Philippines Travel Escort Guide Service

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View restaurants & learn about Filipino foods

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About Currency

There are many currency-related topics that need to be discuss depending on the Asian country we are talking about. All four that I go to as your body guard / guide use their own currency and have different exchange rates. The denominations you bring with you to exchange and the rate you get will effect how much should you carry on you that day, and where / how you carry it. There used to be six man teams just to steel your watch which was a months pay to a family there. People are poor here and on average, a Filipino maybe lucky to find a steady job that might earn as much as $200.00 US value or so in a month. Multiple man / women teams is something else to watch out for. In the Philippines the streets can be filled with people on both sides of the street and crossing, all over and stones may hit you from four different directions and you can't tell whose throwing them, or from where.

When you are buying things, negotiating the prices is common here! So is offering or paying a little something to somebody or an authority figure to get something done (that is not suppose to be done at all) or done faster. The Philippines is not the US; the organizations, policies, rules, and laws are more just guidelines.

Understanding currency is important and may vary greatly on a daily bases as it does in the Philippines. You may get 50 or 56 pesos for $1.00USD down another street the same hour while at a bank maybe only 42 or 44. How much should you change in a day? Exchanging $100.00 could have lost a dinner for two or more if you got a bad rate. That could cost you about half of your 5,000. Should you just exchange all your cash right away?

What about paying for taxis, hotels, restaurants, and buying from the many markets and vendors your going to see all over every where you go? There are many things to know. There is often one price charged a tourist looking guy and another charged a Filipino guy. "Where you come from?", "You been here before Mr.?", "How long you been here Mr.?", "You like this?", or, "You like that?" All innocent questions, from such wonderful and friendly Filipinos, right? Or does it give the hungry Filipino a quick way to get ahead and feed the family? A smarter, observant Filipino who works the tourist belt gets clues that let him know what he can get away with, such as what he can charge you, where he should try to steer you into to earn kickbacks or even more if he knows the right people!

If you know any Tagalog or Visayan, don't tell them, don't let them know till you have felt them out or had experiences and know you can trust them! They often talk about you or what their thinking or planning right in front of you when they think your a first timer.

Filipino Foods

Checkout some of them in the photo table below. There are too many to list, some I won't try but many are just delicious or a favorite of mine, like Shanghi Lumpia eggroll - pork sausage diced veggies in wanton wrapper.

Restaurants

There are many interesting Filipino foods to try if you have never done so. You'll find many Filipino food dishes to taste great. Chicken or pork barbecue doesn't mean our BBQ sauce; it means a delicious marinated grilled meat that smells and tastes great. It's good to know if the vendor has good clean handling and storage of the food and also that no corners were cut (example: that the meat is pork and not dog, two or more days old and was not refrigerated). Get your shots and don't drink the water!!! Always buy bottled water, and mix your own drinks. Even pop is made from water locally and ice usually is as well. Too much of their water at first before you've been there a while and your may become very sick from the bacteria levels, for those of you in the USA and other countries with clean tap water. You could catch ameba in the water, which no matter how long you are there, you can not just get used to that. Go see a doctor ASAP if it's coming out both ends of you for a day or two! Now days the restaurants are mostly pretty good at making sure foreigners are not drinking tap water at their table or that the ice is not from tap water and in the food preparation.

There are a lot of good restaurants to tell you about. In the old days, you would learn to like native Filipino foods or starve. But not now. Over the last twenty years, more and more American and other fast food franchises have been locating all over the Philippines. Americans can eat and feel mostly right at home now in the cities. Some even fill at home in many provincial areas. If the hotel, restaurant or bar is owned by Australians, it'll will be great. You'd best ask me though, because it depends on where you're going.

There are many places and many hotels that are not going to have clean beds with fresh linen, air conditioning, or hot water, much less American foods, or clean water! Find out before you just go there.