Snowy79

If the burglars are anything like most of the tradesmen I've met here they will probably ask to borrow a spanner.

I think a lot of it comes down to where they ran the lines in the first place. We are having lots of brown outs in Puerto Galera even after a major upgrade to all the high voltage lines which lasted about one year and caused lots of headaches. We were assured about 3 months ago when they switched the new lines on it was goodbye brown outs. We've probably doubled the brown outs instead. It transpired that when Ormeco ran the lines initially they promised to pay rent to land owners on the condition they could run the lines over the land. True to form they never paid so when they went to upgrade they were rightly told where to go by lots of land owners so it looks like they've bodged the system. Just yesterday a local uploaded some photos to the community Facebook site of new lines that have been ran when he was out for the day. He is constructing a new house and the lines are about 5ft above the first floor of his property. It's going to be a two story property, or was going to be. There's another property where the owner has built his house around the post holding the power lines, as again Ormeco never paid him.

There is a limit though, and remember, once she moves in she's also rich and can upgrade.

Having read throught his post and having lived here over 1 1/2yrs now I can see my attitude changing also. Giving a big tip to the waiting staff may get you better service and it could mean staff who get offered higher paid jobs elsewhere may stay giving the owner a bit of a bonus in not having to keep training new staff. I've seen it with a few of my Filipino friends. They've been offered double wages to jump ship but realised that with tips they'd still earn well over double their wages. The downside again I've seen is that the waiting staff target a certain customer and other customers end up waiting longer for service. I've been that one who has walked out of a restaurant as I've waited too long. I used to be quite liberal with my tips judging them by my UK standards until I read about someone letting their wife deal with the change and at the end of the month she showed him how much she had tipped. I worked out I tipped about 1,500 peso per month. This translated into my internet bill, a weeks groceries or a few good nights out. Now I tip about 500 peso max. If I live another 20 years I'd have tipped 360,000 peso or a decent second hand car. Looking at it that way it makes sense to tip according to the local standards. Another downside I've seen is prices shooting up and trike drivers only picking up foreigners as they can charge well over double the going rate which causes resentment amongst the locals towards foreigners. A perfect example is where I live in Puerto Galera, prices are pretty high for food, transport, internet etc as foreigners will pay for it. You travel one hour South where there's not many foreigners and you still get great if not better service and almost everything is cheaper. There's a reason why the majority of foreigners have younger, prettier partners than the average local. We've priced them out of the market.

I had my doubts also. Too large a variation of countries with cultural and economical differences.

If you are more specific as to what your professions are you may receive more accurate information as to your likelihood of getting or wanting to work here. Some employments are restricted to Filipinos, others so poorly paid you may not want them.

Another issue that will bite the Philippines is the selling of it's infrastructure contracts to the Chinese and Koreans. They will want paid back with interest.

Vehicles is a big NO unless you are rich and it has sentimental value as you'll pay the new price plus import duty regardless of the age.

One thing that surprises me about Sweden is they class anyone given a Swedish passport as Swedish, even if they just claimed refugee status having just arrived from Syria or North Africa.

Some good advice about taking it slowly, slowly. Areas with a high amount of foreigners tend to bring out the higher prices and worst of a local's personalities. The up side is there tends to be better amenities but not always. Wifi can be great in tourist areas in the quiet season and terrible in peak season due to users. Same with brown outs and water supply I'd recommend a happy medium. Somewhere with beauty and things to do as you'll be spending most of your time there if you retire, yet near enough to a place with a decent sized local population where in my opinion only you'll meet a more genuine potential partner. Trust me, Filipino women who live around foreigners expect you to be rich and for them to be made for life if they hook you. Love might just be an after thought for them. I live in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro. A decent tourist area but everyone has their opinion of foreigners. Plenty of girls but sadly most prey on foreigners. Lots of white nose tax also. You take a van or Jeepney to Calapan the nearest city just over an hour away and it's like a different country. The girls are shy and giggly. No one overcharges you and they seem genuinely happy to see you.

I had a beautiful day yesterday in Puerto Galera Oriental Mindoro. About 3am this morning the heavy wind and rain hit. Just now at 7:50am it's very heavy rain and moderate to gusty winds.

I think a lot of things vary. I've found my partners tended to go straight in with a price they wish to pay or stick with the price the seller gives them. Each one has cringed at me when I start bartering down the price. I tried to explain that I've been taught if you don't ask you don't get. I saved over 2m peso on my condo by being brazen and when she bought her land I got the seller to knock 1/2m off of the asking price and to pay all costs.

To be fair to the climate specialists they seam to be able to predict to withing 0.1 degree centigrade how warm the Earth is going to be in 25 years but realise almost every typhoon, hurricane they predict the path of they get wrong. Probably just covering their butts.

I'm sure you have already passed the test or they wouldn't be wanting to meet you. If they were that strict a family she wouldn't be meeting anyone whilst still married. She'd have gotten an anulnment via one of her friendly contacts before they gave her the green light to move on.

It's a strange one. People think twice about giving a stranger a few Peso yet will happily plan to marry someone they've never met face to face and send enough money to buy a house and land. It's a strange old World.