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Pecos Pete's: Opens at 9:00 AM. Military expat hangout, pool table, P35 beer & local drinks, P70 lady's drink, 3-4 tables, 5-6 GRO's, no dancers, no stage.

Pick-Up (The Pick-Up Disco Bar): A bar built from the ground up at the old location of Wantok and Duke of York on Real Street. This white elephant cost a fortune to build and the former owner, Gerard, quickly sold it off to a partnership consisting of the owners of Champagne (Horst), Insomnia Group (Heiko) and Roadhouse (Mark). "Three, yes, THREE levels of seating area comprised of large open area on the main level, and delightful little café-style nooks and crannies on the second and third levels. Velvet tufted wall panels, gilded metal and woodwork, astounding attention to detail in almost every aspect of the design, right down to the ornate trim around the ceiling pot lights. Intricately designed imported tile floor on main level, faux Trompe L'Oeil flooring and wall murals, along with the requisite AC faux stonework. The only element thankfully forgotten was the forever copied fabric on the ceiling treatment. The second floor (or was it third floor?) VIP room is gorgeous and intimate, although the lighting is a bit too bright for a bar. P.U.B. has something for everyone from 8:00pm to 5:00am. Those wishing to hang out with their honeys/BFs or even expats with their wives will like this place. There is no cover charge, local drinks are 55+ peso. Even Cheap Charlies can nurse one drink here for the entire evening without pressure or being bothered. The shows are very nice, with quite a few baklas (gay performers) strutting their stuff. The sound system is not completed yet, with wires on the ceiling still exposed awaiting speakers. The large speakers near the entrance can be hair-raising if you get to close. The choice of music is generally pure techno-crap. If you're looking for Kieth Richards or Aerosmith, your in the wrong place. If you have a low tolerance level for the new age dance music, you will get mighty pissed off after about ten minutes. I have trained myself to tune out when there, so I still can enjoy the place with my wits intact. The elevated central dance floor is often crowded with singles and couples dancing and everyone looks like they are having lots of fun. The absence of drink pressure makes this place really comfortable. Everybody is smiling and are seeming to enjoy themselves. You could easily spend the entire night here. P.U.B. has chosen to staff itself with mature male (straight) staff with about a dozen female helpers. These girls are not available for BF officially through the bar. They are not much to look at, but if you really wanted to, you could try it with them after their work shift. The polite-to-a-fault waiters area welcome alternative to some of the pushy snobby waitresses you might be used to in the Fields bars. So, I am sure you are wondering, what about the girls? The freelancers/off-duty bar girls, naturally outnumber the male customers 10-to-1. You will tend to see girls mainly from the larger bars, and mostly the hustlers and pros, at that. The shy and quiet ones tend to avoid this scene where they have to rely on their own skills to market themselves, and prefer to stay within the haven of their own bar. They will sometimes be towed in by the more aggressive girls. I will be brutally honest. If you are the type of guy, either by appearance, or by attitude, that frequently gets turned down when trying to BF in the mainstream bars, you will definitely have the same situation here, if not worse. The overall impression I got from the bar girls I recognized and spoke to, was they were not there simply for the sake of getting a BF, but rather were looking for Mr. Right for the night. They lacked that desperate, lost-puppy look so prevalent among the Margarita's freelancers. In fact, they were just as stuck-up as they are in their home bar. It is the true independent freelancers that were there who took the limelight, working the room, scouting, sizing up the guys and pressing the flesh. The visiting off duty mainstream bar girls had a little too much holier-than-thou attitude for my taste. It sort of reminded me of the nightclubs back in Canada with the white girls attitudes. I suspect that after several times of them rubbing their nose on the ceiling, they might realize their behavior is self-defeating and come back down to earth. Of course, not all the visiting bar girls were like that, just most. I guess that being in this neutral ground, makes them feel on equal level and having more self-respect, (and perhaps they do) forgetting that the following day, they are back to work as regular bar girls again. Does P.U.B. qualify as a viable alternative to pick up a bed mate? As all the times I visited, I had a honey (the same one) in tow, I cannot say, as I have not tried to score myself, although I don't see it as being that difficult. It's just a different style than your standard Fields bar. It definitely qualifies as a post-bar-hop hangout and is IMHO, a superior alternative to Blue Nile, Camelot, or dare I say even Roadhouse (despite it's down-home charm and guy-friendly music) for an after-midnight hangout. In trying to find something negative to say about this place, I could only come up with the following three: (a) The bars name really does not suit the place, although I get the point they were trying to make. (b) The choice of music, for some folks. (c) There is some sort of familiar comfort in the mainstream Fields bars with the BF process. Despite the occasional bullshit and odd runner, it's pretty straightforward; you choose, you pay, you go. Body styles, shapes, and types are in almost naked view, so you see exactly what you are getting in the flesh. P.U.B. requires a different approach when finding a bed mate, and as there is the feeling that the girls are choosing you, rather than the reverse or mutually. (d) They are fully dressed, you cannot really get a clear view of the goods. I also have heard that some of the prettier freelancers/off duty bar girls are demanding 1000 peso for a long-time, as opposed to the standard 500+ expected by Margarita-style freelancers. But as it is completely pay-after, I suspect there will be no bullshit pulled by the girls. Pick-Up Bar is a place you either love or hate. But it is definitely the absolute NICEST place to hang-out on nights in AC. It is definitely worth multiple visits." Norman (01/2003). "The waitresses are available to take out of the club. The EWR is P500 bar share only! We decided to give it a try and see how it works! All the waitresses we have hired have been told this and seem to agree so why not!" Mark (06/2003). "Made the mistake recently of adding the Pick-Up Disco to my usual prowl and boy was I ever disappointed. Bear in mind that I found the experience was so chilling that I forfeited the P100 cover charge and left after only about a half hour. If there was anything I may have missed (like a periodic donkey show or audience-participatory BDSM), I apologize for not sticking around long enough. I went in there with every manner of expectation (freelancers? freebies? no-hassle pay-after experience?), only to be reminded of the painful years when I frequented discos in Okinawa and was confronted with a stageful of attractive girls, virtually none of whom was there to do anything but dance with their friends in an oblivious daze. This place is too much like Midnight Rodeo - too specialized an experience for my taste. It is thriving, but no thanks to sex-tourism (in fact it distracts from what I always thought was the point of AC, and contradicts the purpose of all the other bars). Granted, Pattaya is big enough to handle the Marine Bar (in fact, there was a Marine Bar where Kokomo's is sitting). But I doubt that it will do anything for Angeles except precipitate its demise. Since Music Box closed, I guess that crowd has been pining for another such establishment - though surely not one as grotesquely laid out and preposterously decorated (it's like a nightmare version of a Disney ride). The waitresses are probably the only reason I'd go in there again, since it's their job to pay attention to you. I noticed alot of locals with their own parties going on, a stageful of girls (as I said before) all dancing with one another, and every booth surrounding the stage occupied by a lonely foreigner. And this was a Saturday night. Unless you're more intrested in the chase than in simply landing a sperm receptacle for the night (Priority One for me), there's mettle more attractive in the usual places - Champagne, La Bamba, Tom Cat, even The Owl's Nest." kuripot (09/2003)

Private Dancer: This name, retired by the Insomnia Group, is now being used by the bar formerly known as Illusions at the 300 Field Avenue building.

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