I Just Moved To The Philippines

[Taco]

Anyone that has been reading my posts(business section) over the last year will be well aware of my concerns about living in the anglosphere. I finally left 2 weeks ago for the Philippines after meeting a single mom 2 years ago on DIA and helping her start a successful business, we plan to get married soon. I'll start teaching english online soon to supplement our income. Here's some of my observations so far.

38 hour travel time - this really sucks, but the fact there was only one white woman on the flight to Manilla made it worth it.

Women - women tell my Filipina everyday I'm gwapo, they even follow me around the stores sometimes

Scams - a woman at Philippine airlines tried to overcharge me $200 for changing my flight. However, another woman on a jeepney told me that my wallet fell out of the pocket when I got up to leave

Ladyboys - tons in any of the malls, they will approach you

Climate - very hot, I've already lost lots of weight

Creepy Stuff - huge roaches, spiders, ants and lizards in the house

Food - the western restaurants owned by foreigners are your best bet. KFC here sucks, but McDonalds is good. The neighbor killed a stray dog and then ate it, my girlfriend saw him do it(July 2/2012).

Clothes - you can get some great deals here. My girlfriend bought me a pair of Levi's shorts for $5

Sex - you have no choice

People - the people are friendly but the downside is they tend to be laid back about everything. Getting angry and yelling at Filipinos is not recommended.

Shopping - lots of stores with western food and clothes but it can be expensive, its much cheaper to eat asian food. Shopping in Cebu City is excellent.

Culture Shock - poverty and business transactions are the most difficult thing I've encountered, always agree on a price before hand. If they won't give you a price, walk away.

Wedding Rings - I didn't have money for them so my Filipina bought them(white gold)

Internet - it really sucks where I live but Jollibee has wifi. Some cities have cable internet now

Noise - roosters crowing, dogs barking and music playing 24/7

Making friends - very easy

Douchebags - the only ones I've encountered are the occasional foreign guys I see

Creepy old guys - I see 60 yr old foreign guys with 20 yr old girlfriends at the mall, its weird

Crime - small towns are much safer

Poverty - my standard of living dropped at least 50% when I moved here. The people that live accross the street don't even have running water.

Customer service - average at best

Quality control - terrible

Immigration service - do not complain about anything to these guys, they will refuse to help you

Economy - mostly subsistence living, the worst of any country I've been too. Poverty is in both the cities and rural areas

Earthquakes - they happen regularly, I've slept through two of them already

Best Looking Women - the women that work in department stores and malls

Friendliest Women - the women that work at the open air markets(selling fruit, fish etc...), you can get a date anytime

Traffic - driving here is dangerous and frustrating. Use taxis, jeepneys, trikes and buses whenever possible. Some taxi's have a customer complaint form they give you before you get in.

Overcharging - very common here, most people will not hesitate to screw you over. Let your Filipina handle price negotiations whenever possible.

Cable TV - lots of English channels to choose from

Spoken English - most people are not fluent, they can read it better than they speak it

Animals - on my street there's dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, goats and cows running around

Mosquitoes – there’s no malaria here but there is 4 strains of dengue fever

Gender Ratio – reported to be 2:3(men to women)

Beggars - theres lots of people asking for money, I usually give them a peso or two


Biggest Frustrations
- finding competent people(doctors, tech. support, trades people) that actually care
- brownouts are very common
- customer service often sucks, have to make 20 phone calls sometimes
- slow internet, some cities have cable internet now(PLDT)
- hot, humid climate will bring to your knees
- fighting a huge spider(huntsman spider) in the bathroom at 4am




Conclusion - if you find a Filipina thats always trying to kiss you when your alone together, she's probably sincere and worth your time and effort. Even a Filipina, single mom is hundred times more reliable than any western woman. I don't plan on going back home for a long time.

[magnum]

Congratulations, you've escaped hell, I envy you.


Though I'm not so sure I envy the bit about a single mother....but to each his own.


Enjoy your new life, and laugh at the rest of us still stuck in this toilet side of the world!

[zboy1]

Congrats Taco! I hope to move to Asia sometime in the fall as well, hopefully. I hope to escape the hell as Magnum rightly points out describing the United States in his post very soon!

[jamesbond]

Congratulations, you've escaped hell, I envy you.

Though I'm not so sure I envy the bit about a single mother....but to each his own.

Nice to hear your starting a new life Taco. However, I am not sure about getting involved with a single mother.

Huge roaches and lizards in your house? That scares the crap out of me!

[***JP***]

Congratulations and hope the start of your new life is a great one. I myself will be moving to Lithuania in early 2013 to start my new life also. This is the encouragement a lot of our members that haven't gone abroad before need so they can see that they don't have to be stuck in this feminazi hell hole anymore and that there is greener pastures elsewhere.

[PaulB]

Congrats.

[xiongmao]

Well done! Here's my .5 cents worth.

Ladyboys - if you know any please get them to join my asianloveconnections.com dating site as plenty of men want to spend all night chatting to cute ladyboys!

Creepy crawlies - I didn't see that many bugs in Guangzhou, maybe the Cantonese eat them all. Mosquitos were a major problem though. HK had some massive spiders (scary) and massive butterflies (wonderful, although I wouldn't like to see their caterpillars).

Sex/kissing - yeah I found that the same in China.

Food - in China I liked the Japanese noodle places, I don't know if they're in the Phillippines as well. Shanghai was terrible for food - things were frequently out of stock, or they would serve stuff well past its best.

Shopping - I found China expensive for everything. Even Chinese gold coins are cheaper in the UK!

Climate - I too lost a lot of weight in neighbouring China, and I'm sure I'd be a lot healthier as a result. Funnily enough I even lost weight despite eating in Pizza Hut/McDonalds and drinking beer all night. You do get used to the climate though.

Teaching English to Japanese/Koreans can be good work although you'll have a lot of competion from the locals. If you have any white collar skills then you can advertise yourself on oDesk.com. I found some great translators on there, and if I need some spare cash I'll put myself up there as a database programmer.

[davewe]

Anyone that has been reading my posts(business section) over the last year will be well aware of my concerns about living in the anglosphere. I finally left 2 weeks ago for the Philippines after meeting a single mom 2 years ago on DIA and helping her start a successful business, we plan to get married soon. I'll start teaching english online soon to supplement our income. Here's some of my observations so far.

38 hour travel time - this really sucks, but the fact there was only one white woman on the flight to Manilla made it worth it.

Women - women tell my Filipina everyday I'm gwapo, they even follow me around the stores sometimes

Scams - a woman at Philippine airlines tried to overcharge me $200 for changing my flight. However, another woman on a jeepney told me that my wallet fell out of the pocket when I got up to leave

Ladyboys - tons in any of the malls

Climate - very hot, I've already lost lots of weight

Creepy Stuff - huge roaches, spiders and lizards in the house

Food - the western restaurants owned by foreigners are your best bet

Sex - you have no choice

People - the people are friendly but the downside is they tend to be laid back about
everything

Shopping - lots of stores with western food and clothes but it can be expensive, its much cheaper to eat asian food

Culture Shock - minimal

Conclusion - if you find a Filipina thats always trying to kiss you when your alone together, she's probably sincere and worth your time and effort. I don't plan on going back home for a long time

Congratulations Taco!! What city/town did you move to?

[Dogboy86]

Way to be Taco!!!

[C.J.]

Hey, way to go Taco! ^_^

Sex - you have no choice

Can't wait for that! I'm courting a single mother on DIA also. Her family loves me, so I'm not really worried her status. And she has her own house too!

Those babies can mess with a woman's figure, but she's just right after 4 kids, chunk in the trunk, thin everywhere else.

[xiongmao]

Yes, single moms are often the way forward. Many of the Asian women I've visited were clueless about sex, or they didn't want sex with me, or something. If I wanted no sex I would just marry a Western woman lol. One watched a pirate version of sex in the city, and that ruined her as far as I was concerned.

I met a Chinese woman with 2 kids. Hell, she had no stretchmarks and she was, er, tight as anything. Unbelievable.

Filipinas pop babies out like anything. I watched a TV show about the Phillies - there were two women to a bed in the maternity ward.

[C.J.]

What I'm worried about the most in the phils is the huge flying bugs! That's basically the only things I'm really scared of(mostly because they fly around too fast for my eyes to catch them, so they're far away one minute, and right in my face the next!)

[OTB]

Congratulations Taco! You did it man.

[Jacaré]

Congrats Taco! Tell us where in the Phils you are and keep us updated on how it goes. I will be returning to the Phils in Aug for a month and then again in Dec for 3-4 months. I can't wait to leave this shit hole!!!!

[davewe]

Creepy old guys - I see 60 yr old foreign guys with 20 yr old girlfriends at the mall, its weird

Whew! Thank God I am 6 months shy of that mark and my gf is much older, at 23. Obviously you were not talking about seeing us