...it happened. She appeared out of nowhere on stage and grabbed my attention right away. There she was...totally flawless...a 10! To have a girl of this caliber on my very first night in town would be a stunning success I told myself as we traded bedroom eyes. Wow, did she look super! So, with my beer balls working, I boldly waved her over to me and she was an even more supreme beauty up close. Her skin was a rich, deep brown...soft and supple to the touch. She was 19, two years younger than myself, with a body to die for and a perfect smile to go with it. Vince had one by his side also and we then gave each other the signal that this was it. What I had always imagined would be an awkward transaction went rather smoothly and we were on our way to the Orchid in no time. Seeing the dazzling treasure I was walking with, I almost had to pinch myself to remind me it was all real. Who would've ever though it would be this good.............
After surveying the mall a bit, we found that the arcade was the only thing interesting (besides all the cute girls), and we had our dates riding those motorcycle racing games making for some laughs and an all around good time. "The Stunner" spoke very broken English, however we communicated nicely since my Tagalog is decent and was getting sharper by the minute. Vince's honey spoke better although he did have trouble with her accent at times. All in all, we couldn't have asked for two nicer, more accommodating gals for our first night in town.
Upon returning to the Orchid from our mall trip, we said our goodbyes and told them we'd return to Top Hat later. Next, we decided to go for a dip in the pool which was very refreshing after the sweltering jeepney ride. This also gave us a chance to swap stories from the previous nights festivities. Meanwhile, the two of us seemed to be the center of attention in the Orchid pool. Maybe it was just my imagination, but that seemed to be the case everywhere we went in Angeles. After the swim, we showered (no, not together!), got dressed and met in the lobby once again to begin our second hunting party. It was about 2 p.m., and after whisking by the annoying t-shirt men (who already knew us by name), we headed down the street in the direction of Insomnia. Evading all of Fields' hazards and obstacles, we made it to the M-station and decided to try out their menu. I chose the meatball sandwich and was not disappointed. Nice big soft roll, lotz of meatballs and a tasty sauce. All complimented by the very cute and friendly waitress serving us. I could tell already that I was going to spend a lot of my meals here.
Then it was past the swinging doors and smiling guard back out onto the beggar-infested, pot-holed street. (I still can't get over how run down and dirty that place is) This time, we were "invited" into a place called Brown Sugar. We sat down at a little side table but still felt like we were on stage instead of the two dozen girls who were. It was all eyes on us once again. After ordering a couple of beers, I felt two strong little hands squeeze me from behind and then warmly wrap around me. I turned around to see a darling little waitress smiling happily back up at me. (She couldn't have been over 4'10"). She forcefully sat down next to me and starting talking. She was 20, from Manila and had only been working in Angeles for about one month. (After only a day there, Vince and I soon figured out that EVERY girl working in AC had only been doing it for a month or less....very interesting...very believable)
It did not take long for me to realize that this little cutie had a SUPER personality and we were actually having somewhat of an intellectual conversation. She was really great; responsive, attentive, charming, affectionate, extremely cute and although a bit tiny, I was beginning to think this may be AC lady #2 for me. Vince had one wrapped on him also that he seemed to like. She was a bit older than my gal but very pleasant nonetheless. We drank a few more beers and thoroughly enjoyed our time with these two girls. BUT---it was still early so we gave each other the head nod and paid our dues. There was so much more to see and explore that if we sat in one place too long we almost got fidgety like kids at Christmas.
We continued our hop and met a ton of beautiful, smiling honeys at about six or seven other places that night. Namely: Welcome Inn, Dirty Duck, Blue Nile, Silk Stockings, Ayer's Rock and Nero's. Had a few drinks in them all, really just wanting to show our faces around as much as possible with the hopes of lining up some future targets. With the hours waning away, as well as our soberness, some gravitational force drove us both back down to Brown Sugar. Almost immediately, we were greeted by our two companions from earlier that evening and without further adue, we handed over that blue-colored P1000 note and away we went. (Hey, we were starting to get the hang of this) Now I was tired and wanted to rest, but "Shorty" was so sweet and so adorable that I just couldn't refuse her request to hit a few bars first. Vince and his gal (Coincidently turned out to be "Shorty's" cousin...hmmm) came along also and we only toured about three places before retiring to the Orchid. I was wary of going into a bunch of clubs with a barfine this early in my trip with the fear of ruining future prospects.
During my entire time with "Shorty", she was super-talkative---almost too much so. Telling me her entire life story and about all her problems, real or imagined. I didn't mind this and it didn't annoy me or turn me off, it was just unexpected, that's all. I actually rather enjoyed getting to know her so well in such a short amount of time. We had our showers and cuddled up together in front of the TV. God, she was small but SO strong! Turned out, "Shorty" was a work-out freak and goes to the gym every morning to lift weights and ride the bike. Very deceiving for her 4'10", 85 pound frame. So, that being said, we then engaged in two marathon-like episodes that left the room spinning!! Now I am a track athlete and year-round soccer player but this little fire-plug was like the energizer bunny! She really gave me a run for my money so to speak. Whew, I loved it! But what was even more amazing was that she then turned into a soft, cuddly little sweetie-pie that I could wrap myself around and drift off into dreamland with. This whole thing was just getting better and better. Ahh, what will tomorrow's day in paradise have in store for this young lad?