Shortly after we drove just outside of the Clark and past the huge SM mall to Angeles City. We parked by Mei Lee, the restaurant we ate at on Monday where the local TI managers are regulars. We even got Chris to do karaoke that night!!!! Photo evidence of this once-in-a-lifetime occurrence was obtained!
Back to Friday: There was a ton of traffic so the other Chris (to further be known as Chris2) jumped the curb and just parked where most convenient. The traffic rules here seem to be suggestions or guidelines more than anything else. We are told driving inside of Clark is very structured, but once you leave the freeport limits, all bets are off. There are hundreds of motorcycles, Jeepneys, and trikes (imagine what you've seen in India divided by 3), as well as lots of people crossing the street at all points of the street.
We then walked to a section called "Walking Street" which is full of bars, food places, clubs, and pay-by-the-hour motels. We got some awesome tacos at Taqueria Real, and then starting exploring. The street is blocked off to traffic at night so it was full of people in front of every establishment (usually beautiful girls in tight clothes) calling out the club/bar/resturant name followed by "sir" or "maam". There were also lots of guys walking around selling cigarettes, bead bracelets, 'ray bans', and viagra. I've quickly learned how to say "no" in Tagalog.
Chris2 said we had to go to Dollhouse to see the "synchronized pole dancing". I wasn't sure I was interested because I've never felt the need to watch a girl take off clothes for money, however this place was different. It wasn't stripper pole dancing; it was what he said it was. Amazingly acrobatic, super strength, synchronized pole dancing with no one removing any article of clothing or being raunchy (they had bikini tops and shorts on, so nothing crazier than what you would see at Hooters). We watched from the second flood and these girls would be on the pole 6 at a time, all spinning and then the one all the way at the top would stand up on a horizontal girl that had the pole by her legs. It was crazy. We watched until the cool part was over and someone else on the second floor across from us starting throwing money out to the girls below (20 peso bills -equivalent to 50 cents) and they were all running for each one that fell to the ground below. I had definitely had enough at that point, and was also being disgusted by the fat Asian guy the Mamasan was trying to help. They have these super strong laser pointers and would point at a girl and the guy would shake his head. She was helping him to pick a girl to take home and he hadn't found the one he wanted yet. Gross. Let's go.
I wanted to eventually go clubbing at a place Chris2 said played early 2000s techno music (the BEST!) but they weren't open yet so we had some time to kill. We walked to a grill/bar and just sat on the second floor to people watch, and then stopped for drinks (barely any alcohol in my cheap pineapple/rum) at Las Vegas (a normal bar that happened to have the names and logos of Vegas casinos painted on the wall) but it was even worse. They had seating around a round raised floor in the middle of the room and groups of girls 5 or 6 at a time would go up and do awkward group dancing to a song. They all had these laminated white cards attached to the bottom of the their super short dresses, which are apparently "health cards". All girls that work in the industry are required by the government to get tested about once a week. We quickly got out of there and headed to High Society but it was still a little early I guess (10:30) so there really wasn't anyone dancing quite yet. We had some more drinks and talked and then decided to head out since the music wasn't what I was looking for anyway (stupid rap).
Saturday we hooked back up with Chris2 and Caroline who is also here with TI but for a full year and went back to Walking Street for lunch and to the SM mall for groceries (reminder to self; don't grocery shop at 3pm Saturday again..the lines were crazy long. Oh and also learn how much a kilo is..the people weighing meat and veggies don't know how much a pound is.) If something is 185 pesos per kilo, I have to convert kilos first, then pesos, and then think if that's a good price in general. Bah! So confusing.
Hypermarkert grocery store. Look Alicia, I took this picture for you because it says "Lumpia Crew!" hehe
That's Chris2 on the left.
Walking Street during the day.
So Friday was barhopping day, and Saturday was recovery day (I made some shrimp noodle dish at the apt) and Chris and I have been watching Babylon 5 in the evenings. And I'm going to watch House of Cards this week! Oh yea!!
This post is long enough, so I will write later about the AMAZING beach we went to with Chris2 and his date on Sunday. Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment below!
Oh and PS: We have internet! And lightbulbs, and a coffee table, and a second AC remote and everything we asked for!! Yay! It came at a MOST inconvenient time on Saturday morning...*ahem*...but I am glad it all finally happened!
Hooray for light bulbs!
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