Did a quick round trip to AC over the weekend. What a difference in a couple of months. My last trip there was in May and I was shocked by the change in Fields ave. I could count the folks on the entire Walking Street on my fingers. It's so surreal..... like I just walked into a western movie and an empty cowboy town.
I should have known from the signs prior to takeoff. My CP flight was supposed to be on the 4th but CP pushed it back to 5th.....not problem for me as I still have 2 nights to stay over in AC. At the airport my boarding was quick as there was no queue at all. My flight was more than half empty and as I scanned through the passengers I realized I was the only foreigner on board. The rest of the passengers were Filipinos.
Landed and cleared Immigration at Clark in super quick time as I was the only one in the foreigners booth. Checked into the Walkabout hotel in Fields ave.... the receptionist asked me what type of room I wanted....they have plenty of rooms available. I took the same poolside room that I stayed on my last trip.
I paid 1350p for it the last time and now they wanted 1620p ..... WTF no business and still increase prices.
Put my luggage in the room and went out to have my dinner at Tequila Reef. Usually the street in front would be packed with bargirls, mongers and vendors. I saw a deserted street instead with less than 10 people and this was at 9pm.!!
WTF is happening?
After my dinner, I went into the nearest bar which was Rhapsody..... I saw plenty of girls inside but only 2 AngMos guys..... later it turned out they were the owner and manager so I was the only customer. Even then the mamasan was wary of me and asked a lot of questions..... she tried to catch me off guard by speaking in Tagalog suddenly. I could sense the tension inside the bar with both AngMos and the girls eyeing me but not approaching..... I did not finish my SML and left Rhapsody.
Next stop was La Bamba ..... the waitress Mitchell recognized me and some of the dancers too..... I called a few down from stage and offered to buy them LDs.... then Mitchell told me I can buy them LDs but they cannot sit with me at the couch.... they have to remain on stage.... WTF!! This bar was well known for its lively music and girls but the mood tonight was sombre and subdued..... I felt like being at a funeral wake.... there were 3 other Johns there so that makes a total of 4 customers they had.
I then decided to hit the Megabars and headed for Atlantis..... nothing much has changed..... they usual dance troupes going through their routines..... the pole dancers highlights and the Korean money throwers..... and the empty seats too.
The place was about 80% empty and the other customers besides myself were all Koreans and a couple of middle eastern looking guys.
Next stop was DollHouse...... Wow! So empty!! Before I could turn around and walk out the door the manager called out my name..... he recognized me from my last visit. We sat and had some beers and I got to hear about the happenings in AC. Then he asked me to help post some positive reviews in the forums I am on as business is very very bad..... almost non existent. I had enough and decided to end the night. Back at my hotel I started consulting my little black book to contact my previous girls. Most of them were afraid to come as they had been warned not to go with Asians. Finally I managed to contact one FL but she was in Manila.... she had gone there as she was not able to pickup any clients for the past 2 weeks in Fields ave..... at least in Manila she had some work...... I told her to come and I will pay her taxi fare.... 3 hours later she arrived so I did not have to sleep alone
