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Archive for December, 2007

Some More Security Rules — Avoid Expensive Loss of Your property

Monday, December 31st, 2007

New security rules for batteries on planes
Posted by Desiree Everts

If you don’t want to lose your spare lithium batteries for your camera, notebook or cell phone, you might want to pack carefully for your next flight.
New rules from the Transportation and Security Administration that take effect on January 1 ban travelers from carrying loose [...]

How Much Does It Cost For Visas — Part 1 Of Many

Friday, December 21st, 2007

One question everyone asks is the cost for a visa to stay in the Philippines for either a specific length of time or forever.  I could make ten blog posts out of that question but for today I’m going to outline the costs for living in the Philippines on a tourist visa.
You can arrive [...]

Flying on the Tiger

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

No, wait, don’t misread that, Flying Tiger is a fine old freight line that has now been absorbed … another of aviation’s "fallen flags".  But Tiger Airways is a vibrant relative ‘new guy" on the airline scene.  Based in Singapore and backed by world-renown Singapore Airlines, Tiger Airways serves a huge chuck of SEA [...]

Things You Won’t See In The Philippines

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

My wife and I spent six years in Colorado Springs while she was earning here US citizenship.  She’s a great partner and  a great cook, see www.unofficialcook.com to see what we’ve been up to lately) supports me in all that I do, so I don’t think she really complained once about the bitter climate.  [...]

Airline Updates

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

Hmm, was your eye drawn to the image?  thought it might be, we all love a bargain.  Look a little closer.  That price is in Singapore Dollars … about $36 USD at today’s rate.  From where you ask?  From Singapore.
So why did I feature this on my blog about traveling to, living in and working [...]

A Visit To The LTO — For My U.S. Readers

Saturday, December 15th, 2007

UPDATE: The information here is certainly applicable to my non-US readers as well … there are not special LTO regulations for different countries … as long as those countries offer reciprocity to Philippine citizens driving on their Philippine license.  Just substitute your home country terms for the places I refer to US state licenses.
I’m using [...]

Some More Thoughts On Driving

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

I just finished putting the papers together to renew my auto insurance, I’ll go to the bank first thing tomorrow and get everything "pushed through", my renewal date is at the end of the week and that made me think about the fact I’ve been driving here for a full year now.  I’ve enjoyed it, [...]

Time Sensitive Item — Free, Experience Suggested

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

Just came across this new service on John Chow.  I’ve been intimately involved with the Philippines and in particular people wanting to move to the Philippines and find jobs in the Philippines for more than 8 years now. 
How can I find a job there is a very frequent question.  Often, for a foreigner, [...]

Philippine Telecommuting — Part 5

Sunday, December 9th, 2007

Years ago when the earth wasn’t quite cool and a 300bps modem was the standard two friends of mine, Thom (RIP, Thom) and Vi Foulks were the first people I ever heard of making a living online.  There was no World Wide Web, there was no Google … heck Sergey and Larry were in elementary [...]

Philippine Working Visas

Saturday, December 8th, 2007

Many times people search here for information on Philippine work visas.  In general I still give the same advice I’ve always done … fugedabout it … but it seems that a lot more foreigners are finding work here … or, as this article postualtes, that the Philippine government is just enforcing the rules better.
Over [...]

What Things Cost — Department Store 1

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

One of the things people always come here looking for are up to date costs.  Here are a few items, from a sale circular I just picked up at the local SM Hypermarket.  SM is the largest chain of department stores in the Philippines … here’s a map with the current locations … I [...]

You Ain’t As Smart As You Think You Are

Sunday, December 2nd, 2007

Recently my friend Bob posted this message of caution and thoughtfulness:  Take Time To Avoid The Pitfalls.  the pitfalls Bob was talking about center mainly around the common mistakes we expats tend to make when we decide to move to the Philippines.  You really should read Bob’s post, I was going to excerpt from it [...]

Philippine Telecommuting — 4

Saturday, December 1st, 2007

Thought for a moment I had this multi-part series "in the bag", but of course there’s a lot of items I neglected to put in … so here’s a few more issues and potential resolutions.
Time:
Perhaps this should have been the first thing I mentioned.  It is the one thing that can directly impact a traditional [...]