[etsys]

AtlasShrugged:

Heard the pinays r 1 of the wildest in bed

YOU HEARD ? what do you mean you heard ? Damn .. you haven't experienced that yet ? you poor thing ..

For money changers, yet to come across a money changer who cheats. The caveat is, most of the money changers have a few guys loitering around them, and if you are seen to count a few thousand peso (a monthly salary of a sales girl being just 5,000 peso onwards) that can give ideas to a lot of the loiterers ..

Be safe - read up on my 'safety rules in Manila', which I wrote about earlier

One of them is to change money in malls, and only withdraw money in ATMs which are in malls.

If you need to pay more, use cards, than be seen walking around with a few thousand peso.

PS: in one of the TV programs on guns-for-hire in Philippines mentioned that you can get hitmen for as low as 5,000 peso - which isn't far off the mark - people have been killed for lesser money ..

so .. if you are looking like worth 10,000 peso, a lot of temptations can arise ..

And also remember the 10,000 peso nonsense for Customs ..

As much as possible, I use cards, and with the daily limit on the ATM withdrawals - upto 10,000 peso based on atms, I stick to not carry too much cash. One too many close encounter of 'close confined body searches' have left me scared enough ..