American Expat Considers Returning Home

[Taco]

I personally think Philippines is one of the easiest non-Western countries to move and live in long-term if you are an English speaker. Most of the guys that can't handle it and move back to their home countries are whiners who expect Filipinos to act and do things like a westerner would because they can speak rudimentary English.

The main issues I have to deal with that I don't like are traffic, pollution, street kids/beggars, food selection, humidity and bad customer service.

I agree. Noise, internet and brownouts are also problems in the Philippines.

[Mr S]

I personally think Philippines is one of the easiest non-Western countries to move and live in long-term if you are an English speaker. Most of the guys that can't handle it and move back to their home countries are whiners who expect Filipinos to act and do things like a westerner would because they can speak rudimentary English.

The main issues I have to deal with that I don't like are traffic, pollution, street kids/beggars, food selection, humidity and bad customer service.

I agree. Noise, internet and brownouts are also problems in the Philippines.

I consider noise, pollution so I didn't include it. Blackouts (not brownouts, which is incorrect Filippino English and doesn't even make sense if you think about it) are actually not too much of a problem in metro Manila unless there was a major storm with high winds and usually service is restored within a day or less. The last storm we had here had really high winds but little rain and was the first time I lost power for three days. Where I grew up in NH, we lost power more often and longer than here in PI and USA is supposed to be some grand 1st world country, ahem, ahem. Everytime I go back to visit my family the neighborhood loses power during the most minimilist storm like they do it on purpose or the electric connections are so fragile, it's ridiculous. I suppose in the provincial cities they might have more power disruptions, especially in Mindanao.

The internet is hit or miss depending on where you live, and whether you can get a postpaid DSL or WIMAX connection. If you can do that and you're in a decent area than internet isn't too much of a problem usually. If you have to rely on those stupid USB internet sticks, which never work like they say they do, then you're screwed cause they never get the high speed they advertise, they basically run around 128k which is like 90's speed. Internet cafes are annoying cause they cram computers close to each other and most are playing annoying loud games.

I should update that customer service is bad in a sense that they are not rude here but more ignorant and retarded half the time which becomes annoying after a while.