$4 Massages and $26 Cakes

I'm struggling to get my head around pricing in Manila.

How is it that I routinely pay more for a cup of coffee here than I would on my old stomping ground of Chapel Street?

Is it because the waiters and waitresses are earning more than $16 per hour? No. $1-2 would be closer to the mark. Is it because the rent is much higher? Possibly in some areas but in the majority, no.

And when I mean "here" yes, that means Eastwood City where a premium price is to be expected but also includes our local SM Mega Mall ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM_Megamall).

There is certainly no shortage of competition; Starbucks, Gloria Jeans, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Seattle's Best (never heard of them? Nor had I. www.seattlesbest.com) appear on every street corner competing with regular cafes and restaurants.

The answer may be two fold.

My beloved and I were invited to Conways Piano Bar at the Shangri-La Hotel a few nights back to watch a New Zealand band who were cousins of some friends back in Melbourne. Small world. Now, these guys were living the life. 6 guys, 6 hotel rooms at one of the best 5 star hotels in Philippines and 6 buffet breakfasts, lunches and dinners each day on top of their ordinary wage for performing at the hotel. Every 3 months they would move on to another Shangri-La Hotel; their last location was Jakarta, their next was Beijing.

Anyway, the guys were complaining about the low numbers at the bar. I had presumed low occupancy to explain why there was only about 15 people at a bar that could comfortably accommodate over 100. Occupancy according to the guys was running at 91%. A very healthy amount by any definition. In response to Conway's low numbers in the month of November, management had jacked up all the prices by 15% across the board to try to maintain the same revenue from previous months; to state the absolute obvious (but clearly not obvious to the management of Conway's) this led to even lower numbers in the month of December!

And so when it came time to order drinks I was just a tad hesitant but was pleased when my beloved opted for a fruity tea thing and another singer we were with only wanted an orange juice. When in Rome do as the Romans do so I ordered a San Miguel beer.

Come closing time I was presented with the bill: 940 Pesos / $29.30.

The size of the bill compared to the content of our order was ridiculously large even by Australian standards. Indeed I think it may have even been cheaper to drink at a bar in London or New York.

The last time I was really stung for a small order was with Telmo Languiller (Member for Sunshine) of all places in Rome. To be more precise, I think Kieran Boland was one the one who was actually stuck with the bill (a bill that neither one of us could really afford as we backpacked across Europe). We bumped into Telmo in the Vatican bookshop. He of course was on a 'study trip'. Study trip in Rome I enquired? No he replied, in London, but Rome was 'just a stopover'. A 4 day stopover. How nice. Anyway, he invited the two of us to coffee around the corner near the Trevi fountain.

Unaccustomed with such things I plonked myself on the nearest seat to the piazza to enjoy a sunny day in the middle of winter. I remember being a little bit surprised that so many locals were huddled inside the cafe and only a few enjoying the rare day of warmth outside. Some of you who have made your way through Europe, particularly Italy, may have realised the folly of my actions. 3 cuppaccinos later was quickly followed by a bill of approximately $30 - yes, $10 per coffee! As I learnt the hard way a grading system within cafes is enforced: cheapest is standing only at the bar and progressively gets more expensive the further out from the bar as you stretch outside. The short of it is I had unwittingly sat in the most expensive seats the cafe had to offer.

All of this reminescing is a long way from my original question of explaining some of the high prices around Manila. By my earlier example at the Conway's, one answer could be the rather skewed business philosophy of raising prices when numbers are down. But that explanation only extends so far given many of the cafes and restaurants in Manila's shopping centres seem to enjoy very healthy numbers.

The second maybe even more simple; there is such a gulf between rich and poor here that a proprietor is simply making profit margins that would make an Australian operator blush off the back of Manila's fabulously rich. For a developing country The Philippines can never be accused of not having enough money. Like Thailand and Indonesia, the seriously rich here make our BRW Top 10 list back home look like a bunch of paupers with their paultry billion here or billion there. In Manila we talk about 10s if not 100s of billions. Mind boggling stuff.

And nothing better contrasts the extravagence of life for some here in Manila than my time in the Aristocrat Bakeshop when I went to purchase - and then cancelled - a cake that was the equivalent of $26. I did however follow through on a 2 hour massage for $4.

Go figure.