My Move to the Philippines

As you can see from this and the other pictures in the album our house construction in the Philippines is in the latter stages. It’s a good thing because in our phone conversation with family it was raining so hard in Laguna that we could hear it through the headphones. I’ve posted one of the pics from the album at the beginning of this post and the rest can be found in our Moving to Philippines photo album. Click on the link to see them.

In other news, I have been contacted from a tourism student at a University in Manila to be interviewed for her thesis entitled “The Philippines as a retirement destination for foreign tourists” If our schedules match up I may accept her offer and get together with her and her group for a sit down. I’ll post more on this later.

Well thats all I have right other than to say I’m counting the days until my return back to the Philippines. As soon as the college football season is over I will be on my way. See you all soon!

This August 23rd was a little eventful for Filipinos and the Philippines in general. One of the events was on the good side and ended less than good and the second event was bad all the way around.

The first event I’m referring to was the Miss Universe pageant where Venus Raj, the Miss Philippines, had a misstep in answering the question at the end. IMHO she could have answered much better, but I still think she wouldn’t have beat out the winner, Miss Mexico, anyway and probably would have made first runner up. The good part of the night was that Miss Philippines reached the final five runner ups and that the Filipinos in attendance were definitely the loudest cheering section which shows how Filipinos will rally behind each other and show their pride.

Also on August 23rd there was a tragic event where hostages were taken and a few were either killed or injured. This event may have hurt the tourist industry slightly but you can only look at London and New York to see how they have recovered after even larger terrorist events happened in their cities. Look, it could happen anywhere, and it does quite often. If people are afraid to visit places and see the world because of  isolated incidents such as this they will be living in a bubble and will never experience what this world has to offer. As for me it doesn’t change a thing about how safe I feel in moving to the Philippines.

Having been in the U.S. for the last Presidential election and then the Philippines for the recent Presidential election I would like to offer a couple of observations about the differences I saw. Now I must warn you that I watched news programs during both elections but my English is better than my Tagalog so in the latter case I might have missed a little bit in translation, bear with me. Also, I’m only making observations of what I saw and not choosing one country over another or one candidate over another, just my opinion.

The main difference I noticed was the television coverage of the two different countries. In the U.S. I witnessed many ads that were not much more than smear campaigns not focusing on what a candidate would do if elected but what his opponent had done or would do wrong. In the Philippines of course there was a little bit of that but on a less personal case. The Philippine candidates promised to rid the country of corruption and help the needy while the U.S. candidates focused on what would happen if the opponent got elected.

Secondly, since I am a history buff and enjoy the little sayings that go along with a campaign I was disappointed not to see any in the last campaign or the ones in recent history. I’ve read about “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too” the 1840 U.S. presidential slogan of William Henry Harrison and his Vice President, John Tyler and “Give ‘Em Hell, Harry!”1948 U.S. presidential campaign slogan of Harry Truman, among others. These just aren’t present in American politics anymore.

In the Philippines there were political slogans along with catchy nicknames there was “Noynoy” “Gibo” and “Erap” along with Aquino’s catchy politcal slogan “If there were no corrupt, there would be no poor.” among others. And everywhere you went it was a festive mood with shouts from the children of Noynoy! Nonynoy! completely different from what I experienced in the 2008 U.S. election.

Now a catchy slogan or phrase or shouting a nickname may not make a difference in election results but I wonder how many people went to the polls undecided and all they have heard in their heads were little kids yelling Noynoy or Gibo. It makes you wonder!

Now that we’ve got the political commentary out of the way I’m going to post that latest two pics I have of our home construction so those following along can see how it is going. You can see all of those pics by visiting my Facebook album just click here

Having much experience flying on international flights, especially from the United States to the Philippines, I can tell you there are not many airlines better than Philippine Airlines (PAL). So it was sad to see that many of their pilots are leaving for jobs with other airlines.

When I fly I don’t have much interaction with the pilots on these flights but I do talk to and observe other members of the crew and I can tell you that PAL people are there to assist you in any way they can. All of the attendants are neat and friendly and smile all the time even on the long 15-20 hour flights. Try taking one of these long flights with a U.S. airline and you can tell the difference.

With the U.S. crews it is not unusual for an attendant to be rude and ignore passengers when they need something. One thing I think contributes to that is the U.S. airlines people look tired like they are overworked which could be the case. Maybe someone thinking of leaving for greener pastures should consider that. Secondly, the PAL and other foreign airlines employees seem younger and fresher, not burnt out. Maybe airline jobs are more coveted in these countries with a fresh batch of young people ready to work, I’m not sure.

The last difference I have observed between the airlines is the ability to keep on schedule. My last two flights from the U.S. were delayed significantly on the legs that involved U.S. airlines while the foreign flights were perfectly on schedule. Not sure why it was this way, but it has shaped my view of how I want to fly possibly taking the foreign airlines all the way.

There are other differences that I won’t go into here including food and comfort items but it is true that Philippine Airlines and other foreign airlines have beaten out the U.S. guys.

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Sticking with the same theme of our moving to Philippines blog I have updated my album of pictures of our house construction in the Philippines. We are still working hard on the interior and these pictures are showing some of the additions with paint. Included in the latest pics are the downstairs bathroom which is the room that is now painted checker board style and also the kitchen sink and part of the work is done on the counter. I think it looks pretty good and will continue to post updated pictures. To link to the total photo album click on the following link: Pictures of Our House Construction in the Philippines.

In other news there is a video out making the YouTube rounds of our favorite singer from the Philippines, Charice. It seems she is getting ready for an appearance on the show Glee and she is getting Botox treatments. In my opinion Charice you are beautiful as you are but it’s your body do what feels comfortable. Until next time Salamat Po!

For any of the interested readers of my blog on my Move to the Philippines I am including a link to some of the interior pictures of our house construction in the Philippines. This project is coming along very well and we are pushing it as quick as possible due to rainy season but since it is a very big project we are also watching the quality of work. Thanks to all of our neighbors and relatives in Binan Laguna for what you are doing in our absence, that is what I like most about the Philippines.

Here is a link to the Facebook album of the remaining pictures Our House Construction in the Philippines

Terrace Under Construction

Just received some updated pictures of work done on our house construction in the Philippines one of which is at the beginning of this post. Suddenly it’s shaping up to looking like we want it even though there is still a ways to go. I promised I would keep updating as it progressed not to show off but to let people see what goes on with house construction in the the Philippines. I will entertain any comments or questions concerning what we are going through. If you’d like to see the all the pictures just click on my Facebook button to the right.

An internet friend Louden recently wrote on his blog Life in the Philippines about a trip to the dentist where he lives in the Philippines. He covered the visit very well and covered the major advantages and disadvantages of getting his work done there. This got me thinking about medical tourism in the Philippines and getting healthcare in the Philippines.

Medical tourism can be defined as when a person travels from their home country to another country for the specific reason of getting medical, dental, and surgical care. More often than not, the medical tourist travels from a more developed country to a lesser developed country due to currency exchange rates. Economic conditions such as a recession also factor into the rate of medical tourism. When an economy is suffering, as the U.S. is experiencing right now, you will see more examples of medical tourism.

Most of the procedures that are performed are done with the latest technology in hospitals and clinics that rival the ones in their own countries. Some of the most common procedures are cosmetic surgery, dermatology, weight loss, and dentistry. One example I’ve read about is knee replacement surgery, which could cost you up to $50,000 in the United States. The price is around $5,000 in the Philippines and this surgery is done by surgeons usually trained at the same place as the U.S. doctors.

My wife and I have not needed any major surgery lately but since we spend time between the U.S. and Philippines we try to schedule our dental and optometry visits when we are in the Philippines. Not only are the check- ups much cheaper but our eyeglasses are half the price that we can get them for, even at the discount eyecarewebsites.

Medical tourism in Asia is on the rise with countries such as Thailand and Singapore trying to lure the medical tourists to their own countries but the Philippines is still considered the best due to their facilities. Check out the various websites that are specifically targeted towards medical tourism for more information.

Let me start this post off by saying I am not an expert on Philippines internet so if you have any corrections or suggestions I am willing to listen. A couple of years ago when I visited the Philippines I noticed a change in internet in the Philippines. Many people were moving away from the internet cafes and getting more personal computers in their homes and businesses. At that time I wasn’t fully involved with an internet business as I am now so I had little to judge about the chances of working a business on the internet in that country. I was more concerned with being able to check my email daily and I accomplished that by going to the internet cafe.

These days I am self employed and work online at least 8 hours a day so it was important that the last trip provided me with the knowledge I needed to set up my operations there. I did as much research as I could before I went, soI had a little idea on what to expect by talking with my niece who lives next store to me in Laguna. She assured me that she had wireless service and I could connect on to her network from my home. After I arrived in January it took me a couple  days or so to connect because of nothing more than not having the right password for her router. Before I figured the correct password I decided to purchase my own connection so I wouldn’t lose too much business time.

Smart Communications had a booth in the local mall and I inquired about their services and options and found I had three options. Option 1 Pre-Paid Wireless where I could purchase a flash drive type device for P1,000 ($20 US). This device is similar to the go anywhere internet many wireless companies offer. It used 3G technology and could be used anywhere that a signal could be reached. You had to prepay by buying a load much like the cell phones in the Philippines. You get about one hour for P20 with automatically a P300 credit. After that you can buy time just like on the cell phones but don’t let it run out of time completely or you will have to pay the thousand pesos again. This was the option I chose simply for the reason that the other two involved a wait for approval and a contract for a year. Since I wasn’t going to be there for a year straight it seemed the best. One of the other options was unlimited minutes and I think it cost P1,000 per month with a contract involved.

The speed of the prepaid wireless left something to be desired as I think the maximum I achived was 54Mbps compared to 130Mbps -140Mbps I curently am running  here in the states. But all in all not too bad unless you wanted to watch a video or look at a picture. I took this internet device as far back as you can go in the Philippines while staying in Pangasinan and it was patchy at best, but so wasn’t cell phone service.

When I move to the Philippines for good I will have a cable wireless connection like I have here. I connected to my neighbors wireless when possible and found that connection to be very close to the speed I experience in the U.S. Feel free to comment on your experiences with your Philippines internet connection because as I’ve stated I am not an expert and I really only dealt with one company.

 So glad to report that this week we have arrived in the Philippines. Not a complete move but working towards someday doing just that. We have spent the first few days just adjusting to the time difference and visiting with friends we haven’t seen since last year.

I have been to Jollibee and Chow King, my fave places to eat, a couple of times already and it seems that there are more Starbucks here than anywhere I’ve ever been. Aside from that I’m finally figuring out the Internet Providers and prices. I’ve already been to Mall of Asia, Manila Bay, and Market Market and will share pics with you guys when I get them uploaded.

A strange occurance is the amount of Americans I’ve seen here this year. Although I’ve only been away for a year the amount of foreigners I have encountered in our little suburb of Manila suprises me. I have seen many younger Americans in the malls and places I’ve been. I guess the secret is out!