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I believe that I write very clearly what my plan and expectations are. Chatting with other Filipino guys in Heesay and Grindr, I have been told that this sudden demand for more money is an unfortunate occurence amongst guys who have bad intentions who are supposed repressed heterosexual types desperate to make quick money via extortion from their customers. The locals here already know who they are and avoid them because they can only play this game 1 time before they are blacklisted amongst those that live here. So, this bad evil element preys on us newcomers. We had this SAME bad element problem in Budapest, where the primary way to meet guys was via PlanetRomeo/Hunqz. So, what the local Budapest community did was to create a Romeo profile where you could list the bad apples in this 1 dedicated Romeo account via the comments section. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any such safeguard mechanism here in Cebu.

Welcome back Khun @reader 🤩🤩🤩

Well, I am not experiencing this phenomena here in the Philippines. Perhaps, it is something in the Thai water. Lastly, my mother (God bless her soul up in heaven), ingrained in me that you always take care of the people that you love --> especially if they are less fortunate than you are. When I was a child and my father abandoned us when I was only 5 years old with no financial support from him - it was up to my mother working as a poor waitress who took care of me and my brother. She always told us, "you boys see that tip that the customer left on the table?". We replied, "yes mamma". That tip allows me to buy you milk and bread because your father left us with no money. So, as my mother left her 50+ year waitress inheritance to me, out of respect for my mother's soul, I will take care of the people that I love who are less fortunate than I am. I can feel my mother smiling down on me thinking, I raised my son properly to be humble and not selfish and to remember the poorness and poverty that we came from. This is the same reason as to why I will leave Thailand if this new Thai government will follow through with their proposed OECD pushed Global Tax Regime. I promised my mother before she died to protect her financial assets. That also includes from the hands of this greedy Thai government. Here in the Philippines they do NOT tax bank transfers into the Philippines that us retirees make into the country. They still respect the Territorial Tax Regime that previously also Thailand respected. Amen.

Day 32 (29 January 2025) My brain woke me up at 3:30am – so that I could execute the Wise transfer to my boyfriend ( as it was now officially the day of the Chinese New Year ), as the Thais do love receiving those red envelopes. As it was only 2:30am in Thailand, my Thai boyfriend is still awake and is ecstatic that: I remembered him for the Chinese New Year, That I still followed through with this surprise even though we argued during the previous day. Then he asks me the question – how can you send me this lovely Chinese New Year surprise and not help me with my sister’s educational needs? So, I have to tell him that he put me in a difficult predicament when I only had available liquid funds in Thai baht outside of Thailand for one or the other and that I chose the Chinese New Year surprise over the needs of his sister. He was very appreciative – but I could sense that he would have preferred that I took care of his sister instead of him – but I did not agree. My brain finally allows me to go back to sleep with peace of mind. Thank God!! I wake up at 8am, eat breakfast, and pack my bags, as today is the BIG move from Cebu city (IT Park) to the Jomtien of Cebu, known as Mactan Newtown, over on nearby Mactan island. Now in Part 3 of this trip at my AirBnB #3 at Mactan Newtown I perform the required check-out activities at 11:50am with the owner of the IT Park AirBnB. Cart my luggage and towel bag downstairs and request a car in the Grab app for Mactan Newtown. Elapsed time was 45 minutes for a total cost of 709.67 pesos ( ~ $12.17 USD) arriving at 12:48pm. I added a 100 peso tip as the driver was really good and he helped me to get my steamer trunk out of his trunk and up the few steps onto the marble walkway into my new chic condo building at the beach. With this new AirBnB condo owner I asked for an early check-in of 1pm, but she could not get the cleaning from the previous person completed until 3pm. So, I gave my new security team a 100 peso tip to store and watch my luggage for 2 hours while I walked around my new neighborhood and went to get lunch. There is only 1 main street in this Mactan Newtown neighborhood as everything is new and there is still major construction going on as they expand this new mini-city complex. I notice that the main street is full of Korean people and I am quite surprised as I did not see many Koreans back in Cebu city. All of the restaurants are jammed packed – mainly with Koreans. So, I walk to the main entrance into the Mactan Newtown complex where there is an open air food court, which is not packed. It’s name is: Mactan Alfresco. https://www.facebook.com/MactanAlfresco/ I can report that there is a good assortment of food and beverage choices and I have a feeling that I will be eating here a lot in these next days. I need to kill 2 hours so I eat very slowly. Back to my condo and now the security team allows me to go up to the room. The complex is huge and consists of 4 towers, where if you are not in the tower where the main entrance is, you need to take a special shuttle elevator up to floor 4, where the tennis court and pool are and then walk to your appropriate tower and use those elevators from level 4 to get up to your condo room floor. Rather complex and requires lots of walking – but it is ok as this place is truly very nice. The owner of this AirBnB also had an electronic key access system and to access the room you need to install an app on your phone. I tried to do that back in IT Park but the app registration could not be completed for me because I could not switch the phone number country code from the default of +1 to +66 (or any other country code). Consequently, the cleaning lady had to leave the door unlocked where the physical metal room key was on the kitchen table. I love old-fashioned access – hallelujah!! And I love physical metal keys. I un pack and enjoy my balcony view that overlooks the Magellan Bay. I take a nap and then I go to eat at this independent type of food truck that is on the main road but is located all by itself on the opposite side of the road where there is a small field. https://www.facebook.com/andaleeats I eat this wonderful box set meal = Cebu Chorizo Shawarma that was truly yummy. It takes them a while to prepare your food – but it is well worth the wait. I ask someone why there are soo many Koreans here in Mactan Newtown and they reply: It is the Chinese New Year - wow I felt so dumb, There is a BIG English language training center here, Koreans love these luxurious type of condos that are at the beach instead of being in the urban city Afterwards, I go to the nearby 7-Eleven (which is full of Koreans) to stock up my refrigerator and I call it a night. I wonder if I will be able to get some Korean action this trip ? I had a great time 10 years ago in Seoul - so why not? No massages or extra-curricular activities today. Day 32 (29 January 2025) concluded in my new Jomtien like home:

Day 31 (28 January 2025). Woke up very late with a slight hangover. Ate breakfast in my room and then later on I had an argument with my boyfriend back in Thailand, as he presented me with an unexpected surprise monetary request regarding his sister up in Sukhothai. I was irritated, because tomorrow = 29 January is the Chinese New Year and I had already arranged a surprise (he did not know about it) money transfer via my Wise account into his Thai bank account. Consequently, I did not have any additional non-committed funds to: Surprise him for the Chinese New Year, and to also fund his sister’s education school related request. --> It would be one or the other, and NOT both. Wise is amazing, in that it allows me to transfer THB from my Belgium account within minutes into his Thai bank account. As part of my staying outside of Thailand to avoid the 180 days tax resident issue – I have decided to not use my in-Thailand bank account during this period that I am out of Thailand. My belief is that if the Thai government would challenge me about living in Thailand because they would see internal in-country bank transfers during my absence – I won’t have this possible issue to deal with and this is where Wise steps in to help me. So, when he surprised me about something that his sister needs for her school – I became irritated – because I am painfully trying to teach him about finances, budgeting, and that money does not grow on trees. So, I told him that his sister will have to wait until I can top-up my Wise Belgium account from New York – and that process via ACH within the USA is slow and can take up to 3 bank working days. Why doesn’t the Thai educational system and Thai society teach Thais about finances and budgeting? Why do they constantly believe that prayers and Buddha will provide for them? Back to Wolflink for another amazing Wolf Stew late lunch. I invited Mr. Lan to come to my room later to give me a massage, as this is my last night in my IT Park condo room and later in the week, Mr. Lan will transfer himself to Manila to try to regain his career in Philippine TV, as an actor – which he did prior to covid. He showed me some of his films where he is torso nudo trying to seduce a woman – it is very hot and he definitely has many talents. Mr. Lan comes to my room and makes me a soothing and wonderful massage. As this is now our 3rd meeting – everything is perfect. He is a great guy. He edges me perfectly while I edge him and our orgasms are almost synchronized. Clean up myself and kiss Mr. Lan goodbye. Then later I chat with my Thai boyfriend – now I literally have a “cooler head” in both senses to talk to him calmly. Whenever I get upset I am often referred to as the “Ba farang” (crazy foreigner), which then aggravates the situation – because it is not only my current Thai boyfriend and the past 1 year ago Thai boyfriend who say this – but it also includes all of their friends. So, if you lose your cool about your finances, the Thais label you as Ba Farang – which I find to be quite annoying. I guess this is just another example of the culture shock that we need to overcome when we willingly chose to abandon our home native country to live abroad as an expat / retiree. Day 31 (28 January 2025) concluded.

To be honest - at first I did not like it here. The poverty in your face and culture shock was somewhat over-bearing - but as with all new countries - you start to "normalize" and accept what you see with your own eyes as being what is accepted here. My initial few days here were somewhat in a fear mode - as my vision of what is normal - being Thailand culture, Thai version of poverty, beggars, etc. was being altered - and when you get old - change is sometimes hard to deal with - so you need to challenge yourself to push forward. Now I am in day 33 of my stay in the Philippines (CEBU) and I am liking it and I feel comfortable here with my new normal of Philippine culture, their version of poverty and beggars, etc. Tourism here in the Philippines is no where near the level it is in Thailand --> so consequently the people (boys) are much less jaded and are truly down to earth, naive, kind, and not yet jaded. However, there is a stark difference between the Filipino guys who work in the trade versus those who do not --> where those who work in the trade as their primary source of income are very jaded and on par with the trade that is available in Pattaya. Living in Pattaya your daily contact with the guys is that the majority are in the transactional camp Whereas, here in Cebu, your daily contact with the guys is that it is very rare to find someone who is in the transactional camp - which is nice and refreshing. Having said that, if you are addicted to transactional sex by living in Pattaya full time - it is hard to go somewhere where this is not the norm - especially when you feel horny. In Pattaya it is all around you and easy to get - here you need to work harder to get it. Different game with different norms and rules.

Is it easy to get these tickets? Do you remember the process to get them ? via internet? or via Philippine people here on the ground in Cebu ?

Good observation @macaroni21. I did not give the supermarket access any priority or emphasis in this trip - as I am not a stay-at-home type of guy who cooks and prepares meals for myself. I find it boring and the cost of food outside both here in the Philippines and back in Thailand is so cheap that I find it easier to just go outside and get it, or eat outside, or order it in via the Grab and/or FoodPanda app. I will say that in both the CBP and IT Park neighborhoods there were plenty of nearby full-on supermarkets. But, I only used the 7-Eleven stores for 95% of my related food and/or supermarket purchases. Also note that in an earlier segment of this trip report I discuss me going into the Metro Supermarket in the CBP Ayala mall - which is a super huge supermarket with a dedicated international section - which allowed me to buy certain body products that I was looking for. Also, they have this BIG discount store here called, LANDERS, which is like Costco back in the USA. But I did not venture there as I never even use the LANDERS equivalent back in Thailand. https://www.landers.ph/ So, I apologize in advance to our forum readership who find supermarket choices to be a determining factor for a retirement destination decision.

Hi @12is12, many thanks for sharing with us all of your wonderful SINULOG photos - the quality of your photos are much superior to mine - as I was stuck with the throngs of spectators in the Osmenia Fuente circle. For a while, we even had an annoying gay couple standing in front of us with those large feathered headdresses that blocked our view until the universe answered our prayers and one of the gay couple's headdress broke, and he could no longer wear it, thus giving us a view onto the parade again - until some of the elderly Filipina ladies decided to open their umbrellas because of the piercing sun, which again blocked our view. @12is12 when you paid this 1500 pesos ($26) stadium viewing fee - did it include a seat? if yes, was this seat shaded? Unfortunately, I was not made aware of this stadium viewing option by either of my 2 Filipino friends.

I agree But, 1 time I personally witnessed our KFC legend miss out on a hot guy opportunity, because when he went to the bathroom, the guy that he was oogiling was snatched by another customer in the Banana bar. It is often like a feeding frenzy.

Day 30 (27 January 2025) Breakfast in the room and work some more on my trip report writeup and postings. Go to my now favorite place for lunch, Wolflink, and I order my favorite dish, Wolf’s Stew, as shown below: https://www.facebook.com/wolflinkph Which is made from a Korean spicy stew with Wolflink’s smoked meats, ramen, kimchi, egg & cheese and vegetables. It is a nice slightly spicy mix and is fun to eat, as you need to pull your food from the bubbling still on fire hot cast iron pot into your plate with the spoon and/or tongs. It is truly yummy and a fun eating experience. Later in the evening, I go to the 8th Avenue Comedy Club, that was recommended to me by Mr. Lan (he has been my occasional sexy masseur and more importantly he was featured in the SINULOG segment of this trip report as my bodyguard / tour guide on that day). I arrive slightly before 9pm and I wait outside for Mr. B to arrive. The city is eerily quiet after the SINULOG crescendo. https://www.facebook.com/8thAvenueComedyBar/ We go in and there is only 1 other table with customers. Mr. B wants to sit off to the side – but I convince him to let us sit in the table that is directly in front of the stage (more fun). There is a ladyboy singing karaoke and Mr. B and I, we order a bucket of beers. This club has a 2.000 peso ( ~ $34.27 USD) consumable charge (minimum that you need to spend to see the show). The bucket of beers costs 600 pesos. I am thinking to myself – oh no, I will need to get very drunk to spend those 2.000 pesos. But that worry would soon go away. I fire up the Heesay app to see if Mr. Lan is online and he is and I tell him to come and join us, since it was thanks to him that we discovered this fun place. Before we know it, Mr. Lan is already up on the stage, as he is a regular in this club, as he loves to sing to his hearts content – and he is a good singer. So, tonight, I find out many things about sexy Mr. Lan – he was a pre-covid actor on Philippine TV, singer, masseur, body guard (is constantly in the gym), and tour guide. What more could one ask for in a guy?? As Mr. Lan knows everyone at the Club, soon they are joining us at the table and then my fears of having to drink 2.000 pesos of beer went away as my consumable quota was by the end of the night over quota and made the bar and staff happy – as it had been a very slow Monday night. And then during the evening – shortly before midnight – we discover the BIGGEST and most important news of the night. Mr. B, confides in secret that it is his birthday today but does not want anyone to know. So, when Mr. B was looking at his FB feed I whispered into the ladyboy’s ear that it was Mr. B’s birthday (I slipped a blue bank note into her hands as a reward for this favor) and could she arrange something on the stage. Before we know it, all of the ladyboys are up on the stage singing happy birthday to our adorable Mr. B and he is quite surprised and I believe that he enjoyed all of this extra attention -> until they insisted that he sing some karaoke with them. He refused as he does not like this kind of activity but it was fun anyway. So, the ladyboys turn their attention to me – oh no – and get me to sing the only song that I know - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones. As I already had a few drinks, there were few customers in the club, and by now Mr. Lan had probably already sang 10 songs, I had to just do it (as I do not like karaoke – but tonight was a special exception). After that disaster, they tried to get me back up onto the stage – but that was it for this old retiree. You just got to know when to STOP. Hahahaha Before the grand finale, our more energetic ladyboy performers decide to let lose and jump around everywhere, as evidenced in the below 2 short video clips. Part1_8thAve.mp4 Unfortunately, the 2nd part of the above video fails on upload - so just try to imagine these 2 jumping all over the place and making you laugh histerically. So, it was a great night out in Cebu with my 2 friends, Mr. B and Mr. Lan. So, as a retiree in Cebu, there is fun to be had and as you can see, the locals are friendly, which can allow you to create new friendships and to avoid that lonely retiree feeling in a new country. I would put this 8th Avenue Comedy Club in a similar category as the previously reviewed Cebu Cave Bar. The primary differences are: Cebu Cave Bar is owned and operated by the drag queen ladyboy performers and its audience is primarily gay. 8th Avenue Comedy Club is owned by a heterosexual man who is very gay friendly - but the targeted audience here is anyone who likes drag queen karaoke entertainment - so gay, bi, straight are all welcome. Note that this bar is all decked out with our gay rainbow flag everywhere. Day 30 (27 January 2025) concluded.

Day 28 (25 January 2025) Quick breakfast in my room because I woke up horny and a gay couple came to my room at 11am. I met them on Grindr the previous evening but I had already booked the previous evening’s psycho, that I told them to come on the following morning. They also sell sex related stuff and I ordered 1 bottle of Japanese lubricant from them as I was curious to try it as I had never used Japanese lubricant before. I notice that the more Filipinos that I meet in the apps I am finding that they are more industrious, in that they don’t only offer you a massage and/or sex, they also want to cross sell other products to you, which can include; lube, massage oils, poppers, sexual enhancers, etcetra. This gay couple explained to me their situation. The younger one (perhaps he was 28) works in one of the many gazillion BPOs here in Cebu and unfortunately, these Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies do not pay very well, as the starting salary can be between 13,000 to 15,000 pesos ( ~ $222.53 - $256.49 per month), so the guys resort to massage and/or sex work to help augment their monthly income. The older guy (perhaps he was 34) used to work in real estate but told me that the competition is fierce (too many real estate agents in the workforce) and the required sales quota targets creates too much stress, so he left that business to do massage/sex work full time. Furthermore, the older one told me that he imports sex related products from other countries and then sells them to his clients to augment his full time massage/sex income. I was impressed. So, they give me a nice massage with my massage cream and then we move to what the locals call, “ES” = extra services, part of the massage and I had ordered edging only and I was quoted 5.000 pesos ( ~ $85.46 USD) for a 4 hands massage + happy ending. Well, they started to get crazy to do oral and I learned my lesson from the previous encounters, that the Filipinos are good at milking you for additional money, as if to be on a RyanAir flight. So, they wanted to suck my cock and I kept saying that I am ok with the happy ending edging only. Well they started to beg and then I conceded but I wanted to know what would this cost and they told me that I could have, the Japanese lube, 4 hands massage, oral, and edging for an all inclusive price of 6.000 pesos ( ~ $102.64 USD), so for only an additional 1.000 pesos ( ~ $17.18 USD) I said ok. They were so happy and now I was back to my on average rate of 3.000 pesos per guy – but this time I got some Japanese lube included. --> But, I have to say, that I do not like this constant Filipino approach to interrupt the fun part of the sexual activities to start their upselling activities during the event. I find it like watching a TV show and the scene gets hot and you cannot wait for the next thing to happen - and then they break for a commercial. That really ruins the event. I do try hard to be clear in my app chats about what I want, but these guys are always looking for ways to upsell and get more value added business out of you. But if you loose your erection in this marketing process - is that a good business practice ? All went well, everybody had his orgasm and everybody was happy. They left and then I went over to the CBP Ayala mall to have lunch up on my new favorite 4th floor rooftop gardens terrace at the very good Brizket restaurant. Day 28 (25 January 2025) concluded. Day 29 (26 January 2025) Extended my eSIM subscription, as my initial 30 day subscription will expire soon. I acknowledge the suggestion by our forum member, @EricV, who suggested that I just bite the bullet and get a GOMO local SIM card with phone number included, as that price that he quoted is truly remarkable – but that forum message came to me today, 29 January and I had already extended my Airalo eSIM on 26 January – this forum update. But, @EricV is correct, that if you are going to have a long stay here in the Philippines (more than 30 days) than it is more prudent to go this GOMO route https://www.gomo.ph/get-gomo-sim/ than with the Airalo eSIM solution. I had never heard of GOMO before, so now I am enlightened. This is what I love about our forum is that all of us share our individual experiences and we can learn and benefit from each other. At 4pm I asked Mr. B to come to my IT Park condo room (no not to have sex – him and I, we have a platonic true friendship, and he also offers me tour guide opportunities) so that we could discuss what am I going to do with myself after 6 Februray 2025, when my to-be Mactan Newtown condo will expire?? Well, we agree, that Mr. B. and I, we will fly over to Boracay for 4 nights (neither of us has been there yet), so that the both of us can have an outside of Cebu experience. After I conclude my time in Mactan Newtown, I will have completed my objective of discovering the possibility of retiree life here in Cebu and I have decided that I should use the remainder of my time to transition into tourist mode and go see other non-Cebu places. So, Mr. B and I, we book our flight for 8 February to fly to Boracay in an evening flight, to coincide with when Mr. B will finish his afternoon hotel shift. As all of this was spontaneous and last minute it took us like 3 hours in total to book the flights (the easy part) and then to find a suitable hotel on the White Sands beach within the confines of the famous Stations 1, 2, and 3. We managed to accomplish our objective. Let me tell you that Boracay is not cheap and is a very expensive highly sought after tourist destination. Then, I said to Mr. B, I am famished, let us try to finally eat at the famous Sugbo Mercado market that is here in the Cebu IT Park. It was a Sunday night, and as we learned the hard way on our last attempt, it is not a Monday night and it should be open. Well it was open and SUPER packed. One of my assessments about life in the Cebu IT Park neighborhood is that whoever built this campus did not anticipate that it would be such a BIG success. Consequently, with all of the gazillion BPOs that have become an integral part of the success of IT Park, it has created a campus that is now over-crowded with all of the BPO workforce and their families and others who want to live in IT Park. In my opinion, the smaller Ayala mall that they built within IT Park is just too small and consequently often too crowded. Also, there should be more than 1 Sugbo Mercato (outdoor foot court), as 1 is just not enough to support all the people that are here. So, I think that soon, whoever is in charge of IT Park, is going to have to take a hard look at what should you do when you build such a large IT Park and it becomes too successful? On the other hand, the CBP (Cebu Business Park) is just the right size and mix of BPOs, residents, and size of what is available (malls, condos, parks, etc.) and on offer. Day 29 (26 January 2025) concluded.

I have not found the traffic to be any worse than what I experience when I leave Jomtien and go into Pattaya city - especially if I go into the heart of Pattaya city. We need to remember that you visited Cebu during the SINULOG weekend when 4 million visitors invaded the city and even I had great difficulties in the traffic on the 18th and 19th of January. Therefore, this excess Cebu traffic I view as being an anomaly - as it was linked to a once a year event. Please note that I have intentionally structured this Cebu trip into 2 parts: Part 1 - to live in Cebu city (CBP and IT Park) as this would closely resemble the intensity of Pattaya City. Part 2 - which I will start tomorrow - to live in Mactan Newtown - over at the beach area to simulate a Jomtien like retiree living experience here in Cebu. I am anticipating that this area will have light traffic like we have in Jomtien - as it is isolated from the havoc of Pattaya/Central Cebu city.

Day 27 (24 January 2025) Today I have my FIRST experience getting my tourist visa extended at the main Cebu immigration office, as my initial 30 day tourist granted to me at the airport is set to expire. Here is what I did: 1. Watch this short 3 minute YouTube video of a guy who recently extended his tourist visa in Cebu: 2. Take Grab car (or any other suitable transportation to the GMall (aka Gaisano Malls)) and go to the 2nd floor, and you will see the Bureau of Immigration (BI) office. This BI office opens at 9am – even though the mall does not open until 10am. You just tell the security guard that you need to enter the mall to go to immigration and they will let you in. When you get off of the escalator you will see the BI office off in the distance – ignore the left side of the BI office – as that is the exit side and walk to the extreme right side so that you are in front of the Information Desk. If you approach the office on the left side, you may encounter some opportunists (fixers), who want to help you for a fee, and will ask you to give them your passport. I strongly suggest that you don’t do this. 3. The Information Desk will give you an Extension of Temporary Visitor’s Visa form for you to complete over at one of the sit down areas that are nearby in the mall. You will need your own pen. If you want to see the form in advance, here is a direct link to the BI web page – valid as of 28-Jan-2025: https://immigration.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IRD04.QF_.004-CGAF-FOR-EXTENSION-OF-STAY-OF-TEMPORARY-VISITORS-VISA-1.pdf Note that on the application form in the Contact Information section it asked for a Mobile Number in the Philippines, which I did not have, as I bought the Airalo eSIM, which is a data only plan without a phone number. So, I left this part of the form blank and the immigration people did not make a fuss or even ask any questions. Note that the form will also ask you if you desire “Express” service – click this check box if you want your updated tourist visa within a couple of hours instead of some days later. 1. Return to the Information Counter and show the BI person your completed form and passport. He will stamp the extension form if all is good and tell you to go to the Assessment Counter where they calculate how much you need to pay and they will also take your passport and extension form from you and put it into their work queue. 2. With the receipt given to you by the Assessment Counter you then need to proceed to the Cashier window to pay the fees – see below for fee calculations. 3. You now wait for your name to be called so that you can then go to the Releasing window to pickup your passport and sign a register book that you are claiming your passport. Note that you will not receive an additional stamp in your passport but instead an important piece of paper, “Official Receipt”, which now has printed: VISA VALID UNTIL : XX XXX XXXX KEEP this document in your passport in the same page as the tourist visa stamp that you received at the airport. Note that this first extension only gives you an additional 29 days, whereas, the original entry tourist visa that you obtained at the airport gave you 30 days. I performed all of the above steps and I was in and out of immigration in just 1 hour and 20 minutes – not bad for someone doing it all by themselves. Back in Jomtien, this would be a nightmare and that is why I always use an agent in Thailand to streamline as much as is possible when I need to deal with Thai immigration. So, I left the BI office as a happy camper. Ate lunch again at the Ayala mall and then returned to my room. Now I was feeling horny so I hired a sexy macho straight guy for a 2 hands massage. I should have known that trouble was brewing when he would not remove his underwear. His massage was excellent as well as his edging skills. I was very happy. But, he became angry when it came time to pay him, as we agreed to the standard 3.000 pesos and I showed him in the app our chat transcript. He became even more angry and insisted that I pay him 7.000 pesos because I touched his nipples during the massage. He raised his voice and then I raised my voice and I showed him my pants pockets which only had another 1,200 pesos in random banknotes that he begrudgingly accepted as I showed him the door. No violence occurred – as I felt that it was definitely heading that way – but the good news is that they cannot enter the condo complex without giving up their National ID card – so I would have ran downstairs to security should the situation have escalated further. What is weird is that during the massage this guy was chatting and laughing non stop and it felt like the beginnings of a new friendship. I would have definitely rehired him as he was near excellent in his massage and edging skills. So, I just don’t understand this Dr. Jeckell and Mr. Hyde bad transformative behavior. Any ideas ? This is day 26 and only my 2nd bad encounter out of around 13 encounters to date. Day 27 (24 January 2025) concluded.

Day 26 (23 January 2025) Booked a Grab car and I went to the Ayala mall to eat lunch – and I discovered what was new for me a beautiful nice outdoor garden area up on the 4th floor, known as the, Rooftop Garden Level to eat. After 25 days here it is amazing to still discover new things about this humongous mall. Prior to this moment I was always eating in the lovely external Terraces Gardens down on the ground floor. Went to get my hair colored, but I returned to the Salon de Rose – but to the non-barbershop part and they gladly colored my hair. This coloring was better than the one that I had at the Mr. Edward Scissorhands shop, as the color that they chose was the EXACT color that my hair colorist uses back in Jomtien. So, again I was very happy. Afterwards, I looked to no avail for a pair of neon green striped sneakers (they were my favorite) that I bought 2 years ago in Pattaya that are now starting to fall apart. As the neon green color has fallen out of fashion – I may need to forget about this color. Back to my room to work on my posts for this trip report. No massages or extra-curricular activities today. Day 26 (23 January 2025) concluded.

Day 25 (22 January 2025) Breakfast in IT Park – trying to get a new routine going in my new neighborhood. I forgot to mention that the guy from yesterday, Mr. Dak, who massaged me, got carried away with both my coconut massage lotion and edging lube – by removing the tops of both bottles and pouring it all over me. He was truly crazy. Consequently, today I decide to venture over to a sexy shop, to: Have this experience in Cebu – a conservative Catholic country, Restock my supply. Take a Grab car over to the Pink Bunny adult store, which is located over in the “red light” district of Cebu = Mango avenue. https://pinkbunny.ph/ Two very kind ladies were working inside and they were very eager to help me and to even cross sell me stuff that I did not want. I told them that I was looking for massage cream and lubricant. They had both so I chose the Eros lubricant, as that was the brand that I used back in Budapest and then the only massage cream that they had was a Crunchy Mousse – let’s see how that one turns out. Then they were obsessed on cross selling me: dildo, vibrator, jack pack, etc. I kept saying no thanks. But I did cave in on this “Happy King” capsules that are supposed to make you hard as a rock. Some of you may remember that I went through 6 months of experiments with TRT (Testosterone Replacement Therapy), Shockwave Therapy, MSsculpt ischiocavernous muscle therapy, etcetra --> related thread is here at: Consequently, I am very open minded to try new things – as the 2 ladies promised me “hard” results if I took the “Happy King” natural ingredient pills. I have yet to try them – but I will share any positive results if acquired. Today’s purchases at the Cebu Pink Bunny In the end, I was quite impressed with their variety of offerings and kind customer service. Good to know these important types of products exist in a potential retiree destination. Returned to the CBP Ayala mall for lunch by foot – as I wanted to gain some courage and on-the-street foot exposure from the “red light” district back to CBP. It was non eventful, but I have to give this part of the city a bad rating from an elderly retiree’s need to have good sidewalks. They were often in bad shape or non-existent, where you just had to walk in the street and negotiate with the oncoming traffic. However, if as a retiree, you would limit yourself to the enclaves of CBP (Cebu Business Park) and IT Park – the sidewalks in these 2 neighborhoods are near excellent = but the moment you walk out of the borders of these 2 areas – you get into a nasty sidewalk situation – hence better to travel by Grab or Move It. Went back to my condo room to make a big dent on these trip report updates. Then afterwards over to what has become my favorite eating place in IT Park = Wolflink, for dinner. Why? I really like this concept of artisan prepared meats in a type of hot pot cast iron bowl. They are very yummy, affordable, and fun to eat. No massages or other extra-curricular activities today. Day 25 (22 January 2025) concluded.

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.