Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS) About How To Travel, Retire, Work or Start a Business and Live in the Philippines
There was a good discussion today on my friend Bob Martin's blog, www.liveinthephilippines.com about building homes today. It reminded me I have been promising myself to get busy on a series about the subject. A lot of Filipino homebuilders don't do a very good job ... sad to say ... because of the frequent attitude towards excessive cheapness ... or the pwede na yan ... that'll do for now ... attitude. On the other hand, many foreigners come to the Philippines and ignore … [Read more...]
Korean Firm to invest $684M more in Subic. This makes the total Korean investment close to 2 billion US dollars. Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction (HHIC) of South Korea will infuse an additional $684 million on top of its original commitment of $1 billion into its shipping project at the Subic free port, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) said. ... Read more about the massive Korean investments in the Philippines. Here's another significant US investment, this one in the … [Read more...]
Here's the List of 2007 Nursing Board Exam Passers. Congrats to all, especially just one of our very special nieces who is on the list. … [Read more...]
As an American living in the Philippines I hear the term "Third World" nation virtually every day. I often hear in from fellow Americans in an off-handed derogatory manner ... whenever something doesn't go exactly the way the American feels it should be done the old "Third World" adjective creeps into the conversation. I often hear it also from Filipino friends and media people, in many cases ones who ought to know better but denigrate their own country anyway ... from force of habit … [Read more...]
"Here", of course, being the Philippines. I've said before and undoubtedly will again that the best thing the Philippines could do for national advancement is to make it illegal to utter the phrase, "if Only". Apparently, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has struck that "weak sister" phrase from his vocabulary for many years now. he is known world-wide for his crime fighting efforts. Now, he's brought Davao City into the 21st century ahead of any other city in the … [Read more...]
I am pretty much a dyed in the wool Boeing kind of guy. I worked on Boeing aircraft for years and as a student of aviation history I find the Boeing story fascinating. But there is no denying that AirBus also builds some great airplanes ... and there is also (sadly) no denying the fact that Boeing really missed the boat on long-haul, high volume aircraft over the past 10 years. Boeing will quote you the party line that they are going to make all sorts of profit from the … [Read more...]
Shopping is a big thing here in the Philippines. It's big culturally in that many Filipinos love to spend a day at the mall, and it's big to Westerners as well, because malls are often the best bet when trying to find that certain something you miss from back home. SM is the largest chain of malls in the Philippines. It's far from the only one, though. But SM has taken more risk and spread themselves farther geographically than any other chain. Might sound … [Read more...]
OK, we talked a little about biodigesters. This is interesting technology and already has market penetration in the Philippines but is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. In particular biodigesters do not provide a lot of utility for small urban lots. Also, in an average home here in the Philippines your gas bills are going to be very small in relation to electric. Here in central Luzon our gas (cooking only) is less that 3 pesos a day for the past 8 … [Read more...]
The Philippines has a number of airports served by airlines. It's also a viable option to charter a flight into some of the smaller airports. There are reliable charter operators at manila, Clark, Subic and Cebu ... just to name a few. Aviation in the Philippines, of course, dates back to the days of the CAA in the US ... remember the Philippines was a US possession and then Commonwealth for nearly 50 years ... and the aviation industry today is regulated by the The … [Read more...]
I promised some more information alternative energy. The first thing I want to talk about is using methane from biodigesters. That's because I decided this is perhaps the most complex and the least useful to the average expat resident. I'd be hard-pressed to use one effectively on my rented city lot and dwelling for example. Yet biogas is something that can make a huge dent in the Philippine's energy costs and improve the environment as well. Home biodigesters are very … [Read more...]
Jim and Joan, a real-world case study: Jim and Joan are a couple I first met more than 20 years ago in Colorado. I have disguised their names because I haven't cleared this story with them ... but I can assure you they are real and every word I am going to type is as accurate as I can make it. The two main reasons I chose them as a case study is because I know their story well, I've verified many of the facts "on site" and because they live in the Rocky Mountains of … [Read more...]
I've been meaning to write this post ... actually I'm sure it will turn into a series of posts .. for along time now. A week or so ago I noticed a comment on Bob Martin's Philippine Living blog where Bob mentioned the high cost of electricity here (we currently pay more for electricity than any other country except Japan) and ask the innocent question ... why can't you just use solar? Well, you can't buy practical solar energy in a box at SM. But the suggestion is very valid and I … [Read more...]
