We just bought some land, now the work starts!

A few days ago, I announced the big news on my other blog:  We bought a piece of land on Samal Island, which is in the Gulf of Davao.  We plan to build a house there and semi-retire there in the future.  Our plan is to be there 10 years from now.  Why 10 years?  Because our youngest child will graduate from high school at that time, and it makes it more practical to live in a somewhat remote place at that time.

I don’t like to really duplicate content between my various blogs, and that is not what I intend to do here either.  But, the process of buying land and building a house has many different angles.  Firstly, since I am buying land here in Mindanao, it makes it a story to put on my Mindanao Blog.  However, the process of buying land, going through all the hoops and building a house is something that fits more on this blog, because a lot of you who retire here or just come here to live have an interest in doing something similar.  If you are like Feyma and I, you hardly have any idea where to start!

Making a purchase of land here, and building a house is a little different (or is it a lot?) than the process in the States.  It’s kind of daunting for people like us who are unaccustomed to the process.   Because of the differences, I am sure that a lot of you will like following along and seeing what Feyma and I do and the results.  I am nearly certain that we will make mistakes, but it is my hope that we can learn from the mistakes that we make, and also help you avoid similar mistakes when you are ready to make the plunge.

Buying land here is something that I have often said I would never do.  I changed my mind, though, which is something that I hope I won’t come to regret.

Some of the reasons why I had not wanted to buy land here:

• As a foreigner, I can’t own land in my name.
• If I ever decide to go back to the States, it might be hard to sell the land.
• If there is political instability, I can just pull up stakes and leave right away if I am renting.  It might be harder to do if I have a land here.
• There is an element of fear when you enter the unknown, and I certainly know little or nothing about owning land here and building a house.

Why did I change my mind?

• Although I can’t own land in my name, my wife can own it in her name.  We’ve been married nearly 17 years, and I have no doubts about our relationship.  I know that I can trust her to have the land in her name.
• I’ve been here for 7 years now, and I really have no desire at all to return to the States.  Heck, I haven’t even gone back there for vacation or anything, nor do I have a desire to do so.  My long term plans are right here in the Philippines.
• If there were to be political instability in the country, I feel it would most likely affect Manila only, and not have big ramifications in the Davao area, so I am not overly concerned about it.  I do feel that such instability is possible, I just don’t think that it will touch us here.
• I have a big enough network of friends and associates who can help guide me through the process and steer me in the right direction when I am clueless!
• We found a piece of land that was too nice to pass up, and also priced right!

So, as I weighed these factors, the right move for us was to buy this land, and start moving toward making the place our home.   So, hang around, and follow along.  This will be a long term project, but I’ll keep you posted as we make each move.

Dream Travel on a shoestring!

As I reported here a few days ago, I recently took a trip to Zamboanga City, Tawi Tawi and Basilan. I want to tell you more today. Not about my trip or the places I went to, you can read that on my other blog. What I want to tell you about is that you can do a lot of great travel around the Philippines on a shoestring budget. A while back I reported about using the Philippines as a home base to explore other parts of Southeast Asia. Today, let’s talk a little about domestic travel!

Let’s look at my trip. I went with a couple friends, but my wife did not travel with me on this trip, so costs would have been even less per person if she had (hotel rooms can be shared, meals for two are generally cheaper than twice the cost of one, etc).

First, let’s look at the cost of flying. I flew from Davao to Zamboanga City, which is about an hour flight. The cost of the round trip was P3,000 (about $60). So, $30 each way….. that’s hard to beat! My next flight was from Zamboanga City to Tawi Tawi. Tawi Tawi is a remote area that does not have jumbo jets going to it daily. Actually, there is an 18 seat aircraft that flies in like three times per week or so. Those kind of small planes are generally more expensive to fly, since a small number of passengers are sharing the costs of flying the aircraft. The cost of my ticket to Tawi Tawi was about P4,000 for the round trip (about $40 each way). Not bad. So, for flying, I spent a total of $140 for two round trip flights. If I had been going to a more well traveled place, it would have been cheaper. Just look at the price if I had just gone for some fun in Zamboanga!

Other transportation? Well, I took a Fast Boat from Zamboanga City to Basilan and back. On the trip there, we used the tourist class service where we sat on the upper deck of the boat, on the outside. I wanted to take photos on the trip, and being inside the boat was not conducive to this. The cost of tourist class, one way trip to Basilan (about an hour or a little less)? P120, equivalant to about $2.50 or so. On the way back to Zamboanga from Basilan, I splurged! I bought first class tickets for me and my guide. The cost of first class is a bit shocking, but it was worth it. P130, equivalant to about $2.65 or so. Ha ha… I am so free with my money, traveling first class like that! Other transportation around Zamboanga City, Tawi Tawi and Basilan probably added up to less than $10 for the 6 day trip. This was mostly riding tricycles, jeeps and such. While in Tawi Tawi, I had a host who drove me around a lot too, but at the most I would have spent maybe $5 for transportation if my host had not taken me around. If you are in a big city with Taxi Cabs, you will spend a bit more, but still, $30 or $40 for a week worth of taxis is about all you would need.

Food. I had a couple of meals that were provided by friends, hosts, etc., but for the most part I paid for my own meals. I think that my total bill for food for 6 days was under $100. And, we ate some exotic and tasty foods too! We could have certainly eaten for less, if we wanted to. Could have spent a bit more too, but I’d say that the price I paid was a bit on the luxurious side, while not outlandish.

Accomodations. In Tawi Tawi, I stayed at somebody’s house, so I did not have to pay for a hotel. I was there three days, and if I had gotten a hotel room, I would have paid about $60 for the 3 days ($20 per day) for a hotel room. In Zamboanga, we stayed at the nicest hotel in town (very nice) for about $40 per night for a total of $120 (3 night stays in Zamboanga City) . I did not stay overnight in Basilan.

So, for these costs:

Airfare: $140
Other Transportation: $10
Food: $100
Hotel Accomodations: $120
Total: $370

I did buy a few other things like some souvenirs and such, but things that are incidental, and not fully necessary for travel. My total out of pocket for the trip was about $400. Not bad for a 6 day adventure!

The thing I am driving at here is that for a small amount of money you can take trips all over the Philippines! Every region of the Philippines is very different, and you should see and experience as many different areas as you can! You never know what you’ll find after that next flight!

Bon Voyage!

Having Massage

I’m not sure ladies if you’re like me, I really like to have facial massage at least twice a month. Have foot massage once in awhile. Facial massage here cost ranges from $5 to $15, foot massage cost $5, whole body massage cost $5. It so cheap here you could almost have it everyday. My mom’s here with us for quite a while now. She had stroke 3 years ago. She can’t hardly walk. If she stands up she has to get a hold on something. So I hired a physical therapist for her, the therapist works with my mom everyday for one to two hours and she just charges me $5 every visit. I can’t go wrong with that. By the way, all of the facial, foot and body massage and massage for my mom are all home service too.

I also know somebody that would do acupuncture. He charges $20 per session. Thats already including new needles everytime you have session. When my mother-in-law came for a visit, she tried acupuncture and she loved it. She had it almost everyday. I haven’t tried it, I don’t have the nerves to do it. Gosh, just watching my mother-in-law I felt I’m the one having the pain though. Maybe I will try that later.

Right now with our e-commerse business we are busy all the time. I would want to have massage everyday. When we’re still living in the States I never experience having massage there. As you know it’s so expensive there. Here I also like to have manicure and pedicure done regularly, cost $3.

I hope I didn’t make you girls envious. I just want you guys to have an idea when you come here of how much you should pay. Don’t pay the foreigner price though. When you come to Davao I can show you good places to have it.

What’s today?

Quiet… don’t tell anybody this, it’s just between you and I, but today is my birthday (Feb. 20). I’m not going to say how old I am today, because I’m certainly getting older. Oh, well… I guess I will. I’m 45 today. I moved to the Philippines when I was 38, and have been living a good life.

Since today is my birthday, I thought that would be the subject for the day. Birthdays in the Philippines.

Here, birthdays are really a big deal! They have big parties and such. It would be almost unthinkable to not have a birthday party here, it seems! Back in the States, having a birthday is just not really a big deal, but it’s not like that here. Singing, cake, the whole “she-bang”.

One thing that is kind of different for me is when one of my kids has a birthday. In the States, if you have a birthday party for your kid, you just invite other kids. Here, you invite people of all ages, even if they don’t have kids! It is kind of fun, I guess. There have been several times when I have neglected to invite people (adults) to my kid’s birthday party, and it was kind of a feaux paus. It’s just not something that I am used to, I guess.

So anyway, yeah… I am a bit older today, but that’s OK. I hope I still have a little life left in me!

Back home, ready to blog again!

Sorry for my absence last week.  I just went on sort of a “whirlwind” trip to a new area that I had never visited before.  I visited Zamboanga City, Tawi Tawi and Basilan.  It was a great trip, very interesting, fun and also educational!   Because of my absence, I was unable to post anything here for the last week!  I am really sorry about that, but I hope you understand.

So, this week, I hope to blog about some important subjects that interest you!  By the way, if you ever have a subject that you want information about, just e-mail me and let me know!  I’ll be happy to do my best.

Have a good week, everybody, and come back to enjoy the LiP blog!

Travel Around Mindanao

I think this is really the dilemma of a filipina wife before moving here. Worried so much about the safety of the husband and kids. I can understand the fear because I did experienced that before moving back here. I was also worried before because in the news they always said it’s so bad here in Mindanao. Don’t believe on what you hear on the news sometimes.

Before moving back here Bob and I decided that we go places that we want to go without anybody escorting us. When we arrived here, my family always want Bob to have somebody when he travels around town. Just like bodyguard. We don’t like that. We want privacy and freedom. I saw lots of expats here. I didn’t feel they’re scared to live here. Since living here almost 7 years now, I never experience being threaten here.

We travel quite often to Cagayan. Davao to Cagayan by bus I think roughly 7 hours, since we have our own vehicle to drive it’s more quicker then like 5 1/2 hours. On the way to Cagayan, we like to stop by lots of places to take pictures or just want to walked around. One of the stop for us would be at the Del Monte steak house in Bukidnon. They had the best steak in the Philippines I think. They also had a nice golf course. I saw lots of foreigners playing there. Some lived near the golf course too. We also like to swing by in Iligan. It’s just an hour or so away from Cagayan. We had lots of friends there.

We travel more often to General Santos City since my family lives there. My parents has a farm outside the city. From Davao to GenSan it’s 3 hours rides in the bus. Sometimes our kids rides the bus to go there. I think having live here for a long time Bob and I pretty much know what place that we need to exercise caution.

I hope this post help some of you.

Adjusting Here In The Philippines

When Bob and I plan on moving here in the late 90’s, I was the one that’s leery about it beeing Bob and the kids never experience the lifestyle of living here in the Philippines. When I confided our plans on moving here to my Filipina friends they immediately say “Are you guys crazy” or “Are you guys out of your mind”. Most of my friends are fearful too upon knowing that we are moving back to Mindanao. As they say the war zone place. Hearing them say those lines, I was so scared for my family again.

When our moved finally happened in 2000. I felt emotionally mixed with excitement and fear. I was so excited to be here to be with my family and friends again that I left behind for a long time. The excitement was just shortlived. I was shocked that I did not adjusted well here and also our second child too, at that time he was 3 years old. His so close to Granny. Bob and our oldest son they did good here. After a month of living here in the Philippines I am already ready to head back to the States. I felt I don’t belong here anymore. Just seeing lots of my family and neighbors look so bad because they had no money to buy food. Seeing lots of kids in the street breaks my heart. I can’t stand it. Before we came here we decided to lived close to my family, later I found out that was a big mistake. No privacy in the house, they will just stop by our house unannouce. I would really get mad. I would have understand it if they didn’t have phone, that’s one thing I notice here every family has cell phone. They think then I am better than them, which i don’t.

Some people also thinks since we just came from the States we brought a ton of money. They will sell all kinds of stuff to us. Some they would like to borrow money. I got tired of it. Finally, what stopping them in coming to us for stuff, before they could even tell me I already  told them that Bob and I don’t have money. I guess, they got the message eversince I didn’t hear anybody asking then. Sometime, here you have to be tough(in a nice way) so that they will know what you want. You guys will know what I am saying when time comes for you to move here, taking vacation is different than living here.

Thank you everybody for the warm welcome.

How will you choose where to live?

As you can imagine, through this blog and my other blogs, I get a lot of e-mails from people who are thinking of moving here.  I also talk to a lot of other ex-pats who live here.  Often times, if you are in the mall or whatever, you see other foreigners.  Sometimes I strike up a conversation with the other foreigners, and some of the things you learn are fascinating.

One topic that is always a little fun is to ask a person where they decided to live when they moved to the Philippines, and why.

If you ask a guy who still has not moved to the Philippines, but intends to move, where he plans to live, almost all the time, the answer is “My wife is from XYZ, so we will live there.”  So, they settle in on the area where their wife is from as their choice for their new home.

If you meet an ex-pat who has lived here for a while, and ask about where he has lived in the Philippines, here is what you usually hear:  “Well, my wife is from XYZ, so when we moved here, we settled in XYZ.  After a year, or two, we couldn’t live there anymore, so we moved to ABC.”  I will ask… “why couldn’t you live there anymore?”  The answer is always the same – “had to get away from the wife’s family!”  Ha ha… it always works out like this.

So, just to reiterate, guys who plan to move here invariabley choose to live in their wife’s hometown.  After moving to the wife’s hometown, after a year or two, most guys either move somewhere else, or want to.

Why is it like that?  Well, I can’t give every answer, but I’ll tell you about my experience.

My wife grew up in the area around General Santos City.  When we moved back to the Philippines, we settled there in GenSan, maybe 2 or 3 kilometers from the house of my in-laws.  I quickly learned that 2 or 3 kilometers was too close.  I rarely had any privacy.  The in-laws would show up at any time of the day or night, just to hang out there.  It would not be unusual that I would have 5, 10, even 15 in-laws hanging out at the house.  Of course, this meant that they were eating there, drinking, whatever.  It costs money to have guests all the time like that.  But, the worst part was not the money it costs, but the lack of privacy.  I got to the point where if I was at home, I would just go hang out and watch TV in the bedroom, leaving all the in-laws hanging out in the rest of the house.  For many, another thing that happens is that the in-laws ask for money all the time.  I am lucky, my in-laws don’t ask for money, at least they don’t ask very often.  So, basically, for many guys who live in their wife’s hometown, they have constant requests for money, no privacy in their house, etc.  It’s not a good situation.

To be honest, in our experience, even Feyma wanted more privacy, and thus wanted to move away from General Santos.  It’s funny, in the society where I came from (USA), privacy is something that we value.  We like having time alone, not having a lot of people around all the time.  Feyma lived in the USA for 10 years, and she got used to that lifestyle.  Here in the Philippines, the society is different.  People like having big groups of people at the house.  Gathering of all the extended family is important to people here.  In the US, I have cousins that I haven’t seen in 30 years.  Here, even your 4th or 5th cousin is just “part of the family.”  It’s just not the same.

After living in General Santos for 2 years, we decided to move to Davao City, which is about 150 Kilometers north of General Santos.   It’s about a 2 1/2 hour drive in your own car.  It’s 3 1/2 hours or more on the bus.  We didn’t move here just because of the family, but for a number of reasons.  We didn’t realize until after moving here how nice it was to have a little distance from the family.  I like it, and so does Feyma, I think.

Don’t take me wrong, we still see Feyma’s family.  We go to General Santos regularly, and some of Feyma’s sisters take the bus up here from time to time.  But, they know that they should not just show up any time – call us first and see if it would be ok to come at the time they desire.  It’s only polite, after all.  Feyma’s Mom is old and rather sick.  She lives with us, and we care for her.  So, it’s not like we have abandoned the family, we’ve just made it a little hard to “live” with us, so to speak.

Anyway, this is just a rundown of my experience regarding living near to family.  Everybody’s different, so your experience may be different too.  But, my experience mirrors nearly 100% of the other foreigners that I have talked to who live here.

How much is it to buy ____?

Let’s face it, a lot of the people who come from abroad to live here in the Philippines do so because the cost of living here is very low! Even knowing that things are inexpensive, I get a lot of people asking me for prices of certain products. Because of this, I want to list prices of various products here on this post, and you can compare them to prices in your locale.

Yesterday, I got a sale circular delivered to my house from Macro. Macro is sort of the equivilant to a Costco or Sam’s Club type of operation. Let’s look at some of their sale prices this week:

Produce

Cabbage: P25/Kilogram = $0.23 per pound
Cucumbers P27/Kilo = $0.25 per pound
White Onions P50/Kilo = $0.45 per pound
Whole Garlic P55/Kilo = $0.50 per pound
Carrots P45/Kilo = $0.41 per pound

Frozen Goods

French Fries P109/2 Kilos = $0.50 per pound

Meat

Pork Roast P125/Kilo = $1.14 per pound
Sliced Chicken P100/Kilo = $0.91 per pound
Ground Pork P115/Kilo = $0.95 per pound
Pork Chops P95/Kilo = $0.86 per pound
Beef Cubes P155/Kilo = $1.41 per pound
Beef Roast P145/Kilo = $1.32 per pound
Tilapia Fish P90/Kilo = $0.82 per pound
Household Goods

Bed Pillows P119/2 Pillows = $1.19 per pillow
Clothing Iron P299 = $6.00 (includes a free ironing board)
Toilet Tissue (2 ply) P419.75/48 rolls = $8.57 for 48 rolls

Vices!

Emperador Brandy P60/750ml = $1.20 for 23 ounces (yes, that’s $1.20)
Winston Cigarettes P185/carton of 10 packs = $0.37 for a pack of 20 cigarettes

Well, I’ve listed just a few examples so you would have a better idea of the prices of basic commodities here. I hope it helps out!

Welcome to our new writer!

I want to take a moment to welcome a new writer on this blog – my wife, Feyma!  I mentioned (in a comment, I think) a week or two ago that I was trying to get Feyma to join me in writing on this blog.  She agreed, and I believe she posted her first blog post last night.

It’s my feeling that having Feyma here on the blog will add a lot to what we have here.  What I write is fine, but it is only my perspective that is displayed.  Let’s face it, no matter how much any one person knows (or thinks he knows!), a second opinion always adds flavor and credibility to any discussion.  If Feyma disagrees with something I write, I encourage her to speak up and set the record straight.  One thing I can say, even if we disagree on a topic, it doesn’t mean that one of us are wrong, we just see things through different glasses!

Over the next few days we will be making some changes in the layout of the site.  We are designing a new theme for the site, and it is almost ready to go.  With the new theme, it will be very easy to identify who wrote the post, and make it very clear for the reader who’s post they are reading.  I have another blog where I have a partner blogging with me, and people always confuse us.  If my partner posts something, they usually think it was me that posted it!  So, I wanted to do this blog in a way that made it very clear who’s words were being read by the reader.   So, watch for some (small) changes very soon!

Again, welcome to Feyma.  I’m glad that you joined me, and don’t be afraid to put your opinion out there for everybody, especially if it’s different than mine!  Thanks for joining me!