Live in the Philippines

Live in the Philippines helps expats with visas, moving and other services regarding the Philippines.

Sleeping in the Philippines

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Sleeping in the Philippines?  Sounds kind of boring!  I want to talk about something a little more exciting!

Well, I am sure you do.  But, stop and think about it.  Sleeping is something that we must all do.  Some sleep more than others, but we all must sleep.  In fact, we probably sleep more than any other single thing that we do in our lives!  If you sleep 8 hours per day and live to be 70 years old, that means that you slept 204,400 hours in your life, or 2,920 hours per year!  That’s a lot of time.

In this article, I will talk about some things that I have written about in previous years on this site, and I will introduce a few new things too.

To be honest, in my experience and a number of other expats that I know, getting a good night’s sleep in the Philippines can be a challenge.  There are a lot of things that will attempt to wake you up!  Let’s have a look at a few of the obstacles that you may face.

Dogs

Yes, dogs can be a major challenge, and I have written before about dogs being loud at night.  It seems that most Filipinos want to have a dog, or several dogs to keep guard at night.  If an intruder comes around, they want dogs to be loud and warn the owner so that he can check it out, and also the loud barking will keep the intruder away.  Well, I can attest that there are a lot of loud dogs in the Philippines.  They bark incessantly, and not only when there is an intruder.  They seemingly bark for any reason at all, perhaps even if they see their own shadow from the street light!  In our old house, in another part of town, dogs were a huge problem.  Luckily, since we moved last year, though, the level of dog noise has subsided greatly.  I am very thankful for that.  About a week ago, though, our own dog was barking loudly in the middle of the night and woke me up.  I had to get up and go outside and let him know that it was time to be quiet.  Thankfully, after I let him know of my unhappiness, he quieted down for the rest of the night, though.  Truth is, though, most Filipinos will not quiet their dog like that, they will just let the dog bark all night long.  It can lead to some very sleepless nights.

Loud People

This is a problem usually on weekends.  People will go out and get drunk and such, then as they walk home past your house, they can get loud and obnoxious.  In this kind of case, I feel it is better to just put up with the noise until they pass and are “out of shouting distance.”  The reason why I feel that way is because you really don’t want to mess with a drunk.  I mean, there are a lot of people who get mean when they are drunk, and it’s best to just avoid the trouble.  Besides, if you get up and go confront the drunk, it will only serve to wake you up even more than you were already awake and make it difficult to get back to sleep.

Loud Traffic

In our old neighborhood, we were on a fairly busy street, and traffic could be a real problem, even late at night.  The loudest traffic, funny to say, were tricycles!  Even though tricycles are small and slow, they can be quite loud because many of the older tricycles are made with motorcycles that don’t have mufflers and have very loud engines.  The traffic noise could be quite a problem.  Even though traffic would rarely wake us up, if you were awoken by something else, the traffic could make it hard to get back to sleep.  Since moving to our new neighborhood, we are in a much quieter area, and not on a main street any longer, which has made sleeping a lot easier and more enjoyable.

Karaoke Bars

The Philippines is a karaoke heaven.  Filipinos generally love karaoke.  They love singing and partying.  Problem is, even if it is 2am or later, they still love it, and even if the karaoke bar is a block away or even more, the sound on the stereo system is turned up loud enough to “entertain” the entire neighborhood.  Karaoke could be a real problem in our old neighborhood.  It’s a lot less of a problem where we are now, but from time to time it will be loud here too.  The good thing here in our new location, though, is that usualy by around 10pm or so they turn off, or at least turn down the karaoke sounds.  Frankly, I don’t care if the singing is good or bad, it still makes it hard to sleep… and honestly, the singing is usually very bad!  Whoever invented the karaoke machine has some real low marks in my book!

In addition to karaoke bars, other businesses can be a problem too.  You may recall about a year ago we had a real problem with a call center that had located right next door to us and was keeping us up all night long.  We ended up in court over that situation, but thankfully we won, and the problem subsided.

It’s hot!

The weather here in the Philippines is hot!  It will take some adjustment to your internal temperature control in your body before you can become comfortable sleeping here.  Of course, there is air conditioning, but that can also get expensive, as power rates are high in the Philippines, among the highest power rates in the world.  As far as the air conditioning goes, Feyma and I have reached a balance on that.  Our air conditioning unit in the bedroom has an electronic timer on it.  When we go to bed, we set the timer to keep the air conditioning running for 3 hours, and after that it automatically shuts itself off for the rest of the night.  We are comfortable sleeping that way, and it saves considerable money on our power bill too.

Because it is hot here, I have gotten used to sleeping with no blankets or sheets.  I just lay on top of the bed, but rarely put anything on me.  From time to time I will get a bit chilly during the night (we have a ceiling fan that runs all the time, right above the bed), and when I do, I just put a sheet on my body, but that is rare.  Feyma, on the other hand, likes to have a sheet and blanket.  There is no way I could do that, it is just too cold.  So, Feyma, being quite a tricky and ingenious person did something a bit unique…  she took our king sized blanket and had a seamstress cut it in half and sew around it so that it was two blankets instead of one.  That way, half of the bed has a blanket on it, and half does not.  It keep the blanket “away from my side of the bed” and she can sleep comfortably under her blanket!  Frankly, I had never heard of somebody having a “half blanket” but it is really a good idea and works well for us!

Mattresses

Another thing related to sleep is that if you move your bed here from the US, or wherever your home is, you will find that the bed sizes are a bit different here.  So, if the day comes when you need to replace your old mattress, you may find it difficult to find a new mattress that will fit the bed!  We ran into this problem with our King sized bed, but after doing some shopping, we found a mattress factory who could custom make a new mattress to our size specification, and the cost was only a thousand pesos or so higher than their normal size runs.  I was pretty surprised by that.

So, getting a good night’s sleep in the Philippines can really be a challenge.  The longer you live here, though, the easier it will get, because you will adjust to the things that keep you awake!  Also, you will tend to migrate to a part of town that might exclude a few of the “problems” like we did!

Goodnight.. have a good night’s sleep!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Goos story, I seem to sleep real well when I am over, yes the noises you talked about can be sometimes bad. But I live next to a train track here and after 20 years of doing that, i have became used to late night noises. Now as for the heat part of your story, yes that can be a pain in the rear. Here is California we get hot days and some times 100+ for a couple weeks, but we are lucky and don’t have the high humidity, only a few times a year we get that double trouble. But I did grow up as a kid in Iowa, the Humidity Capital of the USA, so I know the feeling. So yea the AC helps a LOT! a must for me because I like to sleep when its cool, heck I would sleep in the pool at the condo if they let me. LOL Now one thing I did notice about the Philippines is the dogs that are there on the islands are all half the size as they are here in the USA. I found that to be funny to see. I did not see alot of cats, did see many chickens, and OX and some sheep. But I enjoyed your story, Ithink If i do get a bed I will have it ordered from Overstock and have it sent over because they have some GREAT DEALS on Beds. Over 75% less then sale prices around here. Hope all in well in Davao, take care as I watch it rain and snow outside now. posting pics as i speak.

  2. The noises you speak of his like background music to my wife. She really missed them when she moved here to the states with me. We live on a 20 acre farm with no one else in sight. It is deathly quiet at night.

  3. Morning Bob,
    Noise leads to excessive self-medicating! If you can’t get your hands on horse tranquilisers, then a case of Red Horse or a bottle of that cheap gut-rot whiskey is suitable as a night time anaesthetic! It worked for me! (Stopped me getting out of bed during the night intent on strangling the resident dog).

    • Hi AussieLee – Ha ha… good ideas… but I don’t drink! 😆 Maybe I should start, though, at times when better sleep is needed! 😉

      • Bob,

        Where we live is very quiet and sorrounded by holiday homes so they are unoccupied until holiday season. They bring their barking dogs,( not used to see kangaroos or hear nocturnal animals) screaming kids, trailbikes to go riding in the bush and they pass right infront of our house. We have this annoying neighbour lives opposite from us, he comes every 2 weeks, the moment he arrives, he cranks up his lawnmower and blower. Saturday at 9 am he start all over again. Once, I went out the verandah and screamed at him and said: ” hey get a F****** life”! he is very annoying no concept of peace and quiet.

        • Hi Susan – When holiday season comes around, it’s time to leave, I think! Ha ha… should do the opposite of everybody else, and then you won’t have to deal with those holiday people! 😉

          • Hi Bob,
            Thank you for your advice, I already suggested to Maurice about it, but it went to 1 ear, out the other. He will take notice of it when ski season starts, because he suffered from alot of pain last winter (knee replacement). But I’m not hopeful, he is a procrastinator. lol

  4. Hi Bob, I can greatly emphatized all of the above. You forgot one thing though – ROOSTERS!! The roosters over at my brother’s place (belonged to the neighbours 10 meters away), crowed all day and all night, even at midnight, 1:00 am, 2:00 am and so on. And of course my brother had 4 loud barking dogs also 2 of which are females, and my aunt across the road had 2 as well. And of course all the stray dogs looking for fun comes sniffing at night, to the consternation of the bro’s 2 male dogs which leads to more barking. And like you said, Karaoke because someone was having a party, or it’s Fiesta time, or the couple next block were having a domestic. So much noise!!! When I’m in PI, I barely sleep, about 3 hours a night because of the noise. I live in a semi-rural area in Australia, so it is quiet and very peaceful here.

    I enjoy visiting my province, but because of the noise (and yes, it’s a province!), I am having second thoughts about returning this year. Could stay at a hotel, but that’s not fun 🙂

    • Hi Christine – Been a while since I heard from you! Thanks for stopping by!

      Yeah, without a doubt, roosters can add to the noise load pretty significantly. I am lucky here in my new neighborhood, there really aren’t any roosters, or at least no noisy ones! Ha ha… I have certainly put up with a lot of roosters, though, in my 11 years of living here!

      Take care, Christine!

      • Hi Bob, I’m still around. Just got a bit busy with so much happenings here, including floods in my city 3 months ago. I will pop in now and again. 🙂

          • No, it did not affect me personally. But we did get very busy at work counseling flood victims. But many are getting their feet together, but it will take years to rebuild. A kilo of bananas at the fruit and vege shop is currently $12. My fig tree did not do too well this year as well. But at least the environment is green again, just like the PI. But glad to see you’re still going Bob 🙂

            • Wow! $12/kilo for bananas? I’m going into the export business! Want to be my partner? 😉

              Sorry to hear that the flood was so bad for the victims there, though.

              • Hi Bob,

                Yes, bananas here are very expensive at the moment, it’s been over a month since the last time I had some bananas and Maurice is complaining because he can’t have banana cake! lol

              • Hi Bob
                Bananas are $14.50/kilo where i live. Done my shopping yesterday, noticed next to the bananas was pears at $1.49 a kilo, easy decision to make, lol

    • House across the street used to do karaoke often until 4 am could not sleep and was having chest pains here in Lapu Lapu finally talked to owner and he stopped the karaoke after 10 pm. Also next door to Jeepny garage often at 4:30 or 5:00 am Jeepnys would park next to front of house speakers at full blast talked to garage owner and got them to be more considerate. Noise is major problem and am moving to a gated community in Lapu Lapu that has roles against loud noise and does not allow jeepnys.

  5. …Sorry Bob….I’ll try and keep my (hic) drunken jubilation down a bit when I pass by your (hic) place at 3am in the future.

    Ear plugs I sleep with em in….a habit I did pick up in the RP years ago !!

  6. Hi Brent – ha ha… I can understand that! Living next to the railroad tracks could put a real damper on a good night sleep! Thanks for your comment, and I’m glad you enjoyed the article.

  7. Bob, another thing that kept me awake the last time I visited Salaza (Palauig, Zambales) was when there was a wedding reception and dance held under a makeshift tent in the middle of road next to our house at night while typhoon Biring was raging. The music played over the loudspeaker wasn’t really that bad; in fact, Pilita Corrales was beginning to lull me to sleep. But it was the raspy voice of the master of ceremonies announcing at the end of each dance the amount of donor pledges to the newly-weds for songs they’d like played for the next dance that kept me awake. Unable to sleep, I got up, took my video camera, and went outside. Barro folks, I discovered, take their dancing very seriously. They danced the night away amid thunder, lightning and strong wind, while I taped their dancing feet sloshing around in the mud. The dance lasted until about 2AM, when the strong wind blew off the tent and sent people scattering.

    • Hi Ricardo – Ha ha.. sounds like everybody had fun, Ricardo… except for you! Ha ha… you’re just lucky that the tent was blown down, that caused them to stop early! 😉

    • Ricardo

      Did you at least get to drink a couple of SMB’s before the tent blew down for your trouble hahaha?

      • Papa Duck, I sure did, along with the leftover lechon on the wind-blown buffet table. It was in the month of May when this wedding took place, right after the Salaza barrio fiesta (May 15). It rained almost daily, but the people were not to be denied. They celebrated the fiesta and held the coronation of the barrio princess in ankle-deep water at the plaza. This was followed by a dance attended by people from neighboring towns.

        The candle-light procession that bore the patron saint of the barrio (Sto. Nino) wound through the barrio from the church to the river banks and back to the church. Viewed from atop a 4X4 SUV with the video camera rolling, the procession was an awesome sight. Flickering candle lights held by folks singing the “Ave Maria” against the backdrop of a dark night looked like a school of dancing fireflies. Papa Duck, you need to experience this slice of Philippine life when you go visit Bataan. It will be an experience you will never forget.

        • LOL, Papa Duck! On second reading of the first sentence of my comment above, it sounded like the lechon on the buffet table also had SMB! But you know what I meant, right? 🙂

          • Ric

            I understood no problem. Thanks alot for the info about the barrio fiesta, sounds really exciting and would be something i would really enjoy. Next year i will be going there and experiencing as many fiestas/celebration/parties as possible. Hope your trip is going well. I see gas went up again over 2 more dollars a barrel. Something you didn’t want to here. Will be $4.00 per gallon soon. Be safe

  8. Yes, like Christine says, roosters! And the neighbors fighting… And 4 am mass during Christmas. On that last one, at one time we lived across from a small ‘capilya’ or chapel. At 3 am they began beating the gasul-tank/church bell to call the faithful. Shortly after that they began playing music over the disco sounds system… Christmas music… Chipmunk’s Christmas. At 4 am the proceedings began over the loud speaker system so that the faithful who were still in bed could also benefit. It honestly sounded like it was happening under our bed! We had turkeys at the time. Every time the lay leader (a woman) spoke into the microphone, our devout turkeys responded with enthusiasm.

    Yes, for all it’s other perks, the Philippines is a very noisy country. That’s just the facts unless you live way, way out in the countryside, and I mean WAY out there. The noises vary from night to night, so adjusting to them, as you would adjust to living near the train tracks or an airport, is more difficult. My husband has struggled the most with the noise at night, but the one advantage I have in being hard of hearing is that I take my hearing aides out at night, and it is quiet! 🙂

    One more point. I may not hear the noise, but I am awakened by smells. We only use aircon when we really need it, so our windows are open at night. Some nights the wind blows from the city dump. Dump smells are not nice, but are very noxious when they are burning stuff up there. We have a neighbor who has several siomai peddle-carts. they begin cooking their mixtures about 2 am. Another nieghbor must work the night-shift because supper is cooked at midnight. Sometimes trucks park across the street and idle their engines– diesel exhaust. From time to time a rat or frog will die under our bedroom window… Whew!

    • Oh my, AmericanLola… you have seen, heard and smelt it all, I think! 😉 Some interesting stories there. After the Christmas music and services, I think you had to figure out whether to roast the turkeys or the Pastor? Ha ha…

      Thanks for sharing that, AmericanLola… makes me thankful for the relatively minor annoyances we have here!

      • Bob

        Working overnight for 12 hours, i sleep during the daytime. I have no problem sleeping with all the daytime neighborhood noises. The one thing i have to make sure is that its dark enough, if not i will have problems sleeping. So my room is dark all the time. Good post and take care and be safe.

    • Oh, American Lola, your comment reminded me when I first took my fiancee home. It was Fiesta day, so we stayed up till 1:am the night before helping with cooking – only to be woken up by a brass band at 5:am! My fiancee thought that was very amusing. I was not amused, needless to say. My family’s compound is in town of course, hence we cop all the noise. But yes, out in the boondocks, at the farms, or by the sea, very peaceful. 🙂

        • Ha! Bob, in the boondocks, he’d soon pay for his life – to be that day’s dinner 🙂
          Sadly, I could not do the same to the neigbour’s rooster, although I was very tempted to use him as target practice for my brother’s bazooka! 🙂

  9. Hi Bob;
    What’s that old adage; “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
    The truth is I can sleep with any or all the noise that you spoke of in your article above. The simple reasonfor me is that,riding ship’s for most of my life I got used to noise, the constant thumping and vibration of the engines, the creaking of the steel plates as the ship plows through the water. The night shift moving around the ship while performing their duties, and when in port, again the drunk guy returning after a night on the town. (Hard to complain about that). Now for the odd part, let it go silent, and I’m awake in a New York Millie second.

    • Oh, I’ve been there, Paul… when you are monitoring something, a motor or some other loud system, and when it goes silent, panic ensues! That can certainly wake you up! So, I understand what you mean!

      • Hi Bob, same experience here like Paul T. The noise of the ship engine actually makes you sleep and the swaying motion rocks you like a cradle, unless is the rough sea ride where its shake you forward, sideways and throw vertically about 4 inches off your rack. When the engine change it’s pitch or speed, it’ll wake you up.

        While living in North Charleston, SC, my house is right under the flight pattern of the Charleston AFB, Commercial and General Aviation airplanes. You could tell the noise of the C-5 or C-130 from 737, and you just sleep thru it. There’s also railroad track nearby in a mix. When I transferred to Panama City Beach, FL, I could not sleep! It took several months. I missed the noise of my planes. lol.

        While in Phils, if we spent the night in the town proper, the late tricycle noise keeps you awake. @ 4 in the morning, the vendor selling Pan de Saaaaaaaaal! Pan de Saaaaaaaal, and Puto vendors will be your alarm clock.

        In the barrio about 16 KM down the road, just the dogs and crickets. Some loud birds will also make occasional noise, local calls it maybe aswang or tiktik either as a joke or to keep the kids go to sleep. Farmers uses the rooster as their clock which start in unison @ 4am, 4:30 am and around 5 am. A beneficial type of noise.

        • Hi Mars – If it’s not one thing, it’s another! I wonder, if I were to move back out of the Philippines, maybe my experience would be the same as yours… I could not sleep from the lack of Karaoke noise! 😆 That will be the day! 😉

      • Bob;
        On every ship I’ve ever been on, we knock off at 11:30 for lunch, eat and nap until 13:00, then back to work, that is a habit I’ve had for 46 years, and won’t stop now. I only miss the nap if we are out somewhere. Again the noise will not deter me.

  10. Hi Don – It’s always funny how we grow used to what we grew up with. I mean, if it was noisy at night.. we need that noise, etc. Sometimes I long for the kind of farm that you live on… but things are pretty quiet in our new neighborhood. Take care!

  11. Hi Bob – I’m very fortunate in so much that I can sleep with a Pipe Band playing at the foot of the bed. Recently when we visited Sydney I did have difficully sleeping the first few nights as it was so quiet compared to where we live in the Phil’s.
    I like to read before I sleep and the background noise of dogs barking, road traffic and people passing is like having the radio on for me.
    They say if you have a clear conscience you can sleep anytime, that must be my secret to sleeping well hahaha!
    Regards.
    Jim.

  13. Nice to hear those noises Bob have Missed it here in Germany you wont hear it especially in my Place all you hear when Season Time are Drunk people singing & or shouting

  14. Hi Bob,

    I’d be eternally grateful if you could share the name/contact info of the custom mattress place…

    Kuko

    • Hi Kuko – I may not be right, but I believe you are in the Manila area? Anyway, the place is Mandaue Foam. They have outlets around Mindanao and the Visayas, not sure about Luzon.

    • Hi Kuko Ako – There is a bed outlet in Greenbelt called 40 Winks that sell European Brand mattresses. A friend of mine exported his Mandaue 12″ foam mattress back to the UK as he said it was the best mattress he had ever slept on.
      Regards.
      Jim.

  16. Hi Bob: I would like to add the sounds of the lizard, “toko”. The first time I heard one was at my parents’ house in Cebu City, I thought that it was a night bird calling “football”. When I asked my father at the breakfast table about the night bird, he gave me a blank look. When I imitated the call, everyone laughed. My mother laughed so hard that tears were rolling down her face. That tale has been repeated by the family many times over. I heard that toko every night.

    • Ha ha… I am not sure what “toko” is Roselyn. The little lizards here, we call “butiki” locally, probably the same thing, just a different regional name. I kind of like the little lizards, I am used to them, I suppose! 😉

      • hi bob,

        compared to the butiki, the tuko is somewhat bigger, is green in color and lives up in trees. you’ll know it’s the tuko making that sound when you literally hear– “tuk-kooo!”

        in any case most neighborhood dogs like yours in dvo or mine here in mla get agitated at night when they feel something’s lurking about– which may or may not be human!

        i once lived somewhere in parañaque here in mla where the neighborhood dogs would bark at night in sequence, from one end of the street to the other, as if following something or someone on foot. if you looked out, nobody would be there. people in the community would just say that it was either a wayward ‘multo’— or a resident elemental. not everything on earth can be seen hehe ” )

        cheers,

            • Hi Biz Doc – Yeah, what I meant was I wonder if such lizards are in the AREA… like maybe within 50 miles or 20 Kilometers, something like that. I have never heard the sound, so I safely assume that there are none within hearing distance! 😉

        • We use to get some quite big Gecko’s running up the outside walls in Singapore,can’t remember what breed they were,its some years back.

    • Roselyn

      That “tuko” lizard would go great with your cat that thinks its a dog hahaha. Have a nice day.

      • Papa Duck/Roselyn: Those “Tuko” or “Tiki” in Panay, normally lives up in the coconut tree, but they are loud. One time, I was tasked to pick some coconut from a tree that was really tall, and as I was reaching the top, one of this tuko crawled on my arms that was wrapped tightly around the coconut trunk. Scared s***less, I flung that thing as hard as I could and saw this lizard land on the rice field down below spread eagle buried about 4 inches on the soft mud. I quickly slid down and changed my underwear!

  18. Ha Ha ,
    Roosters at 4 AM.
    Cousin Romy has about 70 roosters in a beautiful field just outside our bedroom window. He is a very successful businessman. Many enterprenises, all doing well. Won enough on the cockfights that he now has 2 SUV’s, good for him., I like him.
    The roosters do not crow at 4 AM. They may start as early as 2:30, dependinging on whether one of them does or doesn’t fart at 2:30; whereas if one does, they all comment about it!
    “But that’s OK” – heard that before?

    Wouldn’t trade it for anything!
    Jade

  20. April 30th…………..Dogs barking, Karaoke Machine, Some Cars, Another Warm Evening, Beer, Rum, Loud People, and finally sometime in the early AM…My Mattress………………..Party Party…My Birthday!!!!

  21. One reason I sleep with the aircon on, even when it’s cool enough not to … the constant, steady noise helps me sleep better. When I hear a dog barking, it’s Otto the Wonder dog and whatever brought him out from under the bed (most often, the first light of dawn, means it’s time for me to be up and about, anyway.

  22. Hi Dave – Yeah, I’m with you on that… the aircon does a nice job of creating “white noise” and blocking out outside noises, which is helpful. I set the aircon on a timer for usually 3 hours when we go to bed. If I am awaken during the night, I often set it for another 1 hour, to blank out the noise while I am going back to sleep.

    • Bob

      is that to stop from hearing ur wife snore mate lol hehheheh unlike u and every one here i have one deff ear so all i nee dto do is lay on that one side and it cut out all lol bet that one ok……..peter martin tassie

  23. I am almost stone deaf so to get a quiet nights sleep all I have to do is remove my hearing aid! This is a great help as sometimes the street in Las Pinas where I live gets very noisy -as Bob says Filipinos do not seem to care if their dogs bark all night. Another source of noise is a group of ‘born agains’ who have meetings across the road. Although an atheist I am a great believer in freedom of worship but in this case I could make an exception! I have come to the conclusion that like me the Lord must be deaf.The tolerance of noise in the Philippines has its advantages – a party can be as noisy as you like and nobody seems to mind.In September last year my teenage son had a birthday party in Scotland – the result being a visit from our local authority ‘night noise team’ and a subsequent letter threatening fines and an ‘anti social banning order’ (ASBO)!

    • Hi Bryan – Ha ha… sometimes being nearly deaf can have it’s benefits! 😆

      BTW, does that Scottish noise team make calls in the Philippines? 😉

        • Bob/Bryn: If the “NNT”, night noise team shows up here in the Philippines, they’ll probably get offered a cold SMB, a plate of lechon and asked to join the fun! Ha ha ha

          • Hi Bob – still back in Scotland trying to get our property business up and running. We expect our first tenants this week – a Lithuanian family. The weather today is exceptional so we had lunch outside – this is a big treat for us! Everything is fine and we are hoping for a good summer. We are expecting our Filipina friend with the immigration problem to visit later – hope she has some good news. Hope that all is well with you,Feyma and the family.

  24. Been here in Australia for six months now I have taken a good nights sleep for granted. Going back to the Pines soon, I will have to get used to the dogs, roosters, bullfrogs, mozzies and karaoke all over again. But this time a good set of ear plugs are coming with me! Welcome to the Philippines.

  25. Hello Bob, Now I know why you won’t be able to live here in Manila. The noise will bother you (and everything else, I suppose). All the things you mentioned (minus the mattress dilemma) are present everyday here in Manila.. unless of course you live in village or quiet residential area (but even neighbors dogs will bark so loud!) It’s nice to sleep w/ the aircon on as it blocks the noise but, but me, I always like to sleep with the windows open especially when it’s raining.

  26. Bob,

    This is one of the things my wife worries about me dealing with when we move to the Philippines – NOISE! It’s a real concern for her. I have found a way to deal with it here when neighbors party too late and we have to get up by 5:oo am. I just put in some ear plugs. I’ve done it several times during our visits to the Philippines. It works great. My wife has used them too. I have friends that are day sleepers and it works well for them. It takes a little getting used to, but it does block out the noise.

    I find the roosters, dogs and music to be the most bothersome. I guess the only down side I can think of for using ear plugs is that you wouldn’t hear someone trying to break into your house!

    • Hi Marty – Personally, I would not have major worries… you will adjust, or you will find a place that you can live with. It’s just not a big enough thing to stress over.

  27. Oh, do I still remember the noise of the rooster’s crowing at 2 in the morning!! Also the dog’s, the tricycle’s, the tuko lizards, etc. But I do miss PI. Have to wait one more year. Then we will be there permantely. Now it could be sooner if they don’t get this budget fixed by today. Will know more hopefully today.

  28. Hi Bob….I have never had the luxury of 8 hrs sleep in my life. I useally avergage between 5 and 6 hours a night, but any interruption to that can make me rather grumpy. I guess im lucky as where i am in Davao we have working neighbours who take early nights , there is a rooster on one side of us but i reckon he might be very old as he doesnt seem to have any energy to make much noise. I did have a chat to him on the first day we moved in along the lines of “any noise out of you pal and your neck will be chopped”…maybe that done the trick, lol

  29. Hello Bob,alot of filippinos ask me why I built my house in the middle of the yard and not on the road, I tell them its quite with low trafic noise, I also noticed in province were i live my
    sleep apne is better, maybey the climate, I actually like listening to the Kareoke if it is not
    to loud, in kuwait there is a mass on every corner, with chanting at 4 am, that I am struggling
    with.

  30. Hi Bob,
    Fortunately,i never have a problem sleeping.
    My Mum use to say i could sleep on a washing line,if someone pegged me up on it,lol.
    Regards,
    Chas.

  31. Hi Bob! As an OFW, getting to sleep whenever I come home for vacation is one of the challenges that I usually encounter. And the examples you enumerated, except the mattress and the call center, surely top it all. You may add to your list, the early morning ritual of mothers brooming (pagwawalis) the grounds (usually along the house perimeter). That too, spoils my sleep. The good thing though, I get adjusted to it within 2 days. And these become part of the “lullabies”. Btw, blame it to the Filipino who invented the karaoke (but I love this!). Nice topic to read, well done! God speed and mabuhay!

    • Videoke is actually Japanese – inflicted on Pinoys as Yamashita’s revenge knowing Japan would lose WW2 and the US would occupy the Philippines. How better to punish Americans (and all x-pats) ad naseum to infinity?

      Gotta love Duterte for his curfew and laws banning electronic noise (especially neighbouring duelling videoke boxen) after midnight. Roosters, well, that’s just life. Imagine the foreign press complaining about rampant extra-judicial rooster killings!

      The world is crazy enough now in 2018 and I’m happy to still be legally here with my now-not-so-small family. Even if there’s no real cheese to be had for love nor money in our interior-Mindanao provincial capital. On the flip side, roosters do serve as yummy “tinola”, just gotta simmer them a LONG TIME so they don’t chew like bubblegum in the soup.

      Tricycles? Happy to hear one coming, since it’s way too far to walk downtown from here with “community-induced” chronic asthma. Somebody has to go take care of family responsibilities including buying food; Pinoy wife always too “busy”. Come home exhausted and overheated, have a drink or 3, retire to the aircon “kwarto” and sleep like dead until time to wake up at night and work again to pay the coming huge electricity bill, et al.

  32. I had guests over the weekend (dogshow) my dogs are quiet as you know, my dogs did not wake them up, wanna guess what woke them up? ROTFL! hahahahhaa

    WANG WANG WANG WANG WANG – LOL! But I can sleep through that!

    • Hi Cheryll – If it’s not one thing it’s another! 😉

      Sorry we missed your dog show! I planned to bring the kids, but our weekend was quite busy with some unexpected family business. Next time!

  33. I really don’t have trouble sleeping but when I stayed in the Philippines recently to study, dog barking and traffic were quite new to me again. When I moved to America, in NYC, I lived in an apartment that’s about 2 blocks from the train station and platform. Imagine the noise and the “motion” it causes whenever a train passes by.
    Then I moved to suburbia in CT, though we live on a main road, I don’t quite see or hear so much traffic noise here coz there are a few vehicles passing by.
    But it’s true, sleep can be really such a challenge in the Philippines unless you live on the rural mountains. 🙂

    • Hi bingkaycoy – it seems you have gone through a number of different neighborhoods, each totally different when it comes to peace and quiet! I’m glad you were able to sleep well during your stay in Davao!

  34. Hi Bob,
    I grew up on the flight path of five airports: two military, one municipal, one international and a grass strip out behind our house. As a kid I would spend a good portion of the day watching the skies and checking out the various planes. I moved to the seaside and had a very difficult time sleeping without the sound of a motor running somewhere. Now I live in the flight path of a large international airport again and I sleep like a baby, lol. When I first went to the provinces the thing that struck me was the silence. I would strain to hear some noise. I could hear birds, the waves on the beach, the wind, and insects but it was almost too quiet…that is of course until the roosters started crowing …and then they installed karaoke in the barangay hall…just recently the government built a road around the island which has sprouted a cottage indusrty of motors taxiing people from barangay to barangay…gone are the quiet times; progress comes to my little piece of paradise…but I actually sleep better now!
    Mark G.

  36. Dogs, they could be barking endlessly because they are hungry. Believe it or not, there are only a handful of Filipinos who would care to feed their dog right.

    Believe it or not, karaoke is now called ‘videoke’. I know a place in the Philippines where loud, jobless and drunkard people resort to videoke partying in the middle of the streets, from the first light of the morning until the next day. And guess what, they’re fully supported by local politicians by providing them free makeshift tables, plastic chairs, and wide covered tents. It is in Muntinlupa City. I think these local politicians here are also poised in renting out videoke machines for free too. And that’s where taxpayers money are going.

  37. LOL – What a great article Bob. Even though my house is brick , I did invest in some acoustical foam for my windows in my bedroom and that made a big difference. (good earplugs help)  I have never been able to sleep with a blanket even during the cold season and when we have a blackout I bring out the battery operated fan. I just have to have the air moving. This is a wonderful place most times and for us foreigners it takes some adjustment. 
    Yes, I did ask my mother-in-law to relocate the roosters from my bedroom window….. for some strange reason she thought they would be an addition to the reproductive process…. go figure!!!
    Wishing you and all the LiP Family a very Merry Pasko and Happy New Year!!

    • Hi Liloandan – Malipayong Pasko sa inyong tanan! Your rooster story is funny with your mother in law putting them near the bedroom to improve reproductive odds!

  38. About the Mattresses – buy Tempur or Simmons (I am currently using Simmons) and tell them you want Calfornia King and not Asian or Filipino King… and you wlll get US size hehehe.

    As for noisy dogs – omg I have had my mother wake me up claiming my dogs were crying in middle of the night and I am like MOTHER it came from outside my dogs are QUIET!

  39. Hello Bob:
    This one has sure hit close to home and so I will join in with my sleeping in Bislig City. First of all the Government put a huge street lamp across the street from my house so just guess where every idiot comes to bullshit, drunk or sober? The rainy season saves me from these people. Next are dogs, they come and go here and my wife informed me that the cops actually get off of their asses and round them up when enough people complain. Last is the worse one, the roosters, I rarely sleep through their 5:00am wake up call and what really pi.es me off is that an hour or so after they start they stop and probably go back to sleep but for me it is too late and I am up. Thank God for holidays though, we are off to Kermits in General Luna and some well needed sleep for a week.

  40. We have it all…Barking dogs, kids, loud motorcycles, etc. And we are on a Jeepney route from down the street to the shopping district and it starts early, like around 4 AM. There is a rush hour. I more than welcome what I hear is coming, quieter Jeeps. We have A/C in the bedroom. I have found it hard to sleep at times, but my wife is out in minutes. One thing I do not get is little kids still up and out in the street in wee hours. The Barangay installed a 10 PM curfew for anyone under 18. They frequently come around in a van to remind parents. I told my wife in the U.S., if a little kids is out playing in the street at 1 in the morning expect a call to the door from the cops…Because I ask where are their parents? The people across the street inhabit an abandoned building 5 stories high and keep a dog in a cage and yep, is their ‘alarm system.’ Mostly nice people but well, different. We recently had the property line moved back (our entire side of the street apparently was deemed illegal property lines) and had what once a patio fenced in with a gate now exposed. Our gate was moved to the house. Result? The area becomes a playground for the homeless people’s kids and the can get LOUD lol. I get involved if too loud or trash gets thrown in the gate. A lot of this is a no control thing. But since I play guitar, and love loud music…haha…