I ventured out to the far side of Barretto last evening to visit Redz Pub. It will be the first bar featured in the “Bars of Barretto” series. Since I was on that side of town anyway, and the girls at Marick’s bar had been hinting about wanting tacos, I stopped by The Coffee Shop, a local restaurant said to have the best tacos in town. I don’t know about that, but they are certainly the biggest.

I didn’t have one last night, but my past experience was along the lines of bigger doesn’t make better. But, lots of people think otherwise apparently. They were really busy last night, and I was the only non-Filipino there. Service really sucked and I wondered if maybe my white skin wasn’t welcome. Ah well, I got my order and left.

So, I delivered four tacos, two hard and two soft, to Marick’s. There were four girls working last night, although Marick didn’t come in until later. They all shared one and had some rice (naturally) on the side. Whatever rocks your boat.

Now, my style is to enjoy my beer and provide lady drinks to the gal who is taking care of me. Occasionally I will treat two girls if I am the only customer. So, last night it was the cutie pictured above who was helping to empty my wallet. A couple of other customers came in during the course of my visit, and one of them bought a lady drink for one of the other girls. Later, when I was once again the solitary customer, I ordered another round for me and “my” girl. She pointed to her co-worker sitting on the other side of me and whispered, “what about her?” I shrugged and said, I’m only buying one lady drink–you decide who gets it. She came back with the drink and kept it for herself. That gave me a smile, generosity only goes so far I guess. Anyway, the other girl was the only one who hadn’t gotten a drink all night and she had half-assedly rubbed my back a little, so I told her to get herself a drink.

Then the owner, who had recently arrived, pointed to the other two girls and said “what about them?” And I lost it and went off on her. “What about them?” I loudly exclaimed. “I’ve been here buying drinks all night. I brought the girls food. Why is it my responsibility to buy every girl in the bar a drink?” She backed down immediately, but she had chilled my buzz. I finished my drink and left. Not sure when or if I’ll be back. The thing I hate most in the bar experience is getting drink pressure. It usually comes from one of the girls “please buy me drink” which is irritating enough. But to have the bar owner try and shame me into buying drinks was just over the top.

So, I guess this is a good time to talk about the various types of bars you’ll see in the Bars of Barretto series. Almost all the bars go with the “lady drink” option–you buy a drink for your waitress or “guest relations officer”, and she provides company during your bar visit. The only exceptions I can think of here in Barretto would be the hotel restaurant bars. A bar with lady drinks is pretty much a win-win for the bar and the girl. The drinks are usually around 200 pesos each, and the girl gets half of that as commission. As I understand it, some bars have drink quotas and failure to achieve that goal results in a reduction of the daily salary, which might only be 200 pesos ($4.) to begin with. Yeah, that’s fucked up. But that’s the system that is in place and that’s why I try to be somewhat generous when I can.

Within the bar universe, you have what I call regular bars. Just a place to go and have a drink, chat with friends, listen to music, or whatever else eases your mind, including the attentions of a lovely bar girl. The sports bars fall into this category as well, offering live games from back home, be it rugby, football, soccer, or cricket. I’m a regular in the regular type bars.

Another type of venue that is popular used to be called “go-go” bars, and they featured a stage with scantily clad dancing girls. Under the current pandemic rules, bars are not allowed to have dancers on stage, so these establishments have been especially hard hit. Nowadays the gals just sit around on stage like eye candy, waiting for some lucky guy to call them down for a drink or two. I liked them a lot better back in the old days.

And so what category does that leave? Ah, prostitution bars. Well, technically they do not exist. I did a lengthy post on Juicy Bars and Prostitution back in 2009, comparing and contrasting my experiences in Korea and the Philippines. If you are interested in more background on that subject, click the link and give it a read.

I would argue that these days prostitution bars are a thing of the past, but of course, prostituion is still a thriving business. There was a time when you could find the dancer or waitress of your dreams, pay the bar directly (popularly as a bar fine or early work release) and take the girl out of the bar for a night of debauchery. That method didn’t pass the smell test with the authorities and certain do-gooder NGOs, and after a series of raids and incarcerations, the practice is virtually non-existent nowadays. Instead, in certain bars when you connect with a sexy lady and want to do “take-out”, you negotiate directly with the gal. Assuming an agreed-upon price is reached, you pay the young lady and she is responsible for reimbursing the bar for her absence from work. This keeps the bar out of the direct transaction of money for sex. The downside is that if the girl fails to perform as promised, the guy who didn’t get screwed has little recourse to get his money refunded. Not a perfect system for sure and also one I almost never participate in. Why should I? I have Friends With Benefits.

Anyway, as we start visiting the bars around Barretto you’ll get a better feel for the way things work and I’ll elaborate more on what I personally look for in a bar.

Little by little, my health continues to improve. I’m beginning to fear that some of my issues may be age-related, but I’d rather keep getting older than not.

And I’ll leave you a funny from The Far Side: