How is Davao city like?

[Jackfruits]

In February 2023 I need to go to Davao city and afterwards also manila for business. But how is Davao dating wise? I learned a hard lesson most crap women in Asia are on dating apps. Yes it can help you get laid and deal with BS. Maybe will do that but if I look back so much time wasted on apps that could have been better spend doing daygame.

But is Davao city a good place to find this elusive unicorn wife material? Or is it another cesspool city?

Btw, I do miss the good old rant and raves Winston Wunused to do on this forum.

[publicduende]

In February 2023 I need to go to Davao city and afterwards also manila for business. But how is Davao dating wise? I learned a hard lesson most crap women in Asia are on dating apps. Yes it can help you get laid and deal with BS. Maybe will do that but if I look back so much time wasted on apps that could have been better spend doing daygame.

But is Davao city a good place to find this elusive unicorn wife material? Or is it another cesspool city?

Btw, I do miss the good old rant and raves Winston Wunused to do on this forum.

I lived in Davao for 2.5 years and can tell you a story or two. It's a very large city but much poorer than Metro Manila and Cebu. This means a larger number of desperate single moms who are looking for a foreign Knight in Shitting Armour to save them.

It's a good place to run your shenanigans. Possibly the worst city in the Philippines to find a decent, smart and pretty girl for a long term relationship.

[Jackfruits]

Oh great. Thanks for the answer. It's strange to say but a friend found his wife who grew up as an orphan in Davao so he didn't have to deal with any family BS (but was in 2010 when he was backpacking through Asia when he was still young). He said all innocent sweet girls. But guess in 12y things have changed. So I just enjoy it there and probably find someone more serious in Manila?

But @publicduende how did you meet more normal girls in the 2.5y in Davao? Like 20-25yo educated girls looking for a real thing rather than financial gain?

[publicduende]

Oh great. Thanks for the answer. It's strange to say but a friend found his wife who grew up as an orphan in Davao so he didn't have to deal with any family BS (but was in 2010 when he was backpacking through Asia when he was still young). He said all innocent sweet girls. But guess in 12y things have changed. So I just enjoy it there and probably find someone more serious in Manila?

12 years ago it was possible to find a decent girl even in Italy

But @publicduende how did you meet more normal girls in the 2.5y in Davao? Like 20-25yo educated girls looking for a real thing rather than financial gain?

The best way is to find a girl whose family is at least upper-middle class. "Middle class" families over here are those who can seem to get by comfortably, but are easily swept away by the first unforeseen event: a sudden debt, a large medical bill, etc. My wife's family was (I say "was" because C is, also, an orphan) upper-middle class. Her Mom was a bank clerk turned real estate broker and her Dad was an executive at a cable TV company.

Unfortunately, girls hailing from those families are the least likely to want to have anything to do with a foreigner, at least not the average backpacker staying in the country for just a few weeks, or the twice-divorced bald, aging man.

From my experience, girls from Manila are somewhat more familiar with mingling with foreigners, as there is a much larger number of expats in Metro Manila. Yes, there are a lot of middle age no-gooders and tourists, but also a sizeable number of managers and executives, startup entrepreneurs and people with legitimate businesses and reasons to live here.

So, their perception of a foreigner - especially a young, unmarried foreigner - as a potential dating partner, is much better than, say, the idea that they have down in Davao, where 99% of the men are just there for fun and have only a modest pension to live by.

This is why, at least from what I observed, it's relatively easier to date a smart, well-educated girl in Metro Manila than a less smart, less well-educated girl in Davao City. This, all other things (e.g. looks, age, etc.) being equal.

[Jackfruits]

Oh great. Thanks for the answer. It's strange to say but a friend found his wife who grew up as an orphan in Davao so he didn't have to deal with any family BS (but was in 2010 when he was backpacking through Asia when he was still young). He said all innocent sweet girls. But guess in 12y things have changed. So I just enjoy it there and probably find someone more serious in Manila?

12 years ago it was possible to find a decent girl even in Italy

But @publicduende how did you meet more normal girls in the 2.5y in Davao? Like 20-25yo educated girls looking for a real thing rather than financial gain?

The best way is to find a girl whose family is at least upper-middle class. "Middle class" families over here are those who can seem to get by comfortably, but are easily swept away by the first unforeseen event: a sudden debt, a large medical bill, etc. My wife's family was (I say "was" because C is, also, an orphan) upper-middle class. Her Mom was a bank clerk turned real estate broker and her Dad was an executive at a cable TV company.

Unfortunately, girls hailing from those families are the least likely to want to have anything to do with a foreigner, at least not the average backpacker staying in the country for just a few weeks, or the twice-divorced bald, aging man.

From my experience, girls from Manila are somewhat more familiar with mingling with foreigners, as there is a much larger number of expats in Metro Manila. Yes, there are a lot of middle age no-gooders and tourists, but also a sizeable number of managers and executives, startup entrepreneurs and people with legitimate businesses and reasons to live here.

So, their perception of a foreigner - especially a young, unmarried foreigner - as a potential dating partner, is much better than, say, the idea that they have down in Davao, where 99% of the men are just there for fun and have only a modest pension to live by.

This is why, at least from what I observed, it's relatively easier to date a smart, well-educated girl in Metro Manila than a less smart, less well-educated girl in Davao City. This, all other things (e.g. looks, age, etc.) being equal.

you are right on that one, finding a real upper middle class is not easy in davao, or relatively theirs upper middle class either. Im a 1x divorced balding man so guess that's better than 2x But looks wise Im now fit and in a few months I want to be very fit (I have become obsessed with healthy food and working out again)

during my recent trip my budget was 2500-3000/m, of which 1200/m was hotel or apartment, 110 for coworking space for decent internet, I calculated average plane ticket price spread out over the months as 500/m, so this tally alone is already 1810 without food etc. most westerners really miscalculate PH or Asia and those saying you can do on 1500/m are living with someone else paying rent or stay in some village forest shack

But curious, how safe is it to wear a 6k costing Omega watch in Davao (which I really bought for 1500 but last decade the value/price increased so much)? I was really thinking of taking a nicer watch on my next trip but not sure as its kinda poor, think in BGC I'm okay but not sure about davao

[publicduende]

you are right on that one, finding a real upper middle class is not easy in davao, or relatively theirs upper middle class either. Im a 1x divorced balding man so guess that's better than 2x But looks wise Im now fit and in a few months I want to be very fit (I have become obsessed with healthy food and working out again)

during my recent trip my budget was 2500-3000/m, of which 1200/m was hotel or apartment, 110 for coworking space for decent internet, I calculated average plane ticket price spread out over the months as 500/m, so this tally alone is already 1810 without food etc. most westerners really miscalculate PH or Asia and those saying you can do on 1500/m are living with someone else paying rent or stay in some village forest shack

But curious, how safe is it to wear a 6k costing Omega watch in Davao (which I really bought for 1500 but last decade the value/price increased so much)? I was really thinking of taking a nicer watch on my next trip but not sure as its kinda poor, think in BGC I'm okay but not sure about davao

Well, when I arrived in Davao I was a 40-yo man, reasonably fit, with a full head of hair and one divorce (in fact, I was still separated, divorce hadn't been finalised) under my sleeve. As people like @Will N. Dowd will testify, I was, too, shellshocked by the deluge of gratuitous attention I was getting from "all the girls". "All the girls" being random girls working at random coffee shops, mall shops, offices. I felt like shooting fish in a barrel, with a bazooka. It was a massive amount of balsam for my ego, especially coming out of a separation and with not much to look forward to on the love side.

I engaged in the usual shenanigans most men in my same condition would engage in: scour the various social/dating sites raking up dates left, right and center, chatting up every girl who looked and/or sounded down for it, and having more different girls in a week than I had in my entire life prior to moving to Davao.

Honeymoon didn't last very long, about a year for me. I soon realised that the typical Davao girl who was positively "down for it", which means showing flirtatious signs and jumping on my bed mere hours later, was always the same type: cute but not very cute, unemployed or underemployed, mostly single moms, more or less interested in having sex but definitely interested in having a foreigner as their bf, with all the financial benefits for themselves and their families.

Ironically, or not so ironically, the girls who gave me the best sex, in many cases triggering my "skin memory" infatuation, were all, invariably, the sluttiest girls: either girls who were not interested in me as an exclusive partner, or girls who made it very clear that, after one or two freebies, we had to negotiate how much every further encounter would be. Sometimes girls who had to choose between me or another 2 or 3 foreigners so, in the end, it all boiled down to who treated them better outside the bedroom and, a distant second, who was the youngest and most gwapo (handsome).

As soon as all of the above dawned on me, my honeymoon was over and I naturally started to look for more quality, rather than quantity. And that's where the pain began. Long and short of it, I had to wait at least another 18 months after the end of said honeymoon, to serendipitously find a pretty, well-educated girl from an upper-class family who was not "down for it", yet more or less amenable to some traditional courtship, which ended in mutual feelings being born. Said girl is C, my wife.

I met C in Davao, during a trade mission. She hailed from Manila, not Davao, and that was literally the first time she was in Davao for more than a day. This, despite her maternal family originating from Davao.

As some people told me, I would have never, ever in a million year, been able to find a girl like C in Davao. Not because Davao is devoid of smart and pretty girls but, as I said before, because the smart and pretty girls of Davao are a precious commodity and they know it, so they will only be available to the creme de la creme of the local boys.

That's why, to conclude, I would say Davao is a great place for shenanigans with girls who, without wanting to sound a chauvinist, are nothing but pieces of meat for a day or a week. The moment you'll be planning for, or wanting, a more serious relationship with a girl who has the looks, the smarts and the personality, then Davao becomes a place to leave, and fast.

[Jackfruits]

Thanks so Davao is only for pleasure and then it's annoying after a while. Now I guess what the biz people (from Europe but residing in Davao) I'm gonna meet up located in Davao is doing there, banging single moms. On the video calls they said they came for the nice weather, good quality cheap food (definitely a lie) and friendly people. All divorced men in 60-80yo range but the leaders of the biz entities are rich (and also the craziest entrepreneurs I have ever talked to as in thinking illuminati made up COVID and thinking Israel is the mastermind behind world power etc....). But business is business so yeah.

[publicduende]

Thanks so Davao is only for pleasure and then it's annoying after a while. Now I guess what the biz people (from Europe but residing in Davao) I'm gonna meet up located in Davao is doing there, banging single moms. On the video calls they said they came for the nice weather, good quality cheap food (definitely a lie) and friendly people. All divorced men in 60-80yo range but the leaders of the biz entities are rich (and also the craziest entrepreneurs I have ever talked to as in thinking illuminati made up COVID and thinking Israel is the mastermind behind world power etc....). But business is business so yeah.

You say you met these people on a video call. Was it some sort of group video call among them, including some guests, or a club?

[Jackfruits]

Thanks so Davao is only for pleasure and then it's annoying after a while. Now I guess what the biz people (from Europe but residing in Davao) I'm gonna meet up located in Davao is doing there, banging single moms. On the video calls they said they came for the nice weather, good quality cheap food (definitely a lie) and friendly people. All divorced men in 60-80yo range but the leaders of the biz entities are rich (and also the craziest entrepreneurs I have ever talked to as in thinking illuminati made up COVID and thinking Israel is the mastermind behind world power etc....). But business is business so yeah.

You say you met these people on a video call. Was it some sort of group video call among them, including some guests, or a club?

video call for business, this was via a warm intro from a business contact

[AllTimesUTC]

I dunno why everyone hates Filipino dishes. They have *some* good foods- roasted pork, seafood ceviche dish, easily available fish you can prepare at home, good fruits. Compare that to US which is a bit overrated- yes lots of good restaurants, but they're expensive, esp. with recent inflation.

[publicduende]

video call for business, this was via a warm intro from a business contact

Interesting. I wonder what business a foreigner might be involved in, in Davao. As I learned on my skin, by experience, Davao isn't exactly a business-friendly city for foreigners.

[Jackfruits]

Their business is not in PH, but the eccentric owners are residing there in Davao. I'm not planning to hang around too much in my free time with them. I just don't like to be around grandpa men. Just get drunk, do some stupid shit together while drunk, and a strong male bond is made, sign the deal and move on. Maybe a few lunches and drinking sessions if they invite me and that's it. Actually the best deals in my life I have done were at either mega nerd (not business) events or had alcohol in them.

[Jackfruits]

I dunno why everyone hates Filipino dishes. They have *some* good foods- roasted pork, seafood ceviche dish, easily available fish you can prepare at home, good fruits. Compare that to US which is a bit overrated- yes lots of good restaurants, but they're expensive, esp. with recent inflation.

its not very diverse; mostly fried fat foods or lots of sugar and not cheap either. On the same budget in PH that you cook at home healthy food you can dine out in Bangkok in a good restaurant. There are absolutely no (affordable) good restaurants with good hygiene. All restaurants from cheap to more expensive (vikings buffet and also hotel dinner buffets) all gave me dhiarrea. I have not been in a restaurant in PH that not gave me dhiarrea which includes in other countries safe (McDonalds) is in PH disgusting and unhygienic

[AllTimesUTC]

You made some good points. I also prefer other Asian countries' food culture.
But, compare this to some areas of USA which are also full of unhealthy fried food. If you aren't in a big city with large immigrant communities thats all you got. Sure, in PI you need to find the hidden gems but they exist. Glass half full mentality I guess.

[publicduende]

You made some good points. I also prefer other Asian countries' food culture.
But, compare this to some areas of USA which are also full of unhealthy fried food. If you aren't in a big city with large immigrant communities thats all you got. Sure, in PI you need to find the hidden gems but they exist. Glass half full mentality I guess.

Well, after some bashing on Davao, here's a plus: food in Davao is relatively healthier compared to, say, Metro Manila. Apart from the hyper-cheap carinderias where people eat more bacteria and tiny insects than food, Davao is famous for two of the healthiest food item that can be found in the Philippines: seafood and fresh fruit.

Fish, especially tuna, shrimp and squid, is relatively cheap and, despite much of it being frozen at source, it will have only travelled a few dozens miles, from the Mindanao fishing hub which is General Santos City.

One of my favourite delicacies was (and is!) kinilaw, which is basically the Mindanaon version of tuna or malasugue (blue marlin) ceviche. Marinated in white rice vinegar, with abundant addition of chopped pepino (cucumber), some onion and the occasional chili. It's one of the cheapest and healthiest things you can eat in the country, and it's found in Davao at never more than P200, for a big portion.

Fruit-wise, there's Davao's King of Fruits, the Durian, which is a love-or-hate thing. It might take one aback because of its very pungent smell, especially when the pulp is sun-drenched and starts to ferment, but the back taste is something truly unique and must be tried to be believed. It's something in between a very creamy banana and notes of hazelnut and lychee. And that's just my taste buds at work!

If one isn't that daring, there's also an abundance of jackfruit, mangosteen, pomelo, lanzones, papaya, mango, etc.