These pages contain anecdotes mainly from my own British contacts and also other unknown and nameless contributors who have over the last 20 years been regular travellers to the Philippine Islands, much of what has been written has been taken on an 'informal' basis, through airport chats, coffee shop meetings and its here to give some of you guys enjoyment, before you go for your first visit to the RP.

Anecdotes can never be substantiated or authenticated, since people tend to over exaggerate the incidents to sensationalize them, and such stories are always related subjectively, its impossible to follow up such anecdotes, but they are included this section because they follow a pattern and are often plausible

If you are shortly on your way out to the Republic of Philippines or a seasoned Farang traveller to Thailand, then read on, it should help you to become Philwise regarding holiday, whatever happens you will find out that much of what is written is true, it may not happen to you, but it has happened to others, there is a well known saying among regular and aclimatized Philippine travellers, "When you travel to the Philippines you try to have the time of yor life and at same time, minimize your losses." if you can get home with money to spare, you have done well ! many come back potless and wonder where it all went ? but above all, they always said what a great time they had, Farang travellers say that Thailand is like disney world, the rides are just as exciting, but Disney World the Philippines is not, but remember, it only seems strange the first time, try not to get hooked on it too much coming home to Gordon Brown's "political correctness gone mad" rip off - pissy wet and cold Britain may be a hard pill to swallow.

If anyone who reads this is interested in Filipino history, the arts and culture, historic buildings, the beaches, a travel guide this section is not, travel guides invariably tell you where to stay, where to eat, what antiquities to visit, when is the best time to go, money, credit cards, local customs, I am not here to write about that, Lonely Planet can do that for you, I am more interested in preparing you for the real Philippines, not the glossy philippines the Philippine tourist board would rather you see.

In my opinion its my job to pass on what I have learned after visiting the Philippines both as a tourist, a Husband of a Filipino Citizen, a resident and a frequent commuter, on that basis, I will try to guide you through the tricks and quirks of the Filipino way of life, and teach you how to get by in a country that does not always seem logical to the freindly fresh face foreigner with the big wallet.

Your First lesson has to start by bringing you down to earth and sobering you up, forget any notions you have about exotic beaches, exotic females who please your every whim, the Philippines is like nowhere on earth, this has to be the only country in the world that has a Catholic primate called "Cardinal Sin", if you thought that odd, what about this, how about a government that gives terrorist insurgents a temporary amnesty to come down from their hideouts in the mountains to enjoy christmas dinner with their families provided they do not bring their M16's with them, just remember, you are travelling to a republic of 7000+ islands, in some of them, the government is fighting a long running campaign against rebel organizations

There are some Islands, where Westerners are advised by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office to refrain from traveling to them, the advice is sound, travel to parts of the Autonomous Muslim region of Southern Mindanao, South Cotabato, and the Islands of Sulu, Tawi Tawi, Basilan, are dangerous for westerner's, there have been well documented kidnaps of foreigners including Americans, British, Italians, Dutch and German foreigners, which have resulted in demands for ransoms, they have been killed and dismembered, gun battles between the Philippine Armed Forces and rebel groups are common, specifically, Abu Sayaf, the Moro Islamic Front, and the CPP (Comunist Party of the Philippines and the New Peoples Army, have all resulted in fatalities.

Westerner's including British Citizens, have been robbed, stabbed, shot, and murdered by local thieves, and some have had their murders arranged by their own Filipino companion, the love of their life is not always as genuine as she seemed, remember, money talks in the Philippines, for as little as £75.00 someone can have you shot, its not wise to make enemies in the Philippines, so be selective where you travel, whilst you cannot protect for every and all eventualities, there are things you can do to lessen the chances of being a victim of petty thievery, robbery with gratuitious violence, being stabbed and relieved of your wallet, your jewelry, and ultimately being shot.

British tourist visitors to the Philippines may not see at first glance when they arrive in the capital city Manila, that there is an increased risk of being mugged, this is because they are used to the general safety and security of Western countries, however, being vigilant at all times lessens the risk, and life in the Philippines as it is in the UK is all about risk, risk assessment of your situation needs to be undertaken when you travel to the Republic of Philippines, in most cases, its rare that a British tourist has a bad incident, but there will always be exceptions to the rule, the first thing to do, is observe security and vigilance at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on arrival in the Philippines, thankfully, the Philippines is one place where labour is cheap and there are an abundance of private security firms operating in and around the Airport complex, secondly, the PNP Philippine National Police are on station to protect foreigners against robbery, violence and intimidation.

Because cash is king in the Philippines you would be advised to have a good supply of low denomination notes and coins, no one in the Philippines, from vendors, taxi drivers, and small businesses ever seem to have change for a P500.00 note, at current exchange rates, P500.00 is about £6.50 or thereabouts, P500.00 is a lot of money, and I mean alot of money, its 2 days wages in the Philippines, you might take it out like loose change, but someone else has had their eye on you the minute you arrive, ensure before departure, that you exchange some of your P500.00 bills for P100.00 P50.00 and even P20.00 bils, take a little extra time in the airport money changers, and obtain low value denominatioin notes, then vendors cannot complain, nor taxi drivers, that they cannot change your money.

Your general demeanour and prescence can also protect you from being attacked, whilst this is unlikely in the Airport complex or outside, your feeling of being a regular aclimatized visitor may in certain situations put someone off from trying to scam you, appearing unafraid and assertive can ensure your passage to your hotel or connecting flight is incident free, even a European diplomat a couple of years ago, was robbed in Manila simply because he failed to follow basic security considerations, naturally, don't go around swinging your latest Sony Cyber shot in public like a rich foreign tourist, you are asking to be robbed or mugged at knife point.

When a foreigner arrives in the Philipines, he is well advised not to go un escorted to parts of the greater Manila area, he should confine himself to the business district and financial centre, of Makati City, Makati has most of the major 1st class hotels, and the majority of the up-market shopping malls, although the largest shopping complex Megamall of Asia is located out of Makati, this can be reached by taking a taxi, again, stay with your trusted Filipino companion.

Often if you are meeting a nice Philippines lady at the arrivals area, much of this will not be appropriate, as the chances are, she will take you by taxi to the business district of Manila, again, there are likely to be more security guards around, than ever you have seen, but remember, they are there for a reason, the Philippines is incredibly poor, 135 families belonging to an elite group control most of the country's wealth, the remainder are exceptionally poor, poverty drives people to commit all sorts of attacks against foreigners but most of all they commit attacks and petty crime against their own.

Muggings and hold upping is common, the object is to take whatever money you are carrying, from your wallet, your possessions, your cash, and anything else you car carrying, many times at the point of a gun, a knife, or other blunt instrument, if you are approached and have a knife thrust in your back, which is where it mainly is put, or have a gun shoved in your chest, don't resist, and give them any money on your person

Reports from national and local newspapers often carry stories of locals and foreigners who have tried to resist, within minutes they are lying in a pool of blood, and are dead before they can be rushed to emergency hospital, there have been reports of British residents in the Philippines who are Phil wise and experienced being stabbed and shot for £50.00 or less, some in front of their FILIPINO wife, and they have sadly died as a result of the attack, again, don't resist, give them your loose cash, and in many cases they will simply run with what you give them.

Nobody will ever convince me that the majority of visitors to the Philippines travels thousands of miles just to see cultural heritage sites, buy copy t-shirts play golf, or simply go scuba diving, personally I have already been there, worn the t-shirts, once you have seen one antiquity you have seen them all, and I don't play golf because quite frankly I cannot hit the ball and make it go in the direction I intended, I also concede that if I was designed to swim to the bottom of the ocean, I would have been issued with fins, and gills to breathe under water without requiring 2 large metal tanks full of air strapped to my back, I am absolutely convinced that the only creatures that are qualified for the task are fish - best leave it to them then.

The only remaining attractions for the foreign traveller has to be by process of elimination - the Women of the Philippines, nothing ever appears to be what it seems in the Philippines, forget about black and white, everything is somewhere in between, i.e. grayscale from the legal system right down to the selective reasoning of the Filipino. Winston Churchill our great wartime leader once said that " Russia is a riddle wrapped within a mystery, inside the enigma" had he been visiting the Philippines back then, the shoe would have fitted very well.

The foreigner visitor always seems to try and judge the place by western standards, they try to change their immediate environment to suit how they are use to doing things, they fight the system, after a while they realize that trying to change the way of life is pointless, it will never happen, finally after banging their head against a brick wall, they succumb to the inevitable, they do no not let much upset them, and laugh off most things that happen to them.

The BRITISH TOURIST in the Philippines who is meeting a Filipina for the first time, always seems to think its going to be a dream come true, "oh what a tangled expectation we all have" I am not saying it won't be like that, for some everything is Shangri La ! for others, its a nightmare on elm street, for those who get the dream come true treatment for the first few days, enjoy it while it lasts, for as lovely and tempting as these Filipino beauties are, there is always your achilles heal to consider when dealing with that captivating babae, the Filipina maiden.

The usual Filipina is a smart and strong creature, who has a smile that can melt the heart of the most hardened male, after all, it is well known to all men, that a woman who professes to be in love with you, is very hard to dismiss as not genuine, but love to a Filipina is not always the same as love is to you and I, call me a cynic if you want, love can mean many things to many different Filipinos, and invariably does, no matter what I say, no matter how I advise ones to be cautious, they still end up falling in love in a matter of hours on arrival at NAIA, that is of course if they havent already fallen in love over the Internet, after all, its hard not to.

I wish I had read a book somewhere before I first flew out to the Philippines, a book that could explain to me, the real way of life, not a glossy travel book that tells me which hotels to stay in, where to eat out, where to visit, I wanted a book that gives the experiences of guys who had gone before me, I wanted tips on what to avoid, I wanted someone to lay it all out for me in the form that its written here, I wanted to avoid all the pitfalls, cons, scams and be prepared for my visit to the Philippines, but most of all, I wanted to know, how to handle that weird and downright wonderful creature called a Filipina.

What should I do in tricky situations, what were they like ? was it true they will do anything for you, what was their attitude to sex ? no one told me anything, back then, I could not find anything to read about, all I could see were stories about love and marriage, I did not know then as I do now, that a big wallet is mandatory, and certain morals fall by the wayside,

I had no idea back then as I do today, that when I did get married, I inherited not just a wife, but also a large family, more importantly, I I did not know that 50 per cent of the poplulation live on less than a $2.00 a day, I never understood just how important sending money was to the Philippines as I do today, I did not know that people still lived in Nippa huts, and that they dug holes in the ground still when they needed to defacate or urinate, I realized I had a lot to learn about the Philippines, it was going to be the eye opener of all time.

For those of you who are newbies, never been to the Philippines in your life, and are about to embark on your 1st flight to the far east, you might want to visit my e store, powered by Amazon.co.uk, it gives you a fairly good selection of softback and hardback books to digest before you embark on your travels, I can remember the 1st time I went out to country, I had a lonely planet guide, and completely read it cover to cover on the flight over, anyway, you need something for your rather long flight, why not check out the store and get a copy of something that interests you before you fly.

My inspiration for writing this guide, came from the Author Neil Hutchison who has written many books such as "Fool in Paradise" and "Money No 1" Neil an Australian national habitually writes about life in Pattaya, Thailand, the theme of this web section broadly is the same as Neil's and although some of the things I talk about here are based loosely on his writings, they could apply to anywhere in South East Asia, the bias of course being on the Philippines.

Despite all the warnings and advice, many Farang travellers, (prounounced Fal-ung because Thai girls cannot pronounce the letter "R"), still find themselves paying out vast sums of their hard earned income, for a multitude of URGENT AND LIFE THREATENING needs such as a Vet bill for a sick Caribou, (This is a large animal that looks like a bull often used in subsistence farming in the Philippines.).

Large payments for re-building of typhoon damaged homes ( often there has not been a typhoon that year in that locality), they also get shaken down for regular contributions for school fees for a multitude of their girls siblings, medical bills for sick Nanay's (Mothers) and new tryes for motorcyles owned by Filipino boyfreinds, who are passing themselves off as loving brothers.

Very often the rich freindly foreigner is seen as a Walk-In ATM Machine that dispenses cash like slot machines in a Las Vegas casino, and to make matters worse, when the money runs out, very often so does the honey (No money=No Honey)

Don't get too perturbed, for every scam going down in the Philippines, there is a happy love story to be found, there are hundreds of thousands of lovely, well educated, kind, generous and loving Philippine women all over the Republic of Philippines, Once you form a relationship with one of these beauties they will protect you and stick to you like a leech, a Filipina wife is not just any wife ! A FILIPINA WIFE WILL BE YOUR LOVER, YOUR BEST FRIEND, WILL BE FAITHFUL IN ALL THINGS, TREAT HER AS YOUR PRINCESS - SHE WILL BE DEDICATED TO YOU IN ALL THINGS - EVEN PAST DEATH but on the other side of the coin, never mistreat or abuse your Filipina wife, that will bring out in her things which will make you wish you had not done so, she will protect her marriage at all costs, but if you show scant disregard for her opinions she will soon look for ways to get even.

Why do you think her marriage is so important to her ? when you make an investment, it might be capital you place in a bank, it might be a property you seek to buy, you spend years paying your mortgage, and at the end you hope to reap the rewards of your labour, to a Filipina, her investment is the time and effort she puts into making you happy, if she does her job right, you should never want another woman, Filipina's are pretty smart individuals when it comes to their investment, and never be fooled into thinking that just because you met this 5 ft 4 or less bright smiling, eye fluttering pacific island beauty that says "tsup to you" everytime you ask a question, can be manipulated into being your house servant, be someone that you can verbally or physically abuse just because she is so compliant in being your wife, remember your not the only game in town, if had notions of mistreating her, do so at your peril.

Filipina's are smart, educated, business like, and know exactly what they want, unlike us who seem to have a hard time defining what success is in our life, they are streets and years ahead, because they know exactly what success is to them ! for one thing, getting out of a life of toil and hardship is a good start, fulfilling their dreams is another, whilst you are spending a few years pissing your money up the wall in the Red Lion, or clubbing in the city, these girls are busily sketching out their lifeplan, and trust me, they know exactly where they want to be in 5 years time, and who would blame them ? if you see where some of the girls had to live, and looked at the conditions they had to etch out a living in, it would be hard to knock them for thinking that way.

For most Filipina's their dreams of a better life started the first time they went to the cinema, when they see Hollywood movies which are featured mainly in the U.S.A. but others are in Western Europe as well, Filipina's also have notions of what the western world is like, they watch HBO movies, they see the lifestyles of their movie heroes, and they aspire to be like them, they think of things that can give them that passport to success, and they seek to get it at all costs.

Sometimes it appears to onlookers that Filipina's are Gold diggers, money grabbers, or "Just after your money" on first glances, it looks that way, although for anyone who knows the Philippines, and understands the way of life for a Filpino, will know that those lables are an over simplification of a far greater problem than they every imagined. The simple fact of the matter is, your average Filipina is only aspiring to things that you and I take for granted in our every day lives, if you really understood poverty, and I don't mean having to put off going out for a meal this week, or going without your fags and booze for a week, Philippines poverty is totally different to poverty in the UK, Poverty in the UK simply means you might be living on Income support, or be a low paid worker, just struggling with the economic realities of rip of Britain.

Filipino poverty is something else in its entirety, its the lack of better life chances, and a sense of a no way out culture that forces many young women to look westwards with the hope that they might attain their dreams, what constitutes a better life to them, is far different to what constitutes a better life for you and I, a better life for them means a nice house to live in, a car to drive, nice clothes, a portfolio of Jewelry, property, real estate, a happy family back home in the Philippines content with remittances sent by them, siblings happily placed in good educational establishments, a good life to you and I, is not having to look in your back pocket to see if you can go out on a Friday night, being able to have a couple of good holidays a year.

Sometimes to the foreign visitor, the big dreams and ideas that Filipina's have can be hard pills to swallow, but to them, you might just be the mode of transport that they can ride to achieve them, Filipina's thrive on status, saving face in front of onlookers in the Philippines is very important, what possessions she has such as Jewelry, House and Lots, Cars, and of course Capital savings are the difference between success and failure, when you travel to the Philippines and observe for yourself how people live, then you will begin to understand what drives the Filipina to be the way she is, - so to recap, Filipinas have big aspirations and dreams, its not unreasonable to have them, they just want what you take for granted, they will please you in every way possible to achieve their dreams, so why not go along with the flow, and hitch a ride on the dream of the Filipina, you never know, it might take you to places you would not have thought possible if you relied on your own idea of success !

Have you heard the old saying "Looking for love in all the wrong places" its a cliche many will have heard before, and yet, the Philippines can be in many the cases the best country in the world to find love, but on the reverse side of the coin, it can also be the place where you can end up making the most costliest mistake of your life, things can happen to you, which would make you wish you had never set foot in this country.

Firstly, I want you to be aware of 2 factors that can affect one of the biggest decisions you ever have to make in your life, and if you thought buying a house and getting a mortgage was the biggest, you would be wrong !, looking for love in the Philippines can be the most sensible and great decision you could ever make, if you are lucky enough, and by the way thousands and thousands of British males fall into that category, to find a Filipina beauty who will consent to leave her home, family and large social network, to travel thousands of miles and come to be your wife, then you will probably be the luckiest guy in the world.

The 2 factors are, first - Poverty - secondly, Money.

Most know, but if you did not already, be aware, that the Republic of Philippines is a third world metropolis of 7000+ islands where very few are inhabited, the main concentrations of population are in the Provinces of Luzon, Western Visaya's and the Southern Island of Mindanao, there are also scatterings of population centre's on a few others, the main cities of Manila, Cebu, and Davao, are the major population centre's but wherever you seek to travel to in the Philippines, each region, city, town and village has its own problems with poverty, and Filipino poverty which is alluded to in other parts of this website has a number of important social effects.

Very often the British tourist is oblivious to the cause and effect of major social problems in the Philippines, firstly, most of the countries wealth, major corporations is owned by a very small cluster of families around 135 of them, which are centered around the Manila ruling elite class, these ones are also integrated into politics, television and every facet of wealthy life in the Philippines, the rest of this ever growing population live on less than USD 2.00 per day, there is also a growing middle class, who have decent jobs, cars, nice houses, and live a fairly opulent life style, however, compared to western standards of opulence, its is still fairly low, For example a Nurse earns about £150.00 a month at current exchange rates, a Teacher, around £250.00 a month, call centre workers around the Manila district earn about £250.00 a month also, but these are the lucky ones.

If a Family is lucky enough to have a relative who is an OFW (Overseas Foreign Worker) or has a relative who is a Spouse/Fiancee of a Foreign national, they at least can be guaranteed a remittance (Money sent back) to support them.

That means then by definition, there are millions of Filipino's who are without a visible means of support, many resort to being vendors, selling everything from chewing gum, newspapers, bottle water, nuts, crackers, fags, making clothes, washing peoples clothing, cleaning someone's house otherwise known as a Katulong, (Domestic helper) and a host of other low paid jobs that you nor I would consider a fruitful career.

Many educated Filipino's who have much needed skills, tend to go abroad to work, the Philippines produces some of the worlds finest Deck officers, on merchant vessels, some of the worlds best medical Doctor's and Nurses, the UK'S National Health Service is staffed 11 per cent by Filipino Nurses, the Philippines does have a good record of supplying highly skilled labour to the shortages of the worlds labour market.

But still these ones are the lucky ones, the country is still dogged by corruption, poverty, and terrible crime rates, mainly petty thieving, robbery, rape, muggings, or hold upping as it is known, and last but not least, false accusations and fabricating unsubstanciated allegations against foreigners - and its this last recent emergence of this type of crime that I would wish to caution British visitors to the Philippines to be more aware of - so that one can take action to lessen the risk.

Just indulge me for a few moments of your time - after you have read this section, put a search in your google for 2 words "Briton Philippines" you would be surprised what comes back, but mainly, the search engine brings up stories of those British tourists who have fallen foul of the Bureau of Immigration and the Filipino PNP that is the National Police Force, and if you examine the stories, they all come under one umbrella, they are generally for acts of bad behaviour, and those ones are really the responsibility of the visitor, however, the other alarming stories relate to British tourists as well as to be fair, other foreigners, regarding the false claims and subsequent arrests made on false claims of young Philippine women, generally alledging sexual molestation and or, illegal sexual activity.

You may ask yourself, as I did, why is this new phenomenon on the increase ? the answer is simple if you care to follow world events, remember NO JOB=POVERTY=RISING CRIME=COMPENSATION CULTURE=MONEY=NEW WAYS TO EXTORT FROM THOSE WHO ARE PERCEIVED TO HAVE IT=FOREIGNERS=British tourists of average income=those least able to pay off an extortion attempt=languishing in a Philippine prison.

The above flow chart is a rather over simplified way of looking at things, however its not far from the truth, western visitors need to be vigilant regarding their personal conduct in the Philippines, I have to say for the majority of visitors their holiday is a resounding success, however my motive for writing this section is to caution BRITISH visitors especially males, that with the credit crunch, and the ever increasing economic slowdown and the lack of cash in flows to the Philippines, they must be on their guard against scams involving extortion through emotive allegations.

The Hotel guest scam is a pretty common situation that can befall some British male tourists, especially those who do not have a regular girlfriend or Fiancee they are being met by, by evidence all of the hotel scams have happened to un-attached foreigners.

So how does it work ? firstly, the British tourist will check into a hotel in the Makati district, and then go for a wander around, naturally he bumps into a very nice girl, who in many cases just happens to be younger than himself, in some cases extremely younger, its not uncommon to meet young ladies who are 30 years younger, there are of course many bar girls working around the P Burgos area, this is not far away from many of the first class hotels in Makati (Manila).

Secondly, it nearly always starts off as an innocent friendship, which in the majority of cases, the girl ends up by default a guest in your room, naturally, sex takes place in the majority of cases, the question of the young ladies age never comes up, since most foreigners assume that if a girl consents to go back to your hotel room, that she is of age, in the Philippines the listed legal age for consent is seen on some UN websites and others as being as young as 12 years old, however the recommended age for consent is at least 18 years old, and much better to not be with a young lady under 21 years.

But how do you check the age of the lady before inviting her to your room ? thats a hard one to answer, my advice is, if you think she looks too young, follow your head, she probably is, and nothing but aggravation and grief will come out of any such encounter. Shortly after a sexual act has taken place, and the girl has left the hotel, the foreigner is generally asleep, at around hours of 1-4 am in the morning, there will be a telephone cal lfrom reception to say that the girl is downstairs in the foyer, the foreigner is asked to come down, when he does so, she will be with 2 Police officers of the PNP, all of a sudden, the young lady lacks any english ability, suprisingly after she has spoken very good english the night before.

Generally these stings form a pattern, it would appear the girls parents have received a complaint from the daughter that she has been sexually molested or raped by the foreigner, the foreigner is then duly arrersted and taken to a Police station for processing on a charge of either, Sexual molestation or rape, the interesting and most frightening point to mention here, is that RAPE CARRIES THE SENTENCE OF DEATH IF CONVICTED but can be commuted to life imprisonment on appeal.

However, very often the foreigner finds that he is informed that the charges can be withdrawn if he consents to paying damages in the form of a large amount of cash, reports in the past have stated that $2000.00 or more have been asked for, some foreigners including British tourists have been frog marched to the local ATM machine, before they have had a chance to take stock of the situation, others who could not get access to these funds, have been incarcerated in a rat infested prison cell with many other local murders, thieves and Robbers, Rapists, and Homosexual predators, before their relatives can stump up the money.

The foreigner under arrest in the Philippines has certain rights, that is the PNP must file a report of the arrest and the foreigner has a right to contact his Embassy, he has rights to consular access, and the right to instruct an attorney to act for him, some foreigners have already paid the damages money before they could get access to consular officers, in other stories, they have held out, maintaining their innocence, and suddenly without explanation they are told they are free to go, and all charges have been dropped.

The object of this sting is for one purpose, that is to extort money from the unsuspecting foreigner, and the family is generally in on the scam, sometimes as with all Police forces, they can only respond to the complaint as made by the complainant, and until its proved otherwise, they must follow procedure, in the UK, rape cases are treated very similarly, it is only when the full facts come out, and the witness i.e. the young lady, becomes afraid of testifying in open court, or carrying on with the fabricated allegation that they seem to change the story, by the time the matter has been under closer scrutiny, the foreigner has been the subject of a sting.

All British tourists are advised not to take young girls back to their hotel rooms, if they are in any doubt as to the age of an over night guest, it is better to terminate any association immediately, its is risky, and may lead to being extortion attempts.

This scam applies more to those who are resident in the Philippines, and has happened to a number of foreign nationals over the last few years, this is hard to avoid, as you never know who you can offend but false allegations are often made to Police by the child of someone the foreigner has employed, generally the foreigner has caught the child's parent committing some sort of petty offence, such as mis-placing money, stealing items from their house, mis-use of trust.

If they employee i.e. made, house keeper is dismissed for such an offense it can lead to the house keeper's child being groomed into presenting a false accusation of rape or molestation, again the foreigner is the object of a money extortion attempt, one foreigner last year, spent 14 months in a Filipino prison on the say so, of an under age girl, who was later found to be lying to Police, the foreigner was late released by a regional trial court judge, but only after suffering months of embarrassment and loss of lawyers fees.

Again caution should be exercised in dealing with under age girls, they are best kept at arms length, foreigners especially British residents, should show extreme caution in allowing themselves to become over friendly or over familiar with female children of employee's or general acquaintances, better to be professional, firm than sorry later on.

If I had a dollar for every fellow British traveller, that I had a conversation with on the way back home from the Philippines, who felt depressed and withdrawn, about going home, I would have a nice little savings for my retirement, but then again maybe that's stretching the imagination somewhat, the point is well made though, going by many of my contact's reactions, Ninoy Aquino airport departure lounge at terminal 1 must be one of the most depressing places in the world.

If like me you pass through it on a regular basis, Just take a look around you, you will always see the usual suspects waiting for their long hike back to London and sometimes they don't feel much like talking.

I would not be the first person to confess that he has given way to the odd tear or two, as you try and find a seat in an airport with the worlds smallest number of seats, and then try and get your head round NAIA security and immigration check in, when you do eventually get down to the gate, you must have passed through 7 or 8 security checks, and finally when you do take your seat on board your flight, the emotional ties you have made in the Philippines suddenly kick in.

As that big bird takes off into the sky above, some very non macho symptoms appear, and the reason for this is simple, the Philippines is such a fun place to be, and with the availablity of young beautiful woman at your side surely makes this third world metropolis an addictive drug, that is hard to get rid of, but get rid of it you must, or it will break your spirit of endurance when you end up back in Gordon Brown's politically correct standard Britain.

I often take the time to say hello to other British guys who are on their way home, many conversations are had whilst waiting for the call forward to the departure gate, we all exchange our stories and hang out together hoping that we might be able to say our goodbye's when we arrive in London Gatwick or London Heathrow, its always interesting how we all have one thing in common, We all hate coming back to UK, this translates into "I hate going back to standard Britain" Why do we all think this ?

Lets examine that for a moment ? if you will indulge me and quietly pause for thought, ! just think about it, who would want to come back to a daily diet of high mortgage rates/rents, parking charges, high council tax bills, Police traffic patrols, safety camera's overhead surveillance camera's sky rocketing petrol costs, food bills, it just seems that everything is going up beyond the rate of inflation and no matter what you do to cut costs, you cannot seem to get ahead.

I heard recently in 2008 that Filipino OFW's who work in the NHS and the Care Industry are complaining that in the Philippines at least they had money, now they say they can no longer afford to save anything ? well its got to be pretty bad, when they are complaining about the costs of living in UK ?, and its not just them, but all of us, and the one thing we all seem to have in common, is that we are over here, that is the British Boyfriend, husband or Fiance, and they are over there, that is the Filipino Girlfriend, Fiancee, or wife.

Decisions Decisions Decisions, from the moment we wake up in the morning until the time we go to bed, there is no getting away from them, whether you decide to hit the snooze button for a few more zzzzzzzz's or you decide to drag yourself into the kitchen to make a hot coffee and a morning daily diet of trash television, our every move has been decided on before we even think of it, such is the drudgery of life in Gordon Brown's standard apologetic Britain.

Sometimes we decide that our life is not going in exactly the direction we would want it, sometimes the changes we wish for are relatively small, sometimes they are quite big, like the guy who wakes up one morning and out of the blue, packs his suitcase and leaves his wife, dissapears into the morning traffic, or sometimes its a matter of making that all important decision that a change is as good as a rest, they decide to move house ! and it doesnt often end there, more and more there are people in Standard Britain who decide to do much more than that, they decide to move house, move job, move school, in short, move their whole life to another country.

Very often these life altering decisions come as a result of indulging ourselves in a long needed holiday, we jet off on a big powerful bird to warmer climates, we have a great time, lie on the beach, drink mango shakes, swim, eat great food, and enjoy good nightlife, we are the ever elusive butterfly tourist, and we dread coming home, to make it worse, the British traveller to the Philippines has one more reason not to want to come back to his country of birth and the place where his whole life has been, its simple

During 2005 over 200,000 British Citizens left Standard Britain for a life elsewhere, a slight drop on 2004, but nevertheless a significant migration of indigenous Anglo Saxon British born and raised people said No, Non, Njet, Hindi, Nein, to Standard Britain, they left to seek out an exciting and better life in a warmer climate, but why are so many committed to looking or a life elsewhere ? in a 2006 survey carried out by Emigration newspaper titles, there were 2 basic reasons people cited as a reason to seek a life elsewhere away from Standard Britain.

First Loutish youth culture, and secondly the soaring and unnaceptable cost of living, other reasons were cited, such as dirty streets, high council tax bills, rude people, aggresive culture, driving and traffic legislation such as speed cameras, politically correct officials, Police officers and many other minor irritations that seemed to be the normal in Brown's Standard Britain, even the International monetary fund recently criticized Gordon Brown's high tax burden placed on families, cited at 38 per cent of domestic incomes, that means the average earner is being asked to forfeit 38p in every £1.00 earned for Government spending.

This is how the percentages of those interviewed looked: 25 per cent said they wanted a better lifestyle, 14.8 per cent a warmer climate, 12.4 percent said, a better house for the same money, and greater prosperity 9.9 per cent. Australia is the most common destination that emigrants will go to, followed by the U.S.A. Canada and New Zealand.

One couple who recently moved to Brisbane Australia, said that "Life is so much more relaxed here, yes we have to work, but relaxation is great in a hot climate and the beer is always cold and the barbies are hot !

Obviously I am not plugging here for people to emigrate to those countries, I am merely trying to demonstrate that thousands of Britains every year, flock to commonwealth high commissions and foreign embassies looking for a better life, and yet people from the Philippines seek to leave there country every year to look for better opportunities in the rest of the world, it seems then that everyones perception of a better life is unique and different, but what about the UK ?

Just Indulge me for a few moments more please, reason along with me, think about what you can't do anymore in Standard Britain and try and forget any notions you have about being a good citizen ? don't wrap yourself in the Union Jack, oh sorry we cant fly that anymore, it might offend someone. Have you noticed lately how much your freedoms have been curtailed in the last 10 years, for those of you who work and live in the nation's capital city, it now costs you £8.00 to go into the extended congestion zone, there are 1 million parking spaces in central London, but 3 million cars looking for a car parking space, try the math out on that one, parking meters are between 80p and £1.00 per 10 minutes, on top of that, some of the London Boroughs have the most aggresive parking restrictions in any international city, with fines of between £80.00 and £150.00 for infringements, look around the streets, in London borough of Camden, a virtual no park zone, hundreds of West African parking attendants ply the streets daily looking to pounce on unsuspecting motorists who are simply trying to find suitable parking, we have become the most surveilled country in the world, with thousands of overhead cameras watching every single move we make, there are more overhead surveillance cameras per square mile than any other country in the world.

Have you noticed like I have especially in the inner cities when driving how many devices people have in their car, speed detectors, Satellite navigation with built in speed cam locators, this is because drivers are continually having to protect against the surveillance society that exists in standard Britain, on top of that, we now face the prospect of an army of council inspectors armed with clipboards and covert cameras, looking around our houses to see how they can increase revenues by jotting down all of our home improvements.

When you add in, higher council tax rises, fuel surcharges, Air Passenger duties (recently increased), rising house prices, and the International Monetary Fund who recently said that the current governments oppresive taxation programmes will seriously undermine the growth in standard Britain for 2007/2008, (current taxation is 38 per cent of family Incomes), the feel good factor that once existed in Great Britain has been eroded slowly into the new "Standard Britain"

Think about what you have to go home to ? a job that pays the mortgage ? or the rent ? just about enough to pay your car, petrol, food, a couple of holidays a year if your that lucky ? extortionate costs of living, high council tax, utility bills, lets face it, were all slaves to the UK way of life, we are trapped just because we are middle class, if you think you are lower than middle class, chances are you wont be trekking out to the Philippines anyway, you have to have a decent income and plenty of savings, just to make it, so the chances are, you are a middle class earner, with a regular income, if you are much richer than that, then its unlikely you will be reading this website, since generally, you wont fit the profile, the type of guy that travels out to the Philippines is a 40+ Single, probably divorced, 2nd time around kind of guy, looking for someone special in their life to spend all those cold lonely nights back in UK.

So lets look at what happens in an instantaenous hot climate like the Philippines, immedeatly it has a psychological effect on your well being, hot climate all year round certainly helps, look how many times you wake up in the morning only to look out of your bedroom window in standard Britain only to find the ususal pissy cold winter to contend with, in the Philippines you wake up each morning with the sun in your face, and thats as early as 6am, then on top of that, chances are, there is a nice exotic babe in bed next to you, add in a nice local breakfast, and with nothing to do and all day to do it, pissy cold standard Britain seems over the hill and far far away, its a well known fact that British Expatriates who work overseas, rarely are able to settle back in standard Britain, they just cannot fit into the commuter high cost economy that prevails, most of them come back to find that they are a foreigener in their own country.

There is a paradox here, think about it, the Philippines is economically ranked very low in the 3rd world nations, jobs are scarce, money is short, people are living from hand to mouth, and yet, it can be the greatest holiday destination in the world, and yet on the opposite side of the coin, it is the wost place in the world to try and work, and earn a living, it would be great if every foreigner who goes there could just simply pack up shop back home, sell his house, and go live next to the beach, and live out the remainder of his days in utopia, when the money runs out, returning back home to the West, to the safety of a steady job, a reasonable income, and a chance to make one, is the only option most traveller's have, this is then is the paradox, great place to be on holiday and fall in love, lousy place to try and etch out a living, suddenly when the money runs out, those freezing cold mornings don't seem so bad after all, and then there is always the summer months back home.

Have you ever tried trawling around your local pubs attempting to meet someone young and slim, It just seems that those girls you see in local pubs and clubs don't really fit the profile, look around you, do you really fancy those 20 something blondes that come in, with a tatoo up their ass and a thong sticking out over their jeans, be honest with yourself, are they the same ones as you just said goodbye to in the Far East.

When you suddely go out for a drink in your local, they just dont seem attractive, why is this ? That is because Filipina's are slim, slightly dark skinned, petite, loving, and yes they make a big fuss of you, (Malambing) although they dont like talking about it, they freely expect to have regular and normal sex with you, and in majority of cases, age is not an issue, since generally most Filipina's consider that the chances of a better life with a Western man is greater than that with a local man, they are very much disposed to being available to you

So why is it so hard to let go, when you are sitting in the airport, why cant you just say to yourself, I had a great time, now its time to go home? This is due to the constant happy hour feeling that the Philippines gives you, and of course, its so easy to fall in love, actually several times a day is not uncommon, when its time to pack your bag for home, it can really break your spirit if you let it

Very often after a 2 week holiday 40 somethings are in love, want to get married and going by the stories that come to my attention, end up in a disaster that should never have happened if only they had benefited from some good basic knowledge, the secret then is to love it a little bit, but never take it too seriously, after all, youre on holiday ! my moto is this " Learn First - Fall in love later !

Given that most men who marry Filipinas are doing it (the marriage thing) for at least the second time, it begs the question why? Surely they learnt their lesson the first time? didnt they ? genetically man is not predisposed towards monogamy. We are designed to spread our seed as far and as wide as we can. Women, on the other hand, need a strong male to give them the best offspring and to protect them while they are vulnerable nursing and weaning the infant and so on. They need us, we don’t need them!

So why is it that all of a sudden after 1 night in the Philippines, with an exotic beauty half their age, do they suddenly wake up in the morning and think “I have to marry her!’ or “I want a wife?” nature has a few tricks up her sleeve and this is one of them. We get lonely. We are programmed from birth that marriage is the norm, that old or middle aged bachelors and spinsters are miserable and somehow deviant. None of which is true but we fall for it and we get married.

There is another reason of course, the British Government has a thing called "Managed Migration" this means that if you want to fly 6000 miles to get a girlfriend or lover, then to allow her to return to live with you, involves you in having to propose to something called a marriage contract, providing you are willing to do this, the chances are, your Girlfriend will be able to join you.

UK Society has the highest divorce rate in Europe, that is 1 in 2, within ten years, often sooner. Much sooner in some cases. One in every two marriages will fail, often because of money problems or infidelity. See, man is designed to be unfaithful, can’t help himself chemically or something. just be careful though and you have been warned, the worse crime a man married to a Filipina can commit is adultery. You can lose bits of you for that! and they will do it !

British man, and Filipino woman marriages have on the whole an 80 per cent chance of success for several reasons. I think the nature of the Filipina has a lot to do with it, far more than any cultural norm that marriage is for life because they are catholic or because divorce is non-existent in the Philippines. You can get a marriage annulled, it just takes longer and costs money but it happens every day of the week bar Sundays! another major factor few might acknowledge is the socio-economic factor.

Western man needs wife, Filipina needs man who can provide a secure and decent living for her and her offspring. (if she hasn’t already got offspring, she will expect you to provide her with some! you will find few average foreigners married to Filipinas of A or B class. (A are the super wealthy, B are the rich, C are the middle class and D and E are the poor and the destitute) You will find many C and D class Filipinas married to foreigner husbands, and actually there are very obvious reasons for that.

These ladies have access to the means of communication with foreign men necessary for he to meet she. Internet, postal service, relatives who have migrated overseas can all be methods of introduction that few of the poor and very poor will have access to. The very rich have no need to improve their economic situation and marry amongst their own. If they do marry a foreigner, he is usually wealthy in his own right, just look at the Makati celebrity scene, they always marry each other, the poor i.e. the Tambay tend to not have those opportunities to migrate or access to services, so generally a Filipina who is middle class, around category C and D is more than likely someone who will marry a Westerner.

Do not be misled, the main reason Filipinas look to the west for husbands, is that they believe a western man can provide them with a far better life than a Filipino man can. Without the common habits of Filipino men being taken into consideration such as drinking with his Barkada or group of close friends and gambling on cock fights, it is difficult for the more marriage minded Filipino to compete due to the differing standards of salaries and employment between foreigner and Filipino.

Some Filipino women do prefer to marry their own kind, regardless of the traits they know they will have to put up with at some stage, such as woman chasing, drinking, cock fighting betting, coming home late drunk from girlie bars, and spending the money on gambling and hope.

A certain percentage of Filipino women never have the intention of meeting a local man, they have set out to find a foreigner husband, and they stick to their plans like glue, they have their own notions about the reasons for this, its generally because they want to leave the Philippines, getting out of the country is the main aim, after all, you cannot really blame them, if you were in the same position, you would want to get out too, the poverty is really hard to understand unless you are a Filipino, go around the many barangays of any city and see for yourself, you will see large groups of families, they simply have nothing to do, if they are lucky enough to have one member of the family who has a decent paying job, they are the lucky ones, don't mis-understand the girls for wanting to get out of this life.

Do not please misunderstand me, there are many fine Filipino men who are devoted to their wives and families regardless of their earning capacity but there are also many more who are unreliable and lazy, wiling to let the wife earn the daily bread, bring up the children and keep him in Tanduay and Hope (local rum and cigarettes) while he chats up other local Filipinas! It is a phenomenon familiar in many former Spanish colonies.

A Filipina sees the foreigner as offering a better chance for her future than what the local man can offer. Luckily there are more than enough Filipinas to go around, the Filipino doesn’t seem to be jealous of our taking their women away, perhaps they figure they will get the remittance and kick back and enjoy life! What does the foreigner look for in a Filipina? For many it is the lust! The sex! The fact some sexy slim thing half his age wants to have sex with him! So why not marry her and make it a permanent arrangement get her back to Farang land (term used by expats in Thailand) and he will have her forever?

Naturally, any marriage, at any stage of life with any woman from any country is doomed to failure if lust is the only thread that holds the relationship together. Sadly, the real reason we in the west often marry when we are in our early twenties is because of lust. We think it is love but if it were truly love why does it not hold up to the rigours of everyday life? and why later on, between 2 and 7 years, does the honeymoon period end. Hey by the way, how did you feel when you landed back in Farang Land, were the credit card bills, and the electric/gas bills piling up on inside your front door ? hahaha, dont worry I hear you, its a crap feeling isnt it ? welcome back hahahahaha

While there may be a façade of modesty in place, Filipinas by nature are modest and shy about sex, but do not mis-understand this rather outward appearance of shyness, they are no different to any other woman, they enjoy sex! They don’t want the world to know about it, or that they are doing it or with whom but I have not met any yet who doesn’t enjoy to have sex with the man they love, In fact, most Filipinas complain how little sex they get from their husbands after marriage. Before marriage, it really is only a question of opportunity, i.e.; time and place and it will happen. If you get one of the super conservative, neo-religious Filipinas who insist on waiting for the wedding night, its up to you whether you stay or play. I would be wary as my experience over 18 years is that she has a Filipino boyfriend and she is merely scamming you, stringing you along etc. UNLESS you met her by introduction through a mutual friend or colleague and perhaps within your Church. Then the odds are it is real and you would be well advised to respect her wishes!

Some men are destined to marry bargirls, prostitutes, GRO’s, call girls, hookers, paid companions, whatever you wish to label them. The chances of her being on the scam are increased, but not always and no more than many “straight” Filipinas really. The saying you can take the Filipina out of the bar but you can’t take the bar out of the Filipina holds water. However they are naturally sexy, I know of many situations where Brits have married bar girls, they are living happily in UK with lovely children, and the former life has passed silently away, everyone has a right to a happy life, havent they ?

Now for the downside, Filipinas have been murdered by their foreigner husbands and fiancés. They have been held as virtual sex slaves, imprisoned, beaten, tortured, raped and treated vilely. On the other side of the coin, many foreigner men have been killed, tortured, robbed and humiliated by Filipina wives from hell who either intended all along to clean out their foreigner husband or fell in with the wrong crowd of Filipina or western women once they migrated. It has happened to both sides and it will continue to happen, nothing I say here at this website will stop that, with all the best advice in the world, men still travel to the Philippines after one night of passion, decide they are in love, and want to get married, they often beg steal and borrow from their savings, increase their mortgages, sell their goods, and do almost amazing things just to get their Babae over to the UK, sometimes it works, sometimes it does not, bad mistakes cost money, just make sure, you don't make them - read on

Before I start writing about the Phlippines, I just want to point something out, I really despise the term 'sex tourist' and because of that, this is the last time you will hear me use it, the Philippine Government and even your own government may sometimes lable you as such, since we live in a world of lables, you might even have feelings of this yourself, but to be truthful, no rational business minded or hard working individual would travel all the way to the Philippines simply because they want to have sex ! the formula for my assertion is simple, divide the total cost of all your vacation trips to the Philippines by any number of sexual encounters you may have there and then work out the simple economical truth that it would have been simpler to visit a massage parlour in your home city, if you were that way inclined.

Sex is not what male travellers to the Philippines seek, sex is really like a sales gimmick, an offer to get you interested, its not the overriding reason for your visit, men who say sex is all they are looking for and thats why they travel out to the Philippines because they consider it easy to obtain sex are deluding themselves, my conversations and experiences lead me to believe that men travel to the Philippines to seek the attention and affections of beautiful young women rather than worrying too much about the physical acts or a sexual encounter, if you don't believe me, the evidence is plain for all to see, the fact is most men who visit the girlie bars and massage parlours, tend to have less sexual encounters than they actually would have you believe ! they often overestimate how many different girls they have had, because they seek to senstationalize the Phlippines sex industry, the fact of the matter is, the 'Butterfly' type visitor is not as prevalent as some would have you believe.

One guy once changed his flight ticket date 6 times and extended his visa twice so that he did not have to go home, when he did get home, he became suicidal, and life had no meaning for him, unless he can get the money together to get back out there.

By now you are used to me using the phrase Money No 1 ! its the theme for this part of my website, why do I keep using this ? in the Philippines money simply is No 1, its the overriding factor in all relationhips in the Philippines, business relationships, family relationships, personal relationships and yes romantic relationships, you cannot escape it, its the common denominator of all relationships in the Philippines, if you don't believe in this, you are deluding yourself and are in for the Royal shock of all time, they say money makes the world go round, well that's true enough, in the Philippines money is No 1, everything else is secondary to it, if you travel to the Philippines or anywhere in the Far East, you will never escape from the most commonly used word " Remittances" .

Remittances are the life blood of the Philippines, Without remittances the Philippines economy would suffer immense hardship, the Bangko Central ng Pilipinas relies heavily on inward bound remittances in its economic forecast, and money sent in to the Philippines from the rest of the world is expected to hit 14 Billion U.S. Dollars in 2008.

Remittances that keep flowing Eastwards provide many things such as school fees for siblings education, food and shelter for ageing parents, and sustenance and covering for a multitude of young women who habitually reside in some of the most poverty stricken parts of this planet.

I often chat with many young ladies when I am in country, one of the things I regularly ask is if Money really is Number 1 in the Philippines, young ladies often remark that their foreigner boyfriend is no 1 for her ! " because he send me money !!" money is and always will be number 1.

Whatever I write here on this web portal, it will never change the love I have for the Philippines, on the contrary the more I learn about this country and its people, the more it helps me to understand just what drives this culture, it helps me to understand why is it, that your Filipina companion suddenly goes into a child like whine when she is hungry, it helps me to understand just how the system works or (How it doesn't always work) the whole Filipino way of doing things intrigues me, the more I see, the more I want to know why something is done a paticular way, I am no way passing myself off as an expert on the Philippines, no one is really, there is no expert on the Philippines, you have to be born a Filipino to truly understand what it is like to live as a Filipino, no matter how many years you spend there you will always be a foreigner, experience of living among Filipinos is your best teacher, and sorry to have to say this, but the class will last you a lifetime, so have a nice cup of tea and get settled, get ready for a few hard nocks, because the Philippines way of life is about to hit you hard where it hurts, - Money is No 1 !

The Republic of the Philippines is a mass of over 7000 plus Islands, has over 90 Million people, is littered with absolutely millions of cars, Jeepneys, motor cycles, tricylces, push pedal bikes and gas guzzling old buses, the Philippines is still classified as a third world country, which is part of the developing world, I would not say that the Philippines is a tiger economy, more like a hedgehog economy, labour is cheap, jobs are scarce, money is still number 1, new hotels, appartment blocks, sub divisions are springing up all over the country, the number of foreign visitors to the Philippines continues to grow at around 8 per cent per year, at around 3 million per year, the average foreigner spends around £50.00 a day in the Philippines and contributes much needed foreign currency into the Philippine economy.

Despite local news papers and t.v. documentaries showing the Philippines as a haven for terrorism, drug murders, sleazy, dangerous, and a haven for criminality of all sorts, it is mainly written by visiting journalists who spend a couple of days in the country and then high tail it back home to write a 1 off peice that ends up in a national newspaper, the stories are often sensationalized in order to sell human interest stories that get people to buy newspapaers, if the truth were known about the Philippines it would be more likely to encourage the purchase of even more plane tickets, and more foreign visitors would be encouraged to take a holiday there.

Wherever you travel around the world, there is nothing to compare it with the Philippines the Philippines may be Filipino, but it has many western influences, such as American, British, Spanish, and Chinese, Malay and many other cultures that make up the Filipino way of life, the Filipino culture is a mix of many others, which have come together to form the Filipino culture, thats why it would be a grave mistake indeed to judge the Philippines and the Filipino people by the outward appearance of the towns and cities, and what you may see during a very short holiday.

There seem to be 2 types of foreign tourists that arrive in the Philippines, mainly repeat relationship tourists, and nocturnal tourists, relationship tourists are those guys who are already involved with a girl in the Philippines, and are just repeat visiting, or those guys who are coming out to meet girls with a view to freindships/companionships etc, that is also popular, then their are of course the nocturnal tourists, these are the guys who come to the Philippines to head off to P Burgos street in Makati City, and frequent the many curtain bars, nightclubs and massage palours that frequent Manila, many also travel out to Angeles City, to the thriving bar girl industries that frequent that area, the population of young beautiful girls working the dozens of night clubs or curtain bars is staggering, and becomes a magnet to the would be thrill seeker with deep pockets and a fat wallet.

All countries have their own fair share of dishonest people, and the Philippines is no exception where that is concerned. Some tourist books say that Manila is not a very safe place for the would be foreign tourist, that is mainly because Manila attracts so many foreign visitors that organized criminal gangs in the Philippines know that it is the one place where bright eyed guys with fat wallets are likely to be, remember Money is still no 1, the average mug punter is pretty safe in Manila providing he doesnt go looking for any trouble, if so, he won't find any, I have to say, that I have never felt threatened in any way in Manila, however I have always said, that having a Filipina female companion is always the best way to be safe, you tend to be seen as a couple, however that is not to say that something cannot happen, of course it can, make personal safety your number one consideration, be sensible at all times. Be wary of pickpockets especially along Bay Walk on Roxas boulevard, don't walk around swinging your latest digital camera looking like a tourist, as some smart filipino on the back of a motor cycle will have that off your shoulders in seconds, and before you know it he is 3 miles up the street - stupid foreigner !

"He met a nice girl in P Burgos street who told him "You very sexy man !" you so gwapo ! (good looking), maybe you and I go sightseeing ! she flutter her eyelids at him, put her hands in his and take him around town for the day, she then said, shall we go back to your hotel for good time, mug punter takes girl back to his hotel, and orders cold drinks, while he is not looking, unseen accomplice who has been following spikes his drink, and within 30 mins he is asleep in his room 3 hours later he wakes up to find his USD 4000 spending money and the love of his life have quietly left the scene of the sting.

This is a true story and happened to a British traveller who checked into a Cebu hotel room with a Filipina who offered to be is 'guide' and companion

If you hotel has a safety deposit box, and most do, leave all your spending money and travellers cheques, passport etc in the safe, any valuables such as digital cameras anything youre not using when going out should be locked safely in a hotel safe, only ever carry enough loose cash to take care of your immediate needs, and dont go flashing cash around the bars of P Burgos street, this is even more important if you end up with an 'overnight guest' in your room. Hotel staff in Filipino hotels are generally very honest as their jobs depend on it, the sight of a wad of cash sitting on your bedside table is enough to tempt anyone, especially a bar girl.

Countries have their own fair share of confidence tricksters, the Philippines is no exception to that rule, they come in all sizes, shapes and nationalities. They always appear to be very charming and can approach you mainly when you are pissed and engage you in polite conversation. Tourists can be forgiven if they engage these people in polite conversation as this is a chance to get to know the locals, the fact is, Filipinos generally are working, and are unlikely to directly approach a foreigner who is going about his business, my golden rule is simple: Filipinos or other foreigners who approach you unsolicited offering freindly advice or offering to be your tour guide are generally up to no good, free advice always seems to cost money, remmber money is no 1 ! be alert to anyone who approaches you with tales of misfortune, also beware of Filipinos stopping you in shopping malls and professing to know you ! They will often say " I know you from the hotel" there object is to solicit money from you, by appealing to your benevolence, they might say " I am your conceierge, or I am your doorman, or I cleaned your room this morning !" this story is true and happend to me ! the object of the sting was to solicit money for himself, by asking for money for his alledged children, it was their birthday and he wanted to buy them ice-creams, thankfully, my wife does not allow me to hold any money in my pockets or my wallet in the Capital City, as the temptation is too great for me to feel sorry for every misfortune trickster in town, foreigners are suckers for this scam. No matter how plausible the request for money, or how sad the story seems, you will never get the money back not now not ever, tales of woe in the Philippines are like a...holes, everyone has got one !

A British guy is sat at a bar in P Burgos street, he has been in there for about 2 hours, had a few beers and feeling merry, his 'female guest relations officer" has gone off to the rest room and another foreigner named John suddenly drops himself on the next bar stool, and says "Hey Mike hows it going, did you enjoy the party last night, saw you over there at the Makati Palace, you looked like you were having a good time" Mike cant remember him, but thinks he must have met him there, since he was at the Makati Palace the night before and knows his name, John explains he has a problem with a bar girl, who stole his cash yesterday and he cant get to the bank to sort it out until Monday, could Mike lend him a P1000.00 about £10.00 until Monday, he then promises to return the money to Mike on Monday afternoon, Mike the Mug punter obliges by pulling out his wallet and helps out the fellow foreigner and 'lends' him the money, John the freindly foreigner in distress promptly pays his own bar bill and leaves, the guest relations officer suddenly moves on to another mug-punter, needless to say, Mike nevers does receive the money back from the freindly foreigner in distress !

The Guest relations officer or GRO as they are known are basically bar girls, there job is to ensure that a guest has a good time, and ensure of course that he spends the maximum amount of money he has on him in that establishment, GRO's can be hired, if the bar fine is paid, and taken to your hotel as an overnight guest, we will discuss this later on, in this paticular case, Mike has been the victim of a minor sting, it could have cost him alot more, this is where the foreigner John is working closely with the bar girl first to obtain information, such as Which country is he from, where is he staying, where did he go last night, but enough information to make it appear that the two did meet last night, Mike the unsuspecting victim is non the wiser, and is lucky to get taken only for a tenner, be on your guard always to over-familiar people, don't be persuaded to give money no matter how small you feel the amount is, to these people, they don't give a damn about you, money is number 1.

Trying to obtain a fold map of Metro Manila seems to be difficult to say the least, forget driving around with your Tom Tom in Manila, my only suggestion is to orientate yourself around the provided map above, for a city which is huge, Metro Manila is made up of the old Manila and also lots of connurbations, rather like London, where the City has literally expanded to a large super city, when you arrive at the airport, head for the Makati area of the City, this is the General business district, its cleaner, safer, and will be more to your liking, all the 1st class hotels are there, the 2 main plush and designer shopping complexes, such as Rockwell and Ayala Corporation are also in the same area, this includes Greenbelt and Glorietta 1 to 4 shopping malls, there is also Megamall at EDSA, it is wise to have pre-booked a hotel, at least then when you arrive youve got somewhere to get over the tiredness and heat, having a map of the area will help you to place districts in the right place, above is a large scale map of the main areas you are likely to be in, and its a good starter for getting a picture of what the city looks like from the air.

Taxis are the best mode of transport for the would be foreign visitor in country for the first time, and secondary the Jeepney is a very efficient way of getting around Metro Manila and the surrounding provincial cities and rural areas, in some places its the only way to get around

But one has to say, its not the one you would want to use in the main, it can be of benefit of course, if you want a cheap ride, its around 7 pesos in Manila to use it, however if you dont mind jumping in with the locals, its fine !, but I don't use them and I don't know of any foreigners who do !, foreigners sometimes use jeepneys in the provinces, if they are on a travel budget, but the only way to get around really has to be the taxi.

There are various different forms of Manila Taxi drivers ranging from extremely polite and helpful, right down to outright racketeering crooks !

Metro Manila airport taxi's start with the luxurious ones, down to the rickety old crappy falling to bits types, and I will tell you more about them here.

Depending on which terminal you arrive at will determine the type of taxi you will take, firstly, if you are flying from the UK, you will either go through Hong Kong, or the middle east, British Airways and Cathay Pacific and to a lesser extent Qatar fly through Hong Kong, the other airlines such as Gulf, Qatar, Etihad, Emirates fly via the middle east, so they normally arrive at Terminal 1 NAIA, (Ninoy Aquino International Airport).

Some guys take a flight to Hong Kong, and then change to Cebu Pacific Airways which is cheaper, this low cost air fares airline now exclusively uses Terminal 3, which is the new terminal next to Villamor Air Base.

When you come out at Terminal 1 or 3 the taxi's are colour co-ordinated, the Large White van type taxi's are the best but the most expensive, you might consider P750.00 a small price to pay to get downtown, to the business district, and you would be right, however, if like me, you are a seasoned vistor and want to save money, get in the queue for the yellow taxi's they use the meter (metro) and are cheaper, its about P200 or less to get to Makati Avenue from Terminal 3, they are ok, they are generally clean, the drivers are ok, friendly and helpful, i.e. putting your bags in the back, but the prices are lower.

Whilst the large White Airort taxi's tend to be more expensive, they are a must for your first ride in Metro Manila, when a visitor arrives at Terminal 1 from an inbound flight to Ninoy Aquino International or into Philippine Airlines Terminal 2, these taxi's are generally the best choice, they are exceptionally clean, smell nice, and are air conditioned !, not big things you might think, but you are wrong to think that !, if you have just travelled from UK for 12-14 hours and are meeting a companion, ( aka your Filipino WAG) you need a nice smelling clean Filipino taxi service

What normally happens is that you would either get in the taxi rank and queue for a taxi, you can get your WAG to ask one of the guys standing with a pen and book of taxi tickets to arrange one, these guys are always there in black trousers and white smart shirts, once arranged, they will write you out a taxi slip, the benefit of the taxi slip, is that the price is already agreed with them, no doubt you will be going to Makati, which is the business district, I would be suprised if your WAG is taking you anywhere else, normally they will have a very good idea of where you should stay, hotels are discussed at Preparation to go in Country so I wont discuss that here, you are then taken around to the taxi station to pay, this is a weird system for the Western visitor, because he is used to paying the driver at the end of the journey, for some reason, you pay at the taxi station, the driver has to take you there, it appears he is not taking you to your destination, but don't be worried, its just that they have to call in at the taxi terminal to let you pay, you stay in the taxi for this, and of course you can let your WAG complete this task.

Your driver will then take you to your hotel or other destination, if you are transferring from NAIA Terminal 1 for a flight to the provinces, you will have 2 options, either you will need to take a taxi around to Terminal 2, that is Philippine Airlines, or you if you are travelling on Cebu Pacific, you will need to take a taxi to Terminal 3, of NAIA this terminal needs a taxi ride as it is over the other side of the runway, other air carriers such as Inter-island Airways, SeaAir, or Asian Spirit or Air Philippines now fly from the old Manila Domestic Airport terminal, whichever of these options, ensure that the fare for these journeys is made clear.

At the time of constructing this page, and up to 2009, the fare for taking passengers from NAIA Terminal 1 or 3 to the Intercontinental Hotel/Shangri La/Peninsular/Oakwood Appartments is no more than P750.00 with baggage About £9.50. in the yellow taxi's around P250.00 or by negotiation if he does not want to use the meter, your Filipino GF will negotiate that, if you are alone, don't use the Yellow taxi, unless like me who has to be fair been in country about 15 times, a little bit more confident in negotiating my own fares, if your not confident, or don 't speak any Tagalog, then suggest you use the big white taxi.

Next comes what I call the "Whingeing" Manila taxi driver, these guys ply for trade around the city, and the vehicles come in all shapes, sizes and colours, but generally they are identified by their plate and taxi beacon on top of the roof, why do I say "Whingeing" because when they pick you up, they Whinge from everything about the Filipino way of life, how hard things are, right through to trying to solicit big tips and ice creams for their multiple kids ! Tales of mIsfortune are like assholes, every taxi driver has got one.

For one reason or another, some of them can be outright rude and uncooperative, others can be talkative and pleasant, others can keep quiet all the way through your journey, but most of all, the whingers generally are out to extort extra because you are foreign, and also looking for big tips at the end of the journey.

Some of them never seem to have any petrol for the car, bits fall off, and they drive like crazy too close to other drivers to get around, they also spit out of the window and stop for pee breaks, just ignore what you see, the Philippines is like that, its all part of the culture I am afraid.

Speaking form personal experience this year (2009) its been ok, but as little as a year ago, I can recount numerous times when I have had rip off attempts to me personally, Manila Taxi drivers seem to think because you are a foreigner, you can pay foreigners special rate, that seems to always be, double what locals pay, they think that since you appear to be well fed, over there, and going around Manila youre rich !

One of their favourite dishonest practices is to not switch on the meter, a metered taxi at the time of constructing this page costs P45 flag down, that means when you flag it down the meter has already a minimum fare of P45.00 petty you may think, but its the principal of the thing, whenever you are travelling with a Filipino companion, or even better if its your Filipino Fiancee/wife, she could also be intimidated into helping the driver extort a little extra money from you, they will often appeal to her 'Good Filipina" instincts, they will then tell her that you as the rich foreigner should understand the Filipino way of lifef and how it is for them to make a living etc etc.

To the serious side, if you are travelling around Manila central districts such as Malate, Ermita, Quezon City, San Adreas Bukid, Pasay City, Makati City, Intramuros, these are generally the districts you might end up crossing in a taxi, then insist the driver switches on the meter, re-inforce this by telling your WAG to translate your words to him, just in case "he no speaky any kind of English" if a taxi driver refuses to switch on the meter simply ask the driver to stop, get out of the taxi, and find another taxi, sometimes you may be reluctant to do this, and you may feel its not worth the aggro, normally they catch you for another P80.00 or P100.00, when you consider its only a £1.00 here and there, it hardly seems worth bothering.

Poor sanitation and water treatment problems is estimated to cost the Philippine economy about P7 Billion a year in lost revenues, the reason is simple, parts of metro manila is a world eco disaster, The inability to dispose, collect and treat human and industrial waste also sends thousands of Filipinos daily to hospitals, doctors’ offices and drugstores for diarrhea, dysentery and respiratory diseases.

Poor sanitation has polluted rivers, lakes, bays and esteros, principally Manila Bay, the Pasig River and Laguna Lake. Countless rivers in Luzon are considered biologically dead because of industrial and human pollution. Swimmers, bathers and fishermen have complained of pain, discomfort and diseases after swimming or taking a dip in the Pasig River or in Manila Bay.

Pollution has seeped into tap water and public faucets, restaurants, hotels, cocktail lounges and other public places. As a result, not only hotels and restaurants but most households have shifted to buying bottled drinking water. In slum neighborhoods, residents continue to dispose of waste in plastic and paper bags in somebody else’s backyard. Informal settlers, or squatters have no WC facilities whatsoever, they deflacate just about anywhere placing the human waste in plastic bags or paper trash bags they scavenge, and then throw it just about anywhere they want to, commuter train passengers have complained about being hit by feces thrown by residents living along railroad tracks.

This practice is so endemic that it has has turned off foreign and domestic tourists who have complained about eyesores, stench and dirty tap water. They get a bigger shock when they get out of Metro Manila and hit the countryside, there often its worse, young children and adults alike, regularly, urinate in public places

No thought or regard is given to the environmental effect and future problems, many shanty houses have no WC's the makeshift cubicle is normally over an estero, or river tributary, human waste is then simply dumped into the water below, the waste then runs downstream into the Bay of Manila, swimmers have complained off swimming among faeces and industrial waste.

The crisis has produced a booming industry: the distilled or bottled water business. Every middle-class family in Metro Manila supports the business. Water refilling stations abound in the region.

It is therefore essential that all foreign visitors to Metro Manila and other provinces ensure that they only drink bottled water, and try and drink well known brands, tap water in your hotel rooms is not potable, raw sewerage is in the eco-system, main hotels cannot be trusted for their water quality, foreign visitors who ignore these warnings end up, being sick very shortly after arriving

Bacterium from human faeces and animal faeces are transmitted through water borne products into the main reservoirs, little is known about Filipino water treatment practices other than that the water seems to be treated to a standard which is ok for locals, however, balik-bayans and foreigners alike do not have the stomach for this process, so consider all forms of pipe delivered water to be infested and only good for showering or bathing in and even then one shudders as to whats in the water, it should be a "Nil by mouth" approach to all forms of pipe fed water in Metro Manila.

Most people drink filtered water, Even Filipinos who have been away for years could develop abdominal cramps and even diarrhea from drinking the tap water, although the tap water is said to be chlorinated and potable for the local residents, you simply cannot take the chance with the local water, when buying filtered water, choose the bottled ones with seal on them. And make sure the seal is not broken. Request the waiter or vendor not to break the seal, so you can inspect it and break the seal yourself. We have heard recently of some unscrupulous enterprising people who refill empty bottles with tap water, urrrrgh just think of that ?

Others are “more careful” by boiling the water before using it as a refill. The safe bottled water to drink is the one which has undergone reverse osmosis and UV light exposure, or distilled. Boiling water before drinking is also tolerated by many people, including some tourists and balikbayans. When you do this, make sure the sediment at the bottom of the kettle or pot (white crystal that look like powdered salt, which are actually inorganic minerals) is discarded.

To clean the kettle or pot that have mineral deposits on them because they have been frequently used for boiling water, soak them in regular kitchen vinegar (diluted acetic acid) for about an hour once a week, and scrub them as you rinse them using tap water till they are clean and devoid of the vinegar smell, you may find that this happens in the provinces if you are invited to someones house, our advice still remains, ask for bottled water and ensure the seal is not broken