Job hazards

beach at Mactan Shangri-La

My trip to Cebu last week was interesting. The client from the Middle East was fascinated with the designs he saw in the booths as well as the factories I brought him to. But the Cebu X has gotten smaller this year. A lot of furniture exporters in Cebu has closed shop because they couldn’t compete with China prices. The depreciating US dollar has not also helped the export industry. It’s sad that the old, lively Cebu market is now wilting.

The client was also captivated with the lush Mactan Shangri-La. I booked him at the hotel’s spa on his second night, and he couldn’t stop talking about it the next day. He was delighted with our dinner of lobster, crabs, prawns, and oysters at the Cowrie Grill, Shangri-La’s beach-front restaurant.

We were at a factory one afternoon, selecting furniture, when the client asked me where the west is. For a minute, I wondered at the question---then he asked for a fabric he could use to kneel down to pray. It suddenly dawned on me that Muslims pray a couple of times a day. I couldn’t find a fabric or a carpet, so he asked for a folded carton instead. He doesn’t smoke or drink alcohol, and we talked about Islam and Christianity while stuck in Cebu traffic, about terrorism, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I also got two offers that day. The client offered to double my pay if I'd work for him in the Middle East. Then the Italian guy who owns the furniture factory suggested that I relocate to Cebu since I'm single, and stay at his 3-bedroom condo, rent-free. Yeah, right! Rent-free, indeed!

What surprised me was the client's interest in girlie shows! Frankly, I am not that naïve to be surprised anymore…but after seeing him pray a couple of times a day, I find his interest a bit strange. Oh well…he’s only a man after all! I’ve been going to Cebu regularly for the past 9 years but I’ve never been to a girlie bar there. I called a couple of my Cebu vendors and was advised to bring him to Jaguar or Arena, both class A bars, or to Gold Fingers for some raunchy dancing, or to the Silver Dollar in Jones where the Australian tourists go, said to be the wildest of them all.

More than a decade ago, our American clients would ask me to take them to Firehouse in Ermita, or at the Hobbit House. I would leave them there and go home, the driver would take them back to the hotel. And some of our auditors and IT persons from Hong Kong would shyly ask about girlie bars in Timog or Pasay. My male colleagues would take them, and I usually stayed out of it. But with nobody to turn to in Cebu, I brought the client to Jaguar, Gold Fingers and Silver Dollar in a span of 3 hours, feigned nonchalance and drank beer in-front of gyrating bodies of young Cebuanas.

By midnight, I brought the client back to Shangri-la, returned to my hotel and took a very long shower.