Foreigners Hiding In The Philippines

[Tukaram (Tim)]

4 hours ago, Babysrealdad said:

I mean this guys house is 12 feet above ground level and no windows what do ever.

Wow, serious thread necro magic...

Don't read too much into it. Nothing in your description sounds like hiding, or mental problems.  Almost everyone that can afford walls, builds walls - many with broken glass & barbed wire on the top. Security is a concern for most people here.  I do not have walls, but I do have wifi cams. 

Windows allow in noise & light also. Maybe he likes his aircon. I have 2 windows on my house and would happily block them in. They are useless to me.

[MikeB]

5 hours ago, Babysrealdad said:

I tried to say hello one day and he ignored my presence.

I don't blame him a bit. MYOB! You'll live longer.

[Arizona Kid]

5 hours ago, Babysrealdad said:

he ignored my presence.

Are you sure it's not me? I don't want to be bothered also. I'll say hi, but MYOB. 

 

 

 

 

[Arizona Kid]

39 minutes ago, Tukaram (Tim) said:

Maybe he likes his aircon

And maybe he likes his privacy.

[graham59]

Maybe it's the entrance to a mysterious underground world, where 'moomoos' prowl..and he is blind, but knows every twist, turn,  subterranean river , entrance, and exit .  

[GeoffH]

2 hours ago, Tukaram (Tim) said:

Almost everyone that can afford walls, builds walls - many with broken glass & barbed wire on the top. Security is a concern for most people here. 

Our house is at the rear of the subdivision amongst a street of larger houses (by Philippine standards - mostly 2 or 3 story and all concrete on larger lots).

Behind the subdivision is another older (and much poorer) area and all of the houses in the street have some kind of wall to the rear and mostly between the houses as well.  Our rear wall is rendered concrete block about 10 foot high with broken glass concreted into the top of the wall and the side wall is the same (but the glass only goes a couple of feet along the side wall from the back). 

The front fence onto the more affluent street area is only about 6 foot high and is a mix of concrete post and metal bars (decorative but strong) and there is a solid metal gate with double padlocks. 

All of the ground floor windows have metal gratings (decorative styling but strong) over the windows to restrict access, the second floor windows have simpler metal gratings that can be opened from the inside if wanted.  The top floor has no gratings just windows.

Most of the houses in the street have something similar.

Edited May 5, 2020 by GeoffH

[manofthecoldland]

1 hour ago, Shady said:

Are you new in the Philippines? Don't believe everything the locals tell you.

Everyone outside a guard-gated subdivision who can afford a wall, builds a wall, the higher the better. And sometimes within subdivisions too. It's not to hide from the law, it's protection against those who would break  the law.

 

 

The perceived need for property walls goes beyond the need for security and self-protection from other  humans here. You and Tukaram Tim bring up an interesting subject , and if I wasn't inept at moving posts around, I would incorporate your comments into a new post.

I was a little amazed when I started living here, that often the first thing a property owner does, is put up a perimeter wall, even in the jungle stretches between Puerto Galera and Sabang, where the terrain is a ridge back. Later, in my subdivision rental i noticed several walls being or had been, constructed before the house was built. Some very, very shortly thereafter.

Besides protection from intruder theft, many was were built to delineate property lines. Encrouchment is common here. We have experienced these attempts personally. We had to get our lawyer in one instance to have a neighbor's bamboo sari addition removed when he cantilevered it over our property line. Another neighbor on another piece of property decided to illegally build 2 govt. project post- typhoon houses on a non-urban poor lot that they were destined for. Lawyer called in again. We put up a 10 foot wall, and reclaimed our road right of way at the dead end of it since this scofflaw build one of the houses on his half of the destined road right of way.

People often don't seem to have the respect and consideration for their neighbors here that I expected. To be fair, property line infringements and squabbles are common in the US as well.

Besides protecting you from bad neighbors trying to steal a strip of your property edge, walls also keep out the stray dogs and maybe feral cats to some degree since cats and rats don't seem to be deterred like dogs are. Also wandering, poorly tended goats here.... or neighbor's chickens will try to come in if the fence is porous, or short.... but walls do a better job at keeping them out.

The walls do work to some degree at decreasing different types of minor noises. 

On one lot, I told the wife to string up some barbed wire.   She told me that it was quickly stolen, since the property wasn't under watch.  If you don't have eyes on things around here continuously, things have a way of disappearing. Like having a fish pond.... need a 24 hour posted guard shack.

Walls can be quite expensive.  ALL the people in this mixed income neighborhood have either fences or walls. Even the squatters have the best they can scrounge up. The population density and land use demands are so intense, that where ever you travel you will usually see people who have use claims or property claims on nearly every scrap of property you see.

In many parts of the US,  If anyone would build whats considered common and needed here re property perimeters, they would be considered paranoid or preparing for catastrophic events.  If I left our lot un-fenced, un-walled and surrounded by an open lawn.... people would consider me either a nut job or an idealistic fool from abroad who is out of touch with local realities. 

Well..... I'm bored and need to write something to pass the time.... and this is all I could come up with today.  Apologies proffered.

[Jollygoodfellow]

50 minutes ago, GeoffH said:

Our rear wall is rendered concrete block about 10 foot high with broken glass concreted into the top of the wall and the side wall is the same (but the glass only goes a couple of feet along the side wall from the back). 

The front fence onto the more affluent street area is only about 6 foot high and is a mix of concrete post and metal bars (decorative but strong) and there is a solid metal gate with double padlocks. 

Hey Geoff

You have not told us what lurks in the moat? 

[GeoffH]

4 minutes ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

Hey Geoff

You have not told us what lurks in the moat? 

 

I'm keeping the moat clear in case the ex visits... moat monsters are expensive so why not kill two birds with one stone!

[graham59]

First thing I did (in 2015) was have an 8 foot wall built right around our property. 

'manofthecoldland' has already written a very good post as to WHY.