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[QUOTE=KabulGuy;2922379]Much more difficult to get a replacement for a lost passport. (Especially in Afghanistan but that is another story. LOL).[/QUOTE]Authorities want to see the dead body. If you want to play that game, boil your passport in water, add ink to the mix, wait till it is messed up, take out and dry. Then apply for replacement, saying you were out camping.
Greetings,
I am thinking about traveling to some place in Asia this summer. I have been to the Philippines several times, not sure I want to go back there this time but I might. Is there another Asian country where you have similar DIA, Tinder, Filipinas (or any other women in the country) that will come as a "Non Pro"? Not necessarily going to have a mongering trip but a few days with companionship would be nice. NOTE: I will make a side trip to Thailand at some point, probably not this trip. Thanks in advance.
[URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOcZXhN3xvk&t=539s[/URL]
And another Filipina Pea video, 14 minutes, titled: [B]DO NOT RETIRE IN THE PHILIPPINES NOW - Things Are Different![/B].
An explained list of reasons why moving to Phils will make you unhappy. She explains up front that this vid will not make viewers happy. An explicit look at the country's problems the frustrate foreigners. "While the beautiful women part is true, the rest is highly debatable". I found everything she says here is true. Her listed reasons for not moving here include:
* It not as cheap to live here as you think. While its possible to live on a limited / fixed foreign retirement or SS, its also limited here. Expenses here increase faster than your fixed retirement (add an asawa, kids, her family, etc).
* Don't come here thinking you will get a filipines job or start a business. They inevitably fail. If filipinos see your business succeed, they will emulate it and soon there will be too many similar businesses located near yours, driving prices down to the level of their poverty. Local government red tape, unsteady product supply lines, employees who show up to work when they want, and a financially poor customer base.
* Type-A personalities don't do well here. If you are easily frustrated, then you will be constantly frustrated. The bureaucracies, waiting in line, inefficiency, and pinoy unwillingness to change outdated systems can make you crazy. Seems charming at first, but not later.
* You can't bring your western lifestyle here. Many western items are not available: Carpet, central aircon / heat, hot water heater servicing the entire home, and plumbers on emergency call don't exist. Reliable water, electricity, and internet don't always co-exist here.
* Grocery stores won't carry all the items that you want, forcing you to shop at more than one grocery store weekly. Worse even is that when one store does carry an item that you want, the supply chain problems mean that such products are intermittent. Depending time of day and time of year (close to holidays), be prepared to stand in line for 30 minutes to make your purchase. Lack of variety in products in grocery stores. "You don't go shopping here to find what you want. You go shopping here to find whatever they have on display. If you don't like that, you go shopping at another store that has exactly the same products".
* Many expats purchase a car, motorcycle, or small tryke of some kind for transport. Welcome to driving, heavy traffic (even in the provinces), and lack of parking space near your chosen destination.
* You need to develop a noise filter. Chickens, jack hammers, dogs barking, loud music and such, even into the night, are a normal part of life here.
* Complaining about things is a no-no. It never changes anything, and makes the locals dislike you. "Start a shouting match with your neighbors, and you discover no one is on your side, even if you're right".
[QUOTE=George03;2923702]Greetings,
I am thinking about traveling to some place in Asia this summer. I have been to the Philippines several times, not sure I want to go back there this time but I might. Is there another Asian country where you have similar DIA, Tinder, Filipinas (or any other women in the country) that will come as a "Non Pro"? Not necessarily going to have a mongering trip but a few days with companionship would be nice. NOTE: I will make a side trip to Thailand at some point, probably not this trip. Thanks in advance.[/QUOTE]Big Asian cities like Hong Kong and Singapore have large numbers of Pinays and Indo's working as DHs and other menial jobs, Many are up for a bit of fun on their day (s) off.
Wherever you go these days, apps should put you in touch with local talent.
My next visit will be 6 weeks in length. As I understand it, I have two options: 1) apply for a 3-month single-entry visa beforehand (cost: approx 45 EUR), or 2) "Upon arrival in the Philippines, citizens of the above-listed countries who wish to stay longer than thirty days can apply for an extension at the nearest Bureau of Immigration office. ".
Does anyone have experience as to whether the extension is a seamless process? Can it be done immediately upon landing or only near the end of the 30-day period? Or is it preferable to just secure a visa ahead of time?
At WestCoast1: This is why I'm dipping in my toes slowly: 4, 6, 8, 10 weeks per year. You learn what works for you as you go along. Currently my long-term plan (realizable in perhaps 10-15 years) will involve living (and working) in my northern European home country during the summer half of the year and then having debauched slow travel fun in the Philippines for the winter half. This will be funded by investments so I don't have to exercise my non-existent business / hustle muscle. She makes a good point about cost of living increases. A buddy just visited Japan and said that you can have a perfectly good simple meal for <500 JPY (= 3. 16 USD). Suddenly Makati food prices don't seem so cheap anymore.
[QUOTE=WestCoast1;2923721][URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOcZXhN3xvk&t=539s[/URL]
* Don't come here thinking you will get a filipines job or start a business.
[/QUOTE]Some great points Westie. I've been offered a few business opportunities (mainly hotels or bars) and after speaking to a Canadian hotel owner, he just said "Don't even contemplate it". He's cashed up at home and uses his hotel as a vacation option to escape the Canadian winter, have a good time and to help out some lovely local girls by giving them employment. He's elderly and he's running at a loss in the PH. His biggest hurdle is battling with the local authorities as they're always after him for money and are quite corrupt (His words).
If you want to retire in the PH. Do your homework before thinking of girls on tap. For one, they're not as inexpensive as they once were. The major one that most oversee is the quality of health care compared to your home country. If you were having a heart attack in a place like Sabang and needed urgent treatment, good luck getting an ambulance and a decent hospital to go to _ Phil.
[QUOTE=DoktorEn;2923819]Does anyone have experience as to whether the extension is a seamless process? Can it be done immediately upon landing or only near the end of the 30-day period? Or is it preferable to just secure a visa ahead of time?[/QUOTE]I have done both, and both processes are fairly easy. The advance visa is applied for thru your nearest Phils embassy in your country. There is a form to fill out, a fee to pay, and I think you might need to provide a reason for your needed return to your country (verify a property that you own, or a biz that you own, show a bank account, or show your paystub info), and of course send your passport. I used to mail mine to the Phils embassy about 10 days before my departure. Once they had it, the embassy usually processed it the next biz day and sent the PP back to me with the visa stamped on to one of the empty PP pages.
The extension process is pretty easy, we have spoken of this in the past. Walk in to any BI office (Intramuros is the main office; there is another at the Makati Circuit Mall, floor 5) and file an extension form before day 29 of your stay. Pay the fee (about p2800 or such), drop off your PP for an hour, and pick it up with your new 59-day extension. There is a slightly different payment of p1000 less, where you leave your PP at the BI office and return to pick it up 3 days later. An alternate method of doing this is to utilize a fixer, who will pick up your PP in the morning, process it for you at the BI office, and return the PP and extension to you the same afternoon (for a fee).
Regardless of which of these you do, I think you still need to have an outbound flight itinerary to show upon your arrival.
[QUOTE=WestCoast1;2923864]I have done both, and both processes are fairly easy. [/QUOTE]While extending to 59 days locally is easy, punters should remember that first they need to get into the country. Where I am, airlines will not let you on the plane if you don't have a valid visa for your entire stay. That's regardless of how sure you are that you will be able to get an extension upon arrival.
For the record, you cannot get your extension at the airport immediately upon arrival. You will only get 30 days when you step off the plane at NAIA. Yes, I have tried before.
G.
[QUOTE=PhilJoy;2923843]... The major one that most oversee is the quality of health care compared to your home country. If you were having a heart attack in a place like Sabang and needed urgent treatment, good luck getting an ambulance and a decent hospital to go to _ Phil.[/QUOTE]Don't think that living close to a hospital in the big smoke is a sure fire solution either. I know of a couple of guys who literally died in the ambulance, stuck in traffic on their way to the hospital.
As you said, the devil is in the details. There are many positives to living in Asia but it's not all rainbows and pixy dust.
G.
[QUOTE=Goferring;2923878]While extending to 59 days locally is easy, punters should remember that first they need to get into the country. Where I am, airlines will not let you on the plane if you don't have a valid visa for your entire stay. That's regardless of how sure you are that you will be able to get an extension upon arrival.[/QUOTE]Good point. Same where I live. If you have pre-obtained a 60-day entry from an embassy, it will be pasted into your PP. The check-in agent will ask to see it if you have a Phils outbound / departure airline ticket that is beyond your 30 day arrival. If you don't have the 60-day visa, you risk not being on-boarded. Telling the check-in agent "I will just extend when I get there" might not work.
I find that it depends on the busy-ness level of the check-in agents. When I was a tourist, sometimes the airline agent completely forgot to ask for the outbound ticket when they should have (as did inbound Phils Immigration agents).
[QUOTE=Goferring;2923878]For the record, you cannot get your extension at the airport immediately upon arrival. You will only get 30 days when you step off the plane at NAIA. Yes, I have tried before.[/QUOTE]To extend, you must wait until the 7-day period before your 30 days commences (days 23-30). I have waltzed into the Intramuros BI previously, once on day 20, to be told to come back in 3 days or after. The second time, stupid me, I walked in on day 22 and attempted to extend. I thought it was day 23. Both times I was told to come back. I think the same applies for all extensions.
[QUOTE=AussieGaigin;2923795]Big Asian cities like Hong Kong and Singapore have large numbers of Pinays and Indo's working as DHs and other menial jobs, Many are up for a bit of fun on their day (s) off.
Wherever you go these days, apps should put you in touch with local talent.[/QUOTE]Thanks, two places that are on my list!
[QUOTE=Goferring;2923879]Don't think that living close to a hospital in the big smoke is a sure fire solution either. I know of a couple of guys who literally died in the ambulance, stuck in traffic on their way to the hospital.
As you said, the devil is in the details. There are many positives to living in Asia but it's not all rainbows and pixy dust..[/QUOTE]Absolutely agree G.
All countries are different and thankfully in Australia we have free, top quality health care as part of the taxes we pay. If I did die in an ambulance, at least I would be in one, and not waiting hours for one and a decent hospital at the end of the journey.
I've worked with numerous guys over the years who have decided to re-locate to the Phils only to return home when their health issues turned to shit, to get decent treatment and for free. I think it's just an issue that guys need to consider before deciding to relocate.
Sure, when we're having the time of our life, rooting fit, younger PH girls, health issues are the last thing on you're mind. But when it all turns to shit, where's the best place to get help?
It's just an issue that's often overlooked during the pursuit of wonderful Filipina pussy. Phil.
News story from yesterday's Philippine Star, titled: [B]Philippines ranks at the bottom of new PISA test on creative thinking[/B].
Fairly brutal check on public education in comparison ranking.
[URL]https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2024/06/19/2364001/philippines-ranks-bottom-new-pisa-test-creative-thinking?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2euXGRmt2mQTEfkhIt_9mruS9mrKf-nmOgssyEMOF598X9d84rSKX19J0_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw[/URL]
Snippets from the article:
[I]MANILA, Philippines Filipino students have one of the weakest creative thinking skills in the world, based on a newly launched global benchmarking test.
Fifteen-year-old students in the Philippines scored 14 points on average in the newly introduced creative thinking assessment of the 2022 cycle of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), placing the Philippines in the bottom four among 64 countries.
This marks the first time that the PISA tested students on how well they can use their imagination and creativity to generate and improve upon ideas.
Filipino students' performance placed the Philippines in the same score range as three other countries on the bottom (or countries whose scores are not statistically different from the Philippines): Albania, Uzbekistan and Morocco.
The Philippines' mean score of 14 is also well below the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average of 33, according to the PISA results on creative thinking published late Tuesday.
Countries that landed in the top five are Singapore (with students' average score being 41), Korea (38), Canada (38), Australia (37) and New Zealand (36).
Differences in the student performance of the highest- and lowest-performing countries are stark.
For instance, only around 3% of Filipino students can match the creative thinking abilities of the average student in Singapore, based on Philstar.com's analysis of the publicly available PISA scores.
This is evidenced by the data that shows just 3.4% of Filipino students reached Level 5 proficiency in the test, while 30% of students in Singapore achieved this, the highest of any proficiency level in the developed nation. Level 5 is the second highest proficiency with scores of 41 to 48.[/I]
[B]SNIP.[/B]
[I]Students in the Philippines remain among the worlds weakest in math, reading and science, PISA 2022 scores published in December 2023 showed, with the Philippines' overall score showing no significant improvement from 2018, when it first joined the test. The OECD has conducted the PISA every three years since 2000. The latest cycle, which involved 81 countries, was postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The test is designed to evaluate 15-year-olds' competencies in mathematics, science and reading as this is typically the age at which most students are still enrolled in formal education. In the Philippines, around 7,000 students from 188 randomly selected schools took the test.[/I]
[QUOTE=WestCoast1;2924255]News story from yesterday's Philippine Star, titled: [B]Philippines ranks at the bottom of new PISA test on creative thinking[/B].[/QUOTE]Great read Westie. The one thing I've always respected is, despite certain poverty in a great deal of families, every school kid I see is immaculately dressed on their way to and from school. That to me is a level of pride and parents looking for a better future for their kids. And from observation, this happens in a lot of other 'poorer' countries.
Obviously the education system needs to be looked into and they need to follow other progressive countries for assistance in this respect. And other countries who are friends of the PH could assist with educational guidance.
Thanks for posting info that's not predominately geared to 'bedding' these poor kid's mothers.
Phil.
[QUOTE=PhilJoy;2924392]Thanks for posting info that's not predominately geared to 'bedding' these poor kid's mothers.[/QUOTE]Hahaha hey! You're talking about my specialty!