Or perhaps more appropriately, the city of soiled doves.

I don’t like Angeles City but in a perverse kind of way it’s good to periodically have a short visit there just to remind myself why. And as an added bonus it makes Barrio Barretto so much more appealing.

I blew into town yesterday for a brief overnight stay. I had made an impulsive decision to attend a dance contest in AC featuring the Hot Zone dancers, a bar owned by the Grand Master of Subic Hash.

Upon arrival I went out in search of something to eat. And seeing as how roughly half the signage in the area was in Hangul, I figured I couldn’t go wrong with Korean food. I settled on a place in the lobby of the W hotel on Walking Street which featured some street side tables. That proved to be a mistake.

One of my pet peeves in AC is the beggars and street vendors. And from the moment I sat down it seemed that every other passerby was either asking for money or trying sell me something I didn’t need. A lot of the beggars were young kids, but damn it, I wasn’t about to reward their unacceptable behavior of interrupting a man’s meal. There’s a time and a place, even for charity.

The food service was also spotty. The waitress forgot to bring my beer. And came back to say my dwaeji galbi was “not available”. I pressed her on how a Korean restaurant could be out of galbi and she replied that it was “still marinating”. Whatever. I had some bulgogi and samgyupsal, both of which were mediocre. Oh well.

I had some time to kill before the dance competition began at Insomnia Bar, so I sat down at a little outdoor bar next door. Had a few drinks and some nice chat with a bargirl there named Rona. What caught my eye about her was she had a fair skinned face with Western features and what appeared to be sexy legs under the short and flowing skirt she was wearing. When she got up to fetch a drink though I noticed one of her legs was deformed and quite a bit shorter than the other one. I’m not sure why but I felt a great deal of admiration for her perseverance. Rona told me she had lived in Barretto briefly a couple of years ago with her Aussie boyfriend and returned to AC after the relationship ended. And she claims to remember me from one of my long ago visits to AC. She pointed out where I had been seated, and since this was only the third time I can recall being at this bar and I had in fact sat there one time, perhaps she was right. Anyway, she was pleasant company.

Then it was on to Insomnia. Place was packed a full hour before the show and I was lucky to get a seat next to the dance floor (I prefer to sit further back). There were a few other guys I recognized who made the trip down from Barretto as well. To be honest, the actual competition was a disappointment. Alaska Bar did the same old tired routine I had seen numerous times and their girls just are not very attractive. Hot Zone has some hot dancers and did a sexy routine that was nice to watch. But the Insomnia gals were by far superior to their competitors. I didn’t even stick around for the judging.

I walked back to the hotel, had a banana split, then went to bed. Up early this morning and my driver (he spent the night in his car) was having coffee and waiting for me.

Back to Barretto and it’s been a rainy day here. So no walking for me today, but I did have a nice long nap. I’ll get after those steps again tomorrow I reckon.