PhilFAQS

As many readers already know I keep very close tabs on what people search for here at PhilFAQS, the site for people who want to know the FAQS (Frequently Asked Questions) abut moving to and living in the Philippines.  If you found this site by a search from Google or one of the other search engines you likely found the first thing you were presented was a list of related posts, along with the entry here that most closely matched your search query.

One "perennial favorite is ‘How to make money with an Internet Cafe", or its close cousin, ‘Can an Internet cafe make money’.  Here are just a few samples of the work already published on that subject:

More Internet Cafe Thoughts

Can an Internet Cafe Make Money in the Philippines?

Real World Business — Running An Internet Cafe — Part 1

FWIW you could make money with an Internet cafe in many places in the Philippines, but it feel it is something that should be way down on most people’s list, especially for foreigners.  It’s more competitive every day, operators accept profits margins that are razor thin a sit is, and the people with disposable income who sued to make up the crowd of customers today are much more interested in the iPhone and similar hand held devices where they get their Internet along with their text messages, MP3 music and even live television in metro areas.  A person from the US, for example, knows virtually nothing about the wireless world here, the US is so far behind in what people used to call cellular phones that they think they’re ahead ;-).

One thing people people from the US do know smelting about, though, is hamburgers.  I published an article a while back about the little-known business of burgers here that seemed to be popular with a lot of readers.  One franchise operation that is very popular here in Luzon, at least, is "Burger Machine".  these little free-standing kiosks are seen frequently (the most usual location is along main roads where there are bars and night clubs, I think a large part of their trade is the pulutan (drinking food) crowd.

These businesses are usually on a trailer.  They don’t often move, but because they aren’t on a foundation they fall under "hawker" and street vendor regulations in most cites, making licensing and  permits much easier to obtain and keep up to date.  The common prices are from  30 pesos and up, and as you can see from the sign, Buy One take One deals are the norm.  Could you make money at approximately 15 pesos per hamburger then?  Well you must be able to, I just did some looking and found there are more than 89 of these trailers in Quezon City alone and the article I found that data in was about the city government engaged in a legal wrangle with the parent company alleging there were many more than the 89 permitted locations which were operating outside the law.  That’s a lot of burgers. (photo courtesy of the Unofficial Cook, used with permission).

On a higher end scale, I visit the Subic bay Freeport frequently, (the former Subic Bay US    Navy base).  It’s a place that is always looking for new businesses, in addition to many other ’start a business’ assistance tools they have a pretty neat inducement … all business on Subic pay only a flat 5% tax on gross revenues, no ups, no extras, no roving ‘city inspectors’ with their hands out.  Burger-related business there range from purpose-built to one of may favorite ‘real’ burger joints, Meats Plus, where the dare is relatively pricey imported Angus beef burgers, charcoal grilled. The customers are mainly Filipino and you had best not show up for  a burger at noon time, you’ll park a long way from the building and wait in a heck of a long line.

I’ll close with a place I walk or drive buy almost every day.  I must stop in and try them out.  It’s just a small storefront operation and you can see that the prices are well within Filipino tastes … it’s been there for years and sells a lot of burgers.  My wife is aquatinted with a lady a few blocks in the opposite direction who retired from a Philippine government job some years back and opened a similar little cafe/burger joint.  She only opens a few hours a day in the evening for the dinner trade and even though her prices start 21 pesos she has been doing ok for years now.

So a couple things you can take away from this is, yes, Filipinos do eat burgers and yes you can make money with a cafe in the Philippines … but I’d forget about the "Internet" part of the cafe equation myself.

I’ve had a little bit of a tummy problem the past couple days, so I haven’t been eating much … seems much better now, and as I write this it is coming up to supper time, so I guess I thought about writing this post because I’m a bit hungry.

One food I almost always like (and my waistline shows it) is a good old-fashioned America hamburger.  Now you might think I have given those things up, living here in the Philippines, land of exotic rolls of fried, ground pork (lumpia Shanghai, ground up spiced pig’s face (sisig) and some people’s favorite fruit the Durian … mmm, think I smell one right now … nope, I was wrong, it’s a passing skunk LoL.

This is the land of batchoy(innards) and the Bicol Express and Bacolod chicken, but it’s also very much a land where you can find a burger too.

Not long ago I made a trip to Davao City and one of the places I ate at (and enjoyed) was a nice small restaurant called "Al’s diner" (after the fictional hangout on the series "Happy Days") and run by a very interesting Britisher named (of all things), Al.

While visiting and enjoyi9ng the food and the company I found my thoughts drifting as many foreigners do to the idea, "if only (there’s that damn ’stopper’ phrase again) I could find enough foreigner customers I could start a little place like this and it would make a nice living for my family, here in the Philippines."

I asked Al about his ratio of foreign to Filipino customers and for his speculation about existing if there were no foreigners around.  His replied kind of opened my eyes.

"Oh, dear, I think my foreign trade now is well under 20%.  The only thing that could really hurt this business is if my Filipino customers stopped coming."  Read some more here and see some pictures of how much Filipinos ‘get into’ hamburgers.

There’s a small chain of restaurants scattered over part of Luzon called "Aristocrat".  I’ve eaten there and they have some fine food indeed.  I ordered a shrimp dish that sounded quite good, and it didn’t disappoint.  But then, to my surprise, the food for the two Filipino couples at the table next to us arrived and my shrimp didn’t seem as tasty .. there were a couple giant hamburgers, and more important than their sheer size was the way they were put together … everything down to the rolls being a special rounded shape and just ‘fitting’ the meat patties perfectly … you knew it was good before the guys bit into them.  Hmm next time, Aristocrat special burger for sure.

Of course the familiar McDonalds and not so familiar Jollibee (much more popular  than "McDo’s), and a Filipino chain now expanding into the US, much like McDonald’s in reverse, serve many other dishes aside from burgers, but the burgers still flow as if they were on a conveyor belt.

But all these places have somewhat "upscale" prices.  What does "Juan dela Cruz" go for when he’s hungry?

Well, he has an almost mind boggling choice, and burgers aren’t always on the top of the list, but where I live, even out in remote areas, there are thousands and thousands of these little "Burger machine" franchises … usually housed in a walk-up trailer.  I have no idea of how the actual pesos and centavos of their business is, but I have never seen one not doing business, and you can be pretty sure their customers are nearly 100% Filipino.

I’ve been to at least a dozen "wet markets" … palaenkge … where fruits, vegetables, meat and fish are sold, and a market fixture is always many hot food stalls … dishes of all description … but I have yet to be in one that does not have a tiny "burger joint" as part of the offerings. 

Bottom line?  Filipinos eat a lot of burgers.

I finally got off my butt and did some internal traveling that wasn’t just a visit to a relative’s home …hey, what can I say, I’m a boring person.  My friend Vince was visiting from the US and we took a three-day trip down to Davao City.  One of the major reasons I picked Davao was to meet a long-time online friend Bob Martin, who has been here in the Philippines full time for more than 8 years now and who knows a lot about the ins and outs of living in the Philippines.  (thanks, Bob, for all your hospitality).

The first thing many Americans will be perhaps surprised to learn is that Davao is way down south, in the heart of the island of Mindanao where many people recommend foreigners not travel.  (this recommendation includes a lot of my Filipino friends who consider Mindanao as somehow dangerous or ’strange’ and not a place a foreigner will get along well.

Having made the trip I can state I’m happy, in a way, for all these warnings, because I consider Davao, in particular, to be a real jewel of the Philippines and I’m just as happy if foreigners in general don’t go there … makes it ever so much nicer for me. (I know the department of tourism won’t like that statement much, but they haven’t put me under contract (yet) so … too bad ).

Seriously, Davao is a lovely place to visit and I would rate the ‘dangers" to foreigners equal or even less than any place I have yet visited.  One reason for this is that Davao is perhaps the most organized and disciplined city I’ve yet seen.  It’s run by a mayor who takes his responsibilities very seriously and local laws are enforced … something that’s sadly lacking in a lot of places I have visited so far.

Getting There:  Davao is an easy less than two hour flight from anywhere else in the Philippines.  Round trip fares from say manila will often be under $100 US … a bargain compared with flying around the US.  The airport terminal is brand new and well organized, you won’t loose time in aimless lines.

Local Transport: Cabs are plentiful and cheap.  Since there is very little congestion you won’t spend most of your cab money sitting in traffic as the meter ticks, a frequent problem in larger cities.  I always recommend strangers find a cab driver they feel they can communicate with and consider hiring the guy by the day or half-day … it usually works out cheaper in the long run.  We had a cab for close to 5 hours for 700 pesos total and the driver was safe, courteous and spoke good English.  If you aren’t confident enough to try something like this on your own, a hotel can usually suggest someone reasonable.  remember, if you hire someone for a day or more you really should be responsible for his meals and/or lodging (if going out of town) over and above the daily fee … but don’t make him accompany you to restaurants, etc., he likely won’t be comfortable.  Hotels typically have "driver rooms" or can recommend cheap ‘diver lodgings" locally, just ask.

Hotels: Davao is not Paris, and it’s not even manila (thank goodness).  We stayed at a very economical hotel called We ‘R Inn in the downtown area.  Refr4esngly clean, excellent breakfast, friendly staff and well worth its P1000 per night rate.  This motel would rank down in the ‘less luxurious than Motel 6 rank’ for most fellow Americans, so depending on your desires you might want a more upscale choice.  Here’s some that are well recommended, although I haven’t stayed there personally.

Food: A, now this is one of the things I really feel is a huge strength for Davao.  It’s not always easy to find food to foreigner tastes when traveling in the Philippines … especially if you are turned off by the ubiquitous US franchises 9with US prices) which pollute the country.  Davao has some excellent choices and compared with the metro Manila area, food is cheap.  I particularly enjoyed Al’s Diner and Picobello Ristorante Italiano.  Not at all what I expected from a small, "shopping center" type restaurant.  Bob has a great list here, I want to try them all.

There’s a lot more to say about Davao City, but this post is already long enough.  If you get the idea that I thoroughly enjoyed my trip then I’ve done my writing job well.  Is Davao now on my list for permanent places to live in the Philippines?  You better believe it!

Yesterday my lovely asawa (wife) Mita (the UnofficialCook) and I went to lunch with a fellow blogger, Yuga, a guy I have been reading for years but had never had a chance to meet before.  We drove from our home in Bulacan to Makati … the central business district of Manila and met up at a restaurant in Greenbelt 3 … one of the Ayala Corporations showplace shopping malls.

We traveled on the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX),  one of the Philippines few good roads (toll fee about 82 cents US).  From there we made our way along EDSA (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue) one of Manila’s most famous(infamous) main arteries. 

There’s plenty of covered parking at Greenbelt for a nominal 30 pesos (about $0.65 cents US), but because of the street we approached don we chose on-street parking for the same price.  Unlike US cities where you need change for parking meters, can never find it when you need it and often face hostile signs in nearby stores proclaiming “we don’t give change for parking meters”, in Manila a neatly uniformed parking officer will stroll up to you, take your money and hand you an official receipt with your maximum allowed time written on the  paper so you don’t forget.  Also 30 pesos.

Lunch at Italiani’s restaurant was great, 1500 pesos ($32USD) all in for the three of us.  What a great conversation we enjoyed.  All too soon we had to part and then wend our way home again to Bulacan.  On the way home it rained so my shiny car is speckled now … if it’s sunny tomorrow I’ll treat it to a car wash at my  full-service inside and out wash place around the corner from me, about $1.73, all hand washing except, of course,  the vacuum and the shampoo sprayer.

Life in the “Third World” isn’t always so tough, you see.