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I know many of you do not like this guy's way of presenting Thailand issues - but he makes some good and interesting points about the new May 1 2025 TM6 deadline and its possible relationship with the new Thai tax filings and related tax requirements.

But aren't the Grab drivers freelance instead of contract employees? The cars that I get when I use the app here in Cebu are private cars. So, if they can track via GPS that we made a private tour - what can they do about it? Is there not freedom to go offline (terminate the ride) and do what we want? I just want to be aware of any potential ramifications. The primary reason why we did this on this day was because when I entered the desired destination = "Buwakan Ni Alejandra", the app replied that it was out of their network and out of their service range. so, we had no choice but to negotiate privately with the driver.

Day 24 (21 January 2025) Eat breakfast in my room (7-Eleven stuff), as I need to meet Mr. B at 9am in the lobby. We hire a Grab car to take us to the famous, Buwakan Ni Alejandra gardens, which are far up into the mountains above Cebu into the next district = Balamban, which is a 1 hour drive away. Mr. B negotiates a fixed price of 5,000 pesos (~ $86 USD), for the driver to accommodate our touring needs and to turn off the Grab meter. https://www.facebook.com/BuwakanNiAlejandra/ After 1 hour, we arrive here and at first it looks like a rip-off, as there is only a small narrow passageway just to the right of my position in the below photo – but that narrow walkway opens up into an amazing spectacle – even with rainbow walkways. The entrance fee is: 100 pesos (~ $1.71 USD) Instead of a yellow brick road there is a rainbow path to lead you through these lovely gardens. The air is so fresh and fragrant from the odors of all of the many beautiful plants. We took way too many wonderful photos that I should not crowd our gayguides blog space with – but if you want to see a random FB video of this place, please check it out below – 3 minutes of joy. https://www.facebook.com/cebunibaiph/videos/buwakan-ni-alejandra-in-balamban-cebu-buwakan-ni-alejandra-is-one-of-the-beautif/1926549487776494/ We continue our journey down the mountain side back towards Cebu stopping off at the famous La Parisienne Sky. https://www.facebook.com/laparisiennesky/ By now we were famished, and so, we had to have a wonderful late lunch. Upon walking into the restaurant, Mr. B gets excited and tells me emphatically, please take my picture with this Filipina lady that was standing in the foyer. I gladly do it and there is somewhat of a commotion. When we get to our table overlooking Cebu city down below, Mr. B tells me that the lady is a famous personality in the region that he comes from so I was very happy for him to have had this “rubbing elbows” opportunity with a local star. Back of the restaurant approaching from the parking lot. The view from our outside lunch table was amazing and breathtaking. I prepared the below zoomed in 2 photos to give you a panorama view of Cebu City, nearby Mactan island, and off in the distance Olango island. To appreciate the below 2 photos you may need to ZOOM in with your browser. Here is the view from our outside lunch table. Our meals were excellent and we were lucky to have a fortunately nice weather day. **Note that there is a 200 peso fee per person to enter the La Parisienne Sky restaurant. However, as this fee charge is labeled as "consumable", it can be deducted from any food, beverages, souvenir shopping, etc. that you may consume during your visit. At first I did not like this concept, but its purpose is to avoid that this beautiful place is not over-run by large bus tour groups passing through for only 10 minutes to get a selfie and ruining your dining experience. This "consumable" concept, perhaps only unique to the Philippines, will come up later in this trip report. Our Grab driver takes us back to my condo in IT Park, and that ends my great morning and afternoon adventure with Mr. B. Took a little rest and after all of that delightful garden fresh mountain air – my little brother woke up and said to me give me some edging action. So, I found Mr. Dak on Grindr and invited him to my room for my standard 90 minute massage + edging fun. I paid my now Cebu standard fee of 3.000 pesos (~ $51 USD). All was good as Mr. Dak is a masculine type of guy with a nice cut cock who had great massage skills. Went to sleep feeling very satisfied from a great day in Cebu. Day 24 (21 January 2025) concluded.

Day 23 (20 January 2025) Woke up and ordered a Grab car to go back to CBP to the Ayala mall to: Eat my usual scrumptious breakfast at the , Find a solution to block the sun from entering into my new condo room as the current curtains do jack shit to block the sun from entering at 6am. I am hyper-sensitive to sunlight, so I need it to be dark. Here in IT Park, there is a mini Ayala mall, but it is too small for the number of people who exist in IT Park and is more crowded than I like. As I needed access to a BIG department store (i.e., Metro) I needed to return to CBP. After breakfast, I headed to the home furnishings section (floor 6) in Metro and I started to browse for the lowest priced DARK sheets. A sales clerk comes to help me and I tell her that I need sheets to block the sunlight for my AirBnB condo – she looks perplexed, as she insists that I instead need to buy curtains. I try to make her understand that I am an AirBnB guest and that I don’t own the condo so I need a cheap and easy solution. So, she wanders off, as I have noticed that the store personnel here can’t deal with non-standard solutions. Anyway, I find some cheap dark grey (black would have been perfect but there were none to be had) and I buy them. After setting up the grey flat bedding sheet to the window curtain rod I can see that it is still not strong enough to block the sunlight, so I add the fitted sheet, but I need to attach it to the table legs and my suitcase to make the elastic stay at the floor level to be effective. I can report that the following morning that I did not wake up at 6 am. Hallelujah!! Later in the night, I meet up with Mr. B so that we can go to the famous Sugbo Mercado food market that is famous here in IT Park. As it is Monday, Sugbo Mercado is unfortunately closed. Monday's are a strange day in Cebu - pools are all closed for maintenance and cleaning and also the biggest food market in all of Cebu is closed on Monday. Please tell me why? What is special about Monday? What do pools and food markets have in common regarding Mondays ?? Instead, we walk around the IT Park grounds and then decide to eat in the 4th floor Ayala mall Food Choices food court. Food was good, as was my time with the adorable Mr. B. We planned a nice adventure for tomorrow. Stay tuned. No massages or extra-curricular activities today. Day 23 (20 January 2025) concluded.

Also, I bought extra towels to replicate my real towel situation that I have back in Jomtien.

In the same way that I do it back in Jomtien. I clean everything and I do the laundry in the condo or bring the laundry to the lobby cleaning service. I know in a hotel that it is all taken care of for you - but I hate hotel living, as it prevents you from experiencing the real life in your chosen destination --> and that is the true purpose of my trip here = to simulate retiree life in a new destination and to be able to analyze the pros and cons of said destination versus my retiree life back in Jomtien.

I ditto what you wrote above @a-447 My former, PMB (Primary Money Boy) - but now my Thai boyfriend - when I would invite him and his friends out for drinking and/or eating - I would pay for the entourage but no "appearance fee" was ever requested or expected. The invited guys got more out of the experience by being seen by their friends with this crazy farang (me) out having fun and drinks. It was good for their image and social media feeds. And it was good for me as I enjoy the entertainment and the associated ใจดี (Jai Dee) credits.

Day 22 (19 January 2025) – the BIG day = SINULOG parade https://www.facebook.com/SinulogFoundationOfficial/ Finally, the big day has arrived. I meet Mr. Lan in the lobby of my building at 8am sharp. We easily get a Grab car (I expected worse – but in this case the early bird gets the worm) and then the driver and Mr. Lan get into an intense conversation in Cebuano about where is the best drop off point – as the city government has blocked off access by 1km to the roads around the parade route. The negotiated drop off point was near the Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital, where we can easily walk the rest of the way to the Fuente Osmeña Circle. We plant ourselves there and it is about 8:45am and we see them preparing the parade for its supposed commencement at 9am. Hahahahaha. It was partly cloudy so it was tolerable. 20250119_084537.mp4 Finally, around 10:30am, the parade starts to move – but ever so slowly. I ask Mr. Lan – what is going on? Is this normal? He laughs and says to me, “Welome to Filippino time!!” and he has a BIG grin on his face and the many people near us who heard me ask him that question all smiled at me. Unfortunately, by now the cloud cover moved away and by 11:30am the full sun is blasting us and there was no cover where we were. So, Mr. Lan says to me, when the police were looking the other way, to slide myself underneath the rope barrier (that separates the spectators from the parade participants) and we take that opportunity to take some precious parade photos as we are right next to them and they are also dying in the intense heat with a snails pace parade movement. We eventually work our way into the physical Fuente circle – where there is tree cover and remain there until around 2:30pm, when I just told Mr. Lan – ok, I have seen enough – let us go eat and drink some cooling refreshments. Here are some photos: This angel had to have his wings repaired close up shots of me in my new SINULOG parade shirt - when we snuck through the police cordon So getting to the parade route was easy peasy, as there were not that many people. However, around 2:30pm, when we decided to leave via Fuente Circle into where Mango Avenue begins – it was near impossible – as it was so people packed like sardines – that process was very nerve racking (because if something would have caused a stampede – it would be extremely difficult to remain on 2 feet to avoid being stepped on and crushed). We made it out to the Mango Avenue shopping center, where I asked Mr. Lan, for purposes of this forum, for us to stop at the supposed site of the new Alpha Massage spa. We asked everywhere and no such spa existed in this place even though it was advertised as such in a Twitter (X) feed about gay massage spas in Cebu. So, that was a disappointment. Anyway, we find a shortcut out of the chaos on a side street and we could finally sit down and eat some Hungarian sausages and drink some cool and refreshing just made Brazilian lemonade. As I lived in Budapest for 8 years I asked the owner, are these really Hungarian sausages? She blushed, and told me that no one from Hungary had visited her shop, and she told me that it is fake. She said that in the Philippines that it is common practice to put an exotic foreign name on something and then the local people want it even more. Anyway, I ate them and they were good but tasted more like the local lechon pork meat commonly found here in Cebu. So, it made me wonder if the Brazilian lemonade that I was drinking (which was very good) was really Brazilian – but I was already way too tired from standing at the parade for 6 hours now to care to ask. Enjoying a relaxing moment eating and drinking with sexy Mr. Lan If I had to do the SINULOG parade again what would I change? Don't wake up so early to get a good place to watch the parade - because you will be disappointed with having to wait for more than 2.5 hours for the parade to even begin and to then only move 100 feet. Perhaps come later around 2pm - and instead of going to the starting point go to the ending point. Why? Then you can have more energy for the after-parade craziness when: the people start dancing and partying, they run around and start painting each other's faces - kind of like what they do back in Thailand during Songkran, more of the gays are out and about on Mango street having fun. Around 4pm I was already back in my condo room exhausted. There were scheduled fireworks at 7pm back at the parade site, and at 9pm over in nearby CBP - Cebu Business Park. So, I took a nap, thinking that I would wake up by 8pm to run over to CBP to watch the fireworks. Well, my 63 year old body just said no and I woke up at 9pm when I heard the firework explosions outside of my condo window - but because I am facing northeast and not south - I could not see them. Day 22 (19 January 2025) concluded.

I always tell them that I want a 90 minute meeting and I don't let the conversation get into hourly rates here in the Philippines or back in Thailand. I will NOT tolerate this hourly rate concept. For me, it is a rate for a job - without time constraints. Generally, for me, 90 minutes is good enough - 1 hour massage + 30 minutes of edging and then I am happy and content. Easy peasy. If they get into an hourly rate discussion then I use the fun word that they use here in the Philippines = PASS --> which is another way to say NEXT or I move on.

Day 21 (18 January 2025) Big move day so I go to breakfast early for the transition from CBP – Cebu Business Park to the Cebu IT Park neighborhood. I ventured over to the nearby Spence Cafe & Kitchen. https://www.facebook.com/SpenceCebu I see that it opens at 7:00am and the Ayala mall does not open until 10am and my checkout is at 11am – so eating here is a perfect solution. I ordered a typical Filipino breakfast plate, with homemade corned beef, fried bananas with eggs and danggit (local rabbitfish). The fried bananas were yummy. Check out is 11am from the Cityscape Grand Tower AirBnB and check-in is at 2pm at the Avida Riala Tower. I am in contact with the Avida Riala owner to see if I can get an earlier check-in and she suggests that I just come right away and leave my luggage with the security team and go have lunch in IT Park. So, I take her advice and go out to the lobby at 11am and I ask the security team to fetch me a taxi as there is total chaos outside in the city streets – as we are in day 1 of the SINULOG festival, which has already commenced, and via the Grab app it is useless to get a taxi. After 40 minutes, the security guys are able to commandeer a taxi for me (I tipped them very well, as they have always been kind and helpful to me even though I caught a few smirks when I had some guests come to keep me company in my room) and off we go to IT Park. We arrive around 1:15pm, as the traffic was very intense for this short journey, as the distance is only 2km. Just as I was getting out of my taxi, the owner of the IT Park AirBnB texts me via the AirBnB app that my room is already ready and that I can go straight up. But I first need to register myself with the security team with my passport and to compile the standard security check in form. I am overjoyed, as I find a true desk and desk chair and I see that I can hookup my laptop directly to the TV to use it as a giant monitor so that I can finally start this trip report for our forum. Unfortunately, there is no balcony, as I have found it very difficult within the Cebu city limits to find AirBnB and/or Booking.com condos with balconies. Below is a nice pic from the window of the view of the city facing northeast bound with Mactan island at the extreme top where you can see where Mactan island ends at its northern most terminus point. Meanwhile, Mr. Lan from Heesay, texts me to say that we should meet today in my new condo to discuss him being my tour guide for SINULOG. This was a BIG surprise, as I had put the idea out to him some days prior but he was non-committal. So, he came to my room so that we could: Discuss tomorrow’s SINULOG parade logistics, strategy, and viewing, Get reacquainted in my bed, as he saw that I was already tense from the packing and then unpacking and move to the new condo. He is an amazing man and very sexy. All went well --> until the “fork-it” moment!! Mr. Lan takes a shower and he urgently calls me into the bathroom to show me that the shower stopped working properly. Mr. Lan being Mr. Macho is now laying on the floor naked so that he can put his eyes underneath the water spigot nozzle to see why it won’t stay in the upright position – which then allows the water to go upwards into the on-the-wall water heater and then out through the shower nozzle. After 30 minutes of no success, we decided to “fork-it”, shove a kitchen fork into the device to force it to stay in the upright position. Now the shower works properly at the expense of not being able to have water from the spigot – which I do not desire anyway. I cannot yet notify the landlord, because tomorrow is the BIG SINULOG parade day – so this will be something to resolve = post SINULOG. Mr. Lan leaves and I go for a nice walk in the IT Park complex and eat dinner. Day 21 (18 January 2025) concluded.

It is a mixed bag - some things are cheaper here and some are more expensive. so far it is cheaper - but mainly because I don't have access to my almost daily 4 hands massages. 4 hand massages are extremely difficult to organize here because of the conservative Catholic shame issue that is almost everywhere here. Nobody can know that you would even do this type of work and/or activity. I am now in day 29 of my 62 day visit here and I have only had two 4 hands massages and that was because the 2 that I did have were 2 gay couples - so there was 1.) no shame factor, 2.) I must hide what I do from everybody factor. Consequently, my daily budget is much lower here - but that is because of this cultural anomaly - whereas, in Thailand, which is predominately a Buddhist country, they don't play this mental torture of shame game. Thai people are more open minded. We also need to factor in that in Pattaya, almost all encounters are transactional based - with almost zero reluctance due to shame. For me, the per person average cost for a massage here in Cebu versus what I pay back in Jomtien is almost the same: 3.000 pesos = 51.35 USD 2.000 baht = 59.34 USD Now before everyone jumps up and down in an uproar that I am paying too much - yes I am aware of that. Here in Cebu the massage offerings have been from as low as 1.000 pesos up to 5.000 pesos. For the majority of the cases I settle at 3.000 pesos. The thing with the low balled pricing strategy of the Filippinos is to low ball you with 1.000 pesos and then if you touch them or caress them or do anything else the price immediately starts to rapidly increase - they wait until you are erect and close to exploding. I HATE this approach, so I negotiate for an alacarte price of 3.000 pesos - all included (which for me is lite S and/or SS activities - as I never desire H activities). When the Filippinos start interjecting with a menu of prices during the most fun part of the massage - that ruins the moment for me as I don't like to haggle when I already have an erection. My 2.000 baht standard price offering back in Jomtien is higher than the 1.500 standard baht offering because I want guys who are more reliable and predictable and willing to do the deed in my condo room instead of in the massage shop (as I tend to not feel clean or relaxed in the overused massage shops) and I prefer to pay a slight premium to have everything take place in the comforts of my condo. Yes, I will prepare this price comparison at the end of my 62 day trip here when I am already back in Thailand. We need to remember that I am comparing 3 different zones in the Cebu metro area, as follows: CBP - Cebu Business Park - with an inner city kind of like Pattaya city experience IT Park - with an inner city kind of like Pattaya city experience Mactan Newtown - over on Mactan island directly on the beach with a mini similarity to a Jomtien experience @Olddaddy Knowing you - I think that you would like IT Park in Cebu the most because it is an inner city complex that is like a GIANT university campus, with young Filippinos walking about everywhere, as they work in the gazzillion nearby office towers in the BPO - Business Process Outsourcing business. It is quite easy to meet these youngsters - as many want to have an experience with a Western man (Europe, USA, Australia, etc.) and that main reason is because they want to experience our larger cocks. The majority of them have smaller cocks - but on average I find them to be similar to the Thai non-Isaan guy cocks where the biggest difference is the majority of the guys here are circumcised - and sometimes those circumcisions were not done in the best way - leaving what I call a turkey gobble of extra skin on their cocks - but these are only like less than 10% of the guys that I have met here. I have also met many Filippino guys with very nice big cocks. I would say that here within the "compound" of CBP and now IT Park that the beep noises are quite limited. These beep noises are mostly emanating from the many jeepneys (bahtbus) who beep their horns to try to get customers. The bahtbuses back in Pattaya / Jomtien also beep their horns for marketing purposes. Then the second biggest culprit are the Cebu taxis - who beep their horns to try to get customers.

And after they left did you notice your wet spot in your shorts? 🍆💦

Day 20 (17 January 2025) It’s the little things in life that give you the most pleasure. I complained earlier that those 3 diatabs pills were giving me constipation and today was a Hallelujah!! moment when my systems returned to normal operations when sitting on the bathroom throne. To celebrate, I return to one of my favorite breakfast places, SBC to eat my corned beef hash browns breakfast skillet. Today is my first coffee in many days and notice that there is NO “service water” on the table – only bottled water. After breakfast, I walk around the CBP Ayala mall and it is in total SINULOG mode – music playing everywhere and marching bands performing throughout the mall as the festivities will commence tomorrow. After looking at the House of Lechon photos that the waiter took of me with Mr. B, I realize that I do not look so good. Perhaps, I was still experiencing the lingering effects of the bad water that I drank. So, today I decide to get my hairs trimmed but I do not return to Mr. Edward Scissorhands, as I do not want any thing sophisticated and so expensive. So, I visit the Salon de Rose - the part dedicated to barbershop. It is a very big and busy shop. I had to wait about 15 minutes for my turn. I was very happy with the results and even my Thai boyfriend complemented me - as he noticed that prior to today that I was not looking good. Return to my room and I visit the AirBnB site to book my 3rd condo accommodation over on Mactan island in the Newtown Beach area - as I hope that this area will simulate a mini Jomtien retirement location. That move will occur on 29 January after my time here in IT Park will conclude. I intentionally refrain from any massages or extra-curricular activities today because tomorrow, I will need to move from my CPB (Cebu Business Park) Cityscape Tower condo to my Cebu IT Park condo. Day 20 (17 January 2025) concluded.

Day 16 (13 January 2025) After much research in Google for Co-Working Digital Nomad spaces in Cebu, I decided on The Company over in IT Park. Since later this week, I will need to vacate my current AirBnB condo in CBP (Cebu Business Park), and my new AirBnB condo is in IT Park this was a perfect excuse to get a sneak preview of IT Park. I took a Grab car over to IT Park – only like 15 minutes away and immediately you get the sense of entering into a huge business park and with the names on many of the mini skyscrapers, you see common names, like; BSA Solutions, Concentrix, Conduent, JP Morgan Chase, etcetra. The Company is located in the super secure Mabuhay Tower. The security team registers my passport, phone, looks at my backpack with my laptop and then gives me a guest pass that is ONLY valid for the 6th floor where The Company is located. The 2 reception guys help me to print my Skrill fraud documents – as they need to be signed by me and then rescanned. I also need to print and sign the results of the virus scan from my laptop (none were found after running for 6 hours). I sign all of the documents and then they scan them and email them back to me. A very efficient process. Drum roll please à how much did all of this cost? A measly 38 pesos ( ~ $0.65 USD). The Grab taxi was way more at 216 pesos ( ~ $3.71 USD). If you ever need to use a very well run Digital Nomad Co-Working space, check out their web site at: https://thecompany.ph/ I eat lunch in IT Park as I am super happy with the completion of this task. I go back to my room to prepare the email that I send to the Skrill fraud team. Fingers crossed for a good outcome. I enter into the apps and I find Mr. CJ who comes to my room for a 2 hands massage. All was good but I was feeling a little off with something wrong in my intestines. Happy endings are made and after he left I went to sleep for what would become a nightmare. I could only sleep for like 30 minutes at a time and then I would need to wake up for what felt like a nausea attack so I would worship the toilet but then nothing would happen. This process was repeated all night. I brought some charcoal pills that I had bought back in Thailand at 7-Eleven but they did absolutely nothing to resolve my problem. Day 16 (13 January 2025) concluded. Day 17 (14 January 2025) Woke up feeling miserable and not sure what I should do to resolve my problem. I chat via WhatsApp with Mr. B, and he suggests that I venture out to either a pharmacy or one of the 3 hospitals that most foreigners go to here in Cebu. I tell him that I cannot because I now find myself on the toilet every 90 minutes and my worse fear is to have a toilet attack while in a taxi or hospital waiting room. Mr. B (now a Saint), tells me that when he finishes his work shift that he will go to the pharmacy for me and get me this miracle pill called: Diatabs I meet Mr. B in my condo lobby and he gives me a big supply of Diatabs pills. He won’t let me pay him for the pills or his time and effort. He has truly become a great friend. I take 2 pills and my need to go to the toilet every 90 minutes immediately stops. Halellujah. I use the rest of the evening to eat lightly in my room and catch up with some friends back in Europe. Day 17 (14 January 2025) concluded. Day 18 (15 January 2025). Wake up feeling much better and I take 1 more Diatabs pill. I decide to venture by myself over to the downtown parade route via Grab. I walk to Osmenia street and I buy myself 2 parade shirts and 2 Cebu shirts (1 for myself and 1 for my Thai boyfriend). I also buy a small over-the-shoulder bag where I can put my valuables in that I can use during the parade to try to mitigate any of the pick pocketers that might be amongst the to-be 4 million visitors. My diarrhea situation seems to improve but now I have the opposite problem of constipation so I continue to eat lightly. No massages or extra-curricular activities today. Day 18 (15 January 2025) concluded. Day 19 (16 January 2025). I reflected on why I might have caught this diarrhea bug and I realize that at some of the restaurants that they often ask me if I want “service water”. I almost always said yes. I ask Mr. B what is “service water”, as I never heard this terminology before and he tells me that it is water directly from the tap. Now I felt like a retard. I have travelled to so many countries in my life and I should have known better. The thing is that when everyone around you can speak English and after being in the malls day after day with stores and restaurants like we have back in the USA and Europe – you let your guard down. So, a warning to all of you forum readers, always refuse “service water”, as it is just tap water. I decide to go to the mall for a light late breakfast and I decided to not drink any coffee and to only drink bottled water. After breakfast, I decided to go to the Rustan’s department store, which is the Philippine’s answer to Central back in Thailand, where they divide the store into upper end small boutiques that sell designer fashion brands. I decide to treat myself to 2 polo shirt brands that we do not have back in Thailand; Austin Martin and Hackers = very nice quality polo shirts. I want to treat Mr. B to dinner for taking care of me and we decide to go to the famous, House of Lechon (this is now my 3rd attempt to eat there). https://www.facebook.com/HouseOfLechonCebu/ Like in Thailand, where you see the fish you are about to eat, here in the Philippines, you get to see the pig that is to be carved up and served to you: Our scrumptious lechon meal: And yummy typical Filippino desserts – 1st one is Puto Bumbong, and the 2nd one is Halo Halo: This was a wonderful dinner and I was very happy to finally be able to eat in the ever famous House of Lechon and share that moment with Mr. B (who also had never eaten there). No massages or extra-curricular activities today. Day 19 (16 January 2025) concluded.

Yes I agree. We need to remember that the Pattaya we see today is a result of the then current Thai government allowing the military personnel of some Western governments that were fighting wars in nearby Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to send their young horny military to the Pattaya sleepy fishing village for R&R (rest and relaxation) where it is estimated that 400,000 military guys were sent to Pattaya for their R&R 🍆💦

Unfortunately, my trip report updates are behind actual reality (current time). Consequently, I have not yet arrived to the SINULOG parade update that occured on Sunday 19 January. I never said that I am skipping the festival route, I only said that I will avoid Colon street in the historic center, which is not part of the parade route. As of this morning, I have only posted up through 12 January, which is my 15th day in Cebu. I wrote earlier in this thread that in my first AirBnB that there was no desk to set up my laptap and consequently I could not write any trip report updates for my first 20 days in Cebu. So, I am in overdrive to try to catch up in my 2nd AirBnB condo which has a proper desk.

Great to hear this. My former PMB now boyfriend has very similar characteristics to yours - of which I adore these characteristics. Does your guy know that you are taking care of the mamasan so that he will be treated well? Or is it a hidden secret so that everything is happy and pleasant ?

Day 14 (11 January 2025). I am a BIG time user of the UK Skrill prepaid card – since like 10 years already. I love their top-up options and it has worked very well for me wherever life sends me. Well, during this trip I was frauded by someone who was able to use my Skrill card in Dubai on some transactions before both myself (freeze my card) and the Skrill team were able to intervene (inactivate). I have no idea how my data was compromised, as I never use this card at the ATM and I only use it to book AirBnBs, airline tickets, and shopping. Consequently, the fraud investigation team requested that I complete a fraud case document – which I did this morning. I was also required to complete a 6 hour antivirus scan of my laptop (which I will do tomorrow) and provide the results to Skrill. So, this was my morning activity for today = yuck!! I then had to research for an internet café, which Mr. B. helped me to locate one in the Ayala mall – but after an extensive search of the entire mall complex and asking various security guards – we discovered that the information that Google was presenting to us was old and such internet café was long gone. In fact, I believe that internet cafés went the way of the Blockbuster video rental stores. It was suggested to me that I go to a co-working space that are used by today’s Digital Nomads and I would find what I needed there (printer and scanner). This would become my Monday 13 January’s project. I hate when these unfortunate life events happen but since one of the MAIN purposes of this trip is to discover if Cebu can be a proper retirement destination – it is good to have these kinds of problem solving tests. As Mr. B was free today during the day time, so I asked him to take me to the SINULOG parade route so that we could do a calm walking simulation. The local TV and media are saying that up to 4 million people will invade the city to participate in the various SINULOG events and Mr. B, as he works in a hotel that will be FULLY booked for SINULOG, won’t be available on the parade day – so I will need to man-up and do it by myself. We successfully walk most of the parade route – it was easy as it was a normal Saturday. However, when we got to Colon street (at the bottom of the map), it became super packed with people. They say that Colon street was the first street in Cebu when it was founded back in 1565, and is named after Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon_Street To be honest, I found this street to not be very attractive, as it had the characteristics of a not well maintained street from the 1960s with lots of poor people milling around and you had to stay aware of pickpockets – as the intensity of the crowds in some parts was where people were almost on top of you. We did not experience any danger or pickpocketing – but the hairs on the back of my neck did stand up. I decided that on the actual SINULOG parade day that I would stay away from this area. Since we were near the ports, where the gazillions of boats depart for the many nearby islands (the Philippines is an archipelago made up of more than 7,000 islands), I asked Mr. B to take me to the departures terminals – because as a retiree with a lot of time on your hands you may one day want to jump over to one of these nearby islands. We were not allowed to venture into any of the departure terminals due to security restrictions - you can only enter with a ferry ticket in your hand - so no internal pictures. To find out more about departures, visit: https://getbyferry.com/en/port/cebu No massages or extra-curricular activities today. Day 14 (11 January 2025) concluded. Day 15 (12 January 2025) Lazy morning and somewhat horny, so I fire up the apps and I see in Grindr that there are many guys who ran in today’s early morning AIA Cebu Marathon. https://cebumarathon.com.ph/ A guy who flew to Cebu from Manila starts chatting with me and we agree to meet in the afternoon – as he tells me that he ran the 12km run which started at 4:30am and he needed to take a rest as his legs were cramping up. That was perfect for me which allowed me to have my favorite salmon eggs benedict over at the Abaca Baking Company in the Ayala mall. Afternoon arrives and Mr. Jay shows up very athletic looking – a runner’s body. He was a bit uptight so we went out on the balcony and chatted for a while about my trip to Cebu and he was very intrigued about my purpose to compare Cebu to Jomtien as a possible retirement destination for us elderly gays. Jay tells me about this acronym that I never heard of that Philippine people use to describe us from the west who visit the Philippines in search of a possible partner – similar to how the Thais use the word “farang”. This acronym is: AFAM – “A Foreigner Abiding in Manila”. He explained to me that the use of this acronym originally started in Manila but is now used throughout the entire country. Furthermore, this phenomena has really taken off that over in Siargao, they changed the name of the existing Catangnan Bridge to now be “AFAM Bridge”, where you can find love (or a 1 night stand) with its sexy foreign visitors. Mr. Jay told me that many young filippinos head to Siargao to find luck. Sounds familiar to what we see in Thailand ? So, after Mr. Jay shared this AFAM Bridge with me I told him that it was time for us to have some AFAM fun and a huge smile came on his face and we moved to my bed for some “bridge” action. This was a freeby meeting thanks to this AFAM phenomena – as I was Mr. Jay’s first farang (AFAM). I was happy that I could help him to realize his dream. By the way, he is quite talented in edging – so I was a very happy camper. I close out today’s forum update with this hot Youtube video of the HOT foreigners (AFAM) who are having fun at the AFAM beach in Siargao. Day 15 (12 January 2025) concluded.

Why not just do their stealing within the premises of these male host bars? I am not condoning this but I am curious? My mother would say, "Don't shit where you eat!!"

Thanks for this enlightenment. I stand corrected. After almost 2.5 years of living in Jomtien - I never experienced having to pay 20 baht for a journey northbound past the Pattaya Klang / Central Road intersection which originated from Jomtien. I am more than happy to pay 20 baht or even 50 baht to go all the way from Dongtan, Jomtien to Terminal 21 in northern Pattaya. The bahtbus system is such a bargain in my opinion.

Day 12 (9 January 2025). Eat breakfast at the Ayala mall. A guy that I have been chatting with on the previous day, we agree to meet at my room today for a 2 hands massage. Let’s refer to him as Mr. Diver – as he loves scuba diving. Massage was good but this guy was kind of annoying as he kept telling me that it was his dream to go to the USA and he just had to have USA cock. He was quite disappointed with me when I told him that I abandoned the USA back in 1999 due to gun violence. So, it was hard to reach orgasm when someone is talking about your cock and his dream to go to the USA. Eventually it happened but I was happy when he left my room. Showered and then went back to the mall for a late lunch. I was debating whether I should get the Armani watch repaired that my ex-Thai boyfriend gave me early last year. It stopped working on New Year’s day, after I had said the magical words, “I love you” to my PMB. I took that as a signal to let that watch remain in its dead state – which was also the state of my dead love for my ex. Day 12 (9 January 2025) concluded. Day 13 (10 January 2025). Shampoo and body wash are getting low so over to the mall to acquire new ones. I notice the new SINULOG exhibition of Santo Nino in the middle of the mall. Each day, as we get closer and closer to the SINULOG event, the city reveals more and more reminders that the big day is approaching. Mr. B invites me to join him to experience the unique and fun Cave Bar in Cebu. Watch any of the below videos to get a feel for the vibe that exists in this energetic bar. https://x.com/i/status/1861297598898020418 https://x.com/i/status/1857549687416566034 https://x.com/i/status/1855842058109432296 The bar is run by drag queens and their fans and they do a pretty good job at entertaining you. You can also eat lite food and drink to your heart’s content. There is no cover charge. You only pay for drinks and occasionally the lady boys pass by with a tip box but you can also give them tips as they walk by. I did not dare to perform the “Vinapu tuck” on any of them – as I did not want to get bitch slapped. Firstly, the primary drag queen, she goes walking around the audience with her microphone and gives you a chance to introduce yourself by responding to her funny questions. For example, when it was my turn, she asked me, where are you visiting from? I replied, Thailand – and then she started talking to me very quickly in Thai – I was like oh shit now what do I do? She finished her lecture (I think that it was a question in Thai) and she was waiting for me to respond and I couldn’t and she laughed and said, honey, you got some work to do on your Thai. Everyone laughed in the bar and then she moves onto her next guest. This is truly an ice breaker and later on it gives something to other people in the bar to talk to about later in the evening. I really liked this unique approach. The show skits were like the ones displayed in the above videos (note that these videos are condensed snippets of the various skits) and there were 3 rounds of them, with like 30 minutes in-between them, where the DJ plays music and even takes requests – so even more fun. Music was not too loud and it was easy to converse with the other bar patrons. I highly recommend this place when visiting Cebu if you want a fun night out in a very friendly environment. Below is a Google map of the Cave Bar location: For more information, visit: https://www.facebook.com/CaveCebuBar https://x.com/CAVECEBUBAR Day 13 (10 January 2025) concluded.

Thanks for the compliment @macaroni21 Yes, that Club X gogo bar was expensive - but I intentionally let things get out of hand - money wise - as I was paying for both myself, my dancer guy, Mr. B and his waiter and 1 drink to the very helpful mamasan. As the gay life experience here in Cebu is quite limited (few options) and one place can be far from the other (there is no gay ghetto), I jumped on this gogo bar opportunity to find out what it is all about and to indulge myself. Obviously, if I lived here full time as a retiree - then perhaps I would only go to this expensive gogo bar 1 or 2 times in a month. However, Mr B told me that there is another gogo bar over on Mactan island - where I will move to next Wednesday. It's name is: Perzeus Entertainment bar - https://www.facebook.com/p/Perzeus-Entertainment-bar-100083162290691/ You are very astute - Yes, Mr B is Mr M. With the use of all of these pseudonyms - I became confused on who is who - as the guys here are SUPER sensitive about being exposed in the public eye in this ultra conservative Catholic country.

Excellent film. I watched it on New Year's Eve. Truly heartwarming and enlightening about how the Chinese-Thai population view death - which I found to be culturally enriching since 93% of the Thai population identify as being Buddhist. Here is what I posted about this film over in my Cebu, Philippines trip report: I watched the wonderful Thai movie = “How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies”. I HIGHLY recommend this heart warming very original Thai film. Title of this film in Thai is, "Lahn Mah" หลานม่า which literally means "Grandma's Grandchild". I found the film culturally enriching as it gives the perspective of death in Thailand from the Chinese-Thai point of view. Film is available on in Netflix, as well as in Google movies. It has been nominated for the Oscars international shortlist. Read more about it here: https://variety.com/2024/film/news/how-to-make-millions-before-grandma-dies-oscar-shortlist-thailand-1236256031/ On 2 March 2025, we will be told if it has won the actual Oscar award.

Day 10 (7 January 2025). Get out of my bed in the morning and I step on a loose screw and nose pad from my new OwnDays glasses. I look at my glasses and I see that in fact the nose pad had indeed fallen off. Every morning I go over to the Ayala mall for my breakfast so I can definitely pass by the OwnDays shop to get these repaired. But hunger rules and I decide to go first to the SBC – Seattle Best Coffee shop and have their scrumptious Corned Beef Skillet with eggs dish: The thing with Philippine food service (which I read about prior to setting foot in the country), is not to get too dependent or passionate about your favorite meals. Why? If one of the required food components is not available then the complete dish gets cancelled. The above breakfast dish (my favorite) was cancelled for 1 week due to them running out of corned beef. The concept of “substitution” is unheard of and they are super resistant to any ideas that you may put forward to substitute food item x with food item y. Whereas, in Thailand they are so flexible, and are willing to customize food dishes as to how you want them. Philippines = NO!! This inflexibility will be noted in the eventual retirement destination summary. Finish my breakfast at SBC and walk over to the OwnDays store and they were very accommodating to “repair” my glasses and were overjoyed that I came with the nose pad and screw. They inserted it and cleaned my glasses for free. Perhaps the lesson learned is that the price was incredibly low and the turnaround time was probably too quick, and perhaps the quality assurance in the assembly of the glass frame was not thorough enough. Anyway, as the price was 4 times less expensive than in Thailand, I was still happy with my OwnDays glasses purchase. By now, my previous hair coloring is already fading – especially after our day over at the Shangra-La beach resort with Mr. M. I find this hair salon, Bangs Prime Salon, and I asked them if they can cut and color my hair. They say yes and without any delay I am seated with a Korean hairdresser (also one of the founders of the salon) and like in the movie, “Edward Scissorhands”, he is spinning and tossing the scissors around in a circus like manner to cut my hair. Amazing to watch and experience – but I was often thinking that perhaps an earlobe might be cut off during the show. Price for color and haircut was 3,000 pesos ( ~ $51.11 USD), whereas, back in Thailand I pay 1,200 baht + 300 baht tip = 1,500 baht ( ~ $44.08 USD). So, here is my first example where it is cheaper in Thailand. But I suspect that there are cheaper places, to be discovered, because I paid such a high price because of his notoriety and Edward Scissorhands show. Go back to room to relax and then back to the Ayala mall for an excellent dinner at the Hussam Middle Eastern Cuisine restaurant, as I love hummus, falafels, and grilled kebab beef and lamb = yummy! https://hussam.ph/ No massage tonight – just relax and then go to sleep. Day 10 (7 January 2025) concluded. Day 11 (8 January 2025). Today starts out in a boring way – cleaning the floor of the condo (I am a clean freak), and then out to breakfast. A hot sexy masculine guy (Mr. Lan) from Heesay contacts me and we agree to an afternoon 2 hands massage. I don’t have his permission to share his sexy photos but if you look in the Heesay app in the Cebu area, look for a profile that starts with the name = “adonis….” and you will find him. He originally quoted me, 3,500 pesos ( ~ $60 USD), but when I told him that I was not looking for sex – just massage + a slow sensual happy ending for the both of us and some oral from me to him – as he has a very nice yummy cock and a hairless tone chest. He then lowered his price to 3,000 ( ~ $51.14 USD). He is a great guy and we had a great long conversation about the history of the Philippine culture from the pre-Spanish discovery, through the transition from the Spanish being forced out by the Americans, up until now, 2025. He is very intellectual and well informed about politics, culture, and religion. He will become an important part of this trip in a future segment – stay tuned. He told me to go check out the 8th Avenue Comedy Bar, which I have yet to check out. It has many gay performers and he often sings there. I will tell Mr. M. so that we can go there. https://www.facebook.com/8thAvenueComedyBar/ When it rains it pours. Two guys chased me on Grindr to give me a 4 hands massage today. OMG, at my old age how can I have 2 distinct massage meetings in 1 day? I am not the super hero KFC, who has the stamina of a bull!! I agree to meet them but ONLY if we go to dinner first. I needed to get out of my condo after my hot meeting with Mr. Lan. So, we agree to meet in the lobby of my Cityscape condo and walk over to the famous, House of Lechon. This is now my second attempt to meet there and guess what? It is fully packed again and they turn us away. So, we walk over to the Ayala mall and eat at Gerry’s Grill – a Filipino restaurant chain and the 2 guys order for me so that I can taste genuine Philippine food (many people complain about Philippine food but I find it enjoyable – but I cannot eat it every day as it can be too fatty). I used the excuse for us to eat in a restaurant (I paid) as a way to recharge my sperm cells – because at my age I need lots of time to recharge. We go back to my room and they make me a great 4 hands massage (my first in the Philippines – these are hard to organize as many of the massage guys dread the idea of being exposed with another guy for 4 hands – because their thinking is that nobody can know about these sordid activities – there is lots of shame in the Philippines). Everybody gets an orgasm, and they take slow turns switching hands to give me an excellent prolonged edging explosion. During dinner they shared with me that they have a comedy/travel blog where they share their global adventures with their followers. Here it is: https://www.facebook.com/p/Tony-and-Jerick-Vlogs-100088910303566/ They are based out of Manila – and if you want to meet them then you can contact them via FB. They also travel all over the Philippines and Asia. By now I am completely exhausted – good night. Day 11 (8 January 2025) concluded.