Butch

Jollibee is pretty fucking shit as well. Take a Macdo, cheapen the ingredients by 80% and you have Jollibee. I'd rather brush my teeth with Pla ra. In fact, any take away food in the Philippines is rank. Actually, scrub that, Any food in the Philippines full stop. A country that was never noted for its culinary or gastronomic excellence, I can honestly tell you that during my return to the PI I inevitably come home at least 8kg lighter in body weight (and it's not like I'm a porker in the first place either) due to the simple fact that the food is so bloody disgusting I'm hard pushed t

Hi, Sorry, a bit later than expected. It's taken me ages to transfer the files from my old PC ot the new one, and alot of stuff got lost. Anyway. As I mentioned, as part of the corregidor Island visit there's the opportunity to go into the Malinta Tunnel. Essentially the Tunnel made up part of an underground infrastructure with several annexes, safe from Air and Sea bombardment as it was bored into the mountainside and served as a command centre for Macarthur during his stay. when buying the tickets for Corregidor you're offered the Tunnel experience as part of the package. you ca

EP Excellent cause mate. I used to visit when Father Brennan was in charge, until some UK scum tabloid made horrific accusations against the man, which were untrue and unjustified. I honestly think that put the man into his early grave. I've never boasted about being a hard man,and I'm not, but I was reduced to tears visiting the orphanage each time and seeing the children there, I felt not for thm, but for the ones not so lucky. The number of half farang/thai children is also surprising. Gents, the orphanage is always grateful for nappies and baby formula, neither of which weigh much

Avoid crystal travel at all costs. We booked a Cathay flight with them 3 years ago, lhr-hkg-MNL , they managed to misspell our daughters name on the ticket and refused to change unless we paid an admin fee of 35 quid. We refused and eventually Cathay got involved directly, when they reluctantly changed it. Crystal travel are a bunch of total cunts, and I wouldn't waste your cash or time dealing with them. Caveat emptor when dealing with these clowns. Cheers Butch

BM's, A colleague at work is a friend of the Family and comes from the same village,He has asked me to post this in the Pattaya forums. I've posted on Thaigers and also here. MM, I apologise if this is against the forum rules in any way, or may have been posted before, but on behalf of the family, please, if anyone spots Tom in Pattaya or Bangkok, please can they notify the Police, or maybe if he's in distress or difficulty help out in whatever way they can. I know the family would be very grateful for any info. Taken from BBC News: Tom Armstrong of Kelsale feared missing in Tha

Lol I was being ironic re the Sykslops statement, sorry. Seriously though, I'll head out of town during Cobra Gold, even though the US guys are no problem, the crowds do my head in.

Damn, I'll have to give the pentagon a call. Not too fussed, just don't want my few days in fun town having to avoid WS due to massive crowds. At least the yanks actually go into the bars tho, more than can be said for most of the WS visitors these days.... Quite a few hotels booked up for feb as well by the looks of things. Might have to either step my budget up a bit...is Skytops still open...? :)

Good tip! Cheers.

Should be getting the early stage cobra gold guys arriving soon as well. WS will be busy (or rather the 7-11's) . Actually, anyone know the exact dates of CG this year?. Cheers Butch

Hi, Sad to see EVA are tightening up on weight. They always used to be pretty flexible, especially out of bkk. Anyone know what routes EVA use the old B747 combi's on? I thought they were using them on the US routes these days, maybe they've been phased out tho, I recall flying on them in the late 90's. I flew EVA last year from LHR-BKK and found it lacking in service. Not a patch on the old days, they didn't even offer alcohol! Then again, it probably pays not to expect too much from economy travel these days . I'm due out again on an EVA flight in the next few weeks from LHR, I'll put a

Hi, As an update, I forgot to mention in my review, the economy seats come with a USB port located next to the IFE screen. However, it would not charge my iPad for some reason, but did charge my android phone. I don't know what the function of it could be apart from charging, but for anyone with an iPad, it doesn't work!. Cheers Butch

Gabor, I found this link which might help you decide which or how much BTU you need: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Formula_for_calculating_btu_for_a_room_metric Cheers Butch

Hi Bratpack, Thanks for the compliments!. The buildings are fully accessible, with the exception of maybe one or two, you can climb, walk and take as many pics as you wish, the bus stays in each venue for about 10 mins. there is an alternative 2/3 day trip whereby there are extended guided tours (such as down to the airfield), or you can go off on your own. I've been twice and each time the bus tour was slightly different. As I mentioned, there are several uncovered bunkers / foxholes littered around, live ordnance, weapons and discarded ammunition boxes etc are still being discovered as

Thanks Mods / Admin for moving the above post. Apologies for the cock up. Cheers Butch

Thanks firth, your comments are apprecieted mate!. I've got a bit more to post, but time's against me so hopefully during the week i can put my Intramuros for pics up, and my Manila Bay cafe report for the mongers out there! Cheers mate, Butch

Battery Hearn is quite a complicated area, the ammunition being brought up from underground arsenals. Here also is an example of the Cantilever system used to raise the Guns up and down during operations.Battery Hearn was not on a cantilever, but did have a 360 degree firing range, restricted only by the terrain. Entrance into Underground Arsenal, goes on for a long way, currently inhabited by alot of bats and other jungle nasites - hence I shit myself and decided not to go in. Cantilver Gun - an Example of. Considering the fearsome firepower of these things, and that they were less

Corregador Island is a Fortress Island off the mainland near Manila. During WW2 it served initially as a United States base, then, it was surrendered after the men were ordered to do so, and became occupied by the Japanese. It was from the Island that many men were made to go on the infamous Bataan Death march, one of the most horrific and terrible examples of mans inhumanity to man during the war. It was later recaptured by the American and Allied forces and General Macarthurs promise of “I shall return” was made good. There was a lot of blood spilt on the Island, and it serves as a fitting t

hi firth Thanks for the compliment mate! I've posted part 2 in the open forum, maybe MM can move this into there as I've probably made a cock up placing it in this one. Cheers Butch

Mrs Butches home town area. She did once suggest we settle here, when I found out the proximity of the actuive volcano, I politely suggested somewhere perhaps a bit safer where I won't get buried alive by boiling rocks. Clear roads, a nice change from Manila. Shit, I thought there was something wrong at one point... SEA Scenery, palm tree, field, stuff growing. love it. Mayon volcano, a perfect cone and a huge tourist attraction. Mrs Butch lived within a few KM for most of her life - leading to what was to be a very emotional return on her part. I was taking the

Hi, As a bit of an intro to this brief report, I'll give some background on Naga City. It's located kind of SE Leyte, and is actually blessed with a half decent infrastructure, climate (if you like getting hit by the odd typhoon) and History. Like most of PI the spanish colonial influence is very apparent in the architecture, it's also home to a festival (Penafrancia - thanks Wiki) and the Cam Sur water park. That map isn't much help, is it? I nicked it from wiki. The one I wanted had a location on it, anyway, it's easy to find, just google "Naga city". Oddly, and surprisingly fo

Idelfix Aggressively marketed - yes, it is, compared to the way it was before, but thats change for you I guess . The general concensus is that the showgirls are harder to deal with, one tends to get more GoGo queens working in the bars using them. However, as you say, everyone sees a different side of the same coin, and depending upon your personal preferences. Alot of mongers would go there for the eye candy, but not to directly barfine per se, but this again is down to perhaps budget constraints and maybe some guys don't like the large crowds gathering there these days. Conversely some

I tend to agree, not living there but instead asking those that see it on a daily basis would give perhaps a better or more balanced outlook. then again, it's like seeing the niece or nephew you haven't seen for ages, the they turn up and the first thing you notice is how much they've grown, as opposed to their parents who only notice how much of a pain in the arse they've become. Bloody hell are we all getting old?..

Jesus - Seems like the whole of patts is a health hazard. Get well soon guys.

We travelled on the Malaysian Airlines Airbus A380 which had only come into service two months or so previously. It was MH3 LHR-KL-MNL. Price paid £620 per person RTN for the month of October 2012, no fare restrictions and a change of date would be £75 pp. Being a new aircraft it was clean, everything worked and had a nice , modern feel to it. I love engineering, and to me the A380 is pretty much the pinnacle of aviation engineering for the masses. Until you get close to one of these, it's hard to imagine the sheer size of the thing. The seating arrangement in economy is 3-4-3 down

Teelak, bloody good point, the dynamics have changed and will continue to do so. Within those dynamics - the balance of visitors, comes different attitudes, expectations and behaviours. However, I think this is more evident on WS than anywhere else. I refer to WS specifically as it is as good an example as any when it comes to a change, not only physically but also in the way we, as mongers, are treated as customers. Sois 7,8, Metro etc are still pretty good places to hang out, and for the most part LK offers a glimpse of what the whole of Pattaya was like at one time and should be today