A while back I wrote a post on the go go bars of Angeles City. While that town is more well known for its bars the capital city of Manila also has a fair share of male entertainment venues. There are a lot of bars oriented to locals around that foreigners are free to enter but the places most guys from other countries will visit are centered in two locations.

Manila is a huge city and you can find women all over the place. Here I am talking about the adult entertainment areas that are basically centered around English speaking tourists. Let me tell you where thee red light districts are, and what they are all about.

P Burgos Street

The first is P. Burgos Street in Makati which is probably the most well known naughty nightlife area in the city. Makati is the business center of the capital. Although it is not without its rough spots it is certainly one of the nicest and most developed parts of the city.

P. Burgos is a street that juts off of Makati Avenue near a major shopping mall complex . From its intersection with Makati avenue it is lined with bars on both sides. There are also some restaurants and hotels like the Oxford Suites but go go bars predominate. As you travel further on the street they start to thin out but some can even be found a good ten minute walk from the start.

The prices in P. Burgos bars are pretty high whether they are being compared to similar bars in Angeles, Bangkok or most other Southeast Asian cities. Unfortunately I don’t think the women are any better looking as a general rule. There are some thin beauties with perky boobs and long black hair but there are many more chubby girls and single moms with several kids and even more stretch marks. Make up and especially lighting can hide a lot of this but that only goes so far.

The bars that open in the day typically have the worst looking women on staff. Those that open late like Kojax usually have better looking women but charge an arm and a leg for everything. A simple drink can cost the equivalent of 10 US dollars which would get you two drinks in most Bangkok go go bars and as many as ten in a Cambodian hostess bar. Lady drinks cost even more and most women will expect you to buy at least one for the pleasure of sitting next to them and listening to stories about their brothers and sisters.

Don’t take this to mean that the bars are all bad. There are some really good looking women to be found and some decent people too if you take the time to look around but it ain’t cheap. If you do find a woman you like taking her out of the bar costs a bar fine of 1800 to 4000 Pesos which works out to be between 40 and 88 US dollars. The lower bar fines are less common and limited to bars like Rascals where things are hit and miss. None of the bar fines include the money the woman expects for her own time. In Angeles City the bars split the bar fine with the woman. In Manila they don’t. Guys have to give women the equivalent of anywhere from 2500 to 5000 pesos, which is equal to 50 to 120 US greenbacks.

Few of the women have any real skills in the sack to speak of which can be charming in an amateur but annoying with a supposed pro you are spending hundreds of dollars to spend time with. Gems can be found but it requires a hell of a lot of digging. Always remember the guys who went broke trying to strike it rich in the California gold rush.

To top it all off a lot of the women want to leave guys by four or five in the morning to get back to their families or boyfriends or in a select few cases make it to college in time to get their studies in for the day. Probably the best feature of P. Burgos is the bars that allow guys to have fun in hidden VIP sections of the bars. This still requires the payment of a bar fine but it can usually be negotiated to some extent. Montana and High Heels are two of my favorite bars that allow this kind of fun. G Strings doesn’t permit any action in the bar but it is still one of my favorite because they usually have some really good looking women (even though they don’t wear g strings).

EDSA Entertainment Complex

The EDSA Entertainment Complex is the other center of attraction in Manila. The building is located in Pasay City right across the street from the Heritage Hotel. Although it is a little more closed off it is something like the Pinoy version of Nana Plaza in Bangkok. There is one entrance guarded by beefy police picking up some overtime pay. Inside one founds a series of bars with different names and themes though they are all owned by the same people.

There are no outside beer bars or anything like that. Just go go bars. As with P. Burgos street the women shuffle back and fourth aimlessly in shifts wearing shorts or occasionally bikinis. There is no nudity in any of these bars though a titty does sometimes make an appearance in the more local places.

Cotton Club is probably the best bar in EDSA simply because it is the biggest. There must be fifty or more women working there most nights and they are usually warm and friendly. They don’t hustle you for drinks either which is a nice alternative from the P. Burgos bars even though the drink rates are about the same in both places.

None of the other bars really stand out though they are worth a look. When I visit I usually do like the many Chinese and Korean punters around by stepping inside and looking at the talent before deciding if I want to shell out money for a drink and a seat. Many times I don’t as I am often disappointed though I have always seen at least one or two desirable women at Cotton Club.

The bar fines at EDSA are universally set at 1950 pesos which is less than 45 US dollars. This is expensive but still better than what you find in most P. Burgos bars. The women still expect the same kind of tip as their counterparts on P. Burgos but in my experience are much more likely to spend the night and even much of the next day with guys who take them out of the bar. For that reason I like EDSA a little more.

Oddly I visit the place less often that P. Burgos even though I prefer it. That is because P. Burgos is more central. I don’t like staying in Pasay City and taking a taxi there can be a hassle. First you have to find a taxi that will run the meter or at least give you a reasonable set price which is easier said than done.

P. Burgos has higher prices and the street is filled with beggars and people selling phony erection pills at night but they are easily ignored. The dozens of women who stand in the street offering “massage” for 500 pesos are harder to ignore but that’s fine because a lot of them are super sexy and rearing to go for less than the go go girls.

The biggest issue with EDSA besides the trip to get there is the taxis that wait outside for customers to emerge. The door men try to whisk customers into these cabs where they will be asked for exorbitant amounts of money no matter where they go. Bar girls don’t dare speak up for the customer though they will often talk about it back in the room, telling the guy their with that they overpaid by huge sums of money. I avoid this by walking right past the waiting taxis and hailing one from the street. This draws looks from the waiting taxis and doormen but who gives a shit?

Go go bars in the Philippines

In summary there are a lot of go go bars in Manila and they can be fun but they are hardly world class attractions. With so many other possibilities to date and have sex with Filipinas they only have so much appeal, especially with the prices they charge.

Go go bars have been around in the Philippines for quite a while. It seems like they’ll be around for a while longer too. I don’t see the go go bar zones expanding, but they’re not shrinking either. At the moment it’s pretty steady.

Things could change though, especially with younger guys coming to the Philippines and the internet becoming more common. There are now a lot of chicks on sites like Pina Love and apps like Tinder. So now you can find more women on your phone than you might have met in a whole lifetime a hundred years ago.