Dave Hounddriver

Don't know of one that allows that. Dumaguete is supposed to be a "smoke-free" city. Some places are strict. You have to go stand on the street if you want to smoke while drinking with us at Chin Loong. Nicanor Hotel is close to Chin Loong. All you ask for with prices from 1000 a night and up. But no "smoking" rooms. Yeah. They call it the barge. Maayo ferry. Runs every hour and a half all day until about 10:30 pm. Ask for a return ticket. Costs you 300 plus some nickel and dime stuff like port taxes. If you want to figure it out. Start counting at 6 am and then every hour and a half after that is another barge.

Since your stat has already been "corrected" once . . Do the English still use stones to measure? So 0.4107 stone? No worries. Congrats to Eddie and Noime. We are all thrilled for them.

Some don't repatriate, they just move on to other countries. It's life. There is no paradise, but the search for it is great. There is no trophy for the longest stay in the Philippines. As JD said: So best of luck to all who move "back", to all who stay in the Philippines, and to all who chose to try a different country. Its all good.

You may want to consult a lawyer. In the one case I know of, (speaking only of the Philippines), where someone tried that and the marriage went sour, the child was a minor when the parents split and the judge said the mother is the legal guardian of the minor child and could do whatever she decided was is in the best interest of the child, up to and including selling the house to provide cash for the "child's needs". Once again, foreigner out on the street. Disclaimer, this is only one case and we always here the ones where the foreigner got screwed over. Your way probably worked many times with no problems.

Funny thing that. I know some who lost it all, some who lost nothing, some who spent a fortune in legal fees and got a win, and others who spent a fortune in legal fees and lost anyway.. Depends on so many things. Best advice is: Be prepared to walk away, remember that your mileage will vary from the next fellow, make preparations with the other half before the shite hits the fan and the most important of all: Keep in mind that so many who give advice end up not taking their own advice and losing the lions share (but often do not tell us that part unless we know them well).

Well I do like to keep her happy, so yes the 7th or 23rd would be better for me. I suppose I should plan on doing something with Lynne of the 14th (Who came up with that stupid Valentines day anyway? Rhetorical. I shall Google it.)

Well if we are gonna play "number of times a guy does not show up after saying he was coming" I certainly would not win that contest. But I must admit I would be a contender. So you fellows do as you wish. Majority rules and all that sort of thing. I don't own shares in Chin Loong so any place is fine, however, I have been told/asked by the sig other: "You wouldn't go out with the boys on Valentine's day, would you?" So I have to do one of these today:

Oh shit . . . . . . . . . . Valentine's day. How many can make it without getting the ladies p1ssed?

Well they shouldn't have moved there. But seriously, nothing to stop them from having their own meetups whenever they want. They could start a "monthly meet-up Valencia" thread. Or it may be more suitable to hold it at Jack's house so he could sit around in his underwear on the porch having his beer. Yes, we saw the pic. LOL Anyway, I missed it this month. Oldtimers disease. So it wouldn't have mattered where it was. And who was the one to "suggest" it? Why don't they come on the forum and "suggest" it instead of muckin' about? Now that's out of the way, are we going back to the second Thursday of the month? Or is someone else going on a cruise in February?

There are US tourists who come to the Philippines and overstay. The legal tourists from the USA would not like it if the Philippines responded with a total ban on US tourist visa because there are some who overstay. Seems to be racial profiling and I would not be surprised if Duterte decided to play tit for tat.

Ah but its not just the banks who love their bureaucracy in Philippines. A certain company in Dumaguete is worse, much worse. I won't mention the name. See if anyone can guess. They send out a bill every month, hand delivered. You CANNOT pay until you get the bill. No paying in advance, too easy. You CANNOT pay for 2 days after you get the bill because they need time to enter it in the system. You MUST pay within the next 7 days. One day later than that and you pay a 10% late penalty. You CANNOT pay online. You must go to one of their authorized payment spots. . . . So I get all spruced up and go to the authorized payment spot, since they do not allow payments online, and guess what? The authorized payment spot was closed because . . . . . . . . . they were OFFLINE. Duh? If they have to go online to pay it why can't I do it right here, right now, from my online bank account. Perhaps the Philippines is getting to me. I know all the BS here is better than the BS elsewhere but it still gets to me at times.

I just got an email from my Philippine bank telling me that Banko Sentral regulations require that I go to my branch and give them an annual update on my contact information. Basically, that means going in there to tell them that nothing has changed since last year and if it did then I would tell them. I wonder what will happen if I don't bother. Anyone else ever get a notice like this?

It is hard to get a work permit for a job that many thousands of Filipinos think they can do. When you see how they weld you will be amazed and as a safety conscious American there is no way you would want to work alongside them. However, if you are qualified to teach it then you may find a position. Just my humble thoughts on that. Better to just budget yourself to 100K to 150K pesos a month for the 6 months and not worry about working. That will leave you with a couple thousand dollars left for emergencies.

Google says: No link because it is from an ad, but now you have an idea of what to look for. EDIT: OOPS, the ad was dated today but I see they had on old special from 2014 quoted so back to square one