Best Posts in Thread: MANILA - CNN - PARTS UNKNOWN - ANTHONY BOURDAIN

He has done the Philippines before (6 years ago with "No Reservations") and I felt the show was rather weak compared to other locations around the world he had covered. The part in Cebu was especially disappointing....perhaps it was because he gad a Filipino American, that had only been in the Philippines for a grand total of 7 days prior to showing Bourdain around. There is a lot to see/do/eat in the Visayas.....but very little of that is in Cebu City.


I find it disappointing that CNN has decided to do a show on Manila. I highly doubt anything they show me in Manila is going to make me look forward to going there again, I know that whatever they show is not what a person will actually experience....because with TV you are left without a sense of smell (and since they are shooting in Manila we should all be appreciative of that). I will watch it....but only in hopes that they actually cover some areas outside of the cesspool that is Manila. There are some great places that could be covered by CNN/Bourdain (I think they do a great job with that show overall), but Manila and Cebu are not where they should be focusing.

 

Different strokes for different folks I guess because I despise Makati more so than any shanty-town part of Manila I've been in (and I got suckered into living in one of those areas many years ago...which lasted less than a month), mainly because of the ridiculous prices. Can't walk half a block without someone trying to sign you up for some crappy happy-ending massage or begging you for handouts. The girly bars are full of scam artists and once they find out you aren't interested in bar fines you'll be lucky to find a waitress to get you a second drink (and the regular bars are full of freelancers that won't let you sit there and quietly enjoy your drink). I find the food to be mediocre at best but the prices are that of a restaurant in the US that could provide you a respectable meal. Getting a taxi to and from Makati on the meter is d*mn near impossible to top it all off. They always blame traffic for the reason they won't use the meter, as if that's my f'n problem.....and last time my gf and myself were in Manila we had to tell one taxi driver to stop and let us out because he was obviously tweaking hard on shabu and driving like a complete loon (and I'm rather liberal on my views on drug use....but if you are to the point where you are shaking, twitching and getting paranoid about crap that's not there it's time to put the d*mn pipe down and get some sleep!).

The only thing I found even slightly interesting in Makati is the bar that has unano boxing.....but even there I'm put off by the absurd prices on drinks (P150+ for a rum coke if I remember correctly). I understand that bars need to turn a profit but when I can buy a 750ML bottle of Tanduay and a 1L bottle of coke (which together cost around P130) for less than one mixed drink there is something seriously wrong. Makati was a whole lot more fun when I didn't know how badly I was getting f*cked on the prices.

I will say that Makati is not nearly as bad as Pasay or the Korean/Japanese area around Mabini St.....but that's not saying much (I absolutely hate it when bars throw a mandatory service charge on your bill, which you find pretty much anywhere that there are lots of Korean tourists around).