Dancing Girls

I had a great night out with some of the guys from the office last night. We went to a bar or two, drove around, and ended up at a gentlemen's club into the wee hours of the morning. (Like, until around 5-6 in the morning, so we got some breakfast on the way home.) Normally, this sounds like a seriously awesome night, except there was one problem...

Strippers in Quezon City don't actually remove their clothes.

What the crap, Philippines? At first I thought that maybe the one on the stage when I walked in was new or shy or something and perhaps there wasn't a tremendous amount of pressure on these girls to always give a full show. That's fine. But dancer after dancer came and went, and none of them removed their clothes at all. They were dressed scantily enough, but remained so.

The four of us even got a private VIP room. It was the kind of scenario where the lady of the house brings in a selection of girls and we each get to pick one. (Which was a little uncomfortable for me, actually. But it worked out. Amid the selection of girls who all looked like cheap whores there was one who looked cute and sweet, so there's my girl.) We each selected our "escorts" and got some drinks and put on some music and basically had a good time in the VIP room.

But the girls remained clothed the whole time. I mean, they were great companions, don't get me wrong. They were friendly and fun and affectionate. It was like having a fun and playful girlfriend who doesn't want to put out today. Still perfectly fun. But these aren't girlfriends, they're strippers. Aren't they?

This place is weird, man.