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C’est La Vie

September 1, 2010 By Patrick Duffy 11 Comments
There goes a hermit crab now!

The next day I rent a boat to take me back to Hilabaan and Butna for a few days.  The people are curious about my returning so soon and why I love it so much on their island.  It is somewhat difficult to explain to those who had never yet seen the big city with its big city problems, crime and smog. A place where people do not know their neighbors and have little time for “hellos.” These people here live in a world that only God can create and which Hollywood can only imagine. In the evening I walk across the islands with Melvin and Noling to observe the Mr. Math and Miss Science talent contest at the town Plaza. The people take it upon … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Guest Tagged With: Daily Life, Expats, Filipino Culture, Luzon, Manila, Patrick Duffy, Travel, Visayas, Weather

Monsooner or Monlater, You’re Gonna Get Wet

July 27, 2010 By JohnM 29 Comments
A Monsterous Typhoon

Here in the Philippines, the climate is tropical. What does that mean? Well, a few of things. First, the tropics is the area located between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer... Everything in the middle. Because of the location of the Philippines (Between 4° 40' N and 21° 10' N), the country is wholly, 100% tropical. Next, the location means that the length of your day is relatively consistent throughout the year: Roughly 12 hours in most of the country. Therefore, there is no "daylight savings" or "summer" time here... There is no point to adjusting the clock. It gets dark at about the same time in December (In the far … [Read more...]

Filed Under: John Miele Tagged With: Daily Life, John Miele, Living in The Philippines, Luzon, Mindanao, Visayas, Weather

Beautiful but Painful

August 18, 2009 By Rusty 13 Comments

I went to Bantayan Island with "Honky Joe" an expat currently visiting the Philippines.  I shouldn't have spent the dollars but that temptation thing got me again.  Like I said in a previous post, the Philippines are the land of temptation. Joe came through Bogo City and mentioned he was going to Bantayan Island and I just couldn't resist.  It also gave me a chance to use my underwater camera. As we were returning to shore, Jessie spotted this creature waiting to give one of us a bad day.  It was the first time I have spotted one of these but we went out a good deal further as the tide had gone out before we got our lazy butts out of bed. Actually, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Rusty Tagged With: Animals, Living in The Philippines, Rusty Ferguson, Travel, Visayas

Where will I live? Can't say!

July 10, 2009 By MindanaoBob 50 Comments

OK, so this week, the "Where I Live" week here on LiP, I've talked about where I have lived previously, where I live now and where we had planned to live.  The future, though, is not clear yet on where we really will live.  One thing is for certain, unless something major changes in our lives, and that is that we will live in the Philippines. So, what are the considerations at this point?  Let's have a look: Samal Island. Yes, we are still keeping an eye on Samal.  I was pretty clear yesterday that Samal has not been ruled out.  We already own a very nice piece of land there, in fact I'd call it a premium piece of land.  It has a beautiful … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Tagged With: Bob Martin, Davao, Living in The Philippines, Mindanao, Visayas

Where I Live, I'm not Entirely Sure…

July 9, 2009 By Rusty 50 Comments

Bogo City, a "city" with an identity crisis.  Is it a city or is it a town?  Two years ago, Bogo Town became Bogo City.  A special law had to be passed though as Bogo and several other municipalities were converted to cities even though they didn't meet the income requirement of P100 million.  Bogo City is at only P50 million.  Once the exemption was granted for these cities, Bogo held a vote and the residents overwhelmingly voted to convert to a city and that was it, Bogo was now Bogo City. The vote was something like 97% in favor. Bogo City Politics In the Philippines, there is a pot of money that gets divided between all the cities in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Rusty Tagged With: Living in The Philippines, Rusty Ferguson, Visayas

Cities of the Philippines

June 25, 2009 By MindanaoBob 63 Comments

We often talk on this site about various cities in the Philippines.  Davao often is a topic, because several LiP writers live in Davao.  Other places like Manila, Cebu, General Santos and others are also regularly mentioned.  But, what is a City in the first place? How do these Cities compare to each other?  How about a few statistics about these places?  Today, let's have an overview of what a City is in the Philippines, how big these various cities are, etc. What constitutes a City? Well, in the Philippines, there are specific criteria for what places are considered Cities.  Beyond that, there are also different types and classifications … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Tagged With: Bob Martin, Living in The Philippines, Luzon, Mindanao, Visayas

A Bridge of Love

June 8, 2009 By Klaus 35 Comments

"If I'll be an expat living in the Philippines I should go to Tacloban City again!" I remember me saying that several times. now I am here since almost eleven years - but I haven't been there yet. There are really a lot of wonderful places and sights all over the Philippines. One of them (for me) has been the San Juanico Bridge in Tacloban City, which is considered as one of the longest bridges in the Philippines. It is 2.5 kilometer long and connects the two provinces of Leyte and Samar. If you look at it, you will notice that the bridge is shaped in letter "L" from the side of Leyte and the letter "S" from the middle towards the other end which … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Klaus Tagged With: Klaus, Living in The Philippines, Travel, Visayas

Let's talk!

May 15, 2009 By MindanaoBob 75 Comments

I've gotten a lot of response to my articles over the past couple of weeks, related to my recent visit to Cebu City.  The response has been both through comments on the site, and also e-mails sent to me privately from people who have read the articles.  It seems that these type of articles have hit on something that there is a demand for.  Because of that, I've made a decision. Seeing the level of acceptance and interest in seeing comparisons of different cities and regions of the Philippines, I have decided that I am going to start traveling regularly, and using those travels to bring more of this type of information to LiP readers. It … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Tagged With: Bob Martin, Communication, Living in The Philippines, Luzon, Mindanao, Moving, Travel, Visayas

Nice dinner meeting in Cebu

May 14, 2009 By MindanaoBob 24 Comments

While I was on my way back from Bogo, Cebu to Cebu City last week, I got a text message from Feyma.  She told me that a friend of ours had contacted her.  Our friend's name is Yam.  I'm not going to use any last names, because I am not sure that she wants her last name published here.  But, anyway, Yam's boyfriend, Kevin is a regular reader of LiP (Hi Kevin!), and he saw that I was going to be in Cebu, so he called Yam and told her.  Actually, Kevin and Yam thought that both Feyma and I would be visiting, but it was just me. Anyway, Feyma told me that Yam wanted to get together while I was in town, so I talked to Yam on the phone, and we … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Tagged With: Bob Martin, Entertainment, Food, Language, Living in The Philippines, Travel, Visayas

LiP Fellowship

May 12, 2009 By MindanaoBob 43 Comments

I had a number of reasons for visiting Cebu last week.  I had a job to do for a friend with a house in Lapu Lapu City.  I had been wanting to visit Cebu for immersion language practice in the home of the Bisayan language.  I was ready for a trip away from Mindanao after about 5 years without leaving the Island.  Another reason was that I wanted to meet Rusty Ferguson.  Rusty is an American Expat who lives in Bogo, Cebu, and has been living there for more than a year now.  Last year, around August or September, as I recall, I found Rusty's websites, and I found the guy interesting.  In late September, or early October I invited Rusty to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Tagged With: Bob Martin, Expats, Filipino Culture, Language, Living in The Philippines, Travel, Visayas
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