GeoffH

One of my rental houses in Australia has a persistent ant nest problem and it seems impossible to treat given the restrictions on chemicals now. And I grew up on a farm, mooing cows, baaing sheep, barking dogs, tracks with holes instead of foot paths, neighbour kids riding around on noisy mini bikes or driving clapped out farm cars. Only having tank water when it rained (more than 2 inches in the bath and you were in big trouble). It was an hour by car to the nearest town of any size and the local small town (population 125) had 1 small general store/post office/petrol pumps, a butcher (we ate a LOT of lamb and a hotel bar that only served food on special occasions to groups. The phone line was operater connected for anything but local calls and we weren’t allowed to use it anyway because it was a hand crank extension from the depot with the school bus my father drove in the morning and afternoon. Here there are huge malls with just about anything I could need, labor is cheap if I want something done, eating out is cheap and houses are a quarter the price they are back in Aussie. Pollution isn’t a problem where we are because we are outside of CDO city in a subdivision in a green valley surrounded by treeed hills. It’s not perfect but I don’t find it as hard as some people seem to (emergency medical care is probably the biggest issue).

Ford sold a version of the Cortina in Australia fitted with the Australian 4.1 liter inline 6 cylinder. They were quick... off the line they were faster than my V8 GTS Holden.

Sometimes it is under an hour (with rush payment), other times "come back this afternoon" (with rush). Without rush... Up to a few days.

The interview was more difficult than that for SWMBO and I last year. We'd allowed plenty of time for the transfer from domestic to international but there was the interview (which we'd allowed an hour for). They were very... Strict in their attitude and questions with SWMBO, the interview was in Tagalog (Bisaya is her first language) and I wasn't allowed to be with her and it was more than an hour before it even started. Finally she was allowed to leave the interview area but then we had to get my exit stamp cancelled which took another two hours before we could look at rebooking because boarding for our flight had already closed by the time we could leave. Rebooking at the last minute would have cost us our spending budget for Singapore and SWMBO was already really stressed so we decided to fly back to CDO. It wasn't until later when I tried to claim on my travel insurance and failed because it was an immigration issue that I realised we'd just wasted more than 100000 peso. Not really in a hurry to go through that again...

For those whom it is an option the Balikbyan priviledge might be a better choice.

I’ve come across this question before... there seem to be conflicting views about it. I suspect as a foreigner you’re more likely to be the one asked to pay whatever the law. Autoindustria seem to think yes (but law might be changed). https://www.autoindustriya.com/auto-industry-news/new-bill-to-make-laws-rules-on-reckless-imprudence-fair-to-drivers.html Top Gear Philippines seem to think no. https://www.topgear.com.ph/features/feature-articles/car-motorcycle-accident-accountable-a50-20180419-lfrm

eBay Philippines does exist but the number of categories and products is limited. https://www.ebay.ph/

Bad parenting. Clearly they need to teach the children that McDonalds put those inedible pickles in the burgers to throw at people! Wasting good fries when there are people starving in Africa (TM my father with belt in hand) should not be allowed

I use SMART for my phone load, it runs at 20 to 30 Mbps here on the edge of CDO. Globe is much slower at 3 to 5Mbps and it is also less reliable with more time outs and drop outs. But cell phone and data performance is effected by the load on the local towers where you are and I have been at other places where Globe is faster than SMART. Really all you can do is try both at your house and see which works better for you.

That is pretty much what I chose to do in Australia, I went from a job on the road driving a lot and dealing with difficult customers earning just under $2,000 a week to working in an office doing rostering and supervising vehicle use. That dropped me to around $1250 a week but I was much happier not having to deal with agro clients and more content with the 9 to 5:30 office job. IMO you need enough money for you and your families needs and enough time that you can spend time with them. The ex OTOH... not so happy but that’s another story.

I use Dropbox to share files between devices, you can also use other cloud providers.

Bottled water (the big 20 litre ones), canned tuna, sardines etc, UHT long life milk, cereal, rice, gas cooker, a hand fan and an emergency portable radio with hand crank and mini solar panel that can be used to charge a mobile phone.

I have had an issue with Philippine Airlines 2 of the 3 return trips between Australia and the Philippines, seat reservations gone missing, change of flight time causing extra long wait at the terminal and sundry and persistent web site issues. Cebu Pacific have been less trouble on the 3 return trips I've done with them, only small delays flying out if Manila which is to be expected. Scoot and Air Asia were ok but the stop at Singapore and Kuala Lumpur makes for a really long trip. I'm pretty much a Cebu Pacific customer now.

Cable internet (10 Mbps) and cable TV package 2799, electric 5000 to 10000, water (all types) 1000, cooking gas 1 bottle every few weeks (about 1500?), Rates are about 12000 yearly. 6 monthly service on the Innova at Toyota was 9000 last time and car insurance through Toyora was 37000 peso per year thus year.

This is the main reason I prefer the 2.8 diesel Innova we have in Cagayan to the 1.3 petrol Avanza we have in Ozamiz. And honestly the Innova uses less diesel than the Avanza uses petrol.