Thinking of going back to the Philippines.
Discussion
I lived there for ten years before, and we've just come back from a two week holiday. I can't beleive how much it has improved over the last 8 years we've been away, or just how cheap it still is!
Petrol is still 40p a litre, and the roads have improved a load......
The sun shines all day every day.
Average reasonable meal for three people eating out is about £8
We can rent a fairly nice modern three bed bungalow for £200 a month, just what we pay for our council tax and water rates in England.
The sun shines all day every day.
No TV license over there either.
We may see about renting out our house in the UK, make enough to cover the mortgage, so we always have somewhere to return to if the dream turns sour. Does anyone know a good website that details all the pros-cons of doing such a thing? Obviously we don't want to get our house ruined and full of squatters while we are away, so is their protection from such vermin?
Oh, and the sun shines every day.
Some rich dude just built a brand new race circuit and international standard drag strip right near where we want to move to Clark International Speedway
And a thriving V8 culture...
http://www.69pace.com
Should I stay, or should I go???
Petrol is still 40p a litre, and the roads have improved a load......
The sun shines all day every day.
Average reasonable meal for three people eating out is about £8
We can rent a fairly nice modern three bed bungalow for £200 a month, just what we pay for our council tax and water rates in England.
The sun shines all day every day.
No TV license over there either.
We may see about renting out our house in the UK, make enough to cover the mortgage, so we always have somewhere to return to if the dream turns sour. Does anyone know a good website that details all the pros-cons of doing such a thing? Obviously we don't want to get our house ruined and full of squatters while we are away, so is their protection from such vermin?
Oh, and the sun shines every day.
Some rich dude just built a brand new race circuit and international standard drag strip right near where we want to move to Clark International Speedway
And a thriving V8 culture...
http://www.69pace.com
Should I stay, or should I go???
Plenty of pros and cons but, since you lived there for an extended period, you know what they are.
If you can get good work and live well there I suspect it will be nicer life during the next few years than you would have in the UK.
Times will be tough everywhere - but the UK is going to see a proportionally larger decrease in the standard of living if I guess correctly.
If you can get good work and live well there I suspect it will be nicer life during the next few years than you would have in the UK.
Times will be tough everywhere - but the UK is going to see a proportionally larger decrease in the standard of living if I guess correctly.
euroboy said:
They also have terrorism and lots of natural disasters!
And we don't? Floods, snow, oppression in the name of 'fighting terrorism?
pokethepope said:
Roads have improved?!?!?!?!
I'd hate to see (and drive) on a road you consider bad!
Well, it's all comparative, but some of the new 'motorways' are a 1000% better than they were ten years ago. I'd hate to see (and drive) on a road you consider bad!
And the driving standards have improved as well, sort of.... They now let emergency vehicles through, instead of deliberately blocking them.
Viper_Larry said:
Eric Mc said:
How stable is it poliically?
What are the chances of the army taking over etc?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8554044.stmWhat are the chances of the army taking over etc?
They really ought to have spent a couple of million on trying them in a court of law, all honest and reasonable.
Then released them a few years later, like they have done with more than a few IRA crims.
Don't we currently have 75% the PH massive baying for the return of the death sentence, scoffing at the lousy feeble power of the court system etc?
Look at the recent articles on the re-imprisonment of one of the Jeremy Bulger psychos? How much did it cost us tax payers to have his new life, identity and release from jail secured some ten years ago? Murder a small child: get a new life.
I assume you speak enough of the lingo...(to not get sold..as they say
)
I haven't been back for a while but I understand that a lot of the beaches are not as good as they were. Development has been proportional to pollution.
One big plus is the ability to have help....maid/cook/houseboy...all those little jobs that you hate are taken care of. Which means you can pretty much get on with life and enjoy it. The bars with rock bands are great, usually gave the kareoke ones a miss 'cos as a foreigner they are gonna force you to sing.
Food is great even in the nastiest looking places.
Go for it.
)I haven't been back for a while but I understand that a lot of the beaches are not as good as they were. Development has been proportional to pollution.
One big plus is the ability to have help....maid/cook/houseboy...all those little jobs that you hate are taken care of. Which means you can pretty much get on with life and enjoy it. The bars with rock bands are great, usually gave the kareoke ones a miss 'cos as a foreigner they are gonna force you to sing.
Food is great even in the nastiest looking places.
Go for it.
Am I right in thinking that you've mentioned before that your daughter doesn't speak tagalog? That may be the biggest hiccup of the whole thing, while children are pretty resilient she may not want to be taken out of the country for a few years, only to return again at a later date, especially if she doesn't speak the language in the first place. Education standards vary as well, if you move back here in six years you may find that she then struggles to keep up in school in some subjects and be ahead (and thus, bored) in other subjects thanks to the differences in the curriculums.
MentalSarcasm said:
Am I right in thinking that you've mentioned before that your daughter doesn't speak tagalog? That may be the biggest hiccup of the whole thing, while children are pretty resilient she may not want to be taken out of the country for a few years, only to return again at a later date, especially if she doesn't speak the language in the first place. Education standards vary as well, if you move back here in six years you may find that she then struggles to keep up in school in some subjects and be ahead (and thus, bored) in other subjects thanks to the differences in the curriculums.
They have international schools there, that will teach her a full normal curriculum, plus Tagalog. And I'm sure she'd pick it up as she went along with all her extended family speaking it.jeff m said:
I assume you speak enough of the lingo...(to not get sold..as they say)
I haven't been back for a while but I understand that a lot of the beaches are not as good as they were. Development has been proportional to pollution.
One big plus is the ability to have help....maid/cook/houseboy...all those little jobs that you hate are taken care of. Which means you can pretty much get on with life and enjoy it. The bars with rock bands are great, usually gave the kareoke ones a miss 'cos as a foreigner they are gonna force you to sing.
Food is great even in the nastiest looking places.
Go for it.
I speak a small amount, but I never really felt the need to learn it. If a local does not have enough education to speak English, then I have no need to communicate with them. Sounds arrogant, but in a country where the official political language is English, and English is compulsory in schools, the average individual speaks passable enough English anyway.)I haven't been back for a while but I understand that a lot of the beaches are not as good as they were. Development has been proportional to pollution.
One big plus is the ability to have help....maid/cook/houseboy...all those little jobs that you hate are taken care of. Which means you can pretty much get on with life and enjoy it. The bars with rock bands are great, usually gave the kareoke ones a miss 'cos as a foreigner they are gonna force you to sing.
Food is great even in the nastiest looking places.
Go for it.
You can hire a maid for about £50 a month, and a driver/gardener is the same.
There is the downside of unstable politics, corrupt police force, dubious communications etc, but that has all come on remarkably in the eight years we've been away.
And as for natural disasters, while they do happen, you [probably have more likelihood of winning the Lotto than getting caught in a mud slide, earthquake or similar in the Philippines.And I work ion New Orleans, which tips the odds a little (think Katrina)
Beaches. Well, even the Philippines seems to have got into this protecting the environment trend, and after a few days in Boracay I was well impressed with the cleanliness and tidiness of the beach scene there.
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