Living in the Philippines During May 2011
Living in the Philippines May 2011
O5/19/11
This month living in the Philippines has been pretty typical month.
I returned to Bantayan Island this month. My first visit in almost two years. The falling dollar played a part in that but even more so is that I have just not been feeling well. I said to heck with it. I thought, maybe I’ll feel better if I get out more. I am sitting at Tristan’s Bantayan Island Beach resort as I type this article.
I’m watching the tide roll in and shooing the flies off my breakfast. They were bad this morning for some reason. Before breakfast, I went for a swim. I saw what I think was a krate, its tail protruding from a rock on the beach. They are deadly so I decided to not find the rest of it. It may have been some kind of giant slug. Or it might be a sea cucumber though I don’t think those are normally found ashore. I’m not sure what it was. Decided to leave it alone.
Saw one baby sea urchin while in the water and a large red starfish. Many animals that are red or have other brilliant colors are poisonous. I don’t know about this one. Jessie scraped the urchin up with her shoes. I surely do not wish to step on one of those. But then, only an idiot would.
I also booked a flight to Palawan in May. The trip will occur in July. I have booked a resort now too but I’m not at all set on it. They have a tour to the Palawan underground river but it includes an overnight stay on the monkey trail. I would love it but I don’t think I’m up to that.
Which leads me to try to start walking again. I’m really not feeling well though. Even standing, I feel like I’m trembling. Not a good feeling at all. I’m very weak lately. I plan to go to the hospital soon to get a full check up. Something I planned three years ago but ran short of the cash to do it. I probably have more than enough cash but I can’t be sure until it is over and then it is too late.
My insurance has a $100 per day deductible for the room for the first five days but the room is less than $50 a day. The insurance said that’s for room and nursing care. The doctor told me there is no extra charge for nursing. I don’t trust insurance companies much, so I almost expect them to try to apply that other $50 to something else. I haven’t been in a position to commit to a possible $500 hospital bill. I’m not a rich expat. Many of the expats living in the Philippines are rich though.
In the news this month were two Swedes getting sentenced to life in prison for human trafficking. Sending a grime warning for those awaiting trial. They were running webcam den where men paid by the minute to interact with Filipina. Not a good idea. They claim they are scapegoats and while there may be some truth that the Philippines wanted to set an example of them, they still did something I would never do. After learning of the human trafficking laws in the Philippines, I thought such activities were just plain foolish.
Living in the Philippines has enriched my life considerably. If you’re in good health it can do even more for you. So many come just for the excitement of Angeles City. Though I would love to visit there, I didn’t come here for that. Most of what goes on there I’m not interested in.
I follow various forums that have Angeles City as their primary focus. Most of the people that visit
those sites are not living in the Philippines. Some do live here though. The people that frequent those sites tend to have a much more jaded few from those of us living in other areas of the Philippines. I do wish they’d get out into the province and see how most Filipino live.
I love living in the Philippines. I wish I could take up diving. One day I will. That is something I could never afford to do if I lived in the USA. I could probably even learn to fly here. I’ve looked at the prices and I could afford it. I don’t know if I could pass the physical. I know I can’t in the USA.
Well, it is time for me to pack up my bags and head home. The sea is at high tide and lapping upon the resort steps. A charter plane is flying overhead. It is possible to take a charter flight from Cebu City to Bantayan Island. I live too close for that. It takes me less than 2 hours to get to Bantayan Island, including the ferry ride from Hagnaya.
If you’re retired and have even a thousand dollars a month, you might want to consider living in the Philippines to spice up your life.
05/21/11
I am back home after a visit to Bantayan Island.
A typhoon is headed to the Philippines and is assaulting Samar with tropical storm winds now. It looks like it will mostly skirt the Philippines.
Living in the Philippines — The Exchange Rate
The dollar improved for a bit and the dollar to Philippine peso rate is still holding its own. Slow housing starts didn’t help the situation. When the dollar falls, expats living in the Philippines have less money to spend. Well those of us living in the Philippines on fixed incomes. Some, it has little effect on.
Do you want to live in the Philippines? It really isn’t very hard to do. Sometimes the fear of change that most humans have can lead to many excuses. When I got here, I so often though, I wish I hadn’t put it off for so long. You can start living in the Philippines too.
05/22/2011
My Internet slowed to a crawl. Lots of data loss when I ping my Internet service provider. This happens too often on the weekends lately. Someone needs to go to the office and reboot a server or a router. I’m guessing at that but support even told Jessie once that it would have to wait until Monday when someone was in the office. Happens usually on holidays when no one is in the local office for several days. It is almost 8am so I’m hoping things will return to normal soon.
I’ve been trying to upload a 20 second video but You Tube indicates it will take more than 3 hours. LOL It wont upload at all. I’m also trying to upload a picture of a sea urchin to Facebook, it won’t upload.
And I tried to upload a gallery of pictures related to my recent visit to a Bantayan Island beach resort but that’s just impossible with my internet the way it is.
One of the downsides of living in the Philippines, is the too frequent brown outs and Internet slow downs. In December of 2009, my Internet was down for two weeks!
I took the time to work on a video of the trip to Bantayan Island. The video is ready now but my Internet connection is not. Since it is 11 minutes long, I don’t even dream of trying to upload it right now.
End of the Month Wrap Up
Nothing much more happened this month that I can recall. Jessie is bothered because her son’s friends are coming into the house and eating our food so she put locks on the kitchen cabinets and installed a new lock on the door so her youngest son wont let them in when we don’t know they are here. I guess the kids are hungry but they depleted our groceries half way through the month. Gonna have to stop this activity. If she can’t do it then I’ll have to risk scaring the daylights out of them with some good old Southern charm I suppose. Awwww, the trails of living in the Philippines.
Managed to finally get a room booked in Palawan for our upcoming visit. Looks like it is pretty firm that we will be staying at Microtel. Jessie read some complaints from guest of the hotel that the beach is actually a mangrove swamp. That is not exactly what I had in mind. I hope I’m able to find a tour to the Underground River and Estrella Falls.
Amazingly we didn’t have a brownout the entire month of May and I’m impressed. May is usually the worst months for brownouts due to it usually being the hottest month in the Philippines. Good job Cebu Province for keeping the lights on!
That wraps up this month of living in the Philippines.
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To The Philippines Faster
The stories you write about your existence in a small town in the Philippines are simple and trivial. Yet I can’t seem to stop reading. You have a knack of making a tiny sleepy little town sounds full of life and excitement. I enjoy your stories tremendously and am going to check your videos on Youtube. Cheers!!!!
Sometimes that where life is, in the simple and trivial and not in the grand. I think we spend less time in the grand. I like to write about what I know and don’t too much enjoy grabbing headlines off websites like so many do. Plus what is in the press is so often inaccurate. I like to write what I know about and even then, sometimes I’m mistaken.
I saw a post last night about some recent raids in the more exciting places in the Philippines the other day. Almost none of it was accurate. The guy holds himself out to be an expat but he’s not. He visits from time to time but he doesn’t live here. I do read a lot of the sensational. I’m just not very big on giving it a LOT of attention.
I’m happy to hear that you can’t stop reading.
Life is in the details.
Rusty, nice article. Your articles are genuine; that is why I enjoy reading them. You mentioned that in order to obtain a retirement visa a person needs to deposit $10,000 in a Philippino bank. For a moment I was happy to hear that since the last time I checked it was $25,000. I checked on this to verify the update and found that the amount was actually increased from $25,000 to $50,000. The $50,000 could be used to purchase a condo, money deposits in place of a purchase must be deposited in a government “short-listed” bank. There are, I think, only three or four banks that are approved. If I am incorrect on this, please let me know. Knowing this in the past( about a year ago) led me to check out the requirements in Malaysia. The Philippines to me has some significant advantages over living in Malaysia but not in terms of visa requirements. In this respect, the Philippines government seems to be doing a very poor job in fulling its’ goal to make the country the top haven for foreign retirees. Malaysia offers a 10-year visa, come and go as you please and the fees are are extremely low. You can also own freehold property: land or a home under your name. All that is required is proof of income,which is $2000 a month. The cost of living is much less there as well. However, I would still prefer to live in the Philippines, especially because I am familiar with the culture. I would not spend the $50,000 to get a residency visa under its terms and prefer to do visa extensions. Again, if I am not up-to-date on this, please let me know. Also, I look forward to reading more on your blog.
Regards,
Demi
Demi,
Thanks.
I THINK I said I need $10,000, if I said all “one” needs is $10,000 then I was careless. I don’t know where you read that, it doesn’t seem to be a part of this article.
The amount changes based on your circumstance. If you’re a certain age and have a pension of I THINK $700 a month then you only need $10,000. If that changed, it was within the last couple of weeks.
There are all kinds of requirements about pulling the money out and putting it into a condo or other investment. It has to be approved and looked to be a major pain.
I’m not to the point yet so I don’t recall all the specifics and I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.
I don’t really see $10k or $50K invested in a home as an expense. I’m going to spend that anyway if I live long enough. I’m sure I’ll live long enough to spend $10 in housing.
In the Philippines, you’re generally going to need a 25% down payment on a home so it wouldn’t take much to eat that 10K, plus you’re going to have to pay it off in two years in most cases. Again, that’s from my limited amount of looking into it.
If you don’t want to buy a home, then leave the money in the bank. You’re not spending anything.
If I never get an SRRV, it won’t matter too much. One can life in the Philippines under present law virtually forever. You do have to leave the country every 16 months (there are ways to extend that up to 30 plus months). The cost for that is around $500 per year so that offsets the yearly renewals on the SRRV.
If you’re not interested in having a business in the Philippines then I don’t really see any reason to obtain an SRRV.
My home is the Philippines, so Malaysia isn’t an option for me.
I don’t know what income requirements there are for loans but if you’re not making $2000 per month, it will be hard to buy a home unless you have the case in the bank. Actually, you can’t buy a home, you can’t own land at all. A foreigner can take out a long term lease (I don’t know if your SRRV funds can be used for that) or you can buy a condo. If I get to that point, I’ll buy a condo. Otherwise, I’ll be paying rent and dealing with landlords which so far, has not been overly pleasant for me.
There have been some changes but the amount I stated is correct. You are correct that the investment must be $50K, not really an issue if one is going to buy a condo. The condo range I’m looking at is above P One Million, would mean a smaller loan and a delay of several years for me.
In the mean time, I could still operate a business in the Philippines.
I knew the changes where coming but a few weeks ago they had not yet been approved. It looks like that happened in early May.
The changes are that there have been a few more options added. You can now deposit $20,000 instead of $50,000 if you’re above 35. That money cannot be taken out of the bank, it must remain the bank. It is called SRRV Smile.
The medical SRRV has now been approved too. I don’t see any benefit in that for ME because I’m over 50. But the investment requirement is down to $10K USD for that one. For this one, the funds are locked in the bank. You cannot invest the funds.
There is another one for retired diplomats too.
A few years ago, more than 800 Koreans were tossed out of the country for improperly pulling the funds out of the bank. I don’t know why they were all Koreans but it also included the dependents. Even the dependents were blacklisted.