A promise made, a promise kept. I finally got around to documenting a Barretto bar crawl, the first of what I anticipate will be several “themed” adventures in exploring the various drinking establishments here in my little town. My motivation for last night’s adventure was this tiny scrap piece of paper:

Because of a day-long power outage, I was getting a later start than normal. I usually leave the house around four, but it was nearly six o’clock before I headed out last night.

I began my “crawl” at the junction of the National Highway and Baloy Beach road. I turned on my Map My Walk app, thinking that would show the distances between bars (they are all located on the highway). Unfortunately, that map came out looking like this:

Anyway, the entire distance between all the bars was only around 1K. Every bar except one were on the same side of the highway, so I didn’t have to play frogger too much. I did the first three bars in the order I passed them on the street. Then I went to the most distant remaining venue and worked my way back to others. Enough about logistics; let’s get crawling!

They do have bargirls here, but they are not aggressive. I usually just sit at the bar and never even get approached. That’s fine with me. My favorite, TinTin, hasn’t been around my last few visits. The male bartender is friendly and provides prompt service, so no complaints there.

Queen Vic’s claim to fame is that they feature live bands several nights a week. That’s not an attraction for me personally, but they have a nice setup for those who do:

I understand that on weekends after the bands are done, they do a disco routine that lasts until four in the morning. Heh, I’m not into the disco scene, and I’m NEVER awake during those hours, but it’s the only disco in town, and I reckon it’s a good venue for meeting freelancers (the bargirls from around town that come get discounted drinks).

Whiskey Girl is located almost directly across the highway from Queen Vic. Be careful when crossing!

I always enjoy the music here, especially now that I sit further away from the stage. I was the only customer during my brief visit, but it was still relatively early.

Back across the highway, and maybe a one-block walk, is the Alaska Club.

Alaska is one of my sentimental favorites, it being the first bar I visited in the Philippines back in its Angeles City iteration.

Next, I walked up the highway about half a kilometer to visit Voodoo.

I rarely patronize this bar except when it hosts the SOB. It’s a small venue and only offers dancers and bar girls for entertainment. They have a pretty decent lineup of girls, but photography is not allowed, so you’ll need to check them out on your own.

Walking back up the highway towards Baloy, maybe a hundred yards from Voodoo is the Hot Zone.

Once again, I was the only customer. They had eight attractive dancers on stage, and I couldn’t help but think about what a hard job it must be to be an entertainer with no one to entertain.

I felt sorry for the dancers and wanted to recognize their contribution to making the world a more beautiful place, so I handed out 50 peso notes to everyone on stage. There is a certain amount of pressure when you are the only best customer in the place.

Yeah, those beers were beginning to kick in, but I was only half a block away from my next bar.

To my surprise, the place was packed. I was thinking it was just a slow night in town, but I guess folks were just in a Green Room frame of mind. One of the waitresses asked me “what are you doing here? It’s already nine o’clock.” Yes, my habits are well known to some in this little town.

The also have a couple of gals that do back and shoulder massages. One of them I used before wanted to give one to me, and I said sure. But when I tried to take her picture she declined. That pissed me off a little, so I said, no picture, no massage. Yeah, I can be a bit of dick when I’ve had too much to drink.

Time to move on, and my next and last stop was right next door. Didn’t even have to leave the building.

It was also quite full of customers.

I drank my two beers here and congratulated myself on the successful conclusion of my bar crawl. It was actually kind of nice to be drinking with a purpose. Fourteen beers is pushing my limit, but I wasn’t stupid drunk or anything like that. A later start and a later finish, but probably not a significant amount of increased consumption.

And there you have the first in what will likely be a series of future themed accounts of my visits to the bars of Barretto. Hope you enjoyed it.