Astronaut at NASA (1965–present)Upvoted by , lives in The Philippines (1973-present) and , lives in The Philippines (1982-present)2y
Youtubers will tell you that the Philippines is the perfect place to live or retire so that they can continue to get paid as channel subscribers. But in reality, they leave out a lot of stuff. I’m going on a year here and will tell you how it works. For free,
- I lived in Thailand and New York City. However, here in the Philippines, they have the most horrendous traffic I have ever seen, This is primarily caused by tricycles which I call (Blue Tin Cans on Wheels). The most unsafe, careless traffic hogs I have ever seen.
- Foreigners = $$$ The impression they have that foreigners are a walking dollar sign. This is how I work around it. If they are selling a product, and I don’t see a price tag, I walk. Why? Because they will raise the price on you from 30 to 50 percent. I didn’t come to a third-world country to pay US dollars. I will be happy to pay whatever a local pays.
- Crab Mentally. Be aware of those sunshine smiles. Some are authentic, but a lot of them are not. People here are famous for running back to their Barangay and fabricating stories about you because of jealousy and envy. Hence, the “Crab Mentally” Pick your friends very carefully, keep your business to yourself, and keep a small, tight circle.
- The environment. The burning of rubbish and plastic in the air gets tiring. This bothers me only because the Philippines is a beautiful country. At least for now. If they can get off the “World Most Pulluted Countries” list that would be awesome. And before you knock any other first-world country for doing the same, remember, that they have a system. In the Philippines is almost non-existent.
- Technology. I figured out how to pay my bills online. The technology in this country is 20 years behind. Their online payment platform couldn’t exist in a first-world country. I was hell-bent on not staying in line for hours to pay my electric or water bill. I use one debit card for the entire county and transfer as needed to pay bills. If compromised, I won’t even complain about the 1000ph I leave in it floating around.
- Shopping overseas. Your max in shopping overseas is 10000ph until the BOC (Bureau of Customs) puts their grubby little hands on it and (fee-fee) you to death. Have a friend ship what you want in a Balikbayan box. I myself took a trip to Japan and bought a laptop at a very competitive price. The same laptop would have cost me 35% more in the Philippines because of the BOC fee-fees.
There are bright spots in the Philippines, but if you follow this simple guideline, the bright spots will not be clouded by negativity. There are some good things here, but I just wanted to reply to what you requested. The challenges. If you are going to watch YouTube for information, just watch banking and visa information. You shouldn’t care about anyone's opinion on living in the Philippines. It is only designed for their revenues and subscriptions. Hope this helps.
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