BrettGC

Agree with you both 100%, it's a generational thing. These are the issues that go a long way towards preventing PI being taken off the list of "developing" countries anytime in my lifetime.

500PHP/month plus a motion for reconsideration fee of 500PHP if you do renew. Potential blackbanning as well but I've never heard of it happening for cases under 6 months.

As Don said, no accountability. Introduction of KPI's and achievable quarterly targets with regards to customer service and satisfaction will go along way towards sorting the wheat from the chaff. Not wholesale sackings. Employees have to be given a chance to improve first.

Place I stayed in about 6 years ago was fine, can't see that that's changed. Carry cash, most national type stores take cards, as well as the larger local ones, but your average store outside of Tacloban doesn't, and many within the city as well. Enjoy Leyte, it's beautiful and it was a near thing we packed up and moved there. We stayed at Hotel XYZ. Easy to find on Agoda or Booking.com

And overall the numbers show that it's more expensive in Thailand.

Cost of living comparison between Dumaguete (where I live) and Chiang Mai (where I used to spend most of my time). The data is only as good as the contributions but it's the best we're going to get: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Philippines&city1=Dumaguete&country2=Thailand&city2=Chiang+Mai

Very strange, dozens of countries have been using polymer bank notes for years without having to worry about not folding them... I'm confused.. Oh wait, just remembered where I am!

One of the reasons we're moving up to Guihulngan in a couple of months: The peace and quiet

I'm glad you clarified the Cambodia situation, the last time I was there was in 2009 and thought it was not the best infrastructure-wise. Nice to see things are developing for the better there.

I was more talking about about the living on the street itself, not necessarily the location. Yep, in Australia they tried to relocate the homeless out of Sydney back to their points of origin (still homeless once they were there) for the 2000 Olympics, days later they were all back.

After working in the community welfare sector for a number of years, I can categorically state that living on the street is not a choice for 99% of the homeless. Granted, I did meet a couple of people who do choose to live this way to make a point or some sort of protest but they were few and far between.

Well at least you won't die wondering You gave it a shot mate, and even after 6 months here myself I can see the downsides compared to Thailand (yes I've spent a lot of time there), but as they say, each to their own and for reasons I can't put my finger on, I just prefer PI. I guess it comes down to a nearly finished developing country (if you could even still call Thailand that, I have my doubts) compared to The Philippines, which is still very much in the throws of growing pains I'm not sure it will ever grow out of. Best of luck mate

As I said, big shiny posters and pamphlets as well as press announcements but not much with any real substance. There's actually a royal commission into veteran suicides going on in Australia right now. We'll see if anything comes of it. https://defenceveteransuicide.royalcommission.gov.au/ What's a royal commission? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_commission

Not all scars are physical. It's a tragedy that more Australian vets involved in Iraq/Afghanistan have committed suicide that were actually killed in action. I count myself lucky, I live with PTSD, anxiety and depression, I'm basically "ok" now, but still have my moments, I sought help back when the defence authorities didn't want to know. I went outside the chain of command and it probably saved my life. It took 13 years for defence to even recognise my condition despite everything being well documented. Even today, I have friends still serving, and anecdotally they state mental health is still only paid lip service in the ADF. Yeah there's some nice shiny posters and pamphlets etc but on our largest army base, there's up to a 6 week wait to see the only psychiatrist on an establishment with 15000 serving personnel. More needs to be done for the men and women that have served and have injuries both physical and mental that knowingly put their lives on the line for their countries.

".....Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life." Yes I'm a fan.