Filipinas - Opinions and Advice

[QUOTE=CanContrib]Thanks Cebu. Needless to say, the more time passes, the less the value, and for the car, hey, I haven't seen it in a few years so (email promises notwithstanding) who knows if it even remotely remsembles the car I last drove there and remember owning. Ditto the other "stuff" I have back there. Furniture is "mura dito", so I must wonder if the cost of shipping stuff from there to here is worth it. Ditto aging computer parts, which are obsolete the day after you buy them anywhere. There seem to basically be 2 factors: "shipping cost" and "import cost", so the real question must be ... do those two add up to less than "current replacement cost" in the Philippines.[/QUOTE]

If you get a retirement VISA you can bring up to $7,000 worth of goods from the US>

[QUOTE=J Boy]If you get a retirement VISA you can bring up to $7,000 worth of goods from the US>[/QUOTE]You can play with the figures and actually bring in much much more then 7,000 dollars

If I were moving to the Philippines...

...what would I bring...what should I bring?

The only thing I can really think of is cutting edge electronics: Computer / cameras / music devices.

Those of you who live in Philippines? What would you recommend?

Oh, thinking of GE...fine wine.

OH...Japanese condoms?*

* Since there are more lawyers in the USA than there are those little wiggly spermy things, American condoms are very thck. They won't break. Used Amerocondoms are sometimes used as auto tire retreads. Of course the "big" men on this list will tell you that they are too tight. Hmmm.... rubber stretches and a little tight makes the fun last a little longer. Every guy I ever met who said, "too small", also admitted that he'd never worn a J. condom.

X

[QUOTE=Fred C Dobbs]CanContrib I would like the contact of the person who assisted you in getting your SRRV.[/QUOTE]

Fred, I can't go posting his contact info online. However, you're welcome to email me through this forum a couple or so weeks before you'll be in Malate next, and perhaps we can arrange a time to meet and I'll introduce you in a public place - the same way as I was introduced to him years ago, in person.

[QUOTE=X Man]If I were moving to the Philippines...

...what would I bring...what should I bring?

The only thing I can really think of is cutting edge electronics: Computer / cameras / music devices.

Those of you who live in Philippines? What would you recommend?

Oh, thinking of GE...fine wine.

OH...Japanese condoms?*

* Since there are more lawyers in the USA than there are those little wiggly spermy things, American condoms are very thck. They won't break. Used Amerocondoms are sometimes used as auto tire retreads. Of course the "big" men on this list will tell you that they are too tight. Hmmm.... rubber stretches and a little tight makes the fun last a little longer. Every guy I ever met who said, "too small", also admitted that he'd never worn a J. condom.

X[/QUOTE]
Well, the wine for sure, especially if you're not moving to Manila or another large city. Japanese and US condoms are readily available in the larger cities, and I think these are a necessity. My experience with the made-in-Philippines brands is that they're too tight and, more importantly, they have a tendency to break.

You might also want to consider a high end computer. It's tough, even in Manila, to buy the latest stuff since most Filipinos cannot afford it. Even the brand name computers here tend to me low to mid-range. All of the other electronic gear mentioned by Xman are available here, at least in Manila, at countless shops and at competitive prices. There's no need to import cameras, stereo equipment and the like.

:D

GE

[QUOTE=Fred C Dobbs]CanContrib I would like the contact of the person who assisted you in getting your SRRV.[/QUOTE]

Fred, further to my previous response, I happened to be in Malate today and spoke with my contact about this, specifically for you and also in general. In situations where I can't offhand personally introduce someone, we've arranged that he will respond to a Phils cell# that I might pass to him. After that it's between you and him. This forum has an email (aka "PM") facility so that you can pass yours to me to pass to him, if you like. Matters not for me if you do or don't, since my only interest is to try to both help someone who hasn't yet learned what I've learned and at the same time help the Pinoy BI facilitator (no, not "fixer"!) who's helped me so much over the years.

[QUOTE=CanContrib:] ... I probably paid an extra maybe up to P10,000 for that and it was well worth it. ... I'll not quote my total expenditure, since the amount varies with the situation and who you know ... [/QUOTE]

Lest anyone be confused, I should emphasize that the (about) 10K pesos I paid for his services was just that, for HIS services. That's NOT the total to get it all done, since he has to pay a lot of fees and a lot of people on your behalf. Again the precise amount will vary depending on the applicant's situation and how much groundwork the applicant has himself done (I did most of it myself), so if you ask him to do it all for you from first inquiry to completion, reasonably expect to pay him for all his work for you.

What's the grand total? Again, "depending", between 100,000 & 200,000 pesos. For most people it'll likely be in the middle of that range. Or you can do it yourself for less, if you know exactly what you're doing and don't *permanantly* screw it up for yourself. Well, nothing is "permanent", anything can be fixed at a cost higher than what you might have naively tried to save in an foreign environment. I've learned that in fields where I'm not the professional, it's better to pay someone to do the hard tricky stuff.

I should also mention, that given the large amount I certainly had reservations about handing over all that cash, even with his track record of complete honesty with me over the years and the recommendations that brought me to him in the first place. I also had the able assistance of aking asawa whose suspicious of everything especially of her countrymen, plus the advise of many good local friends. Anyone reading this should always have the same concerns. Don't trust me and don't trust anyone just because you read words here; satisify yourself before handing over BIG CASH. Anywhere to anyone. One little tip - you can do it in installments as work progresses, but again, be very comfortable with who you're dealing with. Not everyone is honest. I just happened to get lucky after having learned to be very careful, the hard way. Don't come back on me or anyone here if you fail to properly read and understand all the words.

Did I mention *CASH*? You don't pay for such with a cheque. Hell, try to pay BIR with a cheque! You want to pay your taxes in the Philippines - even BIR will point you to an ATM. Try writing a cheque for BIR or BID, go ahead, try it. Been there, done that. Learned.

[QUOTE=GoodEnough]Well, the wine for sure, especially if you're not moving to Manila or another large city. Japanese and US condoms are readily available in the larger cities, and I think these are a necessity. My experience with the made-in-Philippines brands is that they're too tight and, more importantly, they have a tendency to break.
GE[/QUOTE]

Geez! You must be so huge that Pinays take one look and run away. I'm "average" by NA standards and I consistantly get the "you're so BIG!!!" line, since NA "average" IS "big" compared to Asian; my wife laughs hysterically at most Asian "bold movies" which is great for setting the right mood after you've been together for a long time. Compare condoms to T-shirt sizes. That stated, I've never had a local Phils condom break and the 12peso-for-3pack local variety works just fine for me. Are you sure your girl is properly applying it to your member? I do have some imported condoms in my old suitcase but they're never conveniently available for obvious reasons, much handier to just drop a few coins whever you need them.

One observation though, no matter what the condom, they *will* slip off if you're still in there half an hour after you're done. Then it's time for a fishing expedition.

[QUOTE=GoodEnough]
You might also want to consider a high end computer. It's tough, even in Manila, to buy the latest stuff
GE[/QUOTE]

Unless you want to buy excruciatingly bleeding-edge computer components, meaning it won't come out of the factory until the day after tommorrow, I can't think of much new stuff you can't get in uncountable places within the Manila NCR. If it's available anywhere after yesterday you'll find it here, somewhere. Instead, finding older stuff to match up with what you already have is the problem, but that's a problem anywhere.

New stuff? Phils is a lot closer to Asian manufacturers then NA or Europe, di ba?
True if you want it yesterday, you should fly to HongKong or Taiwan or maybe Korea. If you want it *next* week, fly to NA or Europe 2 weeks later and probably pay a bit more. We won't mention that plane tickets aren't exactly free no matter how you slice that.

Example: I needed a Very*big*disk*drive. Last week I told the girl at one place that I have already bought what she said the ONLY importer of such can't get, and I bought it over one month ago at the best rock-bottom price. If it's an Asian manufacturer (and most are) then if it's available anywhere on the planet yesterday, it's available today here. Yes, I had to know where to check and yes I had to do my homework for that particular component, same as I'd have to do anywhere.

Yes, prices can and should be expected to be all over the board. You can easily pay double or you can pay half. Depends on your knowledge and bargaining skills. Once you have raport with your regular suppliers and they know that you *know* more than they do, you can't get screwed. Once I found it, the next issue was price - they had an old price on their pricelist. I told the manager to make a phone call. She knows that I know more than she does. I got it for the *right* price, plus triple their usual in-store replacement warranty, plus a kick-in freebie. Life is good.

Sorry somehow rest of my reply did not show up on this board.. I'm from USA and my aunt who works for a lawyer office is from USA she lives in my old small town in michigan. right now I am living in california, I wish I could live in phili for few years but I don't have a huge savings or good pension, I'm 39 I got years to go if I want to retire and I hope I have good pension for retirement in future, right now i'm working at a dead end job.. I am planning to be in phili by aug 20 I was lucky my job gave me 3 weeks of vacation when I asked for an extra week of vacation, I was lucky I have way too many vacation hours, so if thats a big if everything goes well. I will get a finance visa she will fly to Michigan. I will head back to michigan 3 weeks before she arrives, I had enough of big city lifestyle in California, so I will try to start a new life with her in Michigan.

Thanks for answering CanContrib. I think I will try the advise of my contact at PSBank first.

Pals,

Back home. I was surprised to hear one guy, age 39, talking about retirement. I will retire when I am dead. Slowing down a bit with work is one thing. Retiring? Ever see what happens to people who retire? My father became a dull, boring person after he finally gave up his exciting and personally gratifying career.

I used to drop by Our Place, the expat dve bar/hangout in d/t Cebu. I stopped going there even to eat in January 2001. I just could not stand the drunken, obnoxious bunch of worthless guys in there. They would sit and drink for up to 12 hours and talk about absolutely nothing. Of course, most of the did not even score any pussy. It would take effort and this is something they could not afford to expend.

The food in the place was good but the company sucked. No women would venture inside and the air was thick with cigarette smoke to the point where your eyes would hurt. There still are many chinese owned clubs around there where the women get totally nude. If you did not mind being the only westerner in the place with up to 200 filipinos (rough bunch), it was ok.

You can purchase anything over the internet and have it shipped to the Philippines. Cost a bit more but it will arrive. I have gotten into buying direct from the source via te internet. Hong Kong is very near and this is a shipping location for many companies. Buying over the internet tends to allow more time for review and lessens impulse buying.

With hong Kong so close a person can make occasional trips there and into So China for shopping. Shenzhen, Chia is a real source of good quality, low priced electronics. It would also be where you would want to stay while shopping to save on the rediculously high Hong Kong hotel rates.

If a guy is moving to the Philippines, I would consider finding some type of business to own and operate. When each day is just the same as the day before there is not much enjoyment. The internet has opened things up so that business opportunities can be found anywhere.

Dragon Slayer

There was a big ruckus in the building where I live in Makati last night,A girl friend of one of the American guys in the building tried to commit suicide,Basically the guy was throwing her out,So she tried to poison herself by eating a tube of toothpaste,When She didnt die,She started to slash her wrists,But stopped because of the pain,So she climbed on the balcony and threatened to jump.When she was asked why she was going to commit suicide,She said that she was being sent away at night and she had nowhere to SLEEP except the street.A guy then said,You can sleep on my sofa tonight until you can find a place tommorow.OK that was fine with her,She climbed off the ledge and Thats ended it,Great reason to commit suicide,The Filipina mind???????Thank goodness I am into logical pragmatic Chinese

[QUOTE=Cebu Local]There was a big ruckus in the building where I live in Makati last night,A girl friend of one of the American guys in the building tried to commit suicide,Basically the guy was throwing her out,So she tried to poison herself by eating a tube of toothpaste,When She didnt die,She started to slash her wrists,But stopped because of the pain,So she climbed on the balcony and threatened to jump.When she was asked why she was going to commit suicide,She said that she was being sent away at night and she had nowhere to SLEEP except the street.A guy then said,You can sleep on my sofa tonight until you can find a place tommorow.OK that was fine with her,She climbed off the ledge and Thats ended it,Great reason to commit suicide,The Filipina mind???????Thank goodness I am into logical pragmatic Chinese[/QUOTE]

Yes, some of them can get very emotional which is a terrible combination with desperation. We don't know the background of this girl (here) but perhaps she really did feel that she had nowhere to turn. Your post suggests it wasn't just a ploy to keep the bf, since slashing wrists is going way far into the desperation trip. A girl that thinks that she can poison herself with a tube of what she brushes her teeth with is liklely not likely a college grad, hence the desperation. I'm happy to hear it all worked out ok.

I do have to comment that the American dude could have picked a better time to show her the door than the middle of the night, like waiting a few hours until dawn. Then again, we don't know his reason.

Yes indeed there are a LOT of girls who have no place to sleep if they have no money for a flophouse and nothing left to pawn. Once their cellfone is already pawned (their last resort) where are they going to go if their family isn't near enough to get back to?

This reminds me of one occasion a few years ago. A sometimes-gf txts me if I'm home alone. I was and txt'd her back. She asked if she could come over and bring a "friend" that had no place to sleep. After having her assure me her friend would be no problem I said "ok", and they were at my condo (at the time) in 15 minutes. I slept in the middle. My good friend didn't mind at all when her friend wanted to show her gratitude for a place to sleep. I often miss having that condo!

Actually Another American in the building took her in,His Comments Looks 6-7 BBBJ 7-8,Bed Skills 7-8,GFE 9 Cost Sleeps on his sofa and food.He will allow her to stay up to a week until she finds a place to stay,In the meantime,She is doing his laundry and Fucking him and Blowing him as much as He wants,He told me last night,He was watching TV drinking a Beer while she blew him twice,Dang I should have offered to be a good samaritan.Being nice sometimes has its rewards